Which episode is the one episode which you could never get into no matter how much you have seen it? The one episode everyone appears to enjoy and love but, as far as you're concerned, isn't that great?

For me, it's Listen. I found the episode a long drawn out bore. Everything with the monsters under the bed was painfully dragged out. Having the Tardis mysteriously land to when the Doctor was a child and having Clara under his bed was awful and I hated that moment. Just everything inside this episode was enough to send me to sleep if I was tired I think. I just don't get the love for it and I don't think I ever will do.

So what is yours?

Narrowing it down to one I'd probably have to go for The Stolen Earth/Journey's End. I've already said the same sort of thing in another thread, but I was never very invested in the characters of that era, so throwing them all together just made things feel crammed and kind of brought to mind a juvenile scenario a young fan might have where "all the good guys team up to fight the mega baddies" I never enjoyed the excessive self-hype of RTD's finales as they felt like they each tried so hard to outdo the last one that it was overblown to the point of feeling suffocating; Daleks invading the Earth yet again wasn't exactly something that felt threatening either.

Davros, as is often so with his post-Genesis appearances, wasn't a very interesting character to have around, as he was brought back only to be portrayed as a hammy mad scientist again who had no electricity with the Doctor. I felt like Caan was the more interesting of the two and that shouldn't be the case.

The false regeneration cliffhanger worked very well at the time, and Donna's departure was one time where I admittedly think RTD succeeded at giving an emotional climax. Unfortunately, you had to wade through the disastrous wish fulfilment of "Bad Wolf Bay II" to get to it.

I don't think I could narrow it down to just one really

I really didn't rate The Day of the Doctor admittedly. When you take away the sentiment of the anniversary I don't think it actually stands up as a particularly good episode. That's not to say there weren't good things - production values were good, Billie Piper and John Hurt gave it their all, but I find the bulk of it dull and uninspired. I felt a bit deflated watching it at the time, and it already hasn't benefited from being away from the anniversary hype.

If there was another I'd probably have to go for The Magician's Apprentice. It seemed so incredibly popular (apart from with the usual anti-Capaldi and anti-Coleman crowds) and my enthusiasm for Series 9 was quite high. Ultimately I loved Series 9 an awful lot and think it easily the best Moffat run, and overall second only to Series 4. But I felt it got off to a poor start, simply chucking anything and everything it could at the screen in the hope some of it would work. The Witch's Familiar on the other hand was a much more tightly-scripted, witty, well-paced rompy adventure that knew exactly what it was doing. A rare case where a two-parter was let down by its build up and served better by its resolution.

Season 4 finale, not a fan, it is genuinely fan fiction with the same stakes as ever.

Asylum of the Daleks, not sure what the general opinion is of this, but i despise this episode. I think it is genuinely terrible.

Listen- It is literally 20 minutes of dating and Clara and Danny will they, won't they, only for about 15 minutes of this episode does anything actually happen.

Season 9 opener- I don't think its bad, but a great episode, no don't agree with that.

Heaven Sent. Oh good lord I despise this episode.

It is extremely popular on here and among the TV critics at the time but, for me, it was dreadful. I disliked it so much on first viewing that later that week I forced myself to watch it a second time to check I wasn't being unfair. Nope, I wasn't. Just dire.

For me, Heaven Sent is a perfect storm of an unlikeable Doctor mourning a dislikable companion. Dull, plodding, self-indulgent and emotionally barren. I can only give credit for the cinematography which was genuinely among the best I've seen in modern Who.

I know some forum members believe Heaven Sent should be considered the greatest episode of all time, but I am reassured that viewers more generally were as unimpressed as me by giving this awful story the second lowest AI of season 9. The fact it was only beaten to bottom place by 'Sleep No More' says it all.

The Doctor's Wife, just can't stand that episode or the characters or the concept but others seem to think it's a work of genius.

The girl in the fireplace

I can't think of any I hate/dislike that everyone loves! Indeed, I don't think there exists a story in the whole of Who that everyone loves...maybe there are a few I find a bit overrated but that's about it, really. (I think Talons....and Genesis....are good, but not stories I really return to for example. Give me a Ribos or Androids of Tara any day. Much more fun.)

Heaven Sent and The Doctor's Wife are 2 of my relatively rare Ten out of Tens, but there we go!

Deep Breath!

I was so utterly disappointed!

Gridlock. I just hated the daft premise, that large numbers of people would sit in a traffic jam for decades. It's just not sustainable. And what was the point of using the Macra? Utlimately it was just a namecheck and meaningless.

Apart from that it did have some nice characters and character moments. I have to think that's why it's not on most people's "seek and destroy" list.

Of course, it has been overtaken more recently in the contest for "silliest episode evah", but it annoyed me at the time.

YMMV.

I won't say people love these two but I'm SO surprised that the Moon Egg episode and the Magic Trees of No Consequence episode were just excepted without (to much) fuss.....

Both episodes are so far beyond the pale its almost unbelievable, I'm genuinely shocked that both stories got past the pitching stage... and then they actually made these brain insulting monstrosities....

How did these get ok reviews from professional critics, how did some fans think they were fine.. not the best but alright, just one of the weaker episodes..... The reaction to these two episodes should be a lot stronger, like The Phantom Menace x10 reaction, but people just except them.....

And the reason this is bad is because if people except or are complacent for utter drivel and universe breaking stuff like these two episodes then we are saying its ok and therefor potentially allowing more stuff like it to be written.....

Stories with no consequence, no sense, no logic, wishy washy wave my hand and everything is fine don't worry or even think about all the stuff that would of happened due to the story just forget it and go along with the bile we are throwing at you...

How did the Earth survive the whole moon egg situation, who cares it doesn't matter, just except it and just except that the moon is an egg with a space dragon in it, because we can just do anything no matter how stupid silly moronic it is.... there's a difference between being creative with ideas and just creating ludicrous stuff.... the Moon Egg was ludicrous stuff that no one should except as being a credible thing, even in the world of DW , there is a line and line is a dot to that Moon Egg.........

How come the Earth wasn't wrecked by being taken over by trees, and when they all disappeared, the Earth would be in catastrophic chaos... but no everything is fine..... Magic trees just disappear everything's good..... Seriously how do people just except this rubbish, and the episode got ok reviews.... Really...

So basically I'm surprised that these two episodes are excepted, even as being weak episodes, but some think they are good too... To me these two episode should of been received with universal vitriol for the horrendous pieces of writing they are, for the awful intelligence insulting ideas they are....

They should be held with the greatest disdain its possible to have for a episode of television and be considered the very worst of DW.... Everyone involved making them should of issued an official apology and be made to sit in the corner for a while to reflect

As you may be able to tell I don't like those episodes.. Haha

To put things in context, the reviews for season 8 and 9 were very positive all round. Even an absolute clanger like 'Sleep No More' garnered little worse than 'not the strongest episode of the season'.

The problem is a lot of the critics aren't just Doctor Who fans but Steven Moffat fans, and it feels like they just cannot bring themselves to utter a bad word about the show in its current form.

Dan Martin in the Guardian is a good example. His review of 'Sleep No More' gave no indication of just how seethingly awful the episode was, and his January 2016 comment piece about Moffat's impact on Doctor Who was so fawning it was actually inaccurate.

Of course it's possible that he just likes the current era of the show and wrote accordingly? Or did Moffat slip him a fiver? (He's Scottish.Wouldn't have gone higher....JOKE.)

I was seriously underwhelmed by Sleep No More on initial viewing, but on rewatch thought it was an interesting experiment with some good ideas and a great last scene. (A bit like Love and Monsters for me. That last shot of young Elton with his Mum and a bit of ELO....) Not one I'll revisit v often, though.

I like what I like. AI's and viewing figures are important, but quite happy to be out of step with that data. As I assume are you when an episode like Heaven Sent is praised and up for an award. S'all subjective!

Copycat, those are my top two favourites. :P

Oh, I've been out of step with most of the members of this forum since April 2010 when I suggested "The Beast Below" was rubbish only to find pretty much everyone else was raving about it.

The Eleventh Hour

Seems to get a lot of praise but I thought it was cheesy light-weight fluff and reminded me of the worst RTD stories.

Before my time! (well no, I think I'd started lurking around 2008, thinking back. Just wasnt posting.) But there's plenty of Moffat criticism on here....as there was with RTD, IIRC.

Chibbers will unite all of us though! (Or perhaps not...)

They both sit in my top five, Heaven Sent with absolute ease. I guess there's an episode out there for everyone. I do wonder whether there's anyone out there who considers The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe to be their favourite episode. I actually can't imagine having that conversation myself

I don't recall much raving about TBB.

I seem to recall the general opinion being that it was the worst episode Moffat had written up to that point.

The doctors wife-terrible. Ghost light-never understood it.

Err....hello! If it's not my absolute top favourite, it's certainly one of my favourites (top 5 at least). Everything about it was just right for me. Full of fun (necessary for festive episodes in my opinion) and emotion, it was pretty much the perfect episode, well for me anyway!

Now onto the main topic, I hate Deep Breath with a passion (it's at least half an hour too long and drags so bad)

I've also never liked the Snowmen (complete opposite of the Widow and Wardrobe for me) and like someone else said Heaven Sent is an appalling mess. For me, its everything that Doctor Who should never be. I pretty much hated Series 8 and Series 9 and Heaven Sent was the absolute low point of those two series for me. Sleep No More is only just marginally above it, and I mean only marginally!

Oh, and whoever it was who said they didn't like The Beast Below, that's a shame. For me, it's one of my favourite episodes ever too!

Haven't sent.

There's nothing I liked about it at all.

Listen.

Any episode that had Danny Pink in I really dislike. This had three different lots of Danny Pink so is up there as my most hated episode.

I didn't really rate any of series 8 because my hate for Danny Pink was so strong. I've never disliked a TV character that much. It's the only series where I have never and will never rewatch any episodes.

I absolutely hated the danny pink character. I just watched into the dalek and he KEPT appearing for no reason. The bits were he cried the bit were he was simply intergating clara and she feel in love with him. Creepy.

I've never hated a TV character so much. If they hadn't have killed him off I would just have not watched series 9.

I thought he was a manipulative, controlling cretin and he completely ruined whatever I may have enjoyed from series 8.

For me, Vincent And The Doctor.

I have rewatched this episode several times and unlike some others, it never gets any better. The character of Van Goth and the actor concerned were good and issues surrounding him were well handled. The scene at the end with him looking at his own pictures was good too.

As a whole though I find this episode soooooo boring. It seems to crawl along and not much exciting seems to happen. It really is a drag but people seem to love it so I guess I'm in a minority.