Doctor Who: Twenty-Second Series Summary
A stunning and sharp decline.
The Sixth Doctor’s full opening set was the lowest of any run to date in the Timestamps Project. After a promising start with Attack of the Cybermen and average adventures with Vengeance on Varos and The Mark of the Rani, the series nose-dived hard in the back half.
The problems are pretty much the same across the board: The stories were weak and overly convoluted, and the Doctor himself is acerbic, cynical, and downright abusive. The latter of those traits has been more often than not aimed at his companion Peri. Yes, she does bite back, but oftentimes she’s just as taken aback as the viewer at his verbal slaps.
Additionally, the stories have been continuing the John Nathan-Turner trope of high body counts. The difference between this Doctor and the previous incarnation under the same producer is that the Fifth Doctor still retained heroic traits and empathy. This Doctor has brief sparks – Timelash‘s attempted self-sacrifice is a notable example – but it’s never a sustained effort to actually be the Doctor.
It’s almost as if he’s just marking time until his hitch is up.
The Twenty-Second Series comes in dead last in comparison against the twenty-one previous sets. This score is over a half-grade lower than the Third Series, the Nineteenth Series, and the Twenty-First Series. All of them are tied for second to last, and the last two are the bookends for the Fifth Doctor.
Attack of the Cybermen – 4
Vengeance on Varos – 3
The Mark of the Rani – 3
The Two Doctors – 1
Timelash – 2
Revelation of the Daleks – 2
Series Twenty-Two Average Rating: 2.5/5
UP NEXT – Doctor Who: The Mysterious Planet
The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.
Creative Criticality 
Very interesting analysis. It’s no wonder that this is when the show was originally canceled. JNT, Colin and Nicola did a huge campaign to bring back the show, even creating a music video with a LOT of the cast from the last twenty years singing “Doctor in Distress”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnTSbFeWwro
It’s my opinion based on what I’ve read that the high body count can be laid more at Eric Saward’s door than JNT. He loves dark futures and mercenary types and his entire run on the show is bloody. The buck definitely stops at the producer’s door, but I don’t think that JNT was really pushing for high body counts.
[…] the Twenty-Second Series, it was hard to imagine where Doctor Who could go. It was presumably harder to fall further, but […]
[…] the Twenty-Second Series, it was hard to imagine where Doctor Who could go. It was presumably harder to fall further, but […]
[…] It was heartwarming and fun, even if the Sixth Doctor was a little acidic with Tegan. That last bit makes sense since this episode was aired on 23 February 1985, right in the middle of the Twenty-Second Series. […]