EVERY Doctor Who Season Ranked (2024 Update)

Now that Ncuti Gatwa’s first season of Doctor Who has come and gone, I can finally re-rank the seasons of the show’s revival!

This is one of the biggest mixed bags of quality you’ll ever see – some seasons are shockingly bad, whilst others are incredible … but how would I rank them all?

Before we begin, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

Terrible

15 – Season 11

• BEST – Rosa
• WORST – Arachnids in the UK
• OVERRATED – Rosa
• UNDERRATED – Demons of the Punjab (I guess)

Season 11 of Doctor Who had a lot of pressure riding on it – a new female Doctor, a new showrunner and a promise of new stories that had never been told before. Never has a TV season fallen so flat.

Every episode here has some problems, including the so-called “best” episodes “Rosa” and “Demons of the Punjab”, but for the most part the episodes are unmitigated disasters. “Arachnids in the UK”, “The Tsuranga Conundrum” and “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos” are some of the worst episodes of television I’ve ever had the displeasure of watching.

The main problem came in its initial concepts – Chris Chibnall was dead-set on having no season arc and no returning villains, and they didn’t do enough to distinguish the first female Doctor from what came before. In other words, Season 11 was doomed before it even started filming.

Bad

14 – Season 12

• BEST – Fugitive of the Judoon
• WORST – Orphan 55
• OVERRATED – Spyfall
• UNDERRATED – The Haunting of Villa Diodati

In my original ranking of Doctor Who seasons back in 2020 I shared much the same vitriolic hatred for Season 12 as I did 11, but I’ve mellowed on Whittaker’s second season since then. But not by much.

There’s the occasional diamond in the rough, like “Fugitive of the Judoon” and “The Haunting of Villa Diodati”, but then episodes like “Orphan 55” and “Can You Hear Me” make me want to poke my eyes out.

The big point of contention is easily the last two episodes – especially “The Timeless Children” for the reveals about the Doctor’s backstory. I hate it as much now as I did then, and it ruins any good-will the season had garnered.

13 – Season 13 (a.k.a. “Flux”)

• BEST – Village of the Angels
• WORST – The Vanquishers
• OVERRATED – War of the Sontarans
• UNDERRATED – The Halloween Apocalypse

The best of the Chibnall / Whittaker seasons. Not a high bar to clear.

I can appreciate what Chibnall was going for when writing a six-part story, but yet again he fumbles at the final hurdle with “The Vanquishers” and “Survivors of the Flux”. The only remotely good episode is “Village of the Angels”, as otherwise the episodes were boring or underdeveloped.

Meh

12 – Season 7

• BEST – A Town Called Mercy
• WORST – The Crimson Horror
• OVERRATED – Asylum of the Daleks
• UNDERRATED – A Town Called Mercy

For the longest time, Season 7 was the blueprint of how not to do a Doctor Who Season. Suffice it to say there have been a few worse seasons since then …

The episodes here are really poor – especially in the second half with Clara tagging along as a boring companion – and the only story I truly love is “A Town Called Mercy”.

Season 7 should be as bad as the Whittaker seasons on paper, but Matt Smith’s central performance makes even the worst episodes enjoyable … although stinkers like “The Crimson Horror” and “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship” certainly make Smith work for it.

OK

11 – Season 9

• BEST – Heaven Sent
• WORST – Sleep No More
• OVERRATED – The Zygon Inversion
• UNDERRATED – Under the Lake / Before the Flood

This will no doubt be one of my more controversial takes on this list, but I find Capaldi’s second season to be quite boring.

The Twelfth Doctor is an icon as always, and individual bright spots like “Heaven Sent” and “Face The Raven” make this a season worth watching, but the endless supply of two-parters left me yearning for single-shot episodes … and then stinkers like “Sleep No More” come along to ruin it!

I’m not a fan of the Zygon two-parter, the Maisie Williams two-parter, the finale “Hell Bent”, the Gatiss disaster-class “Sleep No More” … that’s a good chunk of episodes that I’m not fond of, so it’s no surprise Season 9 finished in the bottom five.

10 – Season 6

• BEST – A Good Man Goes to War
• WORST – The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People
• OVERRATED – The Doctor’s Wife
• UNDERRATED – The Girl Who Waited

Other than maybe Season 10 to 11, which saw a transition between showrunners, Season 5 to 6 is the biggest drop-off between seasons in the show’s run. Moffat has no excuse as he oversaw both!

It’s a season packed full of forgettable episodes like “Let’s Kill Hitler” and “The Wedding of River Song”, and it’s only a few gems like “A Good Man Goes To War”, “The Girl Who Waited” and “The God Complex” that salvage it from total mediocrity.

Good

9 – Season 14 (a.k.a. “Season 1”)

• BEST – Boom
• WORST – Space Babies
• OVERRATED – 73 Yards
• UNDERRATED – Empire of Death

The most recent season at the time of writing, and it’s fair to say that opinions are mixed on RTD’s and Gatwa’s first season together.

I’m leaning more towards the positive, but only just. I really liked episodes like “Boom” and the two-part finale, but the season started abysmally with the one-two punch of “Space Babies” and “The Devil’s Chord”. Maybe if the season was longer than eight episodes we could’ve grown to love the Doctor and companion a bit more!

Oh, and I thought “73 Yards” was a bit overrated. Sorry.

8 – 2009 Specials

• BEST – The Waters of Mars
• WORST – Planet of the Dead
• OVERRATED – The End of Time
• UNDERRATED – The Next Doctor

Do the 2009 Specials count as a “season” of Doctor Who? Not really, but they tell an arc that closes the Tenth Doctor’s story so I’ll count it.

There are four episodes total and they each fit neatly into my four categories – “The End of Time” two-parter is overrated until the final fifteen minutes, “The Next Doctor” doesn’t deserve the hate, “Planet of the Dead” proves a big budget doesn’t necessarily equal excitement, and “The Waters of Mars” is the best episode of the show. Period.

7 – Season 8

• BEST – Mummy on the Orient Express
• WORST – In The Forest of the Night
• OVERRATED – Deep Breath
• UNDERRATED – Time Heist

In hindsight, Season 8 actually had some cracking episodes.

“Time Heist”, “Mummy on the Orient Express”, “Dark Water”, “Listen” and “Flatline” are all episodes that showcase brilliant writing as well as a new, more serious Doctor performance courtesy of Peter Capaldi.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, however, with episodes like “Death In Heaven”, “The Caretaker”, “Kill The Moon” and especially “In The Forest of the Night” leading to outright miserable viewing experiences at times.

6 – Season 2

• BEST – The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit
• WORST – Love & Monsters
• OVERRATED – School Reunion
• UNDERRATED – Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel

Season 2 gets flack for being the “Doctor and Rose lovey-dubby” season, but I still maintain that it’s one of the better seasons of the show. Having David Tennant – my favourite Doctor – at the helm certainly helps!

The two-part finale bangs, “The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit” is excellent, “Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel” is criminally underrated, but then awful episodes like “Love & Monsters”, “The Idiot’s Lantern” and “Fear Her” almost ruin the whole thing.

Great

5 – Season 10

• BEST – World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls
• WORST – The Eaters of Light
• OVERRATED – Extremis
• UNDERRATED – Thin Ice

I didn’t have high hopes going into Capaldi and Moffat’s final season, but I was blown away by the ambitious storytelling and heightened emotions.

Bill is a memorable companion, episodes like “Thin Ice” and “Oxygen” are thought-provoking whilst being lots of fun, and the finale is easily the best one Moffat ever did. If Capaldi had regenerated at the end of “The Doctor Falls” it would’ve been one of the greatest send-offs ever!

Fun fact – this is the only season outside of the first five to make my top six. I don’t want to say Doctor Who has fallen off, but the golden age has definitely come and gone …

4 – Season 1

• BEST – The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances
• WORST – The Long Game
• OVERRATED – The End of the World
• UNDERRATED – Boom Town

In hindsight, it’s incredible how solid the first season of the revival was.

You get weird episodes here and there like “Aliens of London / World War Three” and “The Long Game”, but there are plenty of great episodes like “Dalek”, “The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances” and “Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways” to make up for it.

People may dismiss Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor for struggling in the comedic moments and not having enough episodes, but he did an exemplary job of spearheading the show for modern audiences.

3 – Season 3

• BEST – Human Nature / The Family of Blood
• WORST – The Lazarus Experiment
• OVERRATED – Last of the Time Lords
• UNDERRATED – Gridlock

Now that the awkward phase of Ten and Rose’s romance has come and gone, we can instead focus on fantastic storytelling and gripping narrative arcs.

I love the whole Master saga (well, until “Last of the Time Lords” tarnishes it somewhat) and individual episodes like “Gridlock”, “Blink” and especially “Human Nature / The Family of Blood” remain personal favourites.

The only thing holding the season back (other than random duds like “The Lazarus Experiment”) is its companion – Martha is good for the most part, but she’s treated like a rebound companion and it’s such a shame to see her squandered by the wayside for so much of the season.

Amazing

2 – Season 5

• BEST – The Eleventh Hour
• WORST – Victory of the Daleks
• OVERRATED – The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone
• UNDERRATED – Amy’s Choice

No David Tennant? No RTD as showrunner? No Donna as the companion? A new, fairytale approach rather than the modernised (mostly urban) aesthetic we were used to? This will be a disaster!

… Is what young me said to myself, but I was oh so wrong. Matt Smith is immediately iconic in the role, and episodes like “Amy’s Choice”, “Vincent and the Doctor”, “The Eleventh Hour” and “The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang” cement Season 5 as one of NuWho’s very best.

It’s not all sunshine and roses – the Angel two-parter is a little overrated, and “Victory of the Daleks” is an atrocious chapter for one of Sci-Fi’s greatest foes, but the positives massively outweigh the negatives.

All-Time Great

1 – Season 4

• BEST – Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead
• WORST – The Doctor’s Daughter
• OVERRATED – Journey’s End (If I had to pick)
• UNDERRATED – The Unicorn and the Wasp

Tennant and RTD cooked up an all-timer for their final season together.

Other than “The Doctor’s Daughter”, every episode here slaps. Yes, even the ‘Agatha Christie battles a giant wasp’ and ‘goofy fat monsters’ episodes. Ten and Donna have such great chemistry that they can make even the silliest episodes enjoyable.

But when Season 4 hits, it hits hard. “Midnight”. “Turn Left”. “Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead”. “The Fires of Pompeii”. “The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End”. It’s unfathomable how many phenomenal episodes are packed so close together, and everyone involved should feel incredibly proud.

Aaaand that’s my list! You can check out some of my latest blog posts below: