History YMMV / DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin

* VindicatedByHistory: The serial was viewed at the time as a failed experiment at best (the absence of TheWatson made the plot much harder to follow than normal, and the execs said it was never to happen again no matter how much Creator/TomBaker insisted that it worked) and tasteless and audience-inappropriate at worst (notoriously attracting so many complaints that the show was {{ReTool}}ed into a much less violent, more comedy-based series for most of the rest of his run)[note]It should be noted that these were mostly the impressions of hardcore fans and moral gaurdians, respectively, and the serial actually scored very well among casual audiences in the ratings and appreciation index, so much so that next season's ''The Invasion of Time'' was commissioned as a pseudo-sequel. The show becoming LighterAndSofter next season also corresponds with a new producer, so this story alone can't really be blamed for that change[/note]. Fans nowadays tend to appreciate the attempt at trying something other than MonsterOfTheWeek, the more impressionistic and political tone, the especially brutal and exciting action, and in particular the AlternateCharacterInterpretation that the Doctor gets in the story; due to not having an ally to talk to, he comes off as a brooding, quiet and much more mysterious character with a pinch of SpaghettiWestern hero about him, a sharp contrast to his usual funniness and ObfuscatingStupidity. It's not a usual candidate for Baker's best serial (those are most often cited as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars Pyramids of Mars]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]", or "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]") but is often listed as a standout, must-see story and a bit of a hipster favourite. Its reputation may go up further now that it's had a SpiritualSuccessor in the wildly-acclaimed modern-Who episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]" (no companion aside from a mental construct the Doctor's using as a coping mechanism, extremely dark story involving a deadly adversary in an EldritchLocation, FamilyUnfriendlyViolence, the Doctor at his broodiest, etc.).

* VindicatedByHistory: The serial was viewed at the time as a failed experiment at best (the absence of TheWatson made the plot much harder to follow than normal, and the execs said it was never to happen again no matter how much Creator/TomBaker insisted that it worked) and tasteless and audience-inappropriate at worst (notoriously attracting so many complaints that the show was {{ReTool}}ed into a much less violent, more comedy-based series for most of the rest of his run). Fans nowadays tend to appreciate the attempt at trying something other than MonsterOfTheWeek, the more impressionistic and political tone, the especially brutal and exciting action, and in particular the AlternateCharacterInterpretation that the Doctor gets in the story; due to not having an ally to talk to, he comes off as a brooding, quiet and much more mysterious character with a pinch of SpaghettiWestern hero about him, a sharp contrast to his usual funniness and ObfuscatingStupidity. It's not a usual candidate for Baker's best serial (those are most often cited as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars Pyramids of Mars]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]", or "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]") but is often listed as a standout, must-see story and a bit of a hipster favourite. Its reputation may go up further now that it's had a SpiritualSuccessor in the wildly-acclaimed modern-Who episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]" (no companion aside from a mental construct the Doctor's using as a coping mechanism, extremely dark story involving a deadly adversary in an EldritchLocation, FamilyUnfriendlyViolence, the Doctor at his broodiest, etc.).

* HilariousInHindsight: [[Film/TheMatrix Matrix, eh?]]

** The story is often remembered as suffering a major example of SpoiledByTheCastList, with the Master's identity as the BigBad supposedly not being established until near the end of the third episode, and yet Peter Pratt being credited as playing the Master. The Master's involvement is actually established early in the second episode when the Doctor comes across a victim of the Tissue Compression Eliminator, so it's only really the first episode that has this problem.[[note]]This is likely a result of people conflating this story with "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E1ArcOfInfinity Arc of Infinity]]", where Omega's identity as the villain as kept secret until near the end of the third episode -- and that story actually avoided spoiling this twist by crediting his actor as playing "The Renegade".[[/note]]

* CommonKnowledge: Not so much any more following the regeneration limit being addressed at the end of Creator/MattSmith's run in the title role, but for a while there was a surprisingly common misconception among fandom -- with Creator/DavidTennant, of all people, being one of the people who helped spread it -- that this was the only story that mentioned a limit on the number of regenerations, and that all other classic-era stories went with the implication in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames The War Games]]" that Time Lords had an unlimited number of regenerations and could only die permanently if their body was too badly damaged. In actual fact, the limit of twelve regenerations was a plot point in at least three other classic stories -- "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E6TheKeeperOfTraken The Keeper of Traken]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E3MawdrynUndead Mawdryn Undead]]", and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E4TheUltimateFoe The Ultimate Foe]]" -- and was mentioned in passing several times, mostly in relation with the Master's various attempts to get a new regeneration cycle.

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: The story is an OutOfGenreExperience, WorldBuilding of Time Lord culture, a NoirEpisode, a horrible zombie Master, as much SurrealHorror as the BBC budget could allow, so shockingly violent it nearly got the show canned. It is remembered for all of that, but you'll still be hard-pressed to find a member of the Classic Who EstrogenBrigade that isn't going to mention the fact that Creator/TomBaker spends most of the story wearing a see-through white shirt and there's [[SexySoakedShirt a bit where he gets wet and strikes a pose]].

--> ''You can do better than that Doctor! Even in extremis, I WEAH TEH TASH TEHTOGOO!"[[note]]"I wear the Sash of Rassilon"[[/note]]

* VindicatedByHistory: The serial was viewed at the time as a failed experiment at best (the absence of TheWatson made the plot much harder to follow than normal, and the execs said it was never to happen again no matter how much Creator/TomBaker insisted that it worked) and tasteless and audience-inappropriate at worst (notoriously attracting so many complaints that the show was {{ReTool}}ed into a much less violent, more comedy-based series for most of the rest of his run). Fans nowadays tend to appreciate the attempt at trying something other than MonsterOfTheWeek, the more impressionistic and political tone, the especially brutal and exciting action, and in particular the AlternateCharacterInterpretation that the Doctor gets in the story; due to not having an ally to talk to, he comes off as a brooding, quiet and much more mysterious character with a pinch of SpaghettiWestern hero about him, a sharp contrast to his usual funniness and ObfuscatingStupidity. It's not a usual candidate for Baker's best serial (those would be "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]", or "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]") but is often listed as a standout, must-see story and a bit of a hipster favourite. Its reputation may go up further now that it's had a SpiritualSuccessor in the wildly-acclaimed modern-Who episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]" (no companion aside from a mental construct the Doctor's using as a coping mechanism, extremely dark story involving a deadly adversary in an EldritchLocation, FamilyUnfriendlyViolence, the Doctor at his broodiest, etc.).

* ValuesResonance: The story follows all the major post-Brexit satire tropes: A tired old political establishment that does no good for anyone, and a slick politician whose only intention is personal career advancement handing the capacity to break it to a racist zombie obsessed with returning to a long-gone golden age that exists only in its imagination. The Doctor observes that to follow the Zombie's (The Master) plan would ultimately just destroy him and his world, but he's accused of lying. There's no way this was intentional considering the episode's release in 1976; the actual ''Who'' Brexit allegory story (the Monks trilogy) is somewhat less on-the-nose.
* VindicatedByHistory: The serial was viewed at the time as a failed experiment at best (the absence of TheWatson made the plot much harder to follow than normal, and the execs said it was never to happen again no matter how much Creator/TomBaker insisted that it worked) and tasteless and audience-inappropriate at worst (notoriously attracting so many complaints that the show was {{ReTool}}ed into a much less violent, more comedy-based series for most of the rest of his run). Fans nowadays tend to appreciate the attempt at trying something other than MonsterOfTheWeek, the more impressionistic and political tone, the especially brutal and exciting action, and in particular the AlternateCharacterInterpretation that the Doctor gets in the story; due to not having an ally to talk to, he comes off as a brooding, quiet and much more mysterious character with a pinch of SpaghettiWestern hero about him, a sharp contrast to his usual funniness and ObfuscatingStupidity. It's not a usual candidate for Baker's best serial (those would be "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]", or "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]") but is often listed as a standout, must-see episode and a bit of a hipster favourite. Its reputation may go up further now that it's had a SpiritualSuccessor in the wildly-acclaimed modern-Who episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]" (no companion aside from a mental construct the Doctor's using as a coping mechanism, extremely dark story involving a deadly adversary in an EldritchLocation, FamilyUnfriendlyViolence, the Doctor at his broodiest, etc.).

--> ''You can do better than that Doctor! Even in extremis, I WEAH TEH TASH TEHTOGOO!"

* {{Narm}}: The Master is depicted as a decaying husk, as he is at the end of his thirteenth and final life. This being the 1970's BBC, that meant that Peter Pratt had to wear a cumbersome rubber mask, which sometimes muffled his lines. During the climatic scene where the Doctor and the Master face off, he utters this jewel:

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Tom Baker was already well established in the role of the Doctor by now and had already had a number of classic stories (such as "Genesis of the Daleks"), but this one was something entirely different for him. Put into an entirely unique situation (forced to return to the home he'd fled from and the people he'd renounced) and without a companion to play off, the Baker's performance sees the Doctor as a grim, subdued, joyless figure, put through some of the worst ordeals of his life (particularly the battle in the Matrix), and he rises to the challenge to deliver a peerless performance.

* HeReallyCanAct: Tom Baker was already well established in the role of the Doctor by now and had already had a number of classic stories (such as "Genesis of the Daleks"), but this one was something entirely different for him. Put into an entirely unique situation (forced to return to the home he'd fled from and the people he'd renounced) and without a companion to play off, the Baker's performance sees the Doctor as a grim, subdued, joyless figure, put through some of the worst ordeals of his life (particularly the battle in the Matrix), and he rises to the challenge to deliver a peerless performance.

* VindicatedByHistory: The serial was viewed at the time as a failed experiment at best (the absence of TheWatson made the plot much harder to follow than normal, and the execs said it was never to happen again no matter how much Creator/TomBaker insisted that it worked) and tasteless and audience-inappropriate at worst (notoriously attracting so many complaints that the show was ReTooled into a much less violent, more comedy-based series for most of the rest of his run). Fans nowadays tend to appreciate the attempt at trying something other than MonsterOfTheWeek, the more impressionistic and political tone, the especially brutal and exciting action, and in particular the AlternateCharacterInterpretation that the Doctor gets in the story; due to not having an ally to talk to, he comes off as a brooding, quiet and much more mysterious character with a pinch of SpaghettiWestern hero about him, a sharp contrast to his usual funniness and ObfuscatingStupidity. It's not a usual candidate for Baker's best serial (those would be "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]", or "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]") but is often listed as a standout, must-see episode and a bit of a hipster favourite. Its reputation may go up further now that it's had a SpiritualSuccessor in the wildly-acclaimed modern-Who episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]" (no companion aside from a mental construct the Doctor's using as a coping mechanism, extremely dark story involving a deadly adversary in an EldritchLocation, FamilyUnfriendlyViolence, the Doctor at his broodiest, etc.).

* VindicatedByHistory: The serial was viewed at the time as a failed experiment at best (the absence of TheWatson made the plot much harder to follow than normal, and the execs said it was never to happen again no matter how much Creator/TomBaker insisted that it worked) and tasteless and audience-inappropriate at worst (notoriously attracting so many complaints that the show was Re Tooled into a much less violent, more comedy-based series for most of the rest of his run). Fans nowadays tend to appreciate the attempt at trying something other than Monster of the Week, the more impressionistic and political tone, the especially brutal and exciting action, and in particular the Alternate Character Interpretation that the Doctor gets in the story; due to not having an ally to talk to, he comes off as a brooding, quiet and much more mysterious character with a pinch of SpaghettiWestern hero about him, a sharp contrast to his usual funniness and ObfuscatingStupidity. It's not a usual candidate for Baker's best serial (those would be "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]", or "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]") but is often listed as a standout, must-see episode and a bit of a hipster favourite. Its reputation may go up further now that it's had a SpiritualSuccessor in the wildly-acclaimed modern-Who episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]" (no companion aside from a mental construct the Doctor's using as a coping mechanism, extremely dark story involving a deadly adversary in an EldritchLocation, FamilyUnfriendlyViolence, the Doctor at his broodiest, etc.).

* {{Narm}}: The Master is depicted as a decaying husk, as he is on his thirteenth and final life. This being the 1970's BBC, that meant that Peter Pratt had to wear a cumbersome rubber mask, which sometimes muffled his lines. During the climatic scene where the Doctor and the Master face off, he utters this jewel:

* ValuesResonance: The story follows all the major post-Brexit satire tropes: A tired old political establishment that does no good for anyone, and a slick politician whose only intention is personal career advancement handing the capacity to break it to a racist zombie obsessed with returning to a long-gone golden age that exists only in its imagination. The Doctor observes that to follow the Zombie (The Master)'s plan would ultimately just destroy him and his world, but he's accused of lying. There's no way this was intentional considering the episode's release in 1976; the actual ''Who'' Brexit allegory story (the Monks trilogy) is somewhat less on-the-nose.

* ValuesResonance: The story follows all the major post-Brexit satire tropes: A tired old political establishment that does no good for anyone, and a slick politician whose only intention is personal career advancement handing the capacity to break it to a racist zombie obsessed with returning to a long-gone golden age that exists only in its imagination. The Doctor observes that to follow the zombie's plan would ultimately just destroy him and his world, but he's accused of lying. There's no way this was intentional considering the episode's release in 1976; the actual ''Who'' Brexit allegory story (the Monks trilogy) is somewhat less on-the-nose.

* VindicatedByHistory: The serial was viewed at the time as a failed experiment at best (the absence of TheWatson made the plot much harder to follow than normal, and the execs said it was never to happen again no matter how much Creator/TomBaker insisted that it worked) and tasteless and audience-inappropriate at worst (notoriously attracting so many complaints that the show was Re Tooled into a much less violent, more comedy-based series for most of the rest of his run). Fans nowadays tend to appreciate the attempt at trying something other than Monster of the Week, the more impressionistic and political tone, the especially brutal and exciting action, and in particular the Alternate Character Interpretation that the Doctor gets in the story; due to not having an ally to talk to, he comes off as a brooding, quiet and much more mysterious character with a pinch of SpaghettiWestern hero about him, a sharp contrast to his usual funniness and ObfuscatingStupidity. It's not a usual candidate for Baker's best serial (those would be "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]", or "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]") but is often listed as a standout, must-see episode and a bit of a hipster favourite. Its reputation may go up further now that it's had a SpiritualSuccessor in the wildly-acclaimed modern-Who episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]" (no companion aside from a mental construct the Doctor's using as a coping mechanism, extremely dark story involving a deadly adversary in an EldritchLocation, FamilyUnfriendlyViolence, the Doctor at his broodiest, etc.).

--> ''You know better than that Doctor! Even in extremis, I WEAH TEH TASH TEHTOGOO!"

%%* BrokenBase: A lot of fans have complained about this story for taking place entirely on Gallifrey, and thus stripping the Time Lords of much of their mystery. On top of that, the portrayal of the Time Lords contradicts previous ones - instead of an awe-inspiring race of god-like beings, they're a bunch of petty, pompous, lying, self-serving bureaucrats with no ''idea'' of the sort of power they wield[[note]]alternatively, this story just showed the Time Lord civilisation during its decline rather than its prime[[/note]] . And then it introduced the idea of the thirteen-incarnation limit which a lot of fans wish later writers hadn't dwelt on.
%% BrokenBase requires at least two sides.

* BrokenBase: A lot of fans have complained about this story for taking place entirely on Gallifrey, and thus stripping the Time Lords of much of their mystery. On top of that, the portrayal of the Time Lords contradicts previous ones - instead of an awe-inspiring race of god-like beings, they're a bunch of petty, pompous, lying, self-serving bureaucrats with no ''idea'' of the sort of power they wield[[note]]alternatively, this story just showed the Time Lord civilisation during its decline rather than its prime[[/note]] . And then it introduced the idea of the thirteen-incarnation limit which a lot of fans wish later writers hadn't dwelt on.

* VindicatedByHistory: The serial was viewed at the time as a failed experiment at best (the absence of TheWatson made the plot much harder to follow than normal, and the execs said it was never to happen again no matter how much Creator/TomBaker insisted that it worked) and tasteless and audience-inappropriate at worst (notoriously attracting so many complaints that the show was Re Tooled into a much less violent, more comedy-based series for most of the rest of his run). Fans nowadays tend to appreciate the attempt at trying something other than Monster of the Week, the more impressionistic and political tone, the especially brutal and exciting action, and in particular the Alternate Character Interpretation that the Doctor gets in the story; due to not having an ally to talk to, he comes off as a brooding, quiet and much more mysterious character with a pinch of SpaghettiWestern hero about him, a sharp contrast to his usual funniness and ObfuscatingStupidity. It's not a usual candidate for Baker's best serial (those would be "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]", or "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]") but is often listed as a standout, must-see episode and a bit of a hipster favourite. Its reputation may go up further now that it's had a SpiritualSuccessor in the wildly-acclaimed modern-Who episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent Hell Bent]]" (no companion aside from a mental construct the Doctor's using as a coping mechanism, extremely dark story involving a deadly adversary in an EldritchLocation, FamilyUnfriendlyViolence, the Doctor at his broodiest, etc.).

* VindicatedByHistory: Fans hated this story when it was first broadcast. Now it's considered one of the all-time classics of the series.