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Doctor Who is a family show and so with that comes the expectation that the Doctor always saves the day, or that there's at least some hope by the time the end credits roll. However, throughout a near 60-year lifespan, Doctor Who has had many episodes in which the Doctor loses.

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Despite them being a time-traveling alien with a knack for coming out on top against impossible odds, there have been a surprising amount of times when the Doctor outright fails. Whether it's being unable to defeat the threat at hand or the victory coming at a cost far greater than the success was worth, the Doctor's adventures haven't always ended with a win.

10 The Caves of Androzani

Doctor Who The caves of Androzani Sharaz Jek

The Caves of Androzani has been ranked as the best Doctor Who episode of all time by many fans, and it's Peter Davison's swansong as the Fifth Doctor. The Doctor and Peri are poisoned while exploring the caves, and need to find an antidote while avoiding the two warring factions who seek control over the life-preserving drug, Spectrox.

The classic series was no stranger to having stories in which nearly most characters die and the Caves of Androzani follows the trend with every single male character being killed by the end of the episode. The Doctor manages to find a cure for the poison but drops his phial leaving only one left. He then sacrifices himself to save Peri, whom he only met in the previous story.

9 The Waters Of Mars

Doctor Who Waters Of Mars Ten and Adelaide

The Waters of Mars is widely regarded by fans as one of the best Tenth Doctor stories and there's plenty of justification for that. The episode is a dark exploration of fixed points in time, and more famously the birth of the Time Lord victorious.

While the Doctor does defeat the Flood, the fixed point in time that he attempts to alter still plays out in much the same way. The Flood would have been destroyed regardless of the Doctor's presence and Adelaide commits suicide in the end which leaves history largely unchanged. As a result, the Doctor is given a rude awakening and reminded that the laws of time do not obey him.

8 Warriors Of The Deep

Doctor Who Warriors of the Deep

Warriors of the Deep is far from a fan favorite, but it saw the return and team-up of the Silurians and the Sea-Devils which is a neat idea at the very least. One thing that does stand out, however, is the ending to this otherwise forgettable episode.

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As with any Silurian story, the Doctor desperately tries to facilitate peace talks between Homo Reptilia and the humans, but his efforts are futile. What follows is a bloodbath which leads to the genocide of the Silurians and Sea Devils, as well as the death of all but one of the human crew. The Doctor sums up the episode perfectly with the line, "There should have been another way".

7 The War Games

Doctor Who The War Games Two with Jamie and Zoe

The War Games is the ten-part epic finale for the Second Doctor played by Patrick Troughton. The story involves the Doctor trying to uncover why soldiers from various points in Earth's history are being abducted and made to fight in simulated battles.

The Doctor discovers that The War Chief, another rogue Time Lord is responsible, but he is unable to return everyone to their respective time zones. The Doctor is forced to contact the Time Lords as they are the only ones who can fix things, but this results in his companions being sent back too and the Doctor himself being exiled to Earth as punishment for his interfering with time.

6 Midnight

Doctor Who Midnight

Midnight is one of the prime examples of how Doctor Who can do horror. This episode all takes place in the tight confines of a tourist shuttle on a hostile planet and sees the passengers slowly turn on each other after an unknown entity possesses one of them. After the entity steals the Doctor's voice, the other passengers believe he is now the one possessed and attempt to throw him out of the shuttle which will vaporize him.

This is only averted because the shuttle's hostess realizes the Doctor is not the one possessed, and she sacrifices herself to kill the entity and save the Doctor in the process. The Doctor ends up playing no part in saving the day and his intervention only increases the tensions and paranoia within the shuttle which almost costs him his life.

5 The Silurians

Doctor Who and the Silurians

The Doctor has a poor track record when it comes to helping the Silurians and humans broker peace and their first appearance is no different. The Silurians or "Doctor Who And The Silurians" as the episode is officially titled is a Third Doctor story in which a group of Silurians are awakened by human drilling.

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Despite the Doctor's efforts, the humans and a rogue element of the Silurians are incapable of co-existing. The Silurian leader helps the Doctor put his people back into hibernation, but the Brigadier and UNIT blow them up anyway, committing genocide. The Doctor, unaware of this plan until it's too late, calls the Brigadier out for "murder" but drives off knowing he failed to save them.

4 The Doctor Falls

Doctor Who The Doctor Falls

The Doctor Falls is the Twelfth Doctor's penultimate episode and sees him face off against the Cybermen, and two versions of the Master. The episode is filled with losses and while the Doctor eventually escapes, he fails to stop the threat completely and loses everyone around him.

Bill is converted into a Cyberman, which is reversed, but the Doctor isn't aware that she survives, and Nardole stays behind on the ship to help defend the people on it from the ever-advancing Cybermen. Both incarnations of the Master kill each other and the Doctor is forced to fight the Cybermen alone before he is overwhelmed by them and killed leading to his regeneration.

3 Genesis Of The Daleks

doctor-who-genesis-of-the-daleks

Genesis of the Daleks is probably the most iconic episode in the classic series with its introduction of Davros and the Fourth Doctor's famous speech about genocide. The Doctor is contacted by the Time Lords and tasked with the mission of going back to Skaro and preventing the creation of the Daleks.

As the story unfolds, the Doctor is confronted with the opportunity to wipe out the Daleks for good. What follows is the Doctor debating whether he has the right to commit genocide and in the end, he chooses not to eradicate them. The Doctor fails to prevent the Daleks' genesis, and they go on to wreak havoc all throughout the universe.

2 Inferno

Doctor Who inferno

Inferno is one of the few examples in the classic series of events traumatizing the Doctor and having a lasting impact on him. After the Doctor visits a project which aims to drill into the Earth's crust, he finds himself transported into a parallel world where the same project is underway and his friends have never met him before.

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The Doctor attempts to stop the drilling as it will unleash forces capable of wiping out all life on Earth, but he fails to convince everybody in time and the parallel world is doomed to be engulfed in a fiery inferno. The Doctor manages to escape and stop the drilling in his own universe, but the parallel world is destroyed and everybody in it killed.

1 Turn Left

Doctor Who turn left Donna and Wilf

Turn Left is the ultimate example of the Doctor losing, but it also explores the repercussions of it too. Set in an alternate universe, in which Donna never met the Doctor, Turn Left explores how events would have differed had their chance encounter ceased to happen.

In this alternate world, the Doctor is killed while fighting the Racnoss which results in a dystopian version of affairs from that point onwards. Martha and Sarah Jane are killed, Captain Jack is captured by the Sontarans, and the world is shaken by the events of Partners in Crime and Voyage of the Damned. Had Donna not restored time back to its original state, the Daleks would have also succeeded in destroying all reality.

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