Doctor Who Headcanon, Season 4: Rassilon Down The Road

A few years ago, I was asked to come up with a Doctor Who In 50 Episodes List on Facebook. For people who wanted to get really into the series without getting Super Really Into The Series.  With over fifty years worth of episodes, the prospect of becoming a fan of Doctor Who can be completely daunting.

I've compiled this list of episodes that I like, so it's very subjective. I have tried to make it so that there is a rough arc to the seasons. I don't give a fuck about episodes that are historically important, this is a guide intended to make you Like The Series, not be an Expert On The Series.

Here are the basics you should know: The show is about an alien time traveler. He takes companions, almost always humans, with him as he explores time and space. The companions change frequently, and in this guide, you sometimes get no closure. You might love a particular companion in one episode, and, in the next, they've been replaced by people you have no context for. Also, when The Doctor gets very ill, his appearance changes. By which, I mean, he is portrayed by an entirely different actor.  This is a cool concept, but it can be jarring at first. It will happen Thirteen Times over the course of these eleven seasons.

We spent all last season with Tom Baker, his scarf, his silly robotic dog, and a series of mostly female companions. This season will run in the opposite direction as we have multiple doctors, returning companions, and a Doctor who finds the bright scarf so tacky, that he garlands his new outfit with a fucken vegetable.

Season 4: Rassilon Down The Road
(Peter  Davison, Colin Baker, Tom Baker, William Hartnell{ish}, Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton, and Elisabeth Sladen)

Serial 1: Logopolis
(4, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, The Master, 5)
100 minutes

The Doctor and Adric, the child companion he picked up last season, end up with two more accidental companions as they tangle with The Master who has a new face, sort of. He actually looks Much Like the previous version but is slightly younger. Same rubbish beard, though. This time, the upper hand is his, and The Doctor totally dies! Well, as much as The Doctor can die, I guess.


Serial 2: Castltrova
(5, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, The Master)
100 minutes

The Master can't win. So the new, younger-faced Doctor and the ragtag group of companions he inherited are going to track that fucker down and stomp him 'til he's dead, too!  That's how this show works, right? No, I guess not. This episode is mostly the two new companions dragging the disoriented Doctor around a strange planet while The Master kidnaps Adric to...See This Is Why You Don't Take Kids On The TARDIS. Ugh. 


Serial 3: Kinda
(5, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)
100 minutes

Sssssssssssssnakes innnnnnnnnn sssssssspaaaaaaaaaacccccccccccce? How will the three new companions and their celery-wearing Doctor fare now that The Doctor sort of has his shit together? Well, one of them will be stored away on the TARDIS for most of the adventure, while the flight attendant and the child battle a hypnotic cult and bickering scientists. And a snake. Don't forget the gigantic snake.



Serial 4: Earthshock
(5, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, The Cybermen)
100 minutes

Sometimes, you want something to happen, and then it happens, and you feel kinda bad about it. All I'll say is that The Cybermen are back in this episode, and they are Not Fucking Around.


Serial 5: Mawdryn Undead
(5, Brigadier, Nyssa, Tegan, Vislor)
100 minutes

That last episode was kind of dark. Let's do something more fun. Let's find a new villain to try and kill The Doctor, oooh and a desperate young man, and...Hey Look, it's a previous companion! ish. The Doctor and his crew travel back and forth between 1977 and 1983, and between Earth and Somewhere Else, as they encounter a villain trying to unlock Time Lord technology! Fun! 


Serial 6: The Five Doctors
(5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Susan, Jamie, Brigadier, Sarah Jane, Romana, Tegan, Vislor, Zoe, Liz, Mike, K9, Daleks, Timelords, Cybermen, The Master) 
90 minutes

Oh Shit. It's All The Doctors. And it's Many Many Companions. And it's The Master. And it's Time Lords. And it's Daleks. And it's Cybermen. And it's Rassilon. And it's chaos, as four of the doctors must work together to stop themselves from being erased from time, while one of their incarnations is trapped in a...well, he didn't want to do this special, so he's just archival footage. Do YOU want to be trapped in archival footage? I didn't think so.


Serial 7: Planet Of Fire
(5, Vislor, Peri, The Master)
100 minutes

Look, some shit's gone down since The Five Doctor ordeal, a companion Had Enough and walked out, Daleks came and went, a whole mess of things you could look into if you wanted. But here you get to meet a new, Terrible Fucken Companion with an American accent on par with every high school student's Terrible British Accent. There's also a new weird robotty companion who wasn't often used, because It's Fucken Awful. But here, The Master uses him for his nefarious purposes, and at the end of the episode, the only decent companion stays behind. Great.


Serial 8: Caves Of Androzani
(5, Peri, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, Vislor, The Master, 6)
100 minutes

This final Peter Davison episode shows up on virtually every Best Episode of Doctor Who list I've ever seen. It's got social commentary, heroics, and some surprise cameos, including the introduction of the new Doctor who is going to take the series in a darker direction.


Serial 9: A Girl's Best Friend​
(Sarah Jane, K9)
50 minutes

But that darker direction is going to have to wait! Forget The Doctor, let's check in on good old companion, Sarah Jane Smith, as she goes to take a vacation from her investigative journalism, only to end up reunited with That Stupid Fucken Dog companion, and have to solve a mystery involving some witchy neighbors. This was supposed to serve as the pilot for a Sarah Jane series, but sadly, that particular series never surfaced.


Serial 10: The Mark Of The Rani
(6, Peri, The Master, The Rani)
90 minutes

It's not Coli Baker's fault that a lot of his episodes aren't very good. They gave him a ridiculous costume, the writing was fairly mediocre, and he inherited the companion with the awful fake accent. But here he runs afoul of that goddamned evil Time Lord, The Ma---wait, nope. It's a NEW evil Time Lor-- Time La-- Time Person, The Rani. Oh, wait, The Master is there, too.  Stupid Time Lord bastards.