Time and the Rani: For all its faults, and there are very many of those, and they are very obvious, already the process of improvement is beginning. Having Kate O’Mara impersonate her is the closest anyone has come to date to getting Mel to work. The direction here really is impressive - leaps and bounds beyond Season 22’s flatness. The writing is shambolic, but we know they’re working on it, and in fleeting spots you can see Cartmel’s influence starting to poke through. It’s abysmal, but it’s also the first step in a real road of improvement. I gave Ultimate Foe a 2/10, so by virtue of the fact that it’s getting better, 3/10
Paradise Towers: It really is quite marvelous, requiring no excuses that we haven’t gotten used to making for other stories. It’s JG Ballard done as children’s panto - something only Doctor Who could ever do. If you don’t want children’s panto JG Ballard then there is something a bit wrong with you. The plot comes a little unglued in the fourth episode, but on the whole this is lovely and funny and human in a way Doctor Who hadn’t been for years at this point. Absolutely marvelous. 8/10
Delta and the Bannermen: Sloppy and undisciplined in places, but with a manic glee and a desire to do new and innovative things that still feels like a drink of cool water after the preceding few years. Right down to the fact that the title is a pun on new wave music, this feels alive and present and like everybody involved is interested in what this specific story has to say instead of in making Doctor Who for Doctor Who’s sake. Yes, it doesn’t quite come together, but it also never leaves you staring at the screen wondering what they were thinking. 7/10
Dragonfire: There’s a school of thought that says the “real” McCoy era starts with Ace, and that thus treats this story as where things start to turn around. Rubbish. There’s no standard by which this isn’t inferior to the two stories that came before it, and the Ace we have here is not the character who shows up to such effect in the next story. What we have here are some good ideas spoiled by poor directorial choices. Where Delta and the Bannermen was an attempt at a serious script elevated by the decision to treat it as a comedy, this is a funny script killed dead by dour excess. Not a disaster by any means, but pedestrian. 5/10
Remembrance of the Daleks: What is there to say? The best Dalek story of the classic series, the best story up to this point in the classic series, a story so radical that it changed how people did Doctor Who forever. Would there have been a new series if the show had been cancelled before this? I’m not sure there would have been… 10/10
The Happiness Patrol: Good lord this is a nice piece of television. Yes, it’s transparently political, but this was late 80s Britain, when the country’s great cultural exports were politically angry music and politically angry comics. Like all of the McCoy era, this feels like Doctor Who made by people who loved the best parts of 80s Britain, and who have taken it and shoved it through the bizarre and slightly cracked lens of cheap children’s television. It’s an absolute treasure. 10/10
Silver Nemesis: The nadir of the Cartmel era (excusing Time and the Rani as something he came on too late to stop), and yet still delightful in more places than you’d expect. It’s astonishing how quickly McCoy and Aldred have learned to do this sort of stuff, such that even when they go on autopilot for three episodes they keep the episode moving. The excess of plot means that the three episodes buzz along, and there are moments where the production team is pulling off budget wizardry that hasn’t been accomplished since Hinchcliffe left. So yes, a mess, but I don’t think there’s another era whose low point remains this basically watchable. 4/10
Greatest Show in the Galaxy: Much like Paradise Towers in terms of its concerns, but with more mass appeal in its images and a louder howl of anger. This is the Sylvester McCoy era at its standard: itching for a fight, and imperiously confident. The rapping ringmaster is unfortunate, the ending is a little wobbly, but these are small complaints in a story that's full of solid entertainment. When was the last season that a story this good would be the second or third best of the season? Exactly. 9/10
Battlefield: Problems abound, but in amidst them are countless moments of genius. The Brigadier gets the sendoff he deserves, McCoy's Doctor finally meets someone better at manipulating events than he is, namely himself, and UNIT and the Arthurian legends bleed together fascinatingly. I said of Greatest Show in the Galaxy that it was impressive that this was only the second or third best story of the season. Here we have the real corker: a season where a story this good is clearly the worst of the lot. When was the last time that was true? 7/10
Ghost Light: A story I simply never get tired of watching. If a few plot details are tricky to make exact sense of, well, that's not a sin unique to this story. (Tellingly, this story actually merits a relatively short "Things That Don't Make Sense" section in About Time) This is masterful; a triumph of imagery, intellect, and atmosphere. There's not a heck of a lot of the classic series that you can put a new series fan in front of and say "here, this is what it was like when it was good." This is one of them. 10/10
The Curse of Fenric: I've watched this more than just about any Doctor Who ever - more than just about any thing, ever, really. I've shown it to countless non-fans, and it stands up marvelously. This was the first McCoy story I'd ever seen, and it blew me away by virtue of being so clearly ahead of any other Doctor Who story in terms of its ambition. It's one of a few bits of Doctor Who to be basically flawless. For my money, the best of the classic series. Only Power of the Daleks and City of Death contend. I'd vote eleven if I could. 10/10
Survival: Another corker. It's difficult to get anyone to understand how the series was cancelled when you show them Season Twenty-Six. This is another story high on big ideas and bold concepts. This sparkles, through and through, returning to the standard approach of the Cartmel era - children's television that's been allowed to grow up to where it starts to get a bit uncomfortable. As ever, it's marvelous. 9/10