Doctor Who: Season 10 Stories Ranked and Reviewed

In my opinion (and I’ve shown a complete lack of good opinions thus far), this is the best Capaldi season. It’s still not mind-blowing, but it’s definitely one of the most consistent seasons we’ve had. How would I rank the episodes?

You can read some of my other Doctor Who posts below:

9 – The Eaters of Light

Rating: C-

I don’t think any of the episodes this season are all that bad, but this one is definitely the most forgettable of the lot.

8 – Empress of Mars

Rating: C

It only took 10 seasons and 12 years, but Gatiss finally released a serviceable episode of Who.

The Ice Warriors are a formidable foe, and the Mars setting is a lot of fun too.

7 – Knock Knock

Rating: C+

I was quite excited for the episode when it came out – it seemed like the spooky episode of Who that was sorely missing from past seasons. What we got was a little disappointing, but still a decent episode.

6 – Thin Ice

Rating: C+

With Bill as the companion, there was always going to be a racially focussed historical episode. I actually thought this was OK, and it was great seeing the Doctor punch that guy in the face (that last bit only makes sense if you’ve seen the episode).

5 – Smile

Rating: B-

Possibly one of the stupidest premises we’ve ever had in the show (Emoji bots?!?), but it was executed quite well.

4 – Extremis / Pyramid at the End of the World / Lie of the Land

Rating: B-

The first three-parter since season 3 had a lot of hype surrounding it, and it kind of delivered.

I say kind of – the first two parts were great, but the final part was a bit anticlimactic. Chalk this one down to diminishing returns.

3 – Oxygen

Rating: B+

Space zombies and capitalism? Sounds like a weird episode, but Jamie Mathieson once again proves to be one of the better writers in the show’s history.

2 – The Pilot

Rating: B+

This was such a nice u-turn from seasons 8 and 9, having Capaldi’s Doctor become a university lecturer is a creative decision nobody was expecting but everybody loved.

Bill Potts also has a nice character introduction – it’s nice having a companion who isn’t the most important person in the universe, and the fact she’s going to the Doctor’s lectures for fun makes you instantly connect with her character. A great season opener.

1 – World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls

Rating: A

I was so pleasantly surprised by this finale when it aired – Moffat hadn’t done a good finale since season 5, so an amazing finale took us all by surprise.

John Simm’s return as the Master was great to see, and the re-introduction of the Mondasian Cybermen provides a fantastic final villain to close off the season. I kind of wish this was Capaldi’s last story before his regeneration, as it would have been a perfect send-off.

Season Rating: C+

I did like this season when it aired – there are a lot of just OK episodes, but at least there were no terrible ones. Let’s see the stats for the season:

• 1 A (11%)
• 4 Bs (44%)
• 4 Cs (44%)

Very solid, not a single “bad” episode. Now let’s look at Peter Capaldi’s tenure as the 12th Doctor:

• 3 As (11%)
• 10 Bs (36%)
• 9 Cs (32%)
• 3 Ds (11%)
• 3 Es( 11%)
• 28 Stories

No too great, almost a quarter of his episode were pretty terrible, and only 1 in 9 were amazing (about one per season). Still, not bad having 79% of episodes above par, just not an ideal era to look back on.

Now for Steven Moffat’s tenure as show-runner:

• 11 As (18%)
• 19 Bs (31%)
• 16 Cs (26%)
• 10 Ds (16%)
• 6 Es (10%)
• 62 Stories

6 Es in 6 seasons isn’t a good record, and over a quarter of the episodes were sub-par. However, half of the episodes were at least good, so Moffat wasn’t the worst show-runner we’ve had (that accolade is still to come).

Next time, we look at a piece of garbage. In the meantime, you should check out some of my latest posts: