has made. Since the Stranger is played by Colin Baker and his companion Miss Brown is played by Nicola Bryant, it is often viewed as a "What-If" scenario, despite the fact that the BBV production could not legally use the Doctor Who characters. Broadcast and reception Where the previous serial, The Caves of Androzani, is frequently cast among the very best of all Doctor Who stories, the fandom often holds this serial the polar opposite, commonly regarding it as one of the very worst serials in the history of the series. The review of the story in Doctor Who: The Television Companion describes The Twin Dilemma as "painful to watch", describing the Doctor's erratic behaviour as "forced and artificial, and succeed[s] only in alienating the viewer." The review also argues the script "leaves much to be desired" and that the direction is uninteresting, giving the whole story "a rather tacky, B-movie feel to it". In SFX #150 new series producer Russell T Davies cites this story as "the beginning of the end" of Doctor Who. Tat Wood and Lawrence Miles, reviewing the story in the book About Time, noted that the divide in quality between The Caves of Androzani and The Twin Dilemma "felt wrong at the time, and still feels wrong now". They also asked "How could anyone have thought that this story, of juvenile space monsters, meaningless plans and never-ending cop-outs, was ever workable?". In his review for Radio Times, Patrick Mulkern gave the serial a negative reception, stating: "If The Twin Dilemma is individually a disaster, it also establishes the opening titles, the Doctor’s clothes, his behaviour and sniping banter with Peri – all part of an unpleasant shift in tone that would permeate and eventually poleaxe the era. How did Nathan-Turner and Saward think that this approach might be in any way acceptable?" A 1998 poll by Doctor Who Magazine ranked the serial the second worst of all time (the Children in Need special Dimensions in Time was ranked lowest), while a 2003 poll by fansite Outpost Gallifrey ranked it worst of all, below even Dimensions in Time. In 2009, another Doctor Who Magazine poll of the 200 stories produced up to that point saw the serial finish in last place again, along with finishing last in every single age group that voted (although Dimensions in Time technically scored lower, it was no longer included in