Classic Who needs some love too and I'm a bit of a Robert Holmes fanboy (we need a name for that too) so what are everyones' favourite stories penned by him (including the rewritten from Terrance Dicks story The Brain of Morbius and the posthumously published first episode of The Ultimate Foe).

For me it's very close between The Brain of Morbius and The Deadly Assassin but I'd have to go for the former. It was a tried-and-true clichéd take on Frankenstein but it did it well, and I loved Solon and Morbius, as well as Tom's scenes with the Sisterhood of Karn. The Deadly Assassin is obviously a great one too that tried a few new things which could have easily gone wrong but succeeded spectactularly. Peter Pratt and Bernard Horsfall were great as the Master and Chancellor Goth.

He was immensely talented and rightly held in high esteem by fans, obviously including RTD and SM. Such an important part of the Hinchcliffe era as script editor, as well as coming into his own at the dawn of the Pertwee era. I adore the Auton stories, 'Carnival of Monsters', 'Ribos...' etc. but it's probably between 'The Deadly Assassin' and 'Caves of Androzani'. (I suppose technically we can't include 'Pyramids of Mars'?) ETA Yes we can! Obviously brilliant, but sticking with Caves....!

Whilst 'Deadly...' is probably the more trailblazing story, famously slagged off by parts of fandom at the time, I'd have to go with 'Caves...'; pitch black humour, a story that gave Davison the sort of quality writing he deserved, but didn't always get, for his swansong, a superb cast (especially Christopher Gable) and of course it's superbly directed by Graeme Harper. It's darn close, mind. The Matrix scenes in TDA haunted me as a kid and David Maloney was a great director too.

('Holmesian', Lord? Hmmm, of course that could lead to confusion though!)

The only stories I'm not so keen on on that list is the first three, Ribos and The Mysterious Planet(and Talons which is overrated imo). The others are all good in their own way.

I love The Sunmakers for it's overly humorous slant on the tax system. I also love The Brain Of Morbius for being just so other worldly and the Pyramids Of Mars I could just watch over and over again. I don't think there has many adversaries as powerful of Sutekh, I love the way everything is implied through dialogue to give you that image of an awesomely strong figure. Plus that music, especially during The Doctor/Sutekh scenes is just so sinister.

The Ultimate Foe I'm also a fan of and episode 13 of TOATL is the best of the entire Series imo.

However, The Caves Of Androzani is still tops for me. Not going to explain it as I have done so many times before on here.

(And thanks OP for this thread. Classic Who does need more love!)

I included Pyramids of Mars for the same reason I included Brain of Morbius, because although it was originally somebody else's story Robert Holmes definitely rewrote it in his style.

Caves of Androzani is, to me, the best swansong for a Doctor to date, by far. Likewise, Robert Holmes also provided the best opener for a Doctor in my opinion, with Spearhead from Space. A brilliant start to one of my favourite Doctors.

I totally agree about Sutekh. We didn't actually see him use his power much throughout the story but the dialogue alone made us feel he was a force to be reckoned with and incited a lot of suspense and foreboding. One of my favourite Who villains.

Dammit this is just so difficult, its a hard decision between Ark in Space, Pyramids of Mars, Deadly Assassin, Brain of Morbius, Talons of Weng-Chiang and Caves of Androzani. Eventually plumped for Caves but another day it could so easily be one of the others.

01) The Deadly Assassin
02) The Ark In Space
03) Pyramids of Mars
04) Spearhead From Space
05) Carnival Of Monsters


06) The Brain Of Morbius
07) Terror of The Autons
08) The Time Warrior
09) The Talons Of Weng Chiang
10) The Caves of Androzani


11) The Ribos Operation
12) The Sunmakers
13) The Power Of Kroll
14) The Krotons
15) The Two Doctors


16) The Mysterious Planet
17) The Ultimate Foe (episode one)


[unrated] The Space Pirates

The Deadly Assassin. Love the Matrix scenes and Galifrey. Spendrall and Englin were a great double act.

Caves.

Spearhead second.

A really interesting piece on fanzine "Nothing at the end of the lane" (out now!), about Holmes's struggles writing for the Trial season. fascinating stuff.

I could have voted for loads of these. But Androzani gets it because it's so exciting - a real noir adventure.
Love Robert Holmes, both for Dr Who and for Blake's 7.
A great writer!

Interesting array of stories. I haven't commented on Dr Who in a long time.
My order of preference:
Deadly Assassin (there's something exciting about it, like it's breaking all the rules)
Talons of Weng-Chiang (an entertaining romp for all involved)
Pyramids of Mars (almost like the perfect story that sums up everything that's great about the show)
Brain of Morbius (inspired)
Spearhead from Space (best first story for a Doctor, unique alien)
The Ark in Space (fun)
The Ultimate Foe (I have a soft spot for the bonkers)
The Ribos Operation (classy)
The Sun Makers (enjoyable, not too taxing)
The Two Doctors (a goody meaty story but sometimes a little hard to stomach)
Caves of Androzani (I want to like it more, but without the regeneration it's very average)
Terror of the Autons (takes the Autons further but a little messy story-wise)
Power of Kroll (it's a slog but okay)
Time Warrior (good plot, average to witness)
The Mysterious Planet (confusing)
The Krotons (meh)
Carnival of Monsters (shrug)
Space Pirates (ew)

Was that an intentional pun?

I didn't want to start repeating myself when talking about some stories so I went for a couple of bad puns to keep myself amused.

Oh, TOO HARD!!!

I opted for The Brain Of Morbius in the end, just because it had my favourite Doctor/companion pairing and was part of the show's dark and scary gothic phase. But it could easily have been most of the others.

Spearhead from Space

Great topic! In my mind Robert Holmes makes up the triumvirate of great Who writers alongside the 2 contemporary showrunners.

I think that all Who fans should try and at least watch some of Holmes' work if they want to see the full picture of Doctor Who, even if they don't normally watch classic Who.

But damn, is this hard.

Should I go for the quality of the overall production or just Robert Holmes' scripts?

Well, in either case I think 'Talons of Weng Chiang' probably wins. It has three of Holmes' finest characters (Li H'seng Chang, Jag and Lightfoot), paces out perfectly and has a perfectly pitched atmosphere which is realized perfectly in the production.

It's really very difficult to rank incredible work like Caves of Androzani, the Deadly Assassin, Pyramids of Mars, Spearhead from Space, The Time Warrior, the Ribos Operation, Carnival of Monsters, the Brain of Morbius... it really comes down to which one I most recently watched.

Forgot to add this in my last post but I find with even the Robert Holmes stories I'm not so keen on there's a character who seems quite funny or likeable.

The Space Pirates for example I love the character of Milo Clancey who is really a cowboy in space and I love his stuff 'em attitude towards General Hermack. Then there's Rohm Dutt in The Power Of Kroll and even in Ribos, there's a different type of character in Binro the Heretic. That scene where he learns there is stars in the sky out there is one of my fave Holmes scenes even though the story for me isn't that great.

Then in The Mysterious Planet segment of TOATL there is Glitz and Dibber. Just one of a number of double acts I love in his stories, such as Jago and Litefoot etc.

Only just seen this.

Was going to say it's impossible for me to say but then thinking about it when I name my all time favourite stories I always say there:-

01) Pyramids of Mars
02) The Talons of Weng Chiang
03) Spearhead from Space

So I suppose they must also be my favourite Robert Holmes stories as well.

If I were to do my all time top twenty, The Deadly Assassin, The Ark in Space and The Time Warrior would all definitely be there with The Brain of Morbius and The Ribos Operation very close. I really like Carnival of Monsters as well.

Fabulous writer!

I always liked Carnival of Monsters so I chose that one.

I loved Pyramid of Mars such a great story.

I wish he had been alive to do the final part of Trial though as the ending sounded good.