For me im going with Davison's last story given how epic that ending was leading into that episode.

Davisons last story wasn't the series finale though. The series finale was The Twin Dilemma!

This is so difficult, the 3rd Doctor had classics for every finale, the 2nd Doctor had The War Games and Evil of the Daleks, 1st Doctor had The Time Meddler, 4th Doctor had Talons of Weing Chiang and other greats.

But if i were too choose one Inferno ever so slightly ahead of The War Games.

There were some real crackers in the Sixties and Seventies! (there was also The Time Monster and The Armageddon Factor) Erm....Inferno for me, with nods of deep respect to The Time Meddler, War Games, Daemons, Seeds of Doom...

Got a bit patchy to say the least after that in the Eighties, but am very fond of Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

Tricky one this, it's a shame The Caves Of Androzani wasn't the last story of Season 21, it really should have been and in that case it would win easily!!!

But it isn't so looking at impact and end of season feel, I would go for three stories.

Planet Of The Spiders, as it was Pertwee's last story and Pertwee himself put in an extra awesome performance in his last scenes. It felt like the end of an Era.

The Armageddon Factor. I know this on gets a lot of stick but I like it and after 26 weeks of The Key To Time Arc it feels like a suitable, though not entirely perfect, finale to the Season.

Finally, Logopolis. It always feels Season 18 has a touch of the modern era about at times with links from earlier stories such as the CVE's, Traken, etc, all wrapped up neatly in this story. Plus it was the end of another Era and the whole doom-laden nature of the story adds to the atmosphere.



(Do like The War Games as well!!!)

Its tricky to tell with the stuff that's for Doctors 1,2 and 3 because I think the true impact of a finale is really only felt at the time it was broadcast. I only really remember stuff from Tom Baker onwards in that respect.

Also, I don't think British TV back then really thought in terms of season finales. They sort of used the final story to wrap stuff up but I'm not sure they used at as a big fanfare like it is now. Perhaps they would write out a companion (or write one in) and perhaps there would be a regeneration. But they were functional parts of the script rather than elements written specifically to make the finale stand out.

I suppose the only finale story I remember really leaving me on tenterhooks was Logopolis because it genuinely felt like it finished halfway through a story - a new Doctor, the Master still on the loose and two new companions (one of whom had just lost her aunt, the other her entire world).

All the others finales (for me) simply felt like the last story to be shown rather than a story specifically written to be a finale.

Basically this. The Seeds of Doom is one of the most thrilling DW stories ever, as is Inferno, The War Games is one of the best regeneration stories ever, behind only Caves of Androzani, and The Time Meddler and The Daemons are very enjoyable.

The Evil of the Daleks is also one of the best Dalek stories, and Talons of Weng-Chiang is the last of my favourite era of Who and no bad way to go. Reign of Terror is possibly my favourite historical story, and The Green Death has the most emotional companion departure of all.

Had Shada been completed, I think that would have also been a good contender.

In short, it's difficult to choose because Classic Who had plenty of fantastic stories to close its seasons.

Logopolis.

The Seeds of Doom is a quality end story to a high quality season.
In terms of a story having a relation to the rest of the stories in the season, it has to be The Ultimate Foe and The Armageddon Factor, as they relate to the Key to Time and Trial of a Timelord linking arc's so have the most satisfying pay off's in them.

There are a number of series finales that have a good claim to the title. The Reign of Terror, The War Games, Inferno, and The Talons of Weng-Chiang would be among my considered choices.

But the one I watch most often is The Horns of Nimon . . .

Obviously they didn't have finales then in the same way as they do now. I think I'd have to plump for the War Games. That has a finale-like feel and is a 'game-changer' as they would say now.

If Androzani was the season finale as it should have been instead of Twin Dilemma then obviously it would win hands down.

It's either got to be The War Games or Logopolis.

The War Games due to how insanely epic it is in scope and story, how immersive it is throughout its 10 episodes and the huge reveals at the end of episode 10.

Logopolis due to the amazing foreboding atmosphere, Tom Baker playing it straight and turning in one of his best, world-weary performances and the fantastic music.

The Armageddon Factor (followed by The War Games).

Talons for me, one of the all time classics.

No contest ....... LOGOPOLIS

I'll say Logopolis because the regeneration from Tom Baker into Peter Davison was a very vivid memory of my early childhood. But season finales were a different beast in those days. You didn't really have season-long arcs - and stories tended to be self-contained. So the end of the season (or series, if we want to avoid vulgar Amercian-isms) was just that - an end.

As has been said, the Classic show wasn't geared around season long arcs, culminating in a finale. Indeed shows often got moved around, so a planned final show of the a season (e.g. Terror of the Zygons) got shunted back to be the opening show of the following season!

Also, during the mid 80s it seemed that many of the end of season stories were the weak ones where the money had run out! Peter gets an expensive foreign filmed story and an all time classic story to end his era, but then the season finished with a cheap, and rubbish clonker!

But then, his first season ended with woeful Time Flight, and his second with The King's Demons - which I know isn't considered a clanger but its also a very light and silly way to end a season. Poor Peter. At least he got to bow out before Twin Dilemma.

Been giving this some thought and I'm not sure I can answer on a compare and contrast basis. Classic season didn't really have big explosive finales did they, like the do today. The simply end with a 'last story' which normally was a standard ending or maybe a companion leaving, although, to memory, companions, in the last few years seemed to depart mid season.

I think I'm going to have to go with Logopolis in that it was much hyped and anticipated, with an outgoing v long serving Doctor and a new, younger then ever replacement, where we were all excited and couldn't wait to see Peter Davison take the roll.

It was an interesting idea to have the season finish with the new Doctor instead of making them wait for the next, but it would have worked better if The Twin Dilemma hadn't been such a disaster.

There was a pattern in Davison's three seasons where the second-to-last episode was great, then it was followed by a rather poor season closer. Earthshock was followed by Time-Flight, Enlightenment by The King's Demon, and The Caves of Androzani by The Twin Dilemma.

Sadly, because The Twin Dilemma was so awful, it coloured peoples expectations of Colin Baker. If he'd had a cracking story in the style of Androzani then people would have been eagerly awaiting he first full season - after TTD, everyone thought that Doctor Who stank, and that Colin wasn't very good. As has been proven, time and again, given the right material Colin can be an excellent Doctor. The Twin Dilemma was about as poor an intro as it's possible to have and was, I believe, one the main reasons that Who went into a freefall in the late 1980s that even the turnaround in McCoy's last two seasons couldn't halt.

Re Davison's poor season closers. Yep, Time Flight was mostly rubbish. A rotten, silly story with a far too ambitious script that Peter Grimwade (being a decent director) ought to have known would never be workable in a TV studio. So, yes, a very poor way to end.

But Davison's second season was never meant to close with The Kings Demons. That story was intended to be a little diversion before the battle royal of the Big Dalek Story Finale. Of course BBC strikes scuppered all this, and the story was reworked the next year as Resurrection Of The Daleks, so The Kings Demons does end the season with a wimper rather a crash bang wallop. But it was never meant to be like that.

I never actually knew that, I always thought Season 20 was a little shorter because of the 20th Anniversary.

Persoally I never liked Resurrection of the Daleks, so it would probably would have still ended the season on a bad note for me. I guess it would depend on who was writing it, if it was still Eric Saward or what.

I always include The Five Doctors onto the end of Season 20.

Strange, I never noticed that before, but yes, very true. Those are arguably the best 3 5th Doctor serials.

I agree with most of your post but for me The King's Demons is not that bad a story. Okay, Anthony Ainley's fresnch is very cod and The Master's plans are quite sudbued compared to some of the others. I also find the story entertaining and refreshing after the Black Guardian Trilogy even though Turlough gets locked a lot!

I like the mind battle at the end, surely the most engaging battles they ever done.

Overall it's not perfect but love it anyway.