oh it's the worst, one of the most boring hours i've sit through.

There's not been many contenders for me, and most on this list I more or less enjoy - barring a few errors of judgement that should have been cut but weren't.

I considered The Next Doctor to be the weakest episode, and it was the first time I'd ever truly distinguished an episode I felt no guilt in calling the worst. The first twenty minutes were great, but then the remaining two thirds descended into something horrendous, with barely a scene I'd care to revisit, a character I'd want to see again and certainly not a premise I need reminding of.

Apparently not content with the poor job, RTD delivered an even more worthy contender for worst episode - The End of Time: Part One (and Part Two is hardly good either). It was a genuinely embarassing watch - after it pulled so many people in and got all the hype it did, and had fans all excited, I felt daft for being excited over that. It managed to be laughably awful but never funny. It managed melodrama, but never good drama. The sets might not be wobbly on the show any more, but the premise here was. A trainwreck of an episode that had few redeeming qualities barring just one or two good scenes I wished were in better stories.

Now though, there's one episode that ranks as lesser than even that. The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe just doesn't stop being annoying on any level. Even typing out the elongated title is a frustration. It comes from a source material I've grown to care a lot less for over time (Narnia's religious themes are a bit too heavy-handed and pushy for me), but you can barely call it source material. The plot here is so contrived it makes literally no sense (the Doctor has a time machine, why the hell is that a less impressive idea than what he actually does?!), and more to the point it very quickly makes me not care at all. The end of Series 6 said the Doctor had gotten too noisy and needed to return to the shadows, and here we are an episode later blowing up spacecraft above wartime Earth, and surviving a fall to earth from orbit to the ground in nothing but a spacesuit. The story that followed was tedious, Bill Bailey ranks as probably the most wasted guest star ever, even the Doctor was annoying in this story. The resolution was as heavy handed in its "Mum" message as is the source material in its own messages, whilst Claire Skinner does her best with a character who...has basically no character. The best scene was the closing one with Amy and Rory, and as someone who isn't a particular fan of them it says a lot that those few seconds amounted to more than the whole hour before them. This wasn't just bad Doctor Who for me, it was bad TV. Quite how it happened I don't know, but then there are those who enjoy it - I guess it was for them rather than me that year.

I find it difficult to be too harsh on "Sleep No More" or "Love and Monsters" because both were, at least, trying something new (which for a lot of Doctor Who viewers). "Midnight" is appreciated more in retrospect but I can remember the howls at the time that it first aired that you never got to find out what the threat was and that it had been contained in a single room for most of the episode, so surely that must be the 'worst episode ever' (Other Half hates it; I think it's great).

"Rings of Akhaten" and "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" on the other hand, seem to have no saving graces.

I know what you mean, I've never understood the popularity behind it. I spent the entire episode wanting it to get on with the regeneration, which it spent far too long building up to, and being affirmed that I was quite happy that RTD was going. It was like he wanted viewers to think that change was very bad just before he handed the show over.

Fear Her, by a country mile.
As someone has already said, that episode does not have a single redeeming feature.
Mind you, In the Forest of the Night is now running it a very close second IMO.

It should be Fear Her by a country mile or at least a couple of furlongs but judging from the scores it's going to be by a short head!

Abomination seems to have listed most of my worst five episodes so I don't have to!

A close-run thing with The Rings of Akhaten and the Aliens of London two-parter. I remember actually quite enjoying Love and Monsters, though strictly as a one-off type of story (the part where Elton remembers seeing the Doctor all those years ago was quite poignant). I also seem to be in a minority who likes Sleep No More (preferring it to The Girl Who Died/The Woman Who Lived, for example).

Forgot to mention in my post that I voted for In The Forest of the Night.

Sleep no More was one of the better episodes this series.

Sleep No More may have been a mess but at least it was an ambitious/innovative mess which is a redeeming feature ergo it is not as bad as Fear Her!

I have just realised that I dislike Fear Her so much I will actually be slightly disappointed if it don't win this poll!

Any this past series or in fact the majority from 2010 onwards. Aliens of London/World War Three is one of my favourites of all time. Love and Monsters was decent( But still better than the shite put out in the last few years) while Fear Her was excellent.

I'm surprised to see Sleep No More so poorly thought of. It wasn't a classic, but I thought it was OK. Not terrible. Certainly not flawless, far from that. But it did its "modern Tales of the Unexpected" thing fairly well. A pity the monsters were sleepy dust, granted, but it had some redeeming features.

Having said that I really can't remember just how bad Fear Her (my choice) was after all this time. The olympic torch thing pretty much instantly relegated it to All Time Worst Thing On TV Ever I'm Going To Throw Up This Is Terrible.

Like others, I would have voted for The End of Time, a terrible end for Ten and it's SO long as well.
I really like The Rings of Akhaten.
I'll plump for Fear Her

The End of Time was terrible. Cringey, nonsensical, overblown. I'm surprised the scenery remained intact at the end after the full-on chewing assault from John Simm.

The Wedding of River Song should have been on the list. Cringy, overblown, nonsensical, over complicated, cop out ending, badly written etc. About as bad as Let's Kill Hitler and The Doctor, The Widow & The Wardrobe.

The End Of Time is still for me, one of the best of RTD's era. I can understand why some people find it annoying though. But it certainly isn't the worst.

That episode where the moon - not any hypothetical moon 10000 light years away , but OUR moon, the one that people have been to , like people have been to Northamptonshire, or New Jersey - turned out to be an egg.

I don't even want to remember its name, but that was the worst.

Second worst was "Sleep No More". Stupid stupid concept of sand in the eye monster, plus boring. Only slightly redeemed by the chilling hints about the cold materialistic society of the future..

Lets Kill Hitler was , IMHO, a great episode. Great performance from Nina Toussaint-White as Mels. Lovely scene between teenage Amy, Rory and Mels:

"I'm Not Gay!"
"Yes you are. . I've seen you practically every day for the last 10 years, and when did you show the slightest interest in a girl? " [pause for sudden realisation]

The Doctor the Widow and the Wardrobe wasn't the best episode but did have that marvellous authentic bit of dialogue:

"There's no way you'll ever convince me you'll actually use that gun:"
"I'm looking for my children"

I don't always agree with you, Abomination, but I always appreciate your thoughtful posts, however we definitely part company on The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.

It's an episode i don't get the hate for, so here's something to balance things up a little.

While I agree with the comments about the religious elements of the source material, this story is light hearted and that makes it fun. Matt's Doctor is enjoying himself here.

I've always liked this episode but it's its sense of wonder and joy feels particularly relevant to me now because it's precisely that sense of wonder and joy that's been missing for most of the last two series (Last Christmas aside).

Rather than Narnia, I think it's really Doctor Who's version of It's a Wonderful Life. It's a simple tale that has the Doctor helping a family stay together in wartime Britain and a Narnia-like land.

What's not to like?

Those of you who would scoff at It's a Wonderful Life should take another look at it, as it has some thoughtful social commentary about big business and banks amongst the Christmassy schmaltz.

And if you care to look, TDtWatW has some commentary on environmental issues too.

Voted Rings of Akhatan; a mess.

I'd like to speak in defence of the Daleks in Manhatten/Evolution of the Daleks. The acting was over the top, but it was stylized: I think that was a deliberate 'B movie' pair of episodes. The Daleks were scary and there was genuine peril. A few ropy accents, but again in a rather fun way; I'd say it was a good pair of episodes!

My dislike of Sleep No More is compounded by three main issues:

1/ A Doctor I don't particularly like
2/ A companion I don't care about
3/ A season that was dull and joyless

Perhaps sat in the middle of season 2 or 4, I might not have hated it quite so much. But a poor season like Season 9 just couldn't carry a clanger like that.

I'm 45 and have watched Doctor Who my whole life. With Sleep No More I was within a hair's ​breadth of giving up on the show forever. The only thing that's kept me watching is the knowledge that Clara was leaving.

Echo others above re: End of Time, certainly the most disappointed I've been with a C21 Who story.

As for the episodes listed, I actually find 'Love and Monsters' (although the last quarter is pretty dire) and 'Sleep No More' pretty interesting in trying to do something different. Also have a soft spot for 'Rings...' as it's quite old school, and despite the cheese the music is great....and Smith's speech gives me goose bumps. The others aren't on my rewatch list, but although it was close between 'Fear Her' and 'In the Forest...' I went for the former.

The early parts are okay, a bit 'Paperhouse' or 'Sapphire & Steel'....but the Olympic torch stuff and the bits with dear old Huw Edwards; oh deary me.

Pretty shocked that fear her and sleep no more are currently beating In the Forest of the Night for the title.

With sleep no more, I do wonder if it is the case that people who didn't like it are voting it the worst because it is the freshest one they disliked in their minds due to being so new.

With regards to fear her, it's not great admittedly, but In the Forest of the Night is in a whole different league of bad to fear her, or indeed pretty much any other episode.

I vote for the entire last series.

Me too.

Thanks very much for commenting about my posts, and indeed it's possible to enjoy reading the posts of others without necessarily agreeing with them In regards to The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe I'm unlikely to ever be convinced I'll enjoy it though - but even at its absolute worst (by my own opinions) there is always redeeming factors, no matter how few.

There were just so many flaws with the story as a whole, with the casting, the pacing, the style, the way the morals were delivered...it all added up to an episode I really didn't enjoy. When I first saw it I was admittedly very unwell (spent most of that Christmas Day passed out on the sofa with flu!) and put it down to my health as to why I never much liked the episode. Rewatching it though afforded it no favours, as I ended up disliking it even more upon rewatch. I found the characters hollow and uninteresting, I just never engaged with them. Matt Smith's Doctor felt like a full on caricature here, and I put that down to the script rather than him - I generally like Smith a lot, but struggled to have much to say about him after this one.

The story is indeed quite alike to It's A Wonderful Life in its tone - and I like It's A Wonderful Life - but maybe this also highlights its problem. It's named and referencing Narnia rather senselessly, it's more aligned with something else entirely, and for some reason it just doesn't quite feel like Doctor Who in a lot of ways for me. It wasn't so much 'different' rather than 'tonally off'. It doesn't have a solid enough identity, whilst a year earlier A Christmas Carol offered a very distinct story that was a quirky take on a classic, with some well crafted characters and guest stars who were actually given something substantial to sink their teeth into.

Equally I know that not every episode is going to be for everyone. I know even the most critically panned episodes have their fans (I tend to defend The Rings of Akhaten to some extent, and sometimes even Love & Monsters) and it's great that these panned episodes at least impress some people. But TDTWatW will never be an episode that impressed me. It never made me feel uplifted by its message, it never engaged me with its plot, it never won me over with its characters, it never compelled me to want to rewatch it. I did say that even the least impressive episodes had redeeming factors though, and this was no exception - I thought Murray Gold delivered an understated but quite beautiful score for this episode, I think the quaint story as poor as it was was at least nice for being quaint rather than an overblown global-scale threat, I think it looked visually very impressive in a few places.

I feel like we already had this topic very recently...

Town Called Mercy
New Earth
Fires of Pompeii
The Doctor's Daughter
Planet of the Ood
The waters of Mars
The Tennnant season finales
Vampires of Venice
The Idiot's Lantern
The Curse of the Black Spot
Tooth & Claw
Nightmare in Silver

Those all strike me as being particularly awful episodes that I cringe to watch. Fear Her could be as bad as people say but I have never rewatched it and can recall very little about it.