Opinion: Bottom Five Worst Saward-Era Serials

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The Fifth and Sixth Doctors fall under the Saward Era, a period of the program oft looked down upon for some shabby scripts. However, most of the time I adore it - usually for the same reasons that other people dislike it. I think it's fun, and is a really rewarding area of the show if you're willing to look past the silly mistakes. Despite this, though, I have to be honest. There are some real stinkers in the Saward Era. And here are my Bottom Five Worst Saward-Era Serials.

Noble warriors become generic monsters.

5.) Warriors of the Deep - Season 21
Most people would expect Warriors to be much further down the list, but I really like its atmosphere and its themes. But even I have to admit that it has a lot of issues. The tone is overbearingly depressing,
the production is shoddy and the villains have little to no realistic motivations.
     In previous stories, the Sea Devils and Silurians had actual rhetoric; vaguely ecologically-based reasoning as to why they had the upper hand. Here they don't really feel unique in any way, and that makes a story already disadvantaged by lack of time worse. The Myrka I blame soley on Margaret Thatcher, whose sudden election cut two weeks off of the serial's production and ultimately is the serial's nail in the coffin.

Upsides
Ingrid Pitt karaté chopping the Myrka is funny as shit, and the serial provides quite an interesting examination of Cold-War politics.

This. Guy. Is. Creepy.

4.) The King's Demons - Season 20
The Ainsley Master was never truly well-written in the Saward Era, and The King's Demons is no exception. He ponces about yet again in an unnecessary disguise, and plans to stop the signing of the Magna Carta... an act that would do pretty much fuck-all. Even The Doc points that out.
       But the thing that really puts Demons on the list is Kamelion. He doesn't work as either a concept or as a prop, and he is damn creepy. They put this disembodied silver puppet on prime-time TV? Kamelion was ultimately a massive mistake, but unlike Planet of Fire, Demons has nothing to back it up with in the meantime. Ultimately The King's Demons is just a melting pot of bad characterisations and creepy robots.

Upsides
Gerald Flood's voice is pure gold, and so is the luscious period costume.

These Cybermen are too emotive...

3.) Earthshock - Season 19
Before you cry out in despair, this is a more personal one. I can see why people like Earthshock, and I recognise its place in Who mythos. But the things that some people can just ignore take over for me. The bad characterisations. The silly plot points. The Saward Cybermen at their very worst. Attack of the Cybermen was more about the Cybermen's mythos and had a variety of other characters and plotlines. Earthshock is a single-track focus on one silly storyline.
     The characters just feel so empty. Tegan and Nyssa do hardly anything, Five shambles about endlessly and Adric is less annoying than thoroughly bland. All the rest are just expies from a really bad Alien knockoff, and they, Beryl Reed especially, are simply annoying to me. Earthshock is a disappointing mess.

Upside
Adric dies.

Concorde Capers Cause Chaos

2.) Time-Flight - Season 19

Time-Flight is by far Five's worst story. What makes it worse for Saward is that it was originally given to the producers during the production of Season 15 and had been handed down through consecutive script editors until Saward was made to use it. Regardless, after the first twenty minutes we're well and truely in stinker territory. The Master is at it again with a different disguise, this time even more pointless, this time even more offensive.
       Time-Flight's key issue is not its characters, who are rather well-used if odd, but the simple fact that the ideas on show are so very poorly executed. The set filming in the Jurassic is ridiculous and the strange random monsters are completely ridiculous. By far the worst Master story ever besides The Movie, and the worst story of Five's Era.

Upsides
The location filming at Heathrow is excellent, and the Xeriphim are somewhat interesting. It is rather fun, and in recent months I've come to love it as a So-Bad-It's-Good classic.

Damn Vervoids.

1.) Terror of the Vervoids - Season 23
Terror of the Vervoids is the only Sixth Doctor story on this list, which may come as something of a surprise. Usually Colin can hold up a story enough to make me interested, but this is the one occasion where that simply isn't enough. If you ignore the fact that all of the other characters are completely bland and predictable, the story's death knell is Mel.
     I explained this in detail last week, so I won't say any more about how much I dislike Mel in Season 23. Even the Trial scenes are affected, bolstered with ridiculous logic and scenes that destroy the themes from Mindwarp. There's so much wrong with Vervoids, in so many ways, that I find it utterly irredeemable.

There are no upsides.

Thanks.