Doctor Who: Season 12 Stories Ranked and Reviewed

Finally, after 11 seasons (and the 2009 specials) we’ve made it to the final season of the show (so far). Up until the finale I thought this was an average / slightly worse than average season, but The Timeless Child reveal well and truly killed any chance this season had. How would I rank these episodes?

Check out some of my other Doctor Who lists below:

8 – Orphan 55

Rating: F

With possibly the exception of “Love & Monsters”, this is the worst episode in the show’s history – and it’s definitely the worst written one.

Nothing goes right in this story – the monster is bad, the characters are poorly written, and there are so many plot-holes / stupid moments.

To be fair to this episode, it was a lot of fun after it had aired to go online and see people complain about it, since you could literally tear it apart for hours.

7 – Ascension of the Cybermen / The Timeless Children

Rating: E

The first part of this finale was slightly bad, but it’s the second part of the two-parter that is so insulting to the Who fanbase.

I won’t go into details, but I’m one of those people that thinks the “Timeless Child” is the worst story arc / retcon ever, and it completely vandalises everything that previous show-runners had masterfully created.

The actual episode itself has some terrible moments, like the Doctor willingly letting someone else sacrifice themselves (what happened to “never cowardly”?) and Ryan being able to throw a large metal ball 100 meters despite having Dyspraxia.

I’m not sure if I’ll even watch the next season, that’s how bad this finale was.

6 – Can You Hear Me?

Rating: E+

This episode is probably the biggest waste of a good premise in the show’s history.

Having some sort of nightmare God that uses the Doctor to free his evil accomplish was a great start, but then nothing else happens and the pair of supposedly powerful Gods are defeated far too easily.

5 – Praxeus

Rating: D-

It’s a good looking episode with all the shooting taking place on location and the special effects looking cool, but that’s pretty much all this episode has going for it.

4 – Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror

Rating: B-

A surprising jump up in quality, and I would genuinely consider half the stories in this season to be quite good.

This is one of the best pure historical episodes we’ve had in years, and the rivalry between Tesla and Edison is a sight to behold. It’s a shame the monster is a bit underwhelming (and a complete rip-off of the Racnoss, even if they are apparently a related species).

3 – The Haunting of Villa Diodati

Rating: B

One of the creepiest episodes in a long time, and the Lone Cyberman is the kind of villain the show was desperate for.

Having the Doctor lose also sets up the finale brilliantly, and at the time I couldn’t wait to see where the story would go.

2 – Spyfall: Part One / Part Two

Rating: B+

After season 11, I had reasons to doubt whether I should even be watching the show, but all my fears were washed aside in the best way.

They spared no expense making this espionage thriller, and the Master reveal is one of the best twists we’ve ever had. It’s a shame the season arc didn’t work out, but it kept me on the edge of my seat for the rest of the stories.

1 – Fugitive of the Judoon

Rating: B+

I don’t think I’ve ever been so pleasantly shocked in a Doctor Who episode.

The Ruth Doctor reveal comes out of nowhere for what many thought was going to be a filler episode, and it’s great to have Jack back. The mystery of Ruth’s Doctor was so good that I anxiously waited for the rest of the season, and the show hadn’t made me so excited for future instalments for a long time.

This episode would have been an A- if the finale hadn’t retroactively made this worse, and I was really hoping to have a sort of 6 part finale, only to have “Praxeus” and “Can You Hear Me” not relate to the arc at all. Still, I’ll never forget the feeling of excitement as this episode unfolded.

Season Rating: E

Still a terrible season (mainly due to the finale and the other 3 low-rated stories in this list), but admittedly better than season 11. Let’s see the stats:

• 4 Bs (50%)
• 1 D (13%)
• 2 Es (25%)
• 1 F (13%)

Very hit or miss, with half of the stories being good and half being quite terrible. Now let’s see Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall’s tenure (so far):

• 4 Bs (22%)
• 3 Cs (17%)
• 4 Ds (22%)
• 4 Es (17%)
• 3 Fs (17%)
• 18 Stories

Oh dear oh dear. That’s 60% of episodes being sub-par, no A grades even awarded, and 3 Fs in two seasons has to be some kind of record.

And now, since we’ve reached the end, here’s the entire modern series:

• 25 As (20%)
• 38 Bs (31%)
• 28 Cs (28%)
• 16 Ds (13%)
• 12 Es (10%)
• 4 Fs (3%)
• 123 Stories

So in the end: a quarter of the stories were sub-par, half were at least good, 20% were at least amazing (heavy lifting by the previous two show-runners), and the Chibnall era provided 3 out of the 4 complete train-wrecks.

Aaaand that’s it for Doctor Who. I might do a different TV show next, you’ll have to wait and see which one that is. For now, check out some of my other blog posts below: