Typical Frigging DWM Bias!

Well, the DWM polls are out with The Day of the Doctor being dubbed the best story so far and The Twin Dilemma the worst (which almost feels like tradition rather than any real ill-will nowadays). Now, as the man who rewrote the bloody thing, I know it has problems. The argument that it was the mortal blow to 20th Century Who is impossible to argue with.

But, let's be serious here.

Is The Twin Dilemma worse than Night Terrors?

Honestly?

The Twin Dilemma at least has a multitude of plot ideas (the mad Doctor, the kidnapping of twins, Hugo's quest, Azmael's redemption and whateverthefuck Mestor's up to), some genuinely scary moments (the strangling, the desolation of Joconda, the thief who begs to be shot before Mestor makes his blood boil in his veins, Drak being lobotomized because it's more fun than CCTV), some brilliant comedy ("You're the Chamberlain! I don't like you. Do you have fowlpest?") and a decent central premise.

Night Terrors meanwhile is just a remake of one of the least popular Tennant episodes except with twice the misogyny - all the women are stupid morons who don't deserve the slightest say in how their lives are lead, even if their own child is suffering a nervous breakdown. The characterization is so godshite awful that the evil landlord comes across as more sympathetic than Rory fucking Williams. The nadir of comedy in The Twin Dilemma is Peri reduced to inarticulate vomit noises at the Doctor's coat, but that's still better than Daniel Mays' brain-blown idea that the alien in the bowtie might not be from social services.

People can go to town on the "moving planets" stuff by Mestor but no one, even the clinically-insane Doctor, does anything as stupid as Amy's "Hey, let's let the monsters attack us - that's the last thing they'll be expecting!" gambit which ironically central to the rest of the plot. We're supposed to be horrified and uncomfortable when the Doctor starts trying to kill his enemies on Jaconda, but despite knowing the peg-dolls are unwilling victims he still tries to skewer them with giant scissors and that's meant to be OK. EVEN WHEN ONE OF THEM WAS AMY FOR FUCK'S SAKE!

The Sixth Doctor vowed to become a hermit to make sure he never hurt Peri again.

The Eleventh makes jokes that she's so stupid her might as well be made of wood.

Quite frankly, I can't articulate my disgust for this absolution of Gattis over Stevens/Saward.

Oh, what would a degree-bearing Colchester history teacher say in my position?

Yes it is just their opinion however when those opinions are so blatantly lacking in basic sense then they can be questioned. I notice that 'Night Terrors' did quite well for example, a dreadful episode which is a rancid, puss-oozing zit on the obese backside of the whovian canon. Crazy

I am a sane voice in an insane world.

I suggest that you read some R.D Laing. Objective truth. 

Um. Thanks, spara.




(NOTE: the sparaquote has been mercilessly edited by changing the episode title. He actually said all that verbatim about "The Eleventh Hour". Long live the British Empire.)