As excitement over April’s new series of Doctor Who reaches ever more feverish levels, Total Sci-Fi presents a five-part countdown celebrating the greatest aspects of the show.

Covering everything from companions to audio adventures, and from toys to the TARDIS, we’ll be taking you through our favourite aspects of Who over the coming weeks.

And of course, make sure to let us know what you agree and disagree with by commenting beneath the feature! Words: Jonathan Wilkins

CLICK HERE TO READ PART ONE!
CLICK HERE TO READ PART TWO!

60) A Cuddly Creature? (The Abominable Snowmen/The Web of Fear, TV, 1968)

The Yeti might not be the most aesthetically repellent of villains, but there was a formidable sense of power behind these furry fiends, especially in their even more sinister Web of Fear guise…

59) Jumping a Time Track? (Campaign, Book, 2001)


Only available as a downloadable PDF, owing to it’s – ahem – unofficial status, Jim Mortimore’s love letter to the early days of Doctor Who is peppered with clever in-jokes such as rejected companions appearing to join the TARDIS crew. There are plenty of shocking moments too, as Barbara dies from Skaro’s poisonous radiation and Ian throws himself from the TARDIS as it travels through the vortex.

58) Off With His Head! (The Three Doctors, TV, 1973)


Omega, the all-powerful founder of the Time Lord race was introduced in this iconic anniversary tale. Wearing an ornate mask, he asks the Doctors to help him remove it. As they raise it over his head a terrible truth is revealed: the greatest Time Lord engineer has no physical form and merely exists by sheer will alone!

57) Mouth on Legs (Tegan Jovanka, Companion, 1981-1984)

It’s often hard to like the Doctor’s only Australian companion to date, but the fact remains that Tegan contributed a sense of tension throughout her time. She was given a little more back-story than most assistants, with various relatives cropping up during her travels. Her leaving scene, give or take a scene-stealing bandage, is genuinely moving as she expresses her repulsion at the Doctor’s violent adventures. Perhaps she saw what was to come during the next season?

56) An Actual Special Effect (The Trial of a Time Lord, TV, 1986)


Trial of a Timelord Part1 by tardismedia

It would be churlish to point out that the special effects in classic Doctor Who were rarely any good so instead lets celebrate one of the all time greats. Picture the scene. Doctor Who has been off air for 18 months. It’s a show that is fighting for survival. As the title sequence ends, one of the most spectacular model shots in the history of television takes us in towards a space station as the TARDIS is dragged aboard. It was a costly sequence and sadly the rest of the season failed to present anything nearly as impressive but for those few seconds we got a glimpse at what bigger budget Who might look like…

55) A Christmas Surprise (The Christmas Invasion, TV, 2005)


There’s always something thrilling about the debut of a new Doctor. David Tennant’s first adventure is no exception, mainly thanks to the enormous gamble taken by Russell T Davies in keeping him sidelined until the final 15 minutes of the episode. When he does make his entrance, through the TARDIS doors and onto the Sycorax ship, it’s spectacular, funny and exciting.

54) The Master of the Matrix (The Deadly Assassin, TV, 1976)


Haunting and surreal, the Doctor’s journey into the Matrix in this seminal story is as disturbing and frightening as the series ever got. A samurai attacks, a spooky surgeon looms and – bed-wetters beware – an evil clown laughs hysterically at our hero.

53) Story Time (The Mind Robber, TV, 1969)


Sticking with the surreal, this weird tale features a trip to the Land of Fiction. Owing to a lack of money, and the unavailability of regular cast member Frazer Hines, much of the first episode takes place in a white void, and Jamie is played by another actor for several episodes! But whereas other shows would balk at such setbacks, Doctor Who makes them integral to its weird and wonderful storytelling.

52) Two’s Company (Scherzo, Audio, 2003)


This Eighth Doctor two-hander stands out in its strange and creative use of the Doctor/companion dynamic. Author Robert Shearman is one of Who’s best writers, be it TV or audio, and credit must go to him and director Gary Russell for pushing the medium further than TV would ever allow. One of the audio range's finest experiments.

51) No More McShane (Ground Zero, Comic Strip, 1996)


Ace was never likely to be married off or leave the Doctor’s side voluntarily, so a spectacular death was probably the only option. Ground Zero is the kind of epic adventure that Doctor Who Magazine’s comic strip used to do very well, as former companions return and events push the Seventh Doctor towards his fateful adventure in San Francisco.

50) Underwater Menace! (The Sea Devils, TV, 1972)


What links Daniel Craig, Ursula Andress and six stuntmen wearing latex and ill-fitting fishing nets? They’ve all become icons simply by walking out of the sea.

49) Bang Goes the TARDIS (Frontios, TV, 1984)


An exploding TARDIS might be a major plot point of the latest run of Doctor Who episodes, but back in 1984 the TARDIS went up in smoke in one of the most gripping cliffhangers in the history of the show. Adding fuel to the fire was the fact that the producer at that time, John Nathan-Turner, was hinting that the Doctor’s TARDIS could well have had its day. The publicity hungry scamp!

48) A Lonely Traveller (The Massacre, TV, 1965)

The high turnover of companions makes its mark on the First Doctor in this historical epic. As he laments the departure of his assistants in a moving soliloquy, he evens manages to get Ian Chatterton, er, Chesterton’s name wrong.

47) (Prisoner of the Daleks, Book, 2009)


Proof that even the new range of novels, which generally plays it safe, is capable of a surprise or two as the Tenth Doctor squares up against some pre-Time War Daleks.

46) Fists and Ferns (The Seeds of Doom, TV, 1976)


As brutally tough and violent as classic Who could get, with punches thrown and guns waved in the faces of innocent people. Some gruesome body-horror adds to the generally unsettling nature of this thoroughly entertaining adventure.

45) Rough Justice (Human Nature/The Family Of Blood, TV, 2007)


One of the undisputed highlights of the modern run of Doctor Who, this two-parter combined a genuinely human adventure with monsters and scares. The Doctor’s punishment upon ‘The Family’ is wonderfully storybook and delightfully macabre.

44) The Look on Their Little Faces! (Doctor Who Proms, 2008, 2010)


It’d be a cold heart indeed that didn’t warm to the site of youngsters marvelling at the monsters on parade at the BBC’s splendid Doctor Who concerts – while simultaneously shrinking into their seats…

43) Now That’s a Twist (Interference, Book, 1999)


Ambitious, epic, moving and shocking, Interference is a two-volume emotional rollercoaster involving the Third and Eighth Doctors and a surprise regeneration.

42) Full Metal Jackets (The Cybermen, Monsters, 1966-)


What’s this – one of the Doctor’s most formidable foes languishing at number 42? The Cybermen are great in principle, and sometimes in execution, but the truth is they’ve rarely had a great story in which to really strut their augmented stuff. We love their look, which is truly iconic, but we’d like to see what they're really capable of…

41) Most Exciting! (The Dalek movies, 1967, 1968)

OK, so the two Amicus movies of the 1960s aren’t canon and essentially dilute two TV serials into bite-sized chunks, but their influence is still felt on the show to this day (in the form of the new-look Daleks, the TARDIS shape and its white interior doors, for example). Peter Cushing also showed that the Doctor (or "Dr Who" in his case) could be played in a different way by a different actor; something that proved highly significant as the decade went on…

Come back for Part Four next week, where we’ll count down from 40 to 21…