20 years later, the most controversial Doctor Who episode of all time deserves another chance
Ask a Doctor Who fan what the worst episode of all time is, and they’re all going to say something different. Ask a Doctor Who fan what the worst five or so episodes of all time are, and you’re bound to start seeing a pattern. While a loud minority will most certainly point to some real stinkers in Classic Who (the period from 1963 to 1989), most are quick to point the finger at Doctor Who’s New Who, particularly the episodes from around the 2017-2025 period. We wonder why that could be.
However, while there are some real duds in the later periods of Doctor Who (I’m looking at you, “Legend of the Sea Devils”), one of the lowest-rated episodes in Doctor Who history comes from season 2 of New Who. This is particularly surprising, given that season 2, featuring David Tennant as The Doctor and Billie Piper as his companion, Rose Tyler, is so widely regarded as the Golden Age of the 2005 revival. That said, perhaps it was the absence of The Doctor and Rose’s undeniable chemistry in the maligned “Love & Monsters” that made it an episode most Doctor Who fans skip whenever they rewatch.
That, and the fact that there’s a plot thread that involves a fella getting sexual favors from a woman stuck in a slab of cement. Guess........
