Welcome to CultBox’s Doctor Who Awards, where we’ll celebrate the best bits of the frankly quite excellent Season 9 by using the word ‘winner’ a lot.

 

Best corridor to run along: The Drum

What a banner year for corridors to run down it has been. From Skaro’s asymmetrical retro spaces which harked back to the early days of the show, to the videogame-like corridors of the Le Verrier Space Station, all the way to Gallifrey’s Citadel.

But the best must surely be the sloshy, drippy, spooky, corridors of the subaquatic Drum base in ‘Under the Lake’.

 

Most heartbreaking moment: Clara faces the raven

Top marks to new writer Sarah Dollard, who created a spot-on farewell for Clara (well, we thought it was farewell at the time); one which was emotional without being overwrought, and thoughtful without being overlong.

The scene shows the usually capable Clara at her most out of depth, but in being so demonstrates how brave she is. Clara dutifully accepts her fate, says her farewells and, ever the bossypants, ensures The Doctor will not go nuts once she’s dead.

“Let me be brave, let me be brave…”

 

Best director: Rachel Talalay

We tend to take it for granted, but there’s been some really good direction this year.

Justin Molotnikov made great use of the found footage style in the fan-dividing ‘Sleep No More’, and in any other year Daniel Nettheim would win, simply for that sequence in the Black Archive in ‘The Zygon Inversion’, managing to make a 10 minute conversation tense and dynamic.

But Rachel Talalay’s our deserved winner, for rising to the very different challenges presented by ‘Heaven Sent’ and ‘Hell Bent’, giving us a stunning season finale.

 

Best new monster/villain: The Fisher King’s ghosts

Snake-faced Colony Sarff was a brilliant idea but short-lived and overshadowed by his master (not that one), while the Sandmen from ‘Sleep No More’ just reminded us of the Thing (it’s still way too soon to be reminding us that we sat through Fantastic Four this summer), and The Mire and Lenny the Lion were little more than props in Ashildr’s episodes.

Even the big, stompy, techo-prawn The Fisher King turned out to be a mountainous lurch of costume and prosthetics that’ll one day look terrific when you’re having a selfie with him at the Doctor Who Experience.

But his hollow-eyed ghosts? Now, they were scary.

 

Best returning monster/villain: The Zygons

It’s a strongly competitive category this, what with the Daleks, Davros, Missy and The Time Lords (yes, they count) all packed into Season 9.

No doubt you will have your own favourite. But for the way they were used to such great and prescient effect by Peter Harness, the Zygons (on only their third ever appearance in the show) have to be our winner here.

 

Funniest scene: ‘It’s bigger on the inside!’

Season 9 might well prove to be the most chucklesome the show has ever been.

This was, after all, the year that saw Davros making a joke about another chair on Skaro, and Missy using Clara to test the height of a drop. Not to mention all of Doctor Twelve’s acerbic asides.

But the best must surely be from ‘The Husbands of River Song’, as the Doctor gets to do something he’s always wanted to do, and do it right, as he theatrically over-reacts to the interior of the TARDIS.

 

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