I always enjoy the Top 10 Doctor Who story list I do each year, I believe unlike the lists either side that It’s pretty unique to this site. 2023 was a tough year to fill out the bottom and middle because a lot of stories were “very good” but only three or so I actually gave a full 5 to. Interested in which ones landed where? Let’s take a look!
The “Time War: Cass” box did a good job overall introducing a new TARDIS crew and having some time-bending adventures to top it off, none more time-bendy or fun as “Previously, Next Time”, which both experimented with how to tell a Time War story but also managed to introduce some fun one-off side characters that you actually care about while doing it. (My review of the story can be found HERE)
It’s fair to say that “Once and Future”, Big Finish’s 60th Anniversary series, was as a whole a big mess, full of mostly disjointed and hodgepodge stories that had no momentum to them, but “The Artist at the End of Time” was one of the few exceptions. It had focus, told a good story with both the Fifth Doctor and Colin Baker as the still mysterious Curator, and didn’t get bogged down by cameos and “irresistible” meet ups. A shame most of the rest didn’t follow suit… (My review can be found HERE)
Intelligence For War just said “You know those 7-part Season 7 UNIT stories you like? Well, here’s a new one!” It didn’t break any new ground it was just a really good slice of a very unique time in the now 60 year long show’s history, and for that I was extremely happy. (My review of the story can be viewed HERE)
As already mentioned “Once and Future” was something of a long-protracted series of disappointing stories, but I will say I at least really enjoyed the finale, “The Union”. While the use of a not-very-accurate recast voice for Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor was audibly awkward the use of so many Doctors, including Jonathan Carley’s great War Doctor, was thankfully a good time and the reveal about who the big bad villain was really worked for me. If “Once and Future” was just the previous stories condensed into an hour with this episode as the second part of a single story it would’ve been a big hit… (My review of this story can be found HERE)
“The Giggle” was pretty much Russell T. Davies being let loose on a script with nobody to tell him “no!” and it worked… as long as you don’t take the series too seriously. The new Toymaker was great fun, and the much talked about “Bi-generation” was… weird, but Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor impressed with a great performance alongside the always reliable David Tennant (whose appearing a lot in these 2023 lists…) (My review of the episode can be found HERE)
“The Ghost of Margaret” has no right to rank this highly as the whole Fourth Doctor / Leela / Margaret run had been up to this point really dull, with Margaret herself fading into the background of her own story run, yet somehow with this subscriber-only release of all things they delivered a great spooky tale that made me actually care about Margaret. Of course it was also her leaving story, so… oh well! (My review can be found HERE)
Always a relief when one of the Ninth Doctor audio stories hits this high because his boxsets tend to fall into “good hour stories but not really memorable” territory. “Red Darkness” takes the concept of the Vashta Nerada from the Tenth Doctor’s TV run and creates a really fun and tense story with some great side characters / proto-companions at the heart of it and perfectly uses the audio medium to boot. More of this please! (My review can be found HERE)
“Berserker” at its heart is a good bit of claustrophobic sci-fi horror with the creeping alien in a dilapidated facility stalking the main cast, but it’s also more than that as the relationship between The War Doctor and Case is a really unique one and frankly Jonathan Carley’s performance here as the young not-Doctor really blew me away, an impassioned speech about his frustrations at the War and his fight to go against his old personality sent shivers down my spine. Really great stuff. (My review can be found HERE)
“Pursuit of the Nightjar” came out of nowhere towards the start of the year to blow me away to the point where I had a mental back and forth as to whether I should put this as number 1. The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan find themselves on a historically important spaceship that’s due to make a war-ending delivery while being stalked by an enemy ship and The Doctor is thrilled to see the event in person, only for things to go more and more wrong with each part’s cliffhanger and even subvert my expectations as to where the story was going, which after you’ve watched, read and listened to as many Doctor Who stories as I have is a hard thing to do! (My review of the story can be found HERE)
As mentioned in the previous entry it was a tough choice as to which to put at number 1 but I ended up going with “Wild Blue Yonder” because not only did it give me a fun and tense run-around an abandoned facility with a creeping threat (like Number 3 entry “Berserker”, now that I think about it!) but that threat was a really interesting concept and due to it doubling our duo of The Doctor and Donna it led to a lot of powerful dialogue exchanges, especially delving deep into The Doctor’s thoughts at this time in his life. The hour flew by and when it ended I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face for a while afterwards. Great stuff. (My review of the story can be found HERE)
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