Edited by J.R. Southall

Watching Books, out now

A reassessment of some of the worst-received Doctor Who stories.

There are some studies of films and TV shows that aim to provoke discussion; others are written to make you reassess the subject matter in hand, hopefully giving you new perspectives to consider. Hating to Love does both: each of its mini-essays looks at one of the less well-regarded stories – going right back to the first serial from 1963 through to the end of Capaldi’s second season.

Sometimes the writers suggest reasons why a serial has not been so well-received; sometimes they suggest that (shock, horror!) collective fan wisdom is bollocks, and should be treated as such. There are occasions when you can tell the writer feels as if they’re on a hiding to nothing – some stories may be irredeemable – and there are others where they see it as an easy opportunity to lay into the serial. (One of them comes perilously close to an ad hominem attack with a “you were crap in this, you were crap in that, and the only thing you’ve done that’s really successful is down to the other person involved” attitude that ironically made me want to go back to the story in question to see if it really could be that bad.)

It’s an eclectic mix: sometimes the argument does boil down to “I just love it”, other times there’s a more reasoned approach – maybe there’s more to the serial than meets the eye. Often though, the discussion just confirms why some stories are held in such low esteem: nobody sets out to make a bad episode of a TV show, but events can easily conspire against production.

Verdict: I suspect that this would have been a stronger collection with just 25 stories picked on the merits of the essays’ arguments, but much of it makes for interesting reading.7/10

Paul Simpson