The best episodes of Doctor Who Season 18
Season 18 only — ranked by viewer rating, highs first. Vote on a placement to back it or contest it.
- 01
With Nyssa from Traken unexpectedly rejoining the group, Adric aids the Monitor of Logopolis in trying to save the Doctor before time runs out. The Master, at liberty to prepare, is finally ready to reveal his true target, which unknowingly sets off the biggest catastrophe of all time.
- 02
With the universe collapsing, the Doctor forms an uneasy alliance with the Master to save it. In case all does not go well, the Watcher takes the Doctor's companions to a safe place, but his plans for them don't stop there. The one hope for all lies back on Earth.
- 03
Another man is found dead, strangled by the Doctor's scarf, so the Doctor is put on trial. By some of the archaic rules of law, he's made to "prove" his innocence by becoming a test subject in a new tachyon experiment with time. The result will prove his innocence or guilt, so they say.
- 04
With the saboteur and murderer revealed and arrested, peace should now be restored, but a new threat emerges - a war-monger who's both ready and eager to aggress upon other worlds with a newly manufactured warrior army.
- 05
The Doctor and Romana find an isolated planet. K9 scans the planet, finding it has a village. The Doctor and Romana find high technology readings with the TARDIS sensors even though the village appears to have an absence of technology. The TARDIS lands near the village. The Doctor and Romana set off, leaving K9 behind to guard the TARDIS. Adric, from the previous story, has stowed away on the TARDIS. K9 finds him, but Adric tells him that as he is a stowaway. The Doctor and Romana find two men arguing. The Doctor asks to speak to a scientist. One of the men mistakes them for lords. After the Doctor, Romana and one of the men leave, The other man, using a radio, calls to others and tells them of the two strangers who just arrived. Travelling through the forest, Romana and the Doctor are surrounded by men. They surrender and are taken to a hidden cave, where they meet the rebels. One man is trying to get a computer up and running. The Doctor helps him and Romana identifies the computer system as coming from Earth, Adric tries to steal some food in the village. Adric is caught and those who caught him take on pity him and offer him a place to sleep because of the evil things that happen at night. The Doctor and Romana appear to be attacked by a swarm of bats at the end.
- 06
Three humorless men from a damaged bulk freighter find the TARDIS. Wearily, Romana returns with them to appraise the situation of their damaged ship but, because she's a time sensitive, winds up as a living navigational component to replace their time-sensitive Tharil (lion-man) who escaped. Meanwhile the Doctor, having found a gateway, is having a time with Gundans, robot soldiers programmed to kill.
- 07
While Biroc leads the Doctor to a view of the Tharil's lordly past, Romana learns more about the damaged freighter and the coldheartedness of its crew. Meanwhile Commander Rorvik, confounded by the time mirror inside the universal center gateway, ignores evidence that it's no simple mirror and decides to blast it, imperiling the lives of everyone.
- 08
After the Doctor and Romana save the Tharil race, Romana agrees to leave the Doctor to become the Tharils' "Queen of Time."
- 09
The Keeper of Traken, Part Three
With Tremas falling under suspicion, due to his association with the Doctor, a new Keeper Nominate is named. Now, with everything in place, Melkur has only a short wait before his full malevolence can unfold.
- 10
With the Doctor suffering from the time experiment, the clandestine schemes of others start coming to light, along with the secreted purposes to which the tachyonic generator has been used.
- 11
The Doctor and Romana are taken to the tower where they meet The Lords and come to the realization that the tower is actually a disused spaceship. A Lord named Aukon arrives at the village and takes Adric with him back to the tower.
- 12
Tarak arrives to free the Doctor and Romana from their imprisonment. Believing The Lords to be vampires from Gallifreyan legend, the Doctor returns to the Tardis to consult the Record of Rassilon while Tarak and Romana search for Adric.
- 13
The Lords prepare to sacrifice Romana and induct Adric into their ranks as part of their plan to awaken the "Great One" and escape E-Space. Meanwhile the Doctor and K9 assist Kalmar's men in attacking the tower.
- 14
While the Doctor and Romana desperately rack their brains over how to escape E-Space, Time Winds strike the TARDIS, damaging it and K-9. Strangest of all, it allows Biroc, a hurt and hunted lion-man, to enter, phased in time, and set the control coordinates at zero-zero, sending the TARDIS into a milk-white void. Before running off, he warns of others who will be soon following.
- 15
Infection from a spider bite causes Romana's personality to change. Meanwhile the Doctor, after discovering that the spaceship society is in a perpetual state of repair and upgrade, has morality issues with the ship's leading scientist who readies himself to perform gruesome experiments on the live marshchild while it's fully conscious.
- 16
Marshmen invade the Terradonian ship thanks to Romana, who seems to be in communion with them. While the ship's inhabitants flee for their lives, the Doctor discovers a crucial fact why these humanoids can never return to the planet Terradon.
- 17
The Keeper of Traken, Part One
Returning to N-Space, The Doctor and Adric are summoned to Traken, a planet of peace and harmony. The Keeper of Traken is nearing the end of his 1000-year-old reign and one of the Traken consuls is to become the next Keeper. The Doctor, Adric, Tremas (the Keeper Nominate) and Nyssa (his daughter) set about to stop the Melkur, a calcified figure believed to be a "Source of Evil" trying to destroy the Traken Union, only to later discover it is the guise of a old enemy of the Doctor - The Master - who plans to take control of The Source (the keystone of Union) so he can regenerate into a new body.
- 18
Preparing to overhaul his TARDIS, the Doctor goes to Earth to take fresh measurements of a police box. A figure in white observes, as the Master lies in wait with a puzzling predicament for his rival Time Lord.
- 19
With the threat of doom ever-present, the Doctor and Adric press on for Logopolis, where the muttered mathematical incantations of its people can completely overhaul the TARDIS. En route they discover an accidental yet demanding passenger on board while, all the while, the Master secretively journeys with them to ensnare the Doctor in a diabolical trap.
- 20
Finding out-of-season Brighton beach somewhat lacking, the Doctor and Romana travel to the leisure planet Argolis - but there strange experiments are taking place.
- 21
With the Doctor about to be ritualistically sacrificed to appease the god Ti for stealing the dodecahedron, Meglos and the pirates return to Zolfa-Thura with the dodecahedron to fire up an ancient weapon and blast Tigella out of existence.
- 22
The Keeper of Traken, Part Two
Tremas claims counselor privilege to protect the Doctor and Adric from execution, though it binds his fate to theirs if they're found guilty of murder. Melkur strengthens his hold over Kassia while Seron decides to have rapport with The Keeper to learn truth, and Adric finds evidence of another TARDIS in the area.
- 23
The Keeper of Traken, Part Four
With the merciless Melkur in control of The Source, the Doctor and his allies have only a slim chance of deposing him, which also puts the peace of the Traken Union in severe jeopardy.
- 24
With the TARDIS occupants trapped in a chronic histeratic loop (forever reliving the same moment in time), the devious Meglos - disguised as the Doctor - gains the trust of the Tigellans along with full and private access to their power chamber.
- 25
With the dodecahedron gone, the city goes power critical. Its death, imminent. With Romana seeking escape from Meglos' pirates, and Meglos seeking escape from the sealed-up city, and the Doctor himself seeking to understand what's been going on (and why everybody wants him arrested), religious factions move in to take over the city.
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