10 Best Political Doctor Who Episodes

[@brucesimmons5517]

"It's happening again" will never not make me cry. Bernard Cribbins' delivery, and the fact that he fought in WW2, make it especially heartbreaking.

[@robinchesterfield42]

Oh god, that whole part just rips me up. "Turn Left" is SUCH a good episode. It just is.

[@gozerthegozarian9500]

Yes, absolutely! That scene breaks my heart every time I see it.

[@Donnagata1409]

@@robinchesterfield42 Watched it recently. It is indeed great.

[@unclegumbald989]

Good god, when Wilf starts to cry... it gets me every time. 😓

[@theperson8539]

@@robinchesterfield42 To me, the lead up to Series 4 ending is pure perfect, even with the chaos of that ending and what would follow, some of the lead up was beyond brilliant to me. I think that perfectly surmises the best and worst parts of the Davies era, because the man wrote gold, but for some reason he always wanted these massive blockbuster type stories to finish up. I never really got that, I've never watched Doctor Who for that, nor have I ever thought that the show has needed that. If Russel wrote stand alone stories all day and Murray Gold composed music for them, I would gladly watch that for hours on end and hail it as the greatest show I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. There need not be an explosive ending, or I'd even stipulate that he can only use a limited amount of budget for the finale, just so it remains grounded.

[@nellebolton7910]

18:45 "Labour camps....that's what they called them last time. .....its happening again...just like last time" Wilfred Mott broke my heart then as a 13 year old girl. This episode, this moment still breaks my heart now.

[@Siansonea]

Wilfred Mott broke all of our hearts on a regular basis, darn him. Donna Noble is my favorite companion, and Gramps is a big part of that.

[@Donnagata1409]

@@Siansonea Gramps is a very interesting character, but Donna? I must admit she gets better, but never good. She's awfully silly and... for lack of a better word, "cheap", altough not as "cheap" as Rose. But at least Rose had some brain cells to rub together, which Donna has not.

[@Siansonea]

@@Donnagata1409 if she doesn't resonate with you, that's fine, but she's still my favorite.

[@Donnagata1409]

@@Siansonea No problem, to each their own.

[@daveash9572]

I loved the Donna character, but I confess that I would find myself anticipating her saying "whatafuckingliberty" in almost every episode.

[@PipsyProductions]

The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. Instead of altering their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views...which can be very uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering. - the Fourth Doctor

[@femmefuntime]

Demons of Punjab is one of my favorite episodes People claim that Oxygen is farfetched when Nestle is trying to monetize having water (and when companies pay governments to brutalize and kill those who stand up for labor rights)

[@fisheyenomiko]

"People claim that Oxygen is farfetched when Nestle is trying to monetize having water" Yep! First thing I thought of, too. "The one opinion, which I think is extreme, is represented by the NGOs, who bang on about declaring water a public right. That means that as a human being you should have a right to water. That’s an extreme solution." --an actual thing said by a human... (Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, former CEO of Nestle)

[@Donnagata1409]

Demons of Punjab, from the POV of a totally ignorant Westerner, is a very interesting insight on the ethnic groups and their struggles in Asia (or any other part of the world). And of course, there's a lesson to be got from this episode: Religion is the cause of all trouble in the world.

[@gleann_cuilinn]

Religion didn't cause the partition though, it was British colonialism. I say this as an atheist. Please do not say that religion is the cause of all problems. It's just ignorant and wrong and unfair to marginalized colonized people.

[@highvoltage7797]

The Happiness patrol is a big middle finger to Margaret Thatcher, The Green Death is a comment on the harms of pollution, The Mutants a critic on colonialism, Vengeance on Varos a critic on the media we consume. Doctor Who has and always we’ll be political.

[@selmaunsley6683]

The happiness patrol also criticised the idea of toxic positivity about 30 years before everyone else did

[@cameronmonaghan6883]

@@selmaunsley6683 i don't know what you mean #happinesswillprevail

[@themortician3186]

@@cameronmonaghan6883 Ah yes, happiness solves all of the worlds problems.

[@jamsistired]

@@cameronmonaghan6883sometimes to make changes you have to feel the sadness that is the problems of the world, you have to empathize with struggle and feel just a little bit of that pain to feel motivated to change things instead of glossing it over with toxic and ignorant positivity

[@cameronmonaghan6883]

@@jamsistired it was a joke. Utilizing a quote from the episode

[@einfacheanalyse5375]

This Scene in Turn Left is one of the sadest Scenes of Doctor Who. Es darf sich nicht wiederholen. (It musst never happend again) is in Germany a sentence where everyone knows what is meant. My grandfather always said to me, he hoped it never happend again. That is why this sentence hit me especially.

[@CouncilofGeeks]

My own grandfather was part of a unit which liberated a concentration camp and never spoke openly about it. After he passed we found an old journal from the time and it was harrowing to even read. I fear that time is distancing us from the true horror of what happened.

[@CortexNewsService]

That hit me too

[@alim.9801]

@@CouncilofGeeks I'm glad he was there to help but I'm very sorry he had to deal with that trauma just internally, may he rest in peace and also I hope you're living in peace too and also your family 💜

[@ghlmk5931]

I’m a history nerd and WWII has always been of particular interest to me. That scene with Wilf hit me as well. And it’s being forgotten. The Holocaust, Japanese-American internment camps in the US, hatred against Muslims after 9/11, even now with violence against people of Asian descent…those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it.

[@maurinet2291]

@@CouncilofGeeks Band of Brothers series on HBO has a episode where the unit does that. It's called "Why We Fight". It is incredibly powerful and not even a tenth of what the real experience must have been like. But they capture enough.

[@nightowl8477]

I think The Beast Below is more about rewriting (and forgetting about) the darker parts of British History; building an empire on the back of slavery _(literally_ on the back, in the Star Whale's case). If we forget, however, we are doomed to repeat. As the voters do, electing for the same result each time. Until Amy breaks the cycle, that is. Opening the episode in a school is most revealing, though I'm not sure what Steven was saying with the Secret Police. Love that story, scatterbrain though it is.

[@cappuccinocrafts2412]

America also ignores or minimizes the dark origins (Slavery, Genocide of Indigenous People) and dark deeds that are in our history. There are literally people fighting right now to change the school curriculums and remove criticisms of racism in our legal and institutional systems. Our education system already sweeps most unsavory and racist parts away.

[@nightowl8477]

@@cappuccinocrafts2412 - true enough, but the fact that the story follows a British spaceship specifically is significant. We call those who are comfortable ignoring our own history and rejoice that we were once an empire 'Little Islanders.' It is specific to the UK, even if it is also parable to other nations. And yes, they are rewriting our curriculums too. High school students will no longer be learning about slavery in any capacity. They said they don't want a 'woke agenda' in education.

[@carolinemcgovern4488]

I rewatched the story last year and I think the secret police could be a way of referencing those who want to keep it rewritten and forgotten. Or people who don't want to confront these issues, and will attack anyone who speaks out, or as nightowl points out, sweeps under the rug.

[@Totterslane222]

@@cappuccinocrafts2412 I disagree with the fact they do that. Before I continue, I should add I'm Dutch and not British or American. That being said, what needs to be done is simply educating kids in history. All history. The dark pages of history as well as things we can, after all these years, be proud of. What the left in America is trying to do is put a focus on racism and directly politically influence the children. In other words, indoctrinate them to follow a specific political direction. It's important for them to know their history, but allow them to make their own judgement. To take that to the negative extreme: if a kid likes the idea of all those slaves crammed up in those ships then let him/her. I'm sure it'll bite him/her in the ass later in life if he/she started acting on such an idea. I believe people should be free in what to think and decide for themselves, while having a healthy set of norms and values. This should not be influenced by a highly polarised education, but one that is as much as possible devoid of political favouritism. Norms and values should come from the parents primarily and otherwise from the rest of the family, not school. I am happy with how my parents brought me up and I am grateful to know the history of the world from school as it was mostly without bias. I have a healthy set of christian-based norms and values and I treat everyone equally and with respect. Additionally, I also don't see a problem in having a healthy amount of prejudice towards others that I don't know, because contrary to leftist belief, one cannot avoid that and there's nothing wrong with it.

[@michaelsafol]

Honourable mentions from the classic era: The Green Death Inferno The Sunmakers Vengeance On Varos

[@LinguaPhiliax]

I loved the Green Death and Inferno. "I never thought I'd fire in anger at a rudded caterpillar, but..." Also, most of the Key to Time serials I thought were well-handled political stories.

[@robinchesterfield42]

Those are all good and omg, "Inferno" is AMAZING. One of the creepiest, most intense Doctor Who serials and it would've been better _without_ the literal monsters...because it didn't need them. The one blindly greedy, ambitious HUMAN guy was all the monster both universes needed. (and if you're wondering about "both universes"...just watch it. It's worth it. :))

[@ChrisBrown-jp1hi]

@@robinchesterfield42 Inferno is a classic, even as a seven parter, it keeps the tension up throughout.

[@cobaltmale]

Vengeance on Varos basically foresaw reality tv

[@alim.9801]

Vengeance on Varos is amazing

[@Newt5996]

You’re analysis on Greatest Show in the Galaxy is most definitely on the mark. In addition to that it’s also a direct attack on the BBC which was trying to cancel the show

[@professorbrainyspecs7366]

It was also a very on-the-nose depiction of Doctor Who fandom.

[@mfrost3291]

War Games deserves a mention. The 2nd Doctor serial involves an alien race that wants to increase their skill at war, and in all the universe, they decide to study humans. They abduct people from various conflicts throughout history and put them in simulated environments. Wherever they go, the Doctor & the companions are mistaken for spies and labeled "the enemy", which results in them being treated as less than human. The way the alien generals treat the abducted human soldiers as expendable is a clear commentary on how real generals and politicians treat people in the real world.

[@fern5505]

This isn’t related to the theme of the video at all, but people using they/them pronouns to refer to the Doctor makes me ridiculously happy.

[@logicallyblue3814]

My parents are enbyphobic so I call the Doctor they/them as much as I can when talking about all of them just to make them mad >:3c

[@BlueSparxLPs]

I really liked how they had Jack do it in the New Years special too, using the pronouns where appropriate for the time period he was referring to just as a Time Lord would when regenerating between genders. Was a really nice, easily missed touch.

[@arielsteinsaltz1956]

It works, although I think the Doctor would more accurately be gender fluid, with Jodie's Doctor using female pronouns and the earlier ones using male pronouns. I also wonder how Gallifreyan deals with pronouns given they have a much different idea of gender than we do.

[@fern5505]

@@arielsteinsaltz1956 yeah I think genderfluid is the best descriptor for them. also oooh I’d love so much a fanfic that explores what Gallifreyian ideas around gender are like. Like that hits just the right spot in my nerd brain.

[@kylejones8289]

@@arielsteinsaltz1956 As far as we know, the Gallifreyan language may not have gendered pronouns at all. All of the dialogue we hear spoken by Time Lords in the show is translated for us by the TARDIS into English, so we don't know anything about how the language is structured or built.

[@einfacheanalyse5375]

I think Survival, the last Episode of the classic, is a very interesting political episode. Leaving aside the cat people, it's about how to survive as humans: By being selfish or by being social? In the end, it's not the strong one who survives, but the one who treats others well, because they will help you.too. A strong statement against social Darwinism.

[@samuelbarber6177]

I’ve always thought of that as the mindset behind the inaugural story, An Unearthly Child, which deals with themes of whether or not we have evolved from the perspective of beings who are incredibly far advanced ahead of us and even of who is trustworthy with new technology.

[@TheGerkuman]

Social Darwinism was always stupid because the 'fittest' are those that are most able to adapt, and humans are ridiculously good at adapting when we work together and not adapting when we dont.

[@naveenbhalla4557]

I think that because it became the final classic episode in post production that changed it to be more political than was intended!

[@samuelbarber6177]

@@naveenbhalla4557 I just think it’s ironic for the final episode to be entitled: ‘Survival’

[@MrLtia1234]

It's also about sexuality, but that bit was buried by the big wigs.

[@ishaandw]

It's crazy to think The Enemy of the World is set in 2018

[@kastle3066]

The episode Oxygen reminds me that I already have to pay to breathe. I have asthma and the price of inhalers is the equivelent of my hourly wage... at the moment. The Oxygen episode hits close to home.

[@NeilCWCampbell]

Sounds like you need socialised medicine

[@kastle3066]

@@NeilCWCampbell Had to look that one up. I maybe should have mentioned I'm in England... with free health care... and still need to pay for prescriptions

[@nevem5010]

Wilf's tears and Donna's desperate "Where are you taking them?" make me well up every time. Now, as happens just about every time someone reminds me of it, I'm off to rewatch Oxygen. Ta. 💖

[@Cossfrack]

Yes!!! Hell yes!!! I am sick of people moaning about the newer series "being too woke and political" and I'm like "dude! It's always been political, and progressive, and all the things that you pretend to have a problem with". Its just that as most of us agree, the older series had better writing. And same thing applies to star wars, star trek, and so many things we love.

[@gladiator652004]

Several comment-makers have said what I wanted to say: "Which Doctor Who stories AREN'T political?" It would be interesting to take ten seemingly "apolitical" Doctor Who stories and identify the politics therein.

[@johnvinals7423]

21:37 Fun story, true story. Nestle (yes, the chocolate company) has a private army for controlling water sources.

[@bacul165]

Capitalism grants limited access to medical services, food and water. How can someone think Oxygen is a crazy exaggeration?

[@dickottel]

how I hate capitalism for the prices of stuff like insulin 😥 how can people care that much about money, they're ok with poor people dying even though the medicine exists, holy shit

[@gloriatg100]

You of course are free to live where ever you want. I for one will stick with the free market system.

[@gozerthegozarian9500]

@@gloriatg100 How am I free to live wherever I want if I can't afford to move?

[@professorbrainyspecs7366]

There are pluses and minuses. I have a friend who lives in the US who is far from rich (not poor either). I would classify him as in lower to mid-middle class. He has recently had a number of health issues. In the last couple of months, he has had like a half dozen tests done plus three surgeries. If he lived in Canada, he probably would be waiting to get his second or perhaps third test done and maybe just had one of the surgeries. In Canada or the UK, he wouldn't have spent much money, where he spent most of his savings in the US. So, which is better? More abundant medical care with high expense in the US or far less care, but for far less expense else where? Canadians who have quite a bit of money will go to the US because they can get much quicker medical care than they can in Canada. Again, pluses and minuses to both sides. There has to be a better answer to either way, I just don't know which is better.

[@stephjovi]

@@professorbrainyspecs7366 Austria here. If its important he would've gotten all his tests quickly and he free. Our system is still far from perfect but I'd be terrified to have to pay like Americans

[@maurinet2291]

Really powerful list. Also, enjoying the hat call-back. Reminds me of the old days :).

[@letmemakeafuckingque]

"Surprisingly deep with some very goofy elements" is a perfect summation of Doctor Who at its best

[@gozerthegozarian9500]

While Doctor Who is totally and completely different from Star Trek in almost every other way, both pranchises are exactly alike in the way they were always political, right from their very inception, throughout literal decades worth of episodes and stories, and yet a significant chunk of their respective fanbase has apparently been utterly oblivious to this very obvious fact - an impressive feat of ignorance, tbf - and is now complaining about "SJWs/Wokes/political correctness taking over the franchise"... It's frankly bewildering!

[@Stephen-Fox]

Especially impressive a feat of ignorance considering how neither show seemed particularly bothered to be subtle with their political messaging, even back in the 60s.

[@gozerthegozarian9500]

@@Stephen-Fox Exactly!

[@MrJsmproductions]

Same with Star Wars as well

[@Ben-vf5gk]

I think part of it is that because the programme have gone on so long, so many different writers have played with it, there are bits of the show that unfortunately draw in the anti-pc crowd. Though that still requires a lot of denial. While I'm becoming wary of fellow fans of the Pertwee era, I don't think they like bringing up that it was run by a Buddhist and one of its best writers was a communist.

[@carolinemcgovern4488]

Yes, this! I have to remind people that MLK was a huge fan of the latter BECAUSE of its political leanings. Doctor Who and Star Trek have always been Woke or SJW, which is why I love both. And not exactly subtle about it either. As this list proves.

[@androstempest]

I get that you haven’t watched every classic episode, but I’m quite surprised Happiness Patrol wasn’t here. As a satire of thatcher’s Britain it’s pretty clever. Though it does have a silly monster in the candy man. The green death also has a solid environmentalism theme, far better than praxeus which I felt was took central to the plot, dr who works better when the allegory is subtle. In modern who I’d rate zygon inversion for it’s cold war allegory, and parting of the ways for the critique of the power of media. Aracnids in the uk had both an anticapalist and environmental message, but they were a bit on the nose and not well handled.

[@MrSukram777]

The Candy Man came back in Big Finish, with a really creepy look. O_O

[@natsmith303]

Those are some solid picks. I would also nominate (in no particular order): 1. Most other Dalek stories (Remebrance for both quite pointedly showing how the average person is not as far removed from Fascism as they may think and for showing how an ideology based on protecting purity inevitably leads to just fighting yourselves, Revelation for showing how corporations will turn a blind eye to Fascism if it benefits them, Master Plan for highlighting that working with Fascists even if it's for your own ends makes you no better than them and will only lead to ruin, etc.) 2. The Happiness Patrol (forcing people to play the role you expect of them only creates misery and resentment) 3. The Unquiet Dead (the poor and supposedly insignificant are the real supports holding everything up) 4. Ghost Light (those who resist change resist life itself... At least I *think* that's what was going on in Ghost Light?) 5. The Green Death, Inferno, and several others for environmentalism *before it was popular* Honorable Mention to The Sun Makers because, while the body of the text is anticapitalist through-and-through much in the style of Oxygen the fact that the corporation is also the government and thus labels all their upcharges as "taxes" has led to a lot of people reading it as a libertarian story. Therefore the actual politics of it are somewhat obscured.

[@danwoodman5505]

A few classic political Who's I recommend, (plus the issues they tackle), if you haven't seen them: -The Green Death (environmentalism) -Rememberance of the Daleks (racism) -The Sunmakers (capitalism) -Inferno (environmentalism) -The Nightmare of Eden (drugs) -Vengeance on Varos (media voyeurism) -Kinda (colonialism) plus it's sequel, Snakedance (shows the effect of society's willingness to bow down to the monsters they create from their own fears and hatreds)

[@ftumschk]

Excellent list!

[@danwoodman5505]

@@ftumschk Thanks. :)

[@ealadubh4800]

Vengeance On Varos is the more deliberate and metatextual version of the political concepts you saw in Greatest Show In The Galaxy.

[@charlestownsend9280]

There's also the happiness patrol, the green death, aliens in london/world war three and the two part zygon story which are both criticisms of the war on terror, rosa, etc.

[@CulturePhilter]

I’d add in The Green Death from 3rd Doc era. Strong eco message.

[@rexappleby4731]

My favourite political Dr Who episode was "Demons of the Punjab". It really highlighted how ridiculous borders are to me and how infuriating/frightening it is that people can live next to each other all their lives and still put a concept like religion/nation over their connections with each other, ignoring the real effects of what their politics and actions will do to their neighbours/ people they don't know.

[@lunaskies624]

This is a great list - very informative and well constructed as always. That moment with Wilf in Turn Left always chokes me up. Oxygen, Genesis of the Daleks, Silurians and Thin Ice were all stories I suspected would be on here and these would definitely make my top ten too. Others I would strongly consider include The Green Death (Third Doctor), The Curse of Peladon (Third), The Sun Makers (Fourth) and Planet of the Ood (Tenth). I know from other videos that you're not a huge fan of most of the historical episodes but I'm hoping you might consider creating a top-ten ranking for these as well at some point.

[@mrzakyboy3453]

Can we just appreciate the fact that Flatcap is back!?😁😁

[@thesilentstar6378]

I'd give "Carnival of Monsters" from the Third Doctor's era an honorable mention. It has alien performers abducting lifeforms, sentient and otherwise, and putting them on display for profit, with little regard for how those lifeforms are living within their display case. It can be seen as a commentary on the ethics of having animals perform in circuses, and on housing animals in zoos (I'm not even touching the fact that human zoos continued to operate until the mid-20th century).

[@cryofpaine]

We pay for water. We pay for food. If it were possible to commoditize and meter air, they would absolutely make us pay for air. I'm surprised that the Zygon Invasion/Inversion aren't on here. The episodes themselves were decent enough - and very much had the same Cold War message as the other episode on the list. But Capaldi's delivery of his anti-war speech was more powerful than any other media I can think of.

[@CouncilofGeeks]

Controversial take: the speech is the only part about that story that fully works.

[@Yan_Alkovic]

Yeah, lovely picks! My personal pick is a jokey one, but I still like it: Day of the Daleks (The first serial in Season 9, with the 3d Doctor), because the Doctor flat-out says "Look, try and use your intelligence, man, even if you _are_ a politician" That is just too perfect a line

[@ColzoArt]

This is a great list - I cry at turn left when Wilf says it’s happening again! I’d probably have to include the zygon inversion & the doctors anti war speech. It’s great acting & you can feel their pain and the impact of the time war on them, but it makes such a powerful point about war, who lives and who dies - I get goosebumps every time I watch it!

[@lucasparadox6823]

I think a good episode that could be viewed as political or just seen as a cautionary tale altogether is "Age of Steel" from the 10th Doctor. I think it gives a strong message on why we should enjoy technology but not become overwhelmed by it and throw away what makes us human for something as simple as an advantage. Look at what WE did, WE started turning our people into the very emotionless Cybermen that we call monsters.

[@kellygingrich4302]

Finally someone has articulated why Turn Left is one of my favourite episodes! I would add that Turn Left also represents that the choices made (in the fiction by The Doctor & companion(s), who represent us through metaphor) create the futures that we end up with and inaction has devastating consequences - Turn Left is about making choices to create a better future, an 'alternative future' to the one we would otherwise be on track for. It gets at the heart of what I consider the best of Doctor Who. And all things aside, RTD was pretty on the nose naming this episode 'Turn Left'. Excellent points about what science fiction *is* - the exaggeration of ideas to show the dangers of them for social commentary - is on point! That's literally what science fiction is for! It's inherently political, which is why it's such a powerful tool for activism.

[@BlackReshiram]

Donna Noble is my favorite companion, so when I saw her on screen in ur vid I squealed

[@tomshrosbree1189]

Corporations aren’t charging us to breath, but they’re already charging us to drink

[@SunniestAutumn]

I had someone explain to me the plot of Turn Left to me because I pointed out that even the name of the episode is a political allegory.

[@Silverwind87]

I haven't seen it, but I heard that the Third Doctor episode Inferno is pretty good. The Doctor winds up in a fascist version of Great Britain, complete with the Brigadier with an eyepatch.

[@julieeverett7442]

the green death is good too, and yes, Inferno is a favourite for classic fans!

[@Respectable_Username]

I thought Oxygen was an unrealistic, over-exaggerated, almost straw-man level of extreme form of capitalism when I first watched it. Then I learned about Amazon.

[@audiebridge3103]

"The daleks have always, always been explicitly based" Council Of Geeks 2021

[@saphcal]

lmao

[@noelleggett5368]

I’d have thought ‘Rosa’ was an obvious pick… perhaps too obvious. Among my favourite political stories also include… The Green Death The Long Game The Curse of Peladon The Caves of Androzani War Games Inferno Battlefield The Zygon Invasion Kinda

[@CouncilofGeeks]

My feelings on Rosa are… complicated.

[@julieeverett7442]

excellent choices

[@vilmundurgunnarsson3904]

Marco Polo, one of the shows several “let’s meet a historical figure” episodes, also is kind of political in the way it makes the titular historical figure an antagonist whom The Doctor must escape. Something the TV series rarely does and should do more

[@deathislife1993]

Another good one from the classics is The Sun Makers, a Fourth Doctor one. I consider it the Oxygen of that era, because it beautifully shows the brutality of rampant corporate ownership of the means of production. If you haven't seen it, definitely check it out, it's completely worth it.

[@Silverwind87]

Okay, my (current) favorite political episode: The Curse of Fenric. Set in 1943 during World War 2, it examines the uneasy alliance between Britain and the Soviets at the time. They fought against each other less than 20 years prior in the Russian Civil War, but the attack from the Axis Powers forced them to set aside their differences. Doctor Who's no stranger to Cold War politics. I mean, most of the show existed DURING the Cold War. But this story illustrates how the Cold War started. How even when they were fighting the biggest war in history, the United States and Great Britain were still trying to find a way to eliminate their main geopolitical rival, with zero regard for the consequences. It's not the main theme of the episode, but I really like how it handles this subject matter.

[@AlmightyBruce]

I think Rosa was a really good episode!

[@x-fun3149]

The hat is back! Woooo! EDIT: I'm surprised Day of the Daleks isn't on here, I think it's pretty explicit that the message of that story is "terrorism is okay sometimes"

[@NeilCWCampbell]

Of it is.. Violence has solved more things than anything else in history! Remember no person can be at peace if they can't be free!

[@Stephen-Fox]

And that's the first time I recall seeing someone talk about a reading of Greatest Show that doesn't revolve around reading it as an analogy for Doctor Who (and more broadly the ratings aspect of the television industry). I think everything else it's doing kind of gets... Lost... in the discussion due to the appeal of talking about "The Doctor Who episode about Doctor Who" While you glanced in the direction of prior Dalek stories to Genesis not being shy about them being Nazi analogues, I think it's worth considering Dalek Invasion of Earth specifically - Less than 2 decades after WWII, a children's sci-fi show depicted what _everyone_ recognized as being symbolic of a nazi tank rising out of the Thames, and wandering around London landmarks - at a time when I think the British national psyche was still terrified of fascism (shame that seems to have worn off). I don't recall it being a highly political story in the way the stories - or aspects of stories - you listed are, but it has some very powerful political imagery in the context of the time it was made.

[@mystic_mimi21]

Turn left is one of my favourite episodes . The message is so important and hard hitting. Even more so with the pandemic. All I could think about was that we could be heading that way. Years and years was so brilliant and is like turn left but made into a full series. Really underrated

[@Rmlohner]

The writer of Oxygen has actually said he regrets being so blunt and heavy-handed with the message, as if there's one thing audiences always hate, it's being condescendingly lectured to, like what happened with Orphan 55. It's a shame that the writers promptly forgot there was any kind of nuance to the Silurians, and all their future appearances treated them as just being evil. You can really feel them thinking "I could try to stay consistent with that first story, but that would just be too hard."

[@alim.9801]

Who wrote that episode bc hearing that makes me like that writer, the fact that he gets that.

[@selmaunsley6683]

I liked the fact that oxygen wasn’t very subtle it was well written enough to carry that

[@Rmlohner]

@@alim.9801 Jamie Mathieson. He also did Mummy on the Orient Express, Flatline, and The Girl Who Died.

[@ilovecatweazle]

In the Sea Devils the Doctor was making progress in peace talks until a politician ordered the bombing of their resting place. Nothing too hard about that!

[@Vivi2372]

As others have said in the comments section we live in a world where corporations like Nestle are trying to monetize our very access to water. Our real world is so far beyond parody that something like oxygen isn't heavy handed at all. If anything it's more realistic than people want to admit.

[@foxesofautumn]

I only just got the political connotation of the title of Turn Left. It really is a masterful episode.

[@TheMarcHicks]

When I was at High School, if you had told me that private corporations would control our access to drinking water, I would have laughed & called that ridiculous. Yet 30 years later that is the case in large parts of the world. So Oxygen is *not* that far fetched.

[@jessetorres8738]

Doctor who has been political since at least the early Pertwee Era, and KZbinr Clever Dick Films has reviewed some of the best political episodes from almost every Doctor up to Tennent.

[@GCAbleism158]

I mean Green Death exists. You can't get any more political than that.

[@CouncilofGeeks]

Um…no. Doctor Who was political right from the start. The Daleks are the Nazis. Terry Nation was always clear about that.

[@gozerthegozarian9500]

@@CouncilofGeeks The Daleks are the PERFECT metaphor for the fascist character: Simultaneously utterly terrifying and strangely, well, ridiculous, a suit of armor that gives power and protection to the fragile, weak being within, and as much as the armor allows the being to survive, it also deprives them of the possibility to ever actually live...

[@logicallyblue3814]

@Thomas Meehan And the whole "We are superior and anyone who isn't like us must die" thing

[@Ben-vf5gk]

@@CouncilofGeeks and then Daleks Masterplan used them for Cold War commentary. Plus every Hartnell historical is political by their very existence.

[@Zeno11Salazar]

I was about to say, what episode isn't political? Then I saw it was this channel and already knew, that they knew. On with the show.

[@misterjakester]

Happiness Patrol deserves a mention, not just because of its overall commentary on Margaret Thatcher, but the deeper, potentially accidental but still very compelling, depiction of the reactions to the HIV/AIDS crisis

[@adambesley4455]

In terms of episodes with messages that are blown ridiculously out of proportion, I love the 7th Doctor's "The Happiness Patrol". It's about as subtle as it gaudy costumes but it's still good. If you wanted some slightly more subtle stories then there's the 3rd Doctor's "The Curse of Peladon", the 4th Doctor's "The Deadly Assassin", the 5th Doctor's "The Caves of Andrazani" and the 6th Doctor's "Vengeance on Varos".

[@TheAlyconaria]

Genre scifi is supposed to world-build to create immersion. So the more complex the politics, the better. It makes the world realistic. What to avoid: throw away lines of dialogue that haven't been sufficiently justified with proper world building. And overly simple political messages.

[@michaelreindel6975]

“Oil, an ‘emergency’? [Scoffs.] It's about time the people who run this planet of yours realised that to be dependent upon a mineral slime just doesn't make sense…” - the (4th) Doctor

[@lucasparadox6823]

You gave me a new perspective on turn left that i didnt think of before... made an already fun episode even better.

[@thenameiswater2921]

It’s not an exaggeration imo for the Oxygen episode to monetize breathing… in some ways it’s already happened with mining and miners.

[@Vivi2372]

And every single person with a respiratory illness. Asthma? Gotta buy your inhalers. Hell an ex of mine has cystic fibrosis. The meds required to keep her body from drowning in its own mucus were $5k or so a month. Without drug coverage from the government she'd have died years ago.

[@charlottem7758]

The other thing about the political message of Demons of the Punjab I love is that of history repeating. After doing perhaps the worst ways of commenting on Trump in Arachnids in the UK, they did so well with this episode, showed the parallels between what was happening in America and the historical event, but being confident enough to not feel like they had to explicitly state that they were commenting on it.

[@teddymasters1347]

How dare you not include orphan 55, the most subtle and sophisticated political comintaty.

[@crazypomp927]

Your take on "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" is really unique! I had never read the story that way, but it makes perfect sense, and I'm very much going to rewatch that one soon with that new lens in mind.

[@msbrech]

I'd include The Zygone Inversion on this list. While 10 is my favorite Doctor, Davies my favorite show runner, and Moffat has written my favorite episodes during the Davies era, my favorite Doctor moment is his speech about war. I never get tired of that scene.

[@jonathonriddle9922]

Classic Who is chock full of political episodes. Some of my favorites include: The Green Death, Vengeance on Varos, and The Happiness Patrol

[@einfacheanalyse5375]

I think:The problem with some of the new episodes is not that they're too political, but that they're too much current Politics comments and too simplistic. I don't want a Doctor Who commentary on Donald Trump, like in the spider episode, or a simple, straightforward answer to automation, like in Kerablam. Doctor Who should deal with big issues, big questions, and make you think. No simple solutions, more food for thought.Chibnail is always too unambiguous for me and he doesn't trust the viewer to endure ambivalence and he says too much instead of showing it. I hope I am expressing my thoughts correctly, I am not a native English speaker and have a few words from e online translator.

[@cyberemperor1435]

I completely agree

[@deltahalo241]

I really enjoy Kerblam, but I still feel its ending of 'Oh, just hire more people' is a bit of a cop-out when it comes to the very real problems it was bringing up

[@cameronmonaghan6883]

I agree but a bit of a twist i say my favourite are the episode where the politics are more hidden as those stories lead themselves to more world building than simply being an analogy to real events.

[@paulharries9558]

As someone who works for the type of Company "Kerblam" was about, I thought the whole episode was a massive copout.

[@fish-fingers_and_custard7685]

Happiness Parade of Classic Who pretty much covered Maggie Thatcher in the same way Arachnids in the UK covered Trump. Not that the latter is a masterpiece or anything...

[@brodiecrichton6573]

there are great political stories in dr who most of Pertwee is ethical/ political messages in well-crafted stories whilst chibnall who is political/ ethical messages thrown on-screen regardless of how good the story is and the plot holes . 1 the mutants 2 the invasion of the dinosaurs 3 the green death

[@purpleraider8105]

You just know Dot and Bubble is making it into the update of the list that we'll get at the end Gatwa's run

[@SamWickens]

A 3rd Doctor one that's still quite relevant is Curse of Peladon, which tackled the debate aroubd whether the UK should join the EU back in the 70s and the ideas of sovreignty, political interdependence, progress and residual biases against former enemies. As for your pick of Greatest Show, while you're abaolutely entitled to your reading, I'm fairly sure the authorial intent behind that story was more about the higher ups at the Thatcherite BBC and their programs and staff as replaceable and putting Doctor Who on trial, especially with the superfan who lovea the circus even if it isn't what it used to be, and the heartless old explorer and young girl with an unhealthy relationship acting almost as a caricature of the Doctor and companion.

[@yusaki8064]

I have started watching Classic Who for the first time recently. And one of the episodes I really loved was The Aztecs. Throughout the story we see Barbara trying to change the Aztecs way of life in the hope that when the Spanish arrive later, they won’t see a civilisation that kills and tortures many people but a good one. Now this does have a bit of victim blaming saying that the only reason the Spanish committed genocide against the Aztecs was because they were doing these terrible things. Which I’m pretty sure isn’t entirely true. But there is one line in the final part that really sticks with me (although what I may tell you know may be paraphrasing a bit). Barbara isn’t able to help the entire civilisation, but she seems to be able to impart good into one man they meet. And that is what the Doctor says to her “You failed to save a civilisation. But at least you helped one man." And I have a feeling that's all most of us can do. We alone cannot save an entire group of people. But we can try and help one person, just one person. In that way the episode has parallels to The Fires of Pompeii.

[@rivwilson9330]

Thank you for doing this list and highlighting such powerful episodes. That turn left moment is huge

[@jeffrusnack5673]

Almost every Pertwee story is political in a similat way to most of the first season of the reboot is Political. In both cases the Baker/Tennant period gets away from it... but just a bit.

[@Scampr_]

Avoiding repeating most of your list that I totally agree with, here are just a few other great political Doctor Who stories IMO! Invasion of the Dinosaurs - this serial impressed me quite a lot when I first watched it, for subverting the "campy runaround with poor dinosaur models" I was worried it could be. Spoilers if anyone hasn't watched, but it turns out the dinosaurs are a side-effect/distraction caused by the secret experiements of an extremist activist group who want to literally return the Earth to its "golden age" of billions of years ago. The story touches on a number of political ideas, including criticisms of marital law, overpopulation and eugenics, conspiracies within government bodies, brainwashing/propaganda, eco-fascism, and goverments tragedies/dangerous events to fuel or cover up their agendas The Macra Terror - between some of the fluff and action, this story makes a simple but effective observation of propaganda and dictatorial/authoritarian faux-utopias where all the problems and protests are swept under the rug to appease the monsters behind the scenes and maintain a certain image - along with some criticism of capitalism with all the brainless workers chanting their eerily OTT positive songs and sentiments There's also some really effective political Big Finish stories! The Peterloo Massacre - this 5th Doctor story does a really good job of outlining the realities behind the massacre, detailing the political reasons behind the protest and why they were met with such a tragic response. Being a "we've landed in the middle of a big historical event" scenario, the story handles it in a very sensible way, and allows the Doctor and companions to be involved in the situation without being responsible for/influencing them - and it doubles down on this by also being a pure historical, so no shoehorned alien meddling to undermine and disrespect the event. A very educational, nuanced and politically literate story that resonates on an emotional level! The Five People You Kill in Middlesbrough - this Torchwood monthly audio is a VERY current and overt political criticism and satire of the handling of the global pandemic by the UK government - PLUS, it also touches upon England's class-rooted north-south divide

[@cryofpaine]

That is such a hard needle to thread, putting the Doctor in the middle of a real historical event without cheapening it, or disrespecting those who actually lived through or died from it.

[@SKSith]

Happy to see The Almost People get some attention. I love that 2 parter so much.

[@Concreteowl]

The Sun Makers always makes me smile as does Revelation of the Daleks. Planet of the Ood is pretty good.

[@cameronmonaghan6883]

I say that the best political storylines are 1% political parody 99% awesome nerdy bs With a twist of fanfare Favourite episode: The Curse of Peladon. It may be based on Britain entering the EU but also has, space castles, Ice Warriors being good guys, Venusian Lullaby, mythical animal, universe building and ALPHA CENTURI Never thought of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy being political heavy but yeah i can see the point. It could be based on the situation with the show's imminent cancellation. But we all know what they were thinking when they were writing Whizzkid!

[@naveenbhalla4557]

What made this video great was there was a lot of episodes I hadn't considered political, points well made. However, disagree that Demons Of The Punjab is political - it's historical, there's no message that anyone of a different political persuasion could disagree with! I think you should do a video on top educational episodes!

[@supersnek5]

I guess it could be considered political because the BBC greatly waterdowned Britain's role in the Partition, but since Nathaniel didn't know about the Partition before this episode, I doubt that's why she included it in her list 😅 Definitely agree with wanting a top 10 educational DW episodes video!!

[@julieeverett7442]

@@supersnek5that would be a good portion of the 1st doctors run, that WAS the original intent, though Vincent and the doctor is a good one too.

[@tsuritsa3105]

This was a really great list. I find your analysis of Left Turn particularly poignant today, of all days.

[@jellybabiesarecool4657]

Best political episodes? The entire Pertwee era.

[@MrLtia1234]

The problem with Doctor Who is it's strength - it outgrows the majority of fans. Some of those fans fall down various rabbit holes being sold to them - The Daily Mail, angry KZbinrs, etc. etc. It can be painful to watch this happen to people you like, but there's not much you can do about it. Once they're convinced there was some sort of magic time in the show that was just an action movie in space, there's no way to pull them out.

[@Lohengrin1850]

One episode missing from this list is The Sunmakers! One of my favorites and such a good political commentary. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it.

[@jamesmullen2231]

Greatest Show in the Galaxy was a fantastic pick! It stands up there with The Happiness Patrol as a political tale in Seven's era.

[@hilarymajor3983]

Considering the impact of air pollution, how it hits poor communities so much worse, how that makes Covid worse, and the politics that creates unrestricted, life-damaging air pollution, I think Oxygen isn’t an over exaggeration.

[@boobookittifukk]

Oh my god. I started bawling when you started talking about Turn Left. I sobbed when they rounded up immigrants to take to work camps.

[@Tankekraft]

This one made me think about that pro-life episode "Kill the moon". This is not me giving an example of the best executed political episodes btw. They where doing something similar to beast below, that 1. this thing we think is an inanimate object is acctually a living creature, 2. the survivial of all of humanity is at stake if we save this creature and 3. when being saved it turns out it was harmless and the humans/earth arn't left to die.

[@theoncomingstorm7903]

My favourite unconventional pick is probably Cat's Cradle Warhead. It hard committed to blaming corporations for the deterioration of the climate rather than vaguely gesturing in the general direction of climate change and saying 'that's probably a problem' like Orphan 55 did.

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

I'm glad "Genesis" made the cut and so high up too! My mentioning of the blatant and well documented connection between the Nazis and the Daleks is the reason for the one and only time I got kicked out of a FB group - and it was even a Doctor Who group! Apparently just mentioning the connection was being "too political" 🙄

[@nico2605]

That's literally the inspiration for the Daleks though? Some whovians are just kinda dumb

[@carolinemcgovern4488]

Like, come on guys! It's not exactly subtle about it.

[@ewandavidson1916]

6th Doctor story can also be linked to the Beast below, but is also a commentary on Reality TV and it's destructive nature, literal causing the death of people by voting on popularity and this was before reality tv really existed.

[@ginjamutha]

Breathe always brings this quote from the book The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists to mind. “Poverty is not caused by men and women getting married; it's not caused by machinery; it's not caused by "over-production"; it's not caused by drink or laziness; and it's not caused by "over-population". It's caused by Private Monopoly. That is the present system. They have monopolized everything that it is possible to monopolize; they have got the whole earth, the minerals in the earth and the streams that water the earth. The only reason they have not monopolized the daylight and the air is that it is not possible to do it. If it were possible to construct huge gasometers and to draw together and compress within them the whole of the atmosphere, it would have been done long ago, and we should have been compelled to work for them in order to get money to buy air to breathe. And if that seemingly impossible thing were accomplished tomorrow, you would see thousands of people dying for want of air - or of the money to buy it - even as now thousands are dying for want of the other necessities of life. You would see people going about gasping for breath, and telling each other that the likes of them could not expect to have air to breathe unless the had the money to pay for it. Most of you here, for instance, would think and say so. Even as you think at present that it's right for so few people to own the Earth, the Minerals and the Water, which are all just as necessary as is the air. In exactly the same spirit as you now say: "It's Their Land," "It's Their Water," "It's Their Coal," "It's Their Iron," so you would say "It's Their Air," "These are their gasometers, and what right have the likes of us to expect them to allow us to breathe for nothing?" And even while he is doing this the air monopolist will be preaching sermons on the Brotherhood of Man; he will be dispensing advice on "Christian Duty" in the Sunday magazines; he will give utterance to numerous more or less moral maxims for the guidance of the young. And meantime, all around, people will be dying for want of some of the air that he will have bottled up in his gasometers. And when you are all dragging out a miserable existence, gasping for breath or dying for want of air, if one of your number suggests smashing a hole in the side of one of the gasometers, you will all fall upon him in the name of law and order, and after doing your best to tear him limb from limb, you'll drag him, covered with blood, in triumph to the nearest Police Station and deliver him up to "justice" in the hope of being given a few half-pounds of air for your trouble.” ― Robert Tressell, quote from The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, 1914

[@TheEldritchGoth]

Great list. Even though I’m a huge Classic Who fan and prefer it to the new stuff, I agree that Genesis is overrated, though it’s spot on this list is very deserved. One story I would’ve included personally is The Sun Makers, and I heavily recommend it. It’s one of the few times Doctor Who leans right, which theoretically means I should disagree with it, but it’s done so well and has such a good message that it’s akin to Doctor Who’s 1984. Also, side note, I love Doctor Who and the Silurian’s title. It makes a lot of people mad for what is really just a trivial meaning that I find it amusing, idk lol

[@tomski120]

Just want to say thanks for giving us some Doctor who content. It keeps us going during these dry periods 😎

[@cbpoppet1288]

Carnival of Monsters is a wonderful piece of political satire. Robert Holmes takes swipes at predjudice, imperialism, the class system, political gamesmanship and even Doctor Who's audience. He even uses the low budget allocated to the story, to illustrate how ridiculous and pathetic those who play games with the lives of others are.

[@CeticWales]

Andrew Cartmel had a lot of overtly and covertly political elements in the scripts he edited so I would not be surprised if Greatest Show in the Galaxy had those political undertones. I thought it did too.

[@ricohard1986]

I'd add the Face of Evil, or its working title 'the day God went mad', which is all about the corruption of power, the power of superstition and how people are manipulated by those they trust.

[@heatherrockwell9012]

My favorite thing about the politics of classic Doctor Who is that the Time Lord agency that sends the Doctor to do so many morally dubious things in their name- I think including the events of Genesis, but I can't be sure- is literally called the CIA.

[@hugoalynstephens9166]

I must admit that I have greatly missed the flat-cap.

[@CouncilofGeeks]

I know some folks have. I don’t mind busting it out again from time to time.

[@CemKalyoncu]

I think Demons of Punjab is my top 13th doctor episode.

[@roro-mm7cc]

It's not even an absurd exaggeration - the CEO of nestle (a company that sells bottled water) once said something like "free access to clean drinking water is not a human right". I could totally see oxygen becoming a commodity in a space-faring capitalist future. It doesn't feel like a stretch at all - just a logical extrapolation of the current system which even commodifies stuff like drinking water. There are many countries where you cannot drink tap water due to diseases etc and people have to pay for bottled water.