My polls to discover the favourite story for each Doctor have closed and the results are now in. But what is your overall favourite story?

Please note: The poll can sometimes take a while to appear.

This poll will be open for 7 days.

Has to be The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.

A scary villain, well written and acted guest-stars, the introduction of a recurring character who would land a spin-off, the iconic shot of the spaceship in front of Big Ben, a brilliantly clever cliffhanger that doesn't take itself too seriously, all that wartime romance, the still impressive CGI, the witty script, Eccleston's "everybody lives" moment was a joy and the pacing of the story. Seriously, everything comes together to make this a fantastic Doctor Who story, written by a man who love or hate him is one of the most influential in the history of the show - and this is his technical debut.

And lets not forget one of my favourite comedic lines from Doctor Constantine when approached by a patient who has miraculously got her missing leg back - "Well there is a war on, is it possible you miscounted?".

It's the only true contender from the NuWho selection in my opinion. The Night of the Doctor simply isn't substantial enough to hold the title as lovely as it is. Blink is very dependent on the 'scares' that are diminished after you watch it, and so it lacks rewatch value a little bit because of that - not that it isn't wonderful. And for me The Day of the Doctor was the weakest and dullest part of the 'Doctor' trilogy as well as of the anniversary...a real let down.

Modern era, I also say the Empty Child/Doctor Dances, but for old school:

Genesis of the Daleks. First time I ever saw a Dalek and Davros was just scary as all get out. AND. It holds up. Lots of nostalgia there.

Plus the final 4 winners were all stories by him. You will always get some who hate him, but the majority of viewers who voted clearly enjoyed his episodes.

All great stories. Empty Child/Doctor Dances for C21 Who, but my vote goes to 'The Caves of Androzani'. Still magnificent after all these years.

There's some really good stuff to choose between! I went for CAVES. I've always felt Genesis is a bit over-rated (Talons would probably be my best Dr4 story).

Does "Night of the Dr" count?!

Was "Day of the Dr" the 50th story with Tom in it? All of the most recent stories have snurged together into one indistinguishable blob.

I must admit, I was going to question the wisdom of pitting Classic Who Stories against New Ones as most of the time the New Ones always win out. However, I can see at the time of posting that the Classic Stories are holding their own.

Though I love The Web Of Fear, I chose The Caves Of Androzani, as for me it is the best story ever made in Doctor Who.

However, if I had been choosing from just the New series list I would have chosen Blink. Not quite the best story of the Tennant Era but not far off for me.

Although if a new who story does win out overall I hope people will respect that it has been voted for by a cross section of fan's on this forum some of whom will prefer classic who and some new who, and some who will rate them both equally, so it should be acknowledged that it is a fair vote, and not just say 'oh, that won just because it's newer than classic who'.

The empty child the doctor dances has to be it for me I love the episode.

I'll respect the result but I'm not convinced, mainly because of past polls that have done the same, involving Classic and New Series. Plus the recent hurt and heal games involving fave Doctors swung a lot in The New Series Direction as expected so you can't blame me for expecting this poll to go the same way.

Could it not be that past poll's have come out that way because the majority voted for new who episodes and doctors overall because they genuinely thought they were the best overall on those particular polls, and nothing to do with being old or new had anything to do with it?.

I sometimes wonder at the point of having polls for overall favourite episode/doctor at all if every time an episode/doctor from classic who win's we are all supposed to accept this as genuine and offer our congrat's to the winning doctor, yet whenever an episode/doctor from new who wins, the win is diminished and belittled by people saying thing's along the lines of 'oh, it's just because its newer' or 'must have been young people bombarding the vote that day' etc. It's as though some people are convinced that no part of new who could ever be equal or better than classic who and if anything from new who is voted top in polls concerning the whole show, then that poll must have somehow been tainted or biased. To my mind, looking at it from an objective point of view, regardless of what I like/dislike myself, I would say classic who and new who rank about equal in terms of quality overall, and being such, people should believe a result that rank's something in new who as top as much as they would believe it if a classic who element was voted top.

Much as I agree with you on this last point, I'm afraid there is no such thing as an accurate cross section or poll. Unless every single person who votes on the above has seen every single story it can't be regarded as accurate, even if a Classic Story wins, because not everyone will have seen every Classic Who story.

Before you jump back down my throat, I would like to offer the opposite view in that this Poll could be considered unbalanced as it has more Classic Stories in it than New Ones and if I was a New Series Fan only I could be tempted to post that that gives the Classic Series stories a 7-4 chance of winning and the odds are stacked in it's favour. However, since at the moment a Matt Smith story is winning, I say I rest my case. Recent episodes do well in best story polls, recent Doctors do well in best Doctor Polls and the same with the companions and so forth.

All I was saying is that the recent trend on most polls is that when Classic Series is pitted against New Series it seemingly always loses as a lot of people haven't watched the Classic Series. It isn't about what I think is best, even what you think is best, it's a general observation from previous polls.

Just for the record, though it seems I always defend Classic Who, it doesn't mean I hate the New Series, though the last few years haven't been so good imo. I just sometimes feel the need to point out certain perceptions aren't true and that's why I constantly highlight it where I can. At the end of the day there shouldn't be a distinction, it's the same series but the labelling of the old show as Classic sometimes does it no favours.

I love how so many people like to put down Moffat and his writing yet all three of the modern stories (and McGann's) in this poll were all written by him. Although Matt is my favourite Doctor I'll have to go with Genesis in this poll. As much as I love Peter and Caves there's just something great about the way Genesis fits together.

Genesis. Not that it's my overall favourite story, but it's my favourite of those that were voted favourites.... I think.

So difficult! Had to pull for Caves tho. My Fave Davison story.

Although I loved the choices for 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 & 11. The small scale of The Doctor trying to save someone he had only just met and making the sacrifice to ultimately achieve it was great.

It also makes a change for the stakes to be so small, yet just as important to the Doctor!

Can I just add that I've only seen 7 of the episodes listed so sorry for distorting the voting but couldn't miss out on the pool. Good work Chris Hobbs.

That may not be true. I don't believe it is stated how long it is between Planet of Fire and Caves of Androzani. Big Finish used the gap to create audio adventures with 5 and Peri.

Given your general premise (which I agree with) the odds are actually stacked against a 'classic' serial winning because the classics vote will be split 7 ways, whereas new Who only fans only have 3 episodes to choose from, thus dividing the vote a lot less.

There's no way to definitively do a poll like this. I'm not knocking the attempt, but you couldn't make any claims for it. Besides, what if I prefer ten different Tom Baker stories to even the best Pertwee one (as a random example)? Dividing it by Doctor doesn't really make any sense.


It's actually a simple condundrum to resolve: the people with a hate on for Moffat are a tiny minority of the viewing audience. Any actual evidence (audience figures, AI ratings etc) suggests Moffat is far and away the most popular Doctor Who author.

Bizarrely out of that list, Revelation is my favourite. No City of Death or Evil of the Daleks and a whole host of others that I adore...

Absolutely agree with this Tom, hadn't thought of it in those terms but yes, it is another way of seeing it so I can only add that to the points I made above about this Poll being unbalanced.

Please, though, OP, this isn't having a go at you. You done a good job on these Polls and it has created some good discussion. Please don't let it put you off doing future ones.

I was just feeling that people who love the classic era were looking down a bit on new who, but you raise some good point's, especially the fact that there will be a lot of old who not seen by a lot of people, and I also agree that the last few years of new who have gone downhill a bit. have to agree also about the 'classic' label, there's really no need for it, and they even segregate 'classic' and 'new' who on sites such as netflix, where as you say, it should all just be put together and all labeled 'doctor who'.

I'm sorry if I gave that impression!

I genuinely think a lot of the New Series but for me a lot of it comes from the first four years, there was plenty to enjoy there and even in recent times there's been a few episodes I have liked. Off course my affection is always going to be more with Classic Who than New Who because that was what I was brought up on and for many years that's all there was.

I have the opposite to you in that I hate New Series Fans who look down on Classic Who and treat it like some embarrassing Uncle. It annoys me even more because they don't realise that without it we wouldn't have a show today and that's why I defend it where I can.

As we have both said, it should really be treated as one show but alas circumstances outside our control dictate that it isn't!

I definitely share your opinion that he best of new who came from the first four year's.

Also I can imagine that there are probably many who dismiss classic who without trying it. I, for one was born in 88' so never had classic who as a child and only heard of it in 2005, yet despite predominantly being a new who fan through age and circumstance, I have the utmost respect for classic who for it's longevity and creating the world in which new who now resides. I've probably seen about fifteen or so stories of classic who across various doctor's so not completely versed in classic who but not ignorant either, and out of just what I've seen there are some quality stories I would happily watch again, and I fully intend to continue to delve into past stories. I would encourage those ignorant of classic who to at least try and do the same.

It's good that you have that attitude, there seems so much Pre-Judging going on at times, it's happened with various castings over the last few years, now it seems it may be happening with Classic Who as well. Off course, it's a natural thing to Pre-Judge, I've said before I've done it with The Avengers, with the Pre-Rigg Era, but I got there in the end and though some stories I still found boring, there just as many I enjoyed.

Naturally you wouldn't expect any new viewer to Classic Who to enjoy every story. Not many people enjoy everything, we all have stories we dislike(Paradise Towers, Terminus for example in my case) but it's appreciating the more popular stories.

That brings me nicely back onto topic where maybe this Poll and the other separate Doctor Story Polls may give new viewers an idea of what to watch first since I would say the cream of the crop is definitely there and at the top of other Polls as well.

If this Poll does nothing else, I hope it serves it's purpose in that sense.

Fair point. Canon has become a bit more difficult to keep track of since 'Night of the Doctor'!