History YMMV / DoctorWhoS21E7TheTwinDilemma

* NeverLiveItDown: The Doctor dresses in what is widely regarded as the worst outfit he ever dons, has rapid mood swings, and nearly ''murders'' his companion for no reason. This episode is ''not'' looked at fondly by many, and it's often felt that it doomed Creator/ColinBaker's televised run as the Doctor right from the start. Unfortunately, this means that those viewers who gave up on the Sixth Doctor right from the start -- or in the early stages of the following season, when the Doctor wasn't out-and-out insane anymore, but was still pretty arrogant and prone to bickering with Peri -- didn't stick around to see him shake off his early characterization, which naturally ends up being all they remember him for.

* {{Narm}}: The title characters. Not only are they both horrible DullSurprise actors who were obviously only hired for being identical twins, but they have a bad case of ElmuhFuddSyndwome. "I am Womulus." "I am Wemus."

* NeverLiveItDown:
** The Doctor dresses in what is widely regarded as the worst outfit he ever dons, has rapid mood swings, and nearly ''murders'' his companion for no reason. This episode is ''not'' looked at fondly by many, and it's often felt that it doomed Creator/ColinBaker's televised run as the Doctor right from the start.
** It serves as one for the poor writer of this episode, too, Anthony Steven. He got drafted in as a newbie (at ''Doctor Who'': he was a 67-year-old veteran TV writer) with a lot of promise, but had a ''huge'' amount of trouble cranking out a story in the time frame he was given and couldn't handle the pressure or high expectations of writing for a new Doctor, especially not when his debut story (both for him and the Sixth Doctor) was pushed forward many months sooner than he expected. Eventually, in a grossly unprofessional manner, he turned in '''an incomplete script''' right before it was time to produce the story and script editor Eric Saward had to go through and bang out the rest ''very'' hastily. Needless to say, that writer ''never'' worked on ''[[CreatorKiller anything,]]'' (save a few episodes of ''Series/AllCreaturesGreatAndSmall'', which he had already worked on successfully for several years beforehand) let alone ''Doctor Who'', ever again.

* SignatureScene: [[NeverLiveItDown The Doctor strangling Peri]] is the most iconic and infamous moment of this serial.

* ToughActToFollow: It is often pointed out that it hardly helped the episode's reception, that it -- on top of all the other problems it faced -- followed right after the highly-praised and downright epic "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani The Caves of Androzani]]". This episode may have never gained the reputation of being one of the absolute worst if it didn't come after the one that is widely considered to be '''the''' absolute best.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Between an unlikable Doctor and an idiotic, nonsensical plot, there isn't much to care about here.

* WTHCostumingDepartment: All three principals--the Doctor, Peri, and Hugo--emerge from the TARDIS wardrobe room wearing terrible, terrible clothes. The Doctor's outfit is particularly notorious, the end result of Creator/JohnNathanTurner's instruction that the new costume by gaudy and tasteless in order to emphasize his alienness both among humans and on other planets, as well as his ongoing desire to ensure the leads' outfits were visually memorable [[TheMerch for merchandising purposes]]. Oh, Six's outfit was memorable alright, [[GoneHorriblyWrong just not in the way Turner had hoped for.]]

* WTHCostumingDepartment: All three principals--the Doctor, Peri, and Hugo--emerge from the TARDIS wardrobe room wearing terrible, terrible clothes. The Doctor's outfit is particularly notorious, the end result of Creator/JohnNathanTurner's instruction that the new costume by gaudy and tasteless in order to emphasize his alienness both among humans and on other planets, as well as his ongoing desire to ensure the leads' outfits were visually memorable [[TheMerch for merchandising purposes]].

* SignatureScene: [[NeverLiveItDown The Doctor strangling Peri]] is the most iconic moment of this serial.

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: Six's infamous line "I'm the Doctor, whether you like it or not!" got a bit RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap when Colin Baker applied it to the misogynist complaints against the Doctor becoming a woman thirty years later.

** The Doctor dresses in what is widely regarded as one of the worst outfits he ever dons, has rapid mood swings, and nearly ''murders'' his companion for no reason. This episode is ''not'' looked at fondly by many, and it's often felt that it doomed Creator/ColinBaker's televised run as the Doctor right from the start.

* TheScrappy:
** "The Twin Dilemma" itself is firmly squared away as this for many. Consistently ranked '''dead last''' in ''Doctor Who Magazine'' polls for best story, and lamented for even existing at all. A lot of old fans and new fans find reason to believe that this was [[JumpingTheShark the beginning of the end for the classic series.]] One reviewer even claimed that this was a "100-minute suicide note" for the whole series at large. It was also the first major firestarter of [[ExecutiveMeddling the brouhaha with then-BBC controller Michael Grade and his dogged determination to conk the show off the air for good]], because it showcased all the show's greatest flaws at once and he complained at how inane and low-budget it became in light of other sci-fi productions that were emerging and doing really well at the time, especially the new ''Series/StarTrek'' movies, ''completely eviscerating'' the existence of ''Doctor Who''.
** Anthony Steven [[MisBlamed is sometimes blamed for killing]] ''Doctor Who'' due to his failure to produce a complete script for "The Twin Dilemma" in time to go to production, causing Eric Saward to desperately try to patch together all the pieces haphazardly... [[DisasterDominoes and from there came a downward spiral that brought the show to its knees.]]

** Romulus and Remus for their non-existent personalities, non-acting and insufferable smugness. Makes one miss Adric.
** Unfortunately, this story also did a lot to make the Sixth Doctor himself this for some.

* {{Misblamed}}: Might as well get it out of the way here; the Sixth Doctor's run is considered by many to be the overall nadir of the show's entire history (despite a handful of genuine classic episodes such as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E2VengeanceOnVaros Vengeance on Varos]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E6RevelationOfTheDaleks Revelation of the Daleks]]"), and a lot of the blame for that tends to stick to Creator/ColinBaker, as a large part of the problem was with the characterisation of the Doctor himself, with this being probably the worst of it. However it would be very unfair to call Baker a bad actor- he's an extremely good actor who was unfortunately given a lot of the worst scripts the show ever saw and had to make the best of what he had, and when given genuinely good material he could really shine.

* ToughActToFollow: It is often pointed out that it hardly helped the episode's reception, that it -- on top of all the other problems it faced -- followed right after the highly-praised and downright epic "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAnrozani The Caves of Androzani]]". This episode may have never gained the reputation of being one of the absolute worst if it didn't come after the one that is widely considered to be '''the''' absolute best.

* {{Misblamed}}: Might as well get it out of the way here; the Sixth Doctor's run is considered by many to be the overall nadir of the show's entire history (despite a handful of genuine classic episodes such as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E2VengeanceOnVaros Vengeance on Varos]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E6RevelationOfTheDaleks Revelation of the Daleks]]"), and a lot of the blame for that tends to stick to Creator/ColinBaker, as a large part of the problem was with the characterisation of the Doctor himself, with The Twin Dilemma being probably the worst of it. However it would be very unfair to call Baker a bad actor- he's an extremely good actor who was unfortunately given a lot of the worst scripts the show ever saw and had to make the best of what he had, and when given genuinely good material he could really shine.

* TheScrappy: Romulus and Remus for their non-existent personalities, non-acting and insufferable smugness. Makes one miss Adric.

* ToughActToFollow: It is often pointed out that it hardly helped the episode's reception, that it -- on top of all the other problems it faced -- followed right after the highly-praised and downright epic "The Caves of Androzani". This episode may have never gained the reputation of being one of the absolute worst if it didn't come after the one that is widely considered to be '''the''' absolute best.

* ToughActToFollow: It is often pointed out that it hardly helped the episode's reception, that it -- on top of all the problems it faced -- followed right after the highly-praised and downright epic "The Caves of Androzani". This episode's reception may have never been regarded as one of the absolute worst if it didn't come after the one that is wisely considered to be '''the''' absolute best.

* ToughActToFollow: It is often pointed out that it hardly helped the episode's reception, that it -- on top of all the problems it faced -- followed right after the highly-praised and downright epic "The Caves of Androzani".

** WTHCostumingDepartment: All three principals--the Doctor, Peri, and Hugo--emerge from the TARDIS wardrobe room wearing terrible, terrible clothes. The Doctor's outfit is particularly notorious, the end result of Creator/JohnNathanTurner's instruction that the new costume by gaudy and tasteless in order to emphasize his alienness both among humans and on other planets, as well as his ongoing desire to ensure the leads' outfits were visually memorable [[TheMerch for merchandising purposes]].

* NeverLiveItDown: The Doctor dresses in what is widely regarded as one of the worst outfits he ever dons, has rapid mood swings, and nearly ''murders'' his companion for no reason. This episode is ''not'' looked at fondly by many, and it's often felt that it doomed Creator/ColinBaker's televised run as the Doctor right from the start.
** It serves as one for the poor writer of this episode, too, Anthony Steven. He got drafted in as a newbie (at ''Doctor Who'': he was a 67-year-old veteran TV writer) with a lot of promise, but had a ''huge'' amount of trouble cranking out a story in the time frame he was given and couldn't handle the pressure or high expectations of writing for a new Doctor, especially not when his debut story (both for him and the Sixth Doctor) was pushed forward many months sooner than he expected. Eventually, in a grossly unprofessional manner, he turned in '''an incomplete script''' right before it was time to produce the story and script editor Eric Saward had to go through and bang out the rest ''very'' hastily. Needless to say, that writer ''never'' worked on ''[[CreatorKiller anything,]]'' let alone ''Doctor Who'', ever again.

* {{Misblamed}}: Might as well get it out of the way here; the Sixth Doctor's run is considered by many to be the overall nadir of the show's entire history (despite a handful of genuine classic episodes such as Vengeance on Varos and Revelation of the Daleks), and a lot of the blame for that tends to stick to Creator/ColinBaker, as a large part of the problem was with the characterisation of the Doctor himself, with The Twin Dilemma being probably the worst of it. However it would be very unfair to call Baker a bad actor- he's an extremely good actor who was unfortunately given a lot of the worst scripts the show ever saw and had to make the best of what he had, and when given genuinely good material he could really shine.

** It serves as one for the poor writer of this episode, too, Anthony Steven. He got drafted in as a newbie (at ''Doctor Who'': he was a 67-year-old veteran TV writer) with a lot of promise, but had a ''huge'' amount of trouble cranking out a story in the time frame he was given and couldn't handle the pressure or high expectations of writing for a new Doctor, especially not when his debut story (both for him and the Sixth Doctor) was pushed forward many months sooner than he expected. Eventually, in a grossly unprofessional manner, he turned in '''an incomplete script''' right before it was time to produce the story and script editor Eric Saward had to go through and bang out the rest ''very'' hastily. Needless to say, that writer ''never'' worked on''[[CreatorKiller anything,]]'' let alone ''Doctor Who'', ever again.

** It serves as one for the poor writer of this episode, too, Anthony Steven. He got drafted in as a newbie (at ''Doctor Who'': he was a 67-year-old veteran TV writer) with a lot of promise, but had a ''huge'' amount of trouble cranking out a story in the time frame he was given and couldn't handle the pressure or high expectations of writing for a new Doctor, especially not when his debut story (both for him and the Sixth Doctor) was pushed forward many months sooner than he expected. Eventually, in a grossly unprofessional manner, he turned in '''an incomplete script''' right before it was time to produce the story and script editor Eric Saward had to go through and bang out the rest ''very'' hastily. Needless to say, that writer ''never'' worked on ''Doctor Who'', let alone ''[[CreatorKiller anything]]'', ever again.

* DesignatedHero: The Sixth Doctor's most infamous moment is strangling Peri. Throughout the rest of the serial he acts incredibly cowardly and at one point decides to blame her for everything; he never apologises or gets called out for any of this. The rest of his time with Peri can not help but invite uncomfortable similarities to an abusive relationship. On top of that he is one of the most violent Doctors. Thankfully the AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho stories would fix all these problems.

* DesignatedHero: The Sixth Doctor's most infamous moment is strangling Peri. Throughout the rest of the serial he acts incredibly cowardly and at one point decides to blame her for everything; he never apologises or gets called out for any of this. The rest of his time with Peri can not help but invite uncomfortable similarities to an abusive relationship. On top of that he is one of the most violent Doctors. Thankfully the audios fix all these problems.

* BetterThanCanon: This one of the few occasions where the Target Novelisation is much better than the televised story.