The worst of the worst
This is what the poll reveals as the Worst Who stories (listed in order of decreasing consensus by Doctor).
Fifth Doctor: (33 respondents, of whom 1 said that they were all fantastic) The run(a)way winner is Time Flight, voted the worst by 15 of you. The novelisation is no better. In second place, though a long way behind, is Black Orchid on four votes, followed by Kinda and Warriors of the Deep on three, Four to Doomsday and Snakedance on two, and Earthshock, Arc of Infinity and The King's Demons on one each. The only one of these that I would be slightly defensive about is Snakedance.
Second Doctor: (28 respondents, of whom six think they are all fantastic) Far in front of the field here is The Underwater Menace, tagged as worst by 12 of you. The only other story to get more than one vote was The Krotons with four. Scattered votes went to The Highlanders, The Macra Terror, Fury from the Deep, The Dominators, The Space Pirates and The War Games. All of this is understandable enough, and I guess that the reason more people didn't vote for, in particular, The Dominators and The Space Pirates is that not many have endured them.
Ninth Doctor: (54 votes, of whom 7 said they were all fantastic) Slightly surprised that the winner here by a convincing margin is The Long Game with 16 votes, followed some way behind by Aliens of London / World War Three (my own choice) and Father's Day both on nine, Boom Town on 8, with The Unquiet Dead on 4 and a solitary (incomprehensible) vote for The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances. No votes at all for Rose, The End of the World, Dalek, or Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways. I'm more than a little surprised by the hate for The Long Game, which like a number of other Tenth Doctor episodes (Boom Town, Father's Day) I enjoyed a lot more on re-watching, and which seems to me about as good as The End of the World.
Sixth Doctor: (32 votes, of whom six said they were all terrible and two diehards insist that they are all good) Quite close here, with Timelash beating out The Twin Dilemma (my own choice) by 9 votes to 8. The Mark of the Rani got two votes, with one each for Revelation of the Daleks and for each individual segment of Trial of a Time Lord. No specific votes, perhaps surprisingly, for Attack of the Cybermen, Vengeance on Varos or The Two Doctors, but they are covered by the six who disliked everything.
Seventh Doctor: (36 votes, including two each for "all great!" and "all terrible!", and another two for the mistakenly included option of the whole of 1989's Season 26) Three stories at the top here, Time and the Rani winning with nine votes, followed by Delta and the Bannermen with eight and The Happiness Patrol with seven. One each for Paradise Towers, Silver Nemesis, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, Battlefield, The Curse of Fenric and Survival; none at all for Dragonfire, Remembrance of the Daleks or Ghost Light. I find this completely incomprehensible. I didn't think much of either Time and the Rani or The Happiness Patrol, but I am obviously alone in finding them way ahead of either Battlefield (my own choice) or Remembrance of the Daleks.
Third Doctor: (33 votes, including a record 7 who liked them all) The clear winner here was my own pick, The Mutants, with eight votes, twice as many as its nearest rival, The Time Monster with four. The Claws of Axos and Carnival of Monsters each got three, Invasion of the Dinosaurs two, and one each for Doctor Who and the Silurians, Terror of the Autons, The Mind of Evil, Colony in Space, Planet of the Daleks, and The Monster of Peladon. While I do agree that The Mutants is unusually awful, I don't think it is that much worse than most of the other stories listed here, and indeed several which got no votes (The Dæmons, The Three Doctors, Planet of the Spiders).
Tenth Doctor: (58 votes, including one who likes them all and two who want to defer judgement until after next Saturday) A tie! Fourteen votes each went to the late Season Two stories Love & Monsters and Fear Her. This is way ahead of Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks which got six votes (including mine). 42 got four votes, Voyage of the Damned three, with two each for Tooth and Claw, The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit, and The Doctor's Daughter; and single votes for New Earth, Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel, The Idiot's Lantern, Army of Ghosts / Doomsday, Human Nature / The Family of Blood, Utopia / The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords, The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, and The Unicorn and the Wasp. Again, I'm surprised by the concentration of votes on two stories which I didn't especially warm to either but which seem to me equal if not superior in quality to some of the others listed here.
Eighth Doctor: 48 votes, of whom 37 said this was an unfair question and 11 voted for Doctor Who - the TV movie. Which can be read in several different ways.
First Doctor: (28 votes, of whom 2 liked them all) Another tie, but in a much more closely contested field. The Chase and The Gunfighters both got four votes; The Sensorites (my own choice), The Web Planet and The Space Museum got three each; An Unearthly Child and The Smugglers two; and one each for The Daleks, The Edge of Destruction, Marco Polo, Planet of Giants and Galaxy 4. I'm sorry to see The Gunfighters do so badly; I think it is rather special. (Though I'm glad that the other stories from that run in Season 3 got very few votes.)
Fourth Doctor: (37 votes, of whom 4 liked them all) A close race, but The Horns of Nimon with five votes just beats my own choice, Underworld which got four. Two votes each went to Revenge of the Cybermen, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Invisible Enemy, The Sun Makers, The Creature from the Pit, and Meglos; and one each to The Sontaran Experiment, Terror of the Zygons, The Hand of Fear, The Deadly Assassin, The Robots of Death, Image of the Fendahl, The Pirate Planet, The Androids of Tara, The Power of Kroll, The Armageddon Factor, Destiny of the Daleks, and State of Decay. I'm surprised some of those didn't get more, and also surprised by some of the absences (eg The Invasion of Time). However it is difficult to dispute the top two, and while I voted for Underworld rather than The Horns of Nimon, I think this is something about which reasonable people can disagree.
Thus is revealed the accumulated weight of Livejournal. I am in line with the majority on only three of the nine where there is a serious contest; blue_condition, whose debate with me sparked this, does rather better. So basically, Pete wins the argument.
Fifth Doctor: (33 respondents, of whom 1 said that they were all fantastic) The run(a)way winner is Time Flight, voted the worst by 15 of you. The novelisation is no better. In second place, though a long way behind, is Black Orchid on four votes, followed by Kinda and Warriors of the Deep on three, Four to Doomsday and Snakedance on two, and Earthshock, Arc of Infinity and The King's Demons on one each. The only one of these that I would be slightly defensive about is Snakedance.
Second Doctor: (28 respondents, of whom six think they are all fantastic) Far in front of the field here is The Underwater Menace, tagged as worst by 12 of you. The only other story to get more than one vote was The Krotons with four. Scattered votes went to The Highlanders, The Macra Terror, Fury from the Deep, The Dominators, The Space Pirates and The War Games. All of this is understandable enough, and I guess that the reason more people didn't vote for, in particular, The Dominators and The Space Pirates is that not many have endured them.
Ninth Doctor: (54 votes, of whom 7 said they were all fantastic) Slightly surprised that the winner here by a convincing margin is The Long Game with 16 votes, followed some way behind by Aliens of London / World War Three (my own choice) and Father's Day both on nine, Boom Town on 8, with The Unquiet Dead on 4 and a solitary (incomprehensible) vote for The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances. No votes at all for Rose, The End of the World, Dalek, or Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways. I'm more than a little surprised by the hate for The Long Game, which like a number of other Tenth Doctor episodes (Boom Town, Father's Day) I enjoyed a lot more on re-watching, and which seems to me about as good as The End of the World.
Sixth Doctor: (32 votes, of whom six said they were all terrible and two diehards insist that they are all good) Quite close here, with Timelash beating out The Twin Dilemma (my own choice) by 9 votes to 8. The Mark of the Rani got two votes, with one each for Revelation of the Daleks and for each individual segment of Trial of a Time Lord. No specific votes, perhaps surprisingly, for Attack of the Cybermen, Vengeance on Varos or The Two Doctors, but they are covered by the six who disliked everything.
Seventh Doctor: (36 votes, including two each for "all great!" and "all terrible!", and another two for the mistakenly included option of the whole of 1989's Season 26) Three stories at the top here, Time and the Rani winning with nine votes, followed by Delta and the Bannermen with eight and The Happiness Patrol with seven. One each for Paradise Towers, Silver Nemesis, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, Battlefield, The Curse of Fenric and Survival; none at all for Dragonfire, Remembrance of the Daleks or Ghost Light. I find this completely incomprehensible. I didn't think much of either Time and the Rani or The Happiness Patrol, but I am obviously alone in finding them way ahead of either Battlefield (my own choice) or Remembrance of the Daleks.
Third Doctor: (33 votes, including a record 7 who liked them all) The clear winner here was my own pick, The Mutants, with eight votes, twice as many as its nearest rival, The Time Monster with four. The Claws of Axos and Carnival of Monsters each got three, Invasion of the Dinosaurs two, and one each for Doctor Who and the Silurians, Terror of the Autons, The Mind of Evil, Colony in Space, Planet of the Daleks, and The Monster of Peladon. While I do agree that The Mutants is unusually awful, I don't think it is that much worse than most of the other stories listed here, and indeed several which got no votes (The Dæmons, The Three Doctors, Planet of the Spiders).
Tenth Doctor: (58 votes, including one who likes them all and two who want to defer judgement until after next Saturday) A tie! Fourteen votes each went to the late Season Two stories Love & Monsters and Fear Her. This is way ahead of Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks which got six votes (including mine). 42 got four votes, Voyage of the Damned three, with two each for Tooth and Claw, The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit, and The Doctor's Daughter; and single votes for New Earth, Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel, The Idiot's Lantern, Army of Ghosts / Doomsday, Human Nature / The Family of Blood, Utopia / The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords, The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, and The Unicorn and the Wasp. Again, I'm surprised by the concentration of votes on two stories which I didn't especially warm to either but which seem to me equal if not superior in quality to some of the others listed here.
Eighth Doctor: 48 votes, of whom 37 said this was an unfair question and 11 voted for Doctor Who - the TV movie. Which can be read in several different ways.
First Doctor: (28 votes, of whom 2 liked them all) Another tie, but in a much more closely contested field. The Chase and The Gunfighters both got four votes; The Sensorites (my own choice), The Web Planet and The Space Museum got three each; An Unearthly Child and The Smugglers two; and one each for The Daleks, The Edge of Destruction, Marco Polo, Planet of Giants and Galaxy 4. I'm sorry to see The Gunfighters do so badly; I think it is rather special. (Though I'm glad that the other stories from that run in Season 3 got very few votes.)
Fourth Doctor: (37 votes, of whom 4 liked them all) A close race, but The Horns of Nimon with five votes just beats my own choice, Underworld which got four. Two votes each went to Revenge of the Cybermen, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Invisible Enemy, The Sun Makers, The Creature from the Pit, and Meglos; and one each to The Sontaran Experiment, Terror of the Zygons, The Hand of Fear, The Deadly Assassin, The Robots of Death, Image of the Fendahl, The Pirate Planet, The Androids of Tara, The Power of Kroll, The Armageddon Factor, Destiny of the Daleks, and State of Decay. I'm surprised some of those didn't get more, and also surprised by some of the absences (eg The Invasion of Time). However it is difficult to dispute the top two, and while I voted for Underworld rather than The Horns of Nimon, I think this is something about which reasonable people can disagree.
Thus is revealed the accumulated weight of Livejournal. I am in line with the majority on only three of the nine where there is a serious contest; blue_condition, whose debate with me sparked this, does rather better. So basically, Pete wins the argument.