Notable contenders
Greg: Got to love Carnival of Monsters (1973) – a great script by Bob Holmes, and the Drashigs are memorable beasts. It gets Dr. Who off Earth, too.
Sam: Doctor Who and the Silurians (1970) – a cracking “aliens were here all the time” adventure. And then there’s a right nasty virus which the Doctor has to cure with a vaccine. Peter Miles plays a brilliant bastard in it, too.
Greg: That’s a good one to watch at the moment! Followed up with The Sea Devils (1972) – the one with the fish and the Master and the Navy.
Sam: The Claws of Axos (1971) – The Doctor and Jo have a psychedelic trip on an organic spaceship with a load of pretty hippies who turn out to be a big bag of worms wanting to take over the world. Oh and the Master is in it too.
Greg: The Three Doctors (1972) – Jon and Patrick Troughton competing for best Doctor performance. Stephen Thorne does more shouting.
Sam: And don’t forget The Curse of Peladon (1972) – analogous with Great Britain joining the EEC in 1972…
Greg: I was skipping over that… the languid sequel, Monster of Peladon (1974) is my least-loved Pertwee.
Sam: Same. On no account of Mr Pertwee, just a story which lacks originality and is stretched longer than it needs to be. A real bloater.
Greg: Donald Gee is actually pretty good in it! But boy, it’s a slog, and the leaden politics again mirrors the miners’ strikes that ground the UK to a halt throughout the 70s and early 80s. Sixth Form politics.
Sam: I’d say undergraduate.
Greg: Anyway! From the dregs to the winner’s podium! Which is the best Jon Pertwee Dr. Who story?
Sam: Well, I think we’re all in agreement, surely? It had the Doctor in it…
Greg: Good. And a bit of the TARDIS?
Sam: Yup. It had Bessie…
Greg: It had those boys from UNIT…
Sam: It had the wonderful Caroline John in it as Liz Shaw…
Greg: It’s season seven again then! That mighty opening four stories of Jon’s. But as we’ve already mentioned Doctor Who and the Silurians, it can only be… Ambassadors of Death!
Sam: It’s good but it’s not right. No, our survey said that the best Jon Pertwee story of all time was… The One Where the World Ends!
