I thought it might be interesting to find out everyone's favourite arc in 21st Century Doctor Who.

Apologies if I've missed out any.

My vote goes to River's complete story. Despite problems with Mel's sudden appearance from nowhere and Amy's lack of reaction to the loss of the baby River, which was clumsily handled, it all ended up dovetailing quite beautifully back to River's first appearance, back in series 4.

Torn between the shamelessly wild story arc of Series 6, because it was great fun, or Clara's story in Series 9, as I thought it was very well-developed in making her a very engaging character and a reminder of how dangerous the Doctor's life is.

I'm more partial/biased to Series 9, so I'll go with that.

I have to go with "Bad Wolf" if only because it was so unexpected and innovative at the time. We now expect some sort of reference connecting all or at least most of the episodes of a series together, but when Series 1 was broadcast it was completely unexpected and so had a really huge impact when the audience realised what was happening.
It must be the longest running arc too, at least in "real" time, as its final reference was in Turn Left at the end of Series 4!

Gone for the series 4 arc overall as it has little effect on standalone episodes to the extent that no-one seemed to be sure what exactly the arc was supposed to be that series, and yet when the finale came, we saw that seemingly throwaway things like mentions of missing planets etc were secretly seeding for an arc all along. Then, most importantly the finale was just so satisfying that it justified the time, effort, and returning actors that went into making it great.

If I had to pick one out of the Moffat era options, It would easily be the 'Rivers complete story' option as it is the only one for me which made complete sense and actually had a satisfying start,middle period, and end, which is something I can't say for any other Moffat arc.

Well I was gonna pick Series 1, 4 and 5 but just went for 5 as I found it scary and spookh especially when the bad wolf theme played, and Gwenyth is like the things you see, the darkness, the big bad wolf.

Series 1 felt not afraid to experiment with episodes too, to me and it felt like Christopher Eccleston played the best doctor, just a regular old bloke. 2005 was a great year <3

Another poster has said something similar in the other thread and I agree with you both.

If Bad Wolf was used now in the show I would agree about the whole catchphrase thing not really working but this was the very first series and as someone more accustomed to Classic Who, I wasn't used to this type of arc setup in the show(Trial and Key To Time were two very different beasts imo).

Though Buffy had done it year in year out, it was very in your face and a lot of the time you knew who the big bad was gonna be within four episodes or less. With the Bad Wolf thing, I liked the fact it was secretly and sneakily inserted into episodes right from the second story and you didn't know you'd seen or heard about those references to Bad Wolf until 11 episodes in in Boomtown and even then it was a sudden insert into a mainly unrelated story.

For me, looking back at it even now, it wasn't intrusive, it didn't make a big appearance at the end of what seemed like every episode(Like the crack in time) and because it was the first series and we weren't as in tune with story arcs as maybe we are now, I think the whole Bad Wolf thing does work though I don't think it would work again though it's sudden appearance in Series 4 was quite good.

That brings me nicely onto that Series as I feel there was more than just the missing planets and the missing bees. I liked the fact the whole way through the Series there was this implication that somehow Donna was more than 'just a temp from Chiswick.' and there was something special about her. It just kept building up and up, through Turn Left and then it all came together in Journey's End.

And what about Rose? Whether her story line in Series 4 can be considered an arc is questionable but for me, I loved her sudden appearance in the opening episode and the blink and miss her moments in later episodes were awesome!

I also liked the build up to the finale in Series 3 with all the Harold Saxon teasers but for me the resolution and the characterisation of the Master just meant it led upto a load of tosh really.

If it had been an option I would have voted Donna's story. Best character arc and heartbreaking ending when she lost all she had become. Chose River's story as (mostly) well played out.

I have to go with season 5.

The arc itself was a good idea, we actually were able to explore what was happening throughout the series, yet at the same time it didn't detract from the standalone story. Like with Vampires in Venice, or that we realise that it erases you from time.

It allowed you to figure out what might be going on. I have it above Season 4 because at the end of the day i don't think the arc was that deep like people are saying and was very forced. We knew the planets were disappearing but that is it, couple mentions of disappearing planets and the incredibly forced Madusa Cascade. That isn't building the arc, that is weak foreshadowing.

But River's story comes a close second.

Isn't The Hybrid arc we've just had rather like the Bad Wolf arc? They both have the self-fulfilling prophecy/bootstrap paradox quality and a throwaway phrase that's randomly inserted into otherwise unrelated stories.

At least Hybrid did turn out to have a meaning - if not the literal one we were lead to expect.


Cracks in the universe wasn't a catchphrase arc, but it had the same "stuck on to unrelated stories" problem as the catchphrase arcs. It did manage to progress, though, when Rory was erased and Amy no longer remembered him.


Donna's fate was one of the saddest for a companion in Doctor Who. They spent time giving her character development. She went from being a mouthy temp from Chiswick with low self esteem through to gaining the confidence to be more than she ever thought she could be. She was special, just like everyone else. And then that was taken away from her. An almost literal "reset" button. A cruel fate indeed.


In fairness, I probably should have included Rose's, Donna's, Martha's and Amy/Rory's arcs as I did River's. To one degree or another they all had personal character development arcs. And of course Rose returned in series 4.


The Saxon arc is proper "background" arc for me. The references are subtle and quite literally in the background. It's the headline on a newspaper someone's reading, or it's a poster on a wall, or it's a news story on a TV in the background etc, etc.

At the time they appeared to be unimportant background dressing, if you noticed them at all.

They're the sort of thing that you'll only see on re-watch, unless you're exceptionally observant and can remember those things across 2 seasons so you can make the connection. And even if you did connect them, you wouldn't draw the conclusion that it's the return of the Master.

When you do discover them for yourself on re-watch it's astonishing.

However, it suffered from the problem that nothing significant happened in its story until the finale when the Master was finally revealed.

I'm not going to comment on Series 9 as have to do a rewatch before I can comment on the whole hybrid thing.

As for the crack in time I never said it was a catchphrase thing, my point was that in the early episodes of Series 5 especially it seemed to crop up at the end of every episode, it was very in your face, you couldn't miss it. However the Bad Wolf one I liked better as it was placed into the episodes where you really had to be observant to notice all the spoken and visual references etc.

I agree about Donna, though I think that sort of development makes good drama. People will always remember her for that, plus it gives her departure dramatic emphasis. Unlike Martha who really didn't get much of a send off at all!

As for The Master, yes, a lot of time was spent building up his return. As I said though, the build up was better than the finale itself, excluding the big moment in Utopia where we find out who Yana really is.

I do agree though that there is fun in rewatching the arcs and looking back at what you missed at the time. I don't rate Series 5 much as most people know but perhaps the best big miss for me personally was when The Doctor spoke to Amy in the Weeping Angels episode and this was him from the a later episode. The fact that he was wearing his jacket should have been a giveaway but it's fun watching it now and seeing how it all worked in hindisght.

Really I noticed all Bad Wolf references first time, Gwenyth, the helicopter saying something with bad wolf, I remember hearing it in The end of the world one of the guests were talking about it, Blaidd Drwg, its written on the thing in The Empty Child Two Parter and lastly on that Face of Boe channel in The Long Game and obviously you see it everywhere in the finale.

I think I also noticed some in Series 2 in Love and Monsters on the computer everything about Rose is erased by the bad wolf virus, erm in Tooth and Claw that guy in the robes and cage says he sees a bit of the wolf in Rose.

The silence arc! really! .. I want names.. your going on a course.

BIB: I never said you said cracks in time was a catchphrase arc. My remark wasn't intended as a contradiction of anything you'd said, just as a lead in to comparing it with the catchphrase arcs.

I didn't think Bad Wolf was hidden particularly. It was hidden in plain sight. Whether or not it was going to be significant and what it meant if it was, was the mystery. As a phrase it didn't have a strong link to what was behind it. Saxon, on the other hand....

Yeah. That jacket/no jacket "incident". Missed it completely first time around. That scene just struck me as a bit odd at the time. It didn't quite fit the flow of the story. It was only when I read the debate on here that I realised "something" might have been up. It was quite the controversy then, debating whether it was really significant, or just a production error.

Who knows, maybe the discrepancy in Rory's id badge will yet turn out to be important?

No worries about the comparison thing, I get now what you meant.

I agree that the Bad Wolf thing was there to be spotted, I think I do remember Gwyn saying it first time round and thinking it was important somehow. I didn't recall the others though and that's half the fun for me, just knowing when you've missed something you shouldn't have done!

As for Series 2 Bad Wolf references it wasn't so important then but did like the one in Tooth and Claw.

I still remember people missing Rose's brief appearances in some of Series 4 episodes and wondering why Billie Piper's name came up in the credits when she hadn't apparently been seen at all.....

I'm glad I didn't read any discussions on that jacket thing as I would have been very annoyed had I gone into the final episode with that speculation in mind but it made for a nice surprise when I saw that scene.

I think the poll shows how there's different kinds of story arcs - story and character. Whilst it's interesting to consider which ones dealt with each the best, I personally don't think they're directly comparable.

All the same though, after all of these years I maintain that the Bad Wolf story arc remains the best. That is of course in part because it wasn't quite expected at the time, whereas now there's an active demand for a decent story arc. But it worked on every level it needed to...
- The direct 'bad wolf' references were a mixture of obvious and well-hidden - from the graffiti on the side of the Tardis and Gywneth's premonition, to "Schlechter Wolf" being on the side of the bomb and the poster behind Rose in the chip shop - but they were always subtle enough to never interfere with the story of the week, which you were allowed to enjoy regardless. Attention was only really drawn to Bad Wolf the first time in Boom Town, as we built towards the finale that followed. As an arc goes the pacing was spot on.
- There was ultimately more to it than met the eye, with the link to The Long Game - the seemingly most monster-of-the-week story of the series being a very nice touch. The whole series revolved around a grander design, a huge and significant event that erupted back and forth through history. In that respect it was an underplayed version of the 'cracks in the wall' arc that Series 5 would bring.
- It dealt with actual consequences - resulting in both the Doctor regenerating, and more importantly it wasn't just dropped forever from there. It was later the Bad Wolf virus that wiped all knowledge of Rose from the Torchwood databases in Series 2, the Bad Wolf link that told the Doctor the walls of the universe were breaking down in Series 4, and the Bad Wolf entity itself that helped the Doctor ultimately realise he couldn't commit genocide in The Day of the Doctor. For better or worse, the arc had genuine consequences and left an untidy mark that made it feel like a much more naturally occurring set of events rather than a plotline to be nearly tidied up by series end.

Gwenyths premonition scared the sh!t out of me watching first time "But you Rose Tyler you've travelled further than anyone, All those people running half naked, for shame! Metal boxes racing past and whats that in the sky, oh, but the birds there metal too with people in them! The things you see the darkness, the big bad wolf!" I think it was something similar to that.

Anyway that moment made me look out for the Big Bad wolf references closely after I heard that and spotted it on the TARDIS spray painted.

Is it me or did Series 1 seem so eerie with its soundtrack and atmosphere.

I thought it was The Moment taking on Rose's appearence as Bad Wolf that created the situation that convinced War, 10 and 11 to save Gallifrey (which made War, 9 and 10 think War had destroyed it (and allowed 11 to realise he hadn't)). Not Bad Wolf itself.

Series 1 had a very eerie, mysterious edge when it wanted to. I think in part that grew from the fact that until the finale they didn't have the huge orchestra to pull off anything overly dramatic music-wise.

Not that I'm complaining. If I were to complain, it'd be that the wonderful music from Father's Day and then a lot of the quieter stuff from early on in Series 2 never got released (New Earth and The Girl in the Fireplace have some awesome music).


Technically speaking yes, but my point would still stand - consequentially, the show still involved the Bad Wolf entity as a plot point long after the main resolution to it, which helped it to feel like a more natural part of the show rather than a plot to be tied up at the end of a specific series. Not that I'm saying you were disputing my point either way

BIB: Now, see, there I was contradicting you!

I agree that series 1 and 2 soundtracks deserve a fuller release.