Ready for an epic Doctor Who marathon? Prepare for the end of the world with some of the most dystopian Doctor Who stories of all time…
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’ is the very first of the dystopian Doctor Who stories. This classic adventure from 1964 is set 200 years in the future in the year 2164 – a time when it is forbidden to dump bodies in the river, and Battersea Power Station has lost its towers.
Plus, of course, the Time Lord’s deadliest enemies the Daleks are ruling over the human race with a rod of iron. Some people have been converted into mindless robot servants known as Robomen, whilst others have been put to work in the mines of Bedfordshire, tunnelling their way to the Earth’s core.
As dystopian Doctor Who stories go, it doesn’t get much bleaker than this. But this is still a gripping adventure, and one that was deemed good enough to be made into a big budget feature film starring Peter Cushing – Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.
Inferno
First broadcast in 1970, ‘Inferno’ may be one of the bleakest Doctor Who stories of all time. A mad scientist is (once again) trying to dig beneath the earth, hoping to unlock a treasure trove of cheap energy for the human race. But little does he know that his plans threaten to transform the planet into a volcanic wasteland, ruled over by zombie-like Primords who thrive on heat and a mysterious goo from below the Earth’s crust.
Moreover, ‘Inferno’ is almost unique among the Doctor Who stories in that it does, in fact, depict the destruction of planet Earth; the Doctor fails to save it, and worse, there is no happy ending. The twist is that this is a parallel world; the Doctor watches the death of his favourite planet in an alternate timeline, and then travels back to reality to prevent the same catastrophe from happening again.
And if you’ve never seen ‘Inferno’ before, now is the perfect time given its newly-restored release on the Doctor Who Season 7 boxset.
The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords
The world doesn’t exactly end in the next of our dystopian Doctor Who stories, but it’s not the kind of planet you’d want to live on. This two part story from 2007 shows what would happen if the Doctor’s old enemy the Master actually succeeded in his plans to take over planet Earth. And it’s every bit as miserable as you’d think.
First, the Master uses a hypnotic signal to get the human race to fall in love with him. Then, once he’s Prime Minister, he initiates contact with a supposed alien race called the Toclafane. Then the Toclafane decimate humanity, and the Master brings the world to its knees, ruling over the planet from his palace in the sky.
And it’s even worse for the Doctor, whose body has been ravaged by the Master’s laser screwdriver. He spends a whole year as his prisoner, leaving his companion Martha Jones to lead a solo rebellion against the planet’s new ruler…
Turn Left
‘Turn Left’ is another unique addition to our list of Doctor Who stories. This one depicts an alternate reality in which the Doctor dies whilst fighting the Empress of the Racnoss. It then shows what would happen to planet Earth without the Doctor to protect it, all viewed through the eyes of Donna Noble, who never got the chance to meet him.
As you can imagine, the situation on Earth gets progressively worse until a full-size, nuclear-powered replica of the Titanic falls out of the sky on Christmas Day and wipes out London, killing millions and leaving millions more in need of relocation.
And what’s more, these poor people have to endure to the horror of being relocated to Leeds. That is, until huge swathes of the ‘undesirables’ are shipped off by the army to so-called labour camps, never to be seen again.
It’s all pretty grim, and to make matters worse, the only way Donna can make everything right again is by sacrificing her own life. And (spoiler alert) she does actually die. Oof.
The Lie of the Land
The last of our Doctor Who stories comes from 2017 and concludes the Monk trilogy that ran throughout Series 10. In ‘The Lie of the Land,’ the invading Monks have successfully taken over planet Earth, and have convinced the human race that they have been occupying and guiding the planet for millions of years, whereas in fact they’ve only been around for a few months.
And like the other Doctor Who stories on this list, the version of planet Earth depicted in this episode is no paradise. There are daily propaganda broadcasts praising this new reality, and to make matters worse, many of these come from the Doctor himself, who appears to have sided with the Monks. Nobody on the planet seems to have any memory of the world that came before, and those that do are arrested for ‘memory crimes’ and sent to labour camps.
And if you want to include ‘The Lie of the Land’ in your marathon, you might want to watch some of the Doctor Who stories that precede it – ‘Extremis’ and ‘The Pyramid at the End of the World’ – as ‘The Lie of the Land’ might not make complete sense on its own.
Further viewing
And if this six hours’ worth of Doctor Who stories isn’t enough, you could incorporate Doctor Who: Flux into your marathon – a linked series from the end of the Jodie Whittaker era, which sees huge swathes of the universe wiped out in a wave of devastation. You’re welcome.
In the meantime, tell us: do you have any Doctor Who stories that you would add to to our playlist? Let us know in the comments below.
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