Ranking Classic Series 7

 

Hello! In this post, I will rank the episodes of the first series with Jon Pertwee as the Doctor. The series was broadcast first in 1970, starting with Spearhead from Space and ending with Inferno. It's one of my personal favourite series, so this will be a hard one to rank!

4. Doctor Who & The Silurians

This is an interesting one. Parts 1, 6 and 7 are absolutely amazing, bringing in fascinating ideas about ownership. I really love the disease sequence. It's actually pretty bleak and adds to the story. It really makes you empathise with the Silurians in a way that doesn't often happen in Doctor Who outside of the Pertwee era. The only problem with this story is that its middle parts are excruciatingly dull. Even Pertwee can't save these meandering episodes, and they're pretty hard to sit through. This story should have been four episodes long and it could've been absolutely awesome. As it is, it's got great stuff inside of it, but it's just too long!

3. Spearhead from Space

You know a series is good when a story this great is in third place out of four. This is pretty much the perfect series opener; we get a brilliant introduction to The Third Doctor, Liz Shaw, and a great reminder and development as U.N.I.T. as an organisation. The fun of seeing Pertwee asking for shoes and choosing his costume is classic, and you get a really good sense of his Doctor's character from these episodes. He's great in this story, as is Caroline John as Liz (who's as good as she needs to be) and Nicholas Courtney. The actual auton plot is decent - I think it's much bettered by its sequel, Terror of the Autons, in the series after. In this one, the Autons aren't in it enough to make it a good story in its own right, but that's not what Spearhead is here for: The Story introduces the Pertwee era so well, and it's brilliant! In many other series, this could be the best episode - but not in the brilliant Series 7!

2. Inferno

This is one incredible Doctor Who story. Interesting in its difference and very bleak in tone, Inferno delivers awesomeness in a way that few other episodes have. It starts off as a regular story, with a problem at a drilling project. But then, as the Doctor accidentally travels to a parallel world, the story gets really interesting and, as I said, it's pretty bleak! Part 6's cliff-hanger is iconic with the lava flowing across the screen; It's one of my favourite cliff-hangers ever! Shout-outs to Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John for being awesome (and slightly hilarious) as the evil, parallel versions of themselves. This story is so cool and bleak, and that's why it's not just one of my favourite Pertwee stories, it's one of my favourite Doctor Who stories of all time!

1. The Ambassadors of Death

Now this is awesome. The Ambassadors of Death is a slow burner, but when it burns, it burns. The suspense it manages to build over all seven parts is superb! The ambassadors seem really creepy until the twist, and that cliff-hanger! (I think part 4) This is a seven part episode that I watched very quickly, and I genuinely don't remember being bored watching it (as oppose to Inferno, whose middle parts drag ever-so slightly) so it narrowly nabs the top spot of this top series. As with the aforementioned, Ambassadors is easily on my ten favourite Who stories ever. Great stuff! 

Hope you enjoyed this ranking! Keep safe and hope everyone's well.

Goodbye 'til next time, and keep wandering!!