Ranking Doctor Who Series 1-10

they spent about two weeks since I've talked about Doctor Who I think it's too long so I can't stop myself I am on a roll with doing lists related to Doctor Who and this one was actually suggested but in some of the comments by a couple of different people I'm gonna rank the series of new Doctor Who breaking them all down breaking them starting with the worst going up to the best I'll try and keep the preamble short but honestly this was really really hard and it was something I've never really done because I and I feel I need to be real emphatic about this at the start I don't believe there is a bad series of Doctor Who even the ones that I put at the very bottom I still liked I am NOT one of those fans who goes ah that year was crap I've never had that experience with Doctor Who I've had specific episodes I didn't like but I've never had a series as a whole or I was like oh what a waste of my time one last thing I do have to mention even though there's been 10 series I've actually got 11 entries because I'm counting the specials as their own separate thing which I'm effectively counting is the series so that is enough preamble starting at the bottom series seven and I was I don't want to say it was shocked but I was a little surprised because I mean I see a lot of forms on a lot of other videos people love to crap all over series 7 and until I sat down to do this ranking I had a hard time figuring out why because I enjoyed it for the most part until I really had to compare it to the other ones now series 7 was the one where they broke up the series halfway through first of all that structure does the series no favors it means it feels like two small series rather than one big one it doesn't have much structure in any larger sense and then for me part of the other problem is the addition of Clara now I Clara did grow on me eventually but she started out in a rough place because when she first shows up she's not a character she's a mystery box she's a plot point she does doing like I was way more interested in the future iteration of her we saw an asylum of the Daleks and the Victoria narration we saw her in the snowmen then I was with the version we actually got but even if I look at the front half which is the one with Amy and Rory which I think is better overall than the back half of this thing there's still some not great stuff in this I think ultimately the capital was that I kind of struggled to figure out the standout episode of this series I mean I guess it would either be asylum of the Daleks or name of the doctor but that's the first and last episode of series that means that there's a whole lot of white noise in the middle of this thing I mean a couple of high points there's some ones I still like in there but those are the only two that I'm like yeah those are real good episodes and that's not a great batting average for this thing so that occupies the bottom spot moving up to an odd space number 10 that will bring us to series 2 which also surprised me a little bit it's funny I've actually had people comment mainly on my worst episodes list that a boy I must hate series 2 and in my head I don't act honestly some of my favorite episodes are in series 2 but it's also got a lot of clunkers I mean you know for every Satan pit and impossible planet and doomsday we get stuff like new earth and love and monsters and fear her or the idiots Lantern I mean there's still some saving graces there's school reunion which is good there's girl in the fireplace which is great and there's some of the others I already mentioned but even though it's got a better batting average than series 7 does which is wise placed higher when this seat went seems too missed it missed hard moving up another spot series 3 I think there's probably the first one I'm gonna have on here that I'm gonna get some serious pushback on from some fans because well look they aside from there being some phenomenal episodes in this series blink and I and the family blood human nature pool but then there's Daleks in Manhattan which is painful the Shakespeare Code in 42 which are just kind of bland and then if I'm looking at the series as a whole there's two other big things I don't love this take on the master and I talked about this before so I won't dwell on it too much I like John Sims later performances as the master I liked him better when he was in the end of time I liked him better when he showed up at the end of series 10 his initial intro here in series 3 I didn't love and then there's the other thing which is Martha and I know I'm gonna get pushback on this as well but I don't love Martha but I also I really stress I want to clarified that has much more to do with character use and the way the show kind of treated her as a character then it does the performance of the actual characterization because I actually think Martha is a very good character she's a strong character I think she's a character who deserved better than the show treated her I feel like the show almost intentionally stacked the deck against Martha it kept over and over and over comparing her to Rose and like deliberately trying it trying to make it an unfavorable comparison and really emphasizing how hung up the doctor still was on Rose and it just turned Martha into a rebound when she's better than that so I didn't like how she was handled in this series overall the master wasn't doing it for me at this point and so between those two factors which are major ones where you're looking at the series as a whole yeah this is on the lower end moving up to the eighth spot appropriately enough is Series eight which was Peter Capaldi's first series and I did like Peter Capaldi pretty much out the gate but I didn't love him yet not in this series he would take a little while to grow on me there's that he wasn't quite fully connecting with me we're still toting Clara around and while she started her chemistry's better with Capaldi than it was when she was with Matt Smith but she's only just starting to work for me as a character in this one I think part of the thing with series 8 is it's a series that I enjoyed when it first aired it's one that probably took the biggest hit I revisit it what I realized like some of the episodes that I thought were great like listen I actually have a fair number of issues with when I rewatched it again and really the only episode that I'm like yes is mummy on the Orient Express there are still some of the good ones flatline is good I like robots of Sherwood I think death in heaven and the the finisher pretty strong but overall it was it was not the strongest debut that they could have given Capaldi not terrible by any means but but yeah just kind of middling moving up to the seventh spot we stick with Peter Capaldi and we get series 9 now series 9 I like Capaldi much better now I know some people found the whole guitar playing and the sonic sunglasses everything really cringey Ike I kind of liked it I kind of loved it actually it's this aging rock star vibe and I think he's really good for that overall I do think this is a pretty strong series there's only two falldown episodes and I'm gonna come back to them because they are the primary reason this series isn't higher as a whole but by this point car and the doctor are actually really working for me they're gelling very well they've made clara a proper character and i found it interesting the whole she was like trying to be him and the doctor was like don't try and be me that's a bad idea and that actually leads to her death and face the Raven which was good and oh this this sees this series had heaven-sent oh my god that episode and that one is one I was so happy to revisit and realize no it's still just as good as I remember it thank you but then we've got the fall downs first there's Sleep No More which just yeah it may want to make my worst episodes list and but then there's hell-bent now my opinion the the exact nature of my opinion on how bent has wavered over time it's gone up and down initially I was just befuddled and confused by this and I didn't know what to make of it then I kind of through the help of I kind of understood what it was doing better so I couldn't say it failed at what it was doing but I still didn't like it and now as more time has passed I've actually come to really dislike it again a lot of it having to do with its intent as well as its execution and that that episode alone honestly really drags this this series down partly because it's the finale and partly because it impacts and and what happens in this impact so many other things that I can't just deal with it as an isolated oh that was just one bad episode like I can with other clunkers in other series there's too much tied up in that one moving up to the sixth place spot we have the David Tennant specials so in case you don't remember that means the next doctor the dead planet the waters of Mars and the end of time parts one and two now I don't think that there is a complete junk episode out of this lot I think probably the weakest one is plant out of the Dead or dead planet or what I could on ax Steven I'm having a hard time remembering what the title was which I think shows the the falls out of that one it's fine it's functional there's nothing really wrong with it but it's pretty generic it's not particularly memorable I actually have a really soft spot for the next Doctor I really find it sweet and endearing and I'm there's a lot of aspects I like about that episode with waters of Mars I know I have downplayed that episode before because I a lot of people have a lot stronger love for that episode than I do but it is still very good even if I'm don't put it on the same pedestal other people do and the end of time seems to be surprisingly divisive I think a lot of people are down on how drawn-out the endings and the goodbyes are and I get that but kind of like with the end of Return of the King for me for the journey we've been through I thought it felt earned and we get what for me was an iteration of the master that I liked a lot better than he was the first time we get the return of the time Lloyd's and Timothy Dalton we get we hear Wilf I love Wilf and overall I think this is just a strong set of episodes I'm not sure anything is quite truly stellar I mean if I were to pick a favorite of this lot it would be the end of time but I still recognize there are some sort of structural issues with the end of time and I understand why other people have problems with it I can still enjoy it but that gets it you're basically dead center of this list so we can get into what I can safely call the upper half which brings us to number 5 series 1 this one I actually didn't think was going to make it this high because it's probably almost a 50/50 split between episodes I like and episodes I don't but first off we've got Dalek and we've got the empty child and the doctor dances which those two stories those are some of my favourite Doctor Who ever I adore those stories and honestly maybe gets bumped up artificially because of this but this was Christopher Eccleston the only series and even in the episodes I don't love I really liked him as the doctor I like number 9 I like him a lot and I wish we could have gotten more time with him and you know maybe I'm boosting the series placement overall because of him more than the strength of the series as a whole but if that's even if that's the case so be it in fourth place we have series 6 which is another series that I hear a lot of people have issues with that I I can't say that they're wrong I just don't share them first of all I really like Amy and Rory and I think this stretch of episodes is where the dynamic of the two of them with the doctor in that trio was really firing on all cylinders I like River saw her like her use in this I like the reveals we get about her I like the Impossible Astronaut I like a good man goes to war I love the doctor's wife I really like the god complex I feel like over all this this is the series where mass meth and these companions were at their most comfortable they were their most fun they were their most energetic plus the series was the introduction to the silence and I know this is blasphemy in some circles but I like the silence better than the weeping angels I mean that's just me personally because you know the idea that they messed with your head and you can't remember that just it's my buttons a little harder than living statues but they just work better for me we are getting right up there top three spots now number three series five Matt Smith's first series now even though I said before I think series six the overall team dynamic between Amy Rory and the doctor was working best then I think actual overall writing and the episodes themselves are stronger in series five and now I had a hard time figuring out which with those was gonna come out on top of the other and if I did this list again maybe I'd switch them around but this is where they're landing for right now and I've said before the eleventh hour was a phenomenal opening and intro to not only Matt Smith's doctor but also Amy and how their dynamic was gonna work I think the series has one of the better mystery box story mysteries over the course of the series overall it's got the return of the weeping angels it's got the doctor and Vincent which is an episode that I've really come to appreciate as time has gone on this was just a heck of a starter for Matt Smith and it's yeah it's right up there getting up to top two and if you've been keeping track and doing your math you realize what the last two are gonna be and that does mean that the number two spot surprised me I was not expecting this one to land this high I really wasn't but what I looked at things overall like yeah number two series 10 the most recent series that finished airing first of all this is Capaldi at his best so far as I'm concerned I think he got better every single series that he was on and by the time he finished I absolutely loved him I love Bill I was so sure based on some of the pre-release material that they put out that I was gonna hate Bill I loved her I loved nardole I loved Missy so for me this series has possibly the best sort of series long elements ever and then it comes down to having some really good individual episodes on top of that we've got oxygen we've got extremists we've got world enough in time war and to my way of thinking no real clunker episodes I think probably the weakest was empress of Mars but even that was fine this was just a really good solid series and it made me all the more sad that Capaldi was leaving because this man it just kept getting better and I wish I could have seen what we would have gone with one more series but that does mean we are at the number one spot in my opinion the best series of Doctor Who series four first off let's be upfront Don is my favorite companion by a pretty decent margin and I've said that before and I'll reiterate it now and that goes a long way towards really lifting the series up as a whole I think I've realized as I more to this series that the overall elements that you've that stretch across the whole series are more likely to booyah series over some a couple of wonky episodes then a few stellar episodes are to Bowie a series that otherwise just has a lot of elements that aren't working for me I think Don is a good example of that I think the again this is one of the better mystery boxes with the appearances of Rosen not knowing how that's working as we find out as we go on but then if we want to get down into individual episodes on top of that midnight silence in the library we got the return of Davros Sontarans the OOD fires a Pompeii which had to be fair was lent additional poignancy by Capaldi's coming back because the doctor but just this oh man this is a great series you know I'm not saying it's perfect there are a couple of ones that I'm not a big fan of in here I don't really think the doctor's daughter works it really needed to be a two-parter I've got issues with certain elements of unicorn the wasa they don't quite work for me partners in crime is good not great but what I'm looking at series overall the big picture for me it's series four but like I said these were all good series of television as far as I'm concerned but that's my own personal ranking assuming you've made it to the end and didn't switch off because I gave a little ranking to your favorite series what are your thoughts on this list how would you order it whatever your thoughts are drop something down in the comments let's talk about it don't forget to Like subscribe as I am contractually obligated to remind you to do check me out on Twitter at Council of geeks give a listen to the council of geeks podcast available on iTunes and stitcher I'm also one half of the punch like a girl podcast it's also available on iTunes and stitcher and until next time this council is adjourned [Applause] [Applause]

Channel: Council of Geeks

Views: 87,888

Rating: 4.7375746 out of 5

Keywords: doctor who, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, matt smith, christopher eccelston, david tennant, peter capaldi

Id: VNFGIaUC668

Length: 17min 54sec (1074 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 03 2017