Every Modern-era Doctor Who Episode Ranked (Part 2 - 100-76)

We’re continuing our ranking of every ‘Doctor Who’ episode from the modern era. We’re into the top 100 now so have left behind the worst of the worst and starting to look at some better stories.

100. Robot of Sherwood

This episode may be ridiculous (too ridiculous for a lot of critic's tastes), but there are some fun moments in it. The relationship between the Doctor and Robin Hood is worth a few laughs and Ben Miller is delightfully evil as the Sheriff of Nottingham. Although this is a bit throwaway and flimsy, it is one of the stronger Mark Gatiss scripts.

99. Boom Town

Although this may feel like a low-budget filler episode to pad out the first series, there are enough humorous moments to make it feel warranted. The chemistry between the four leads is great and you can tell they’re having a lot of fun. The highlight of this episode though is the scene between the Doctor and Margaret going for dinner. Hearing the brilliant Annette Badland plead for her life and describe to the Doctor what will happen to her when she is executed is great drama. Unfortunately, there is no plot to speak of, but it’s enjoyable enough.

98. The Doctor’s Daughter

This episode is now probably best remembered for bringing future spouses David and Georgia Tennant together rather than the actual plot itself. Georgia Moffet is excellent though as Jenny, full of energy and enthusiasm that is magnetic to watch. There are also some rather emotional moments, not least of which the death of the Hath that sacrifices itself to save Martha and the eventual death of Jenny. The other guest cast are wasted though and the plot isn’t hugely gripping.

97. The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood

The poor design of the Silurians in classic Who became a big stick to prod the declining quality of the show in the 80’s and resulted in a number of parodies, probably most infamously by French and Saunders. The redesign, however, isn’t much better. This two-parter starts off well, but declines greatly in the second part. The death of Rory (AGAIN!) does provide a decent climax though.

96. The Caretaker

There’s just about enough laughs and light-hearted moments to make ‘The Caretaker’ passable. Capaldi has a chance to do something completely different with his Doctor and show how great a comic actor he is. The plot is completely bland and pointless though, and unfortunately this is the point where Danny Pink goes from a relatively interesting character to just annoying.

95. Tooth and Claw

It’s never properly explained why a Werewolf from outer space waits for years for Queen Victoria to stumble across a random Scottish estate in order to take over the British Empire, which is probably the big issue with ‘Tooth and Claw’. The fighting monks are also unexplained as well as ridiculous and the poor CGI Werewolf takes away some of the threat. Pauline Collins’ Victoria is a fantastic guest appearance though and we get to properly see the great chemistry between Rose and Tennant’s Doctor.

94. Hell Bent

Steven Moffat went one step too far in order to outdo himself with the Series 6 arc of time going wrong and he does a similar thing with Series 8 and ‘Hell Bent’. They try to make references to the Hybrid, but we’re never really that interested and this undoes a lot of the great stuff that ‘Heaven Sent’ set up. It’s always great to see Gallifrey again, especially seeing the legend of the Doctor on his home planet put into practice, but the return of Clara after her exit two episodes prior feels unnecessary.

93. Rose

The episode that brought it all back to the 21st century. Christopher Ecclestone’s introduction shows why he’s perfect casting and there are some really nice individual scenes such as Clive speaking to Rose about the Doctor. The threat of the Nestene Consciousness is an uninteresting plot, but that’s not what this episode is for. Showing the audience what this new series was going to be all about is what ‘Rose’ needed to do and it does just that.

92. A Good Man Goes To War

If it wasn’t part of the uninteresting arc of Series 6, I may well have put this higher. The overall story of Amy’s fake child doesn’t quite work for me and the reveal of River Song being Amy and Rory’s daughter doesn’t have the dramatic impact that they were looking for. There are some fun moments though with old characters coming back to help fight alongside the Doctor.

91. Aliens in London/World War 3

OK, hear me out. If you can get past the farting aliens, this is a great two-parter. An interesting plot around political infiltration, some great supporting cast (particularly Penelope Wilson as Harriet Jones) and some more chances for Ecclestone to shine as the Doctor. The Slitheen aren’t that bad a villain either. So, if you’re willing to forgive the fart jokes, you’ll be in for a really entertaining story. That is a big if though.

90. Nightmare in Silver

A lot about this episode is rubbish. The Cybermen have never been less threatening, the children are beyond irritating and the plot around the Cybermen’s rise from their tombs is nonsensical. It’s crazy to think this was written by Neil Gaiman who in general is a pretty amazing writer. There’s just one reason why it’s this high in the list. MATT BLOODY SMITH!!! He absolutely kills it playing two versions of the Doctor and completely makes the episode.

89. Deep Breath

Peter Capaldi’s introduction episode is one of the weaker Doctor introductions, but he makes the most of the few bits he has. There are some tense moments later in the episode and the Half-Face Man is an average villain, but I don’t see why the run time was 30 minutes longer than usual.

88. The Bells of Saint John

Like I’ve said before, Clara as the impossible girl is just not as interesting as she is with Capaldi’s Doctor. There are too many times when she comes across as childish and inconsequential to the plot. In terms of ‘The Bells of Saint John’, somewhere within this episode there’s a half-decent plot, but once again it suffers from being solved far too quickly at the end. I would’ve liked to have seen more of Celia Imrie as well.

87. Kerblam!

Lee Mack died far too early on and I’ll never forgive this episode for it! There’s an interesting concept to ‘Kerblam’s’ premise of an Amazon-style corporation going too far. Why then do they turn the villain of this episode into a terrorist fighting for human rights? It’s such a shame and a very odd move for Chibnall in comparison to the rest of his political overtones in his series’ as show runner.

86. Face the Raven

The whole plot of ‘Face the Raven’ was purely to set-up the death of Clara and precede the final two parts of the series. In many ways, this episode is fairly average with not much of a compelling story, but Clara’s goodbye is handled very well and she has a beautiful send off, much better than her send off in ‘Hell Bent’.

85. The Girl Who Died/The Woman Who Lived

If this were just about ‘The Girl Who Died’, this episode would be much higher up the list. The flashback to ‘Fires of Pompeii’ is a particular highlight and Capaldi’s statement of intent to save Ashildr is a great moment for the Doctor. ‘The Woman Who Lived’ however, is a big disappointment. Maisie Williams is a good actress, but her performance here isn’t captivating enough to carry the episode and the Mire coming back is pointless.

84. The Return of Doctor Mysterio

This Christmas special could have easily been terrible. Doctor Who meeting the superhero genre on the outside is a ridiculous concept, but it sort of works. The inclusion of Nardole coming back as a companion is a welcome one as Matt Lucas never fails to be funny. Justin Chatwin also puts in an entertaining performance as Grant to make this a welcome return for Who after a year-long hiatus.

83. 42

Definitely the strongest episode written by Chris Chibnall before he became show runner. Martha having to deal with pub quiz questions in order to get through gates to the bridge is really fun (even the Doctor doesn’t know if Elvis or the Beatles had more number 1’s) and her moment with Riley in the escape pod before they think they’re about to die is acted really well. Unfortunately, the main drama between the captain and her infected husband isn’t quite compelling enough to hang the episode on.

82. The Snowmen

Ian McKellen could provide the voiceover for ‘Noddy’ and I would be hooked. His voice is perfect for the Great Intelligence, brilliantly backed up by Richard E Grant. Matt Smith is great here as a depressed Doctor, struggling to cope with the loss of Amy and Rory. This is also Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax’s best appearance, so overall a fairly solid Christmas special, even if the CGI snowmen are less threatening than an actual snowman.

81. Partners in Crime

Let’s face it. Nobody actually cared that there’s no real threat or villains or engaging plot for this episode. ‘Partners in Crime’ is all about reuniting the Doctor with Donna and showing that we can expect a lot of laughs from Series 4. Tennant and Catherine Tate have brilliant on-screen chemistry and Russell T Davies does really well to preview that in this series opener. Special shout out as well to the sound effects of the Adipose ships; love those!

80. Hide

‘Hide’ shows that Smith’s Doctor and Clara do have some good chemistry; it’s just a shame that they don’t have the solid stories to back it up. Dougray Scott and Jessica Raine make the best of a poor script to bring out the relationship between their characters. Although the ghost story gets a bit muddled by the end, there are some genuinely freaky moments which if you were watching in a darkened room would be pretty scary. Writer Neil Cross, famous for creating the TV series ‘Luther’, said that he wanted to write a really old-fashioned scary episode, and I think he achieves that.

79. The Ghost Monument

It’s fine. It’s kind of a step down from Jodie’s opening episode but it has some exciting moments and has a decent build-up to the rediscovery of the TARDIS. The one thing it does show off is the increased production budget the show now has with its illustrious locations and visual effects. It does receive minus points though for introducing the Timeless Child story arc.

78. The Sontaran Strategem/The Poison Sky

The return of one of the more popular classic Who monsters is overall a successful one. There’s some great humour, a well-paced story and all-round good performances, especially Ryan Sampson as Luke Rattigan, whose sacrifice is unfortunately forgotten about. The main issue lies with the Sontarans themselves; a clichéd and bland creation that never pose as much threat as other main Who villains like the Daleks or Cybermen.

77. Night Terrors

The heart of this episode lies with the great performances of Matt Smith and Daniel Mays. The two act brilliantly together and alongside a genuinely scary monster in the wooden dolls, this episode works really well. Unlike previous episodes that feature child characters such as ‘Fear Her’, this one doesn’t necessarily rely on them to hold the episode together. The relationship between Daniel Mays and his son comes together beautifully at the end in a really emotional moment, and although some critics were frustrated that it didn’t blend in well with the series arc, that really didn’t bother me.

76. Voyage of the Damned

It was inevitable that Doctor Who would eventually do a Titanic episode, but a Titanic episode in space is a stroke of genius, perhaps even more importantly that it set up the concept for ‘Mummy on the Orient Express’. Even though there are some cheesy moments and the episode is almost ruined by the unnecessary ending of having Max Capricorn as the overall villain, there is enough heart to make it a classic Christmas special. I don’t care what other people say, Kylie Minogue is great and I’d have loved her to have been a full time companion. The rest of the guest cast is also impressive, but perhaps the most crucial one; Bernard Cribbins who we’d end up seeing a lot more of as Donna’s grandfather.

I hope you’ve enjoyed part 2 of this list. Do come back soon for part 3 of my ranking of every Doctor Who episode of the modern era.