Those Doctor Who episodes that may well be good... just not THAT good.
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00:00Okay, you've seen the title, you know this one's probably gonna be a bit spicy.
00:04If you agree with our picks, then great, fantastic.
00:08If you don't agree, that's gravy, we're all friends here.
00:11Let us know your picks in the comments, although if any of you put silence in the library,
00:14I will scream.
00:15I'm Ellie for WhoCulture, and these are the 10 most overrated Doctor Who episodes.
00:2110.
00:22The Zygon Invasion slash The Zygon Inversion Let's get this out of the way first.
00:27We don't have a single bad word to say about Capaldi's impassioned anti-war speech in the
00:31back half of this two-parter.
00:33It remains one of the absolute highlights of 12's run, and watching it back, it's clear
00:37why Moffat had the confidence to give Capaldi the show's first one-hander in that very same
00:41series.
00:42But, beyond its final 20 minutes, The Zygon Invasion slash version spends a lot of time
00:47treading water.
00:49It finds itself in the rather awkward position of clearly needing two parts, but also not
00:53having quite enough story to justify the double runtime.
00:56Jenna Coleman's turn as Bonnie is enjoyable, and she's clearly having a lot of fun playing
01:00the villain, but the unit stuff here is weaker than usual, and tends to kind of just plod
01:04along.
01:05A lot of the first episode feels like padding, to the point where it's kind of difficult
01:08to remember.
01:09This is an hour and a half long, but our memory of it is the final half an hour.
01:14Generally, not a great sign.
01:15It's still a good story, but we do think that people tend to focus on that one fantastic
01:19scene when they rave about this whole story.
01:229.
01:23The Woman Who Fell to Earth The Woman Who Fell to Earth has some strengths
01:26going for it.
01:28It introduces a likeable cast of companions, who are more fleshed out here than for most
01:32of the era, though they do kill off the most likeable one, which is a shame.
01:35It also has a half-decent villain in Tim Shaw, who works well as a background antagonist
01:40for a first episode.
01:41It also features the most relatable and beloved character of Chibnall's run.
01:45I mean, what a legend.
01:50Where it falls apart is in establishing a new Doctor.
01:53Whittaker gets plenty of silly post-regen babbling, as per the norm, but comparatively
01:57little material that solidifies her authority, intelligence, or grit.
02:02It culminates in her big I am the Doctor moment falling rather flat, with us not really seeing
02:06what she has to offer yet.
02:08We'd have to wait a whole year until Series 12 for that.
02:11It's so important to stick the landing on introductory episodes like this, and between
02:15introducing four companions, a villain that gets way too much screen time, and so much
02:19needless fluff- I mean, the subplot about the guy finding the space mushroom could have
02:23easily been cut- this script completely fumbles its primary goal of establishing the new Doctor.
02:288.
02:29The Fires of Pompeii
02:31This is perhaps our first truly controversial pick, and despite The Fires of Pompeii being
02:35part of the stellar fourth series, this is another one of those episodes that's remembered
02:40for the last ten minutes, which, granted, are fantastic, in a horribly traumatic sort
02:44of way.
02:45But the rest of the episode is lacking.
02:46The villains aren't particularly strong.
02:48You have the underdeveloped and nearly impossible to understand Sibylline Priestess, and then
02:53the Pyroviles, who crumble the moment they come into contact with water, which undercuts
02:57their threat significantly.
02:58The main antagonist, Lucius Petrus Dextrus, is painfully hammy, and not the good kind
03:04of hammy, the kind of hammy that makes you want to slap him in the face really hard.
03:07The plot itself meanders around Donna telling people Vesuvius is about to ruin their day,
03:12and everyone else responding with a resounding, nah mate, it won't happen.
03:16This element of the plot, while vital in introducing Donna to the rules of time travel, starts to
03:20grate the third time you hear the same conversation.
03:23The family themselves are fun enough characters, and Capaldi is naturally a delight.
03:27But the insistence on using modern day slang, plus the running joke of comparing Quintus
03:32to a 21st century teenager, take you out of a plot that would have benefited from a more
03:36serious tone.
03:37It's about one of the most cataclysmic natural disasters in history.
03:41It's not difficult to read the room on how this story should feel.
03:44The Vise of Pompeii is solid, but it's on the lower end of the Series 4 scale.
03:48To be fair, though, it is up against some fierce competition.
03:527.
03:53Village of the Angels
03:54Village of the Angels is often thrown into the ring as one of 13's best, but we mostly
03:58put that down to two things.
04:00A fan-favourite monster getting their own story for the first time since Series 7, and
04:04Kevin McNally giving us a lovely guest character in Professor Jericho.
04:08What a top guy.
04:09Where this episode starts to fall apart is a lack of direction.
04:12The front half, while genuinely spooky, spends an awful lot of time not saying a lot, while
04:17the back half is essentially half an hour of running away.
04:19There's an interesting idea in there about the Angels being an extraction squad for Division,
04:24but not a lot is done with it beyond some rather dull Chibnall-style expositioning,
04:28and after the cliffhanger is resolved, the Angels are swept under the rug very quickly.
04:32It makes this story feel like filler.
04:34Pretty fun filler, we'll admit, but New Who's most iconic original creations deserve a lot
04:39better than to be a taxi service moving the Doctor from one plot to another.
04:43Claire was built up quite a lot in Flux, to the point where it seemed like she was going
04:47to be integral to the plot, and some people thought, for who knows what reason, that she
04:51was a Clara Echo, but she was hardly relevant to the wider story at all, leaving her scenes
04:55feeling a little redundant.
04:57If you want a 13 story that's creepy and atmospheric, but actually has a lot of substance to it,
05:02the Haunting of Villa Diodati is the one you want.
05:056.
05:06Army of Ghosts slash Doomsday
05:08The ending of Army of Ghosts, which teased a showdown between the Doctor's two greatest
05:12foes, was enough to shatter Whovian brains in 2006, but the payoff for that long-awaited
05:17moment has always been lacking.
05:19Doomsday starts off very strongly, with the iconic Dalek-Cyberman slam poetry throwdown,
05:24but quickly descends into an army of Cybermen being absolutely minced by four Daleks.
05:35The end result?
05:36The Daleks solidify their already established threat level, but the Cybermen are so thoroughly
05:41trounced that it takes them until the final episode of the Capaldi era to be scary again.
05:46Ten and Rose don't end on a particularly high note either, with their cringe factor reaching
05:50its apex just in time for the finale.
05:53Lots of you-wouldn't-get-it in-jokes, and a slightly obnoxious honeymoon period vibe.
05:58We're not against romantic interests for the Doctor, but with Rose, things are far
06:02too sickly sweet.
06:04It might be sacrilege to say this, but that famous wall scene, while hauntingly scored
06:08by Murray Gold, has not aged well, and verges into looking like a melodramatic Green Day
06:12music video.
06:13And a special mention has to go to Mickey stacking it and accidentally activating the
06:18Genesis arc, despite knowing that he needs to steer completely clear of the thing.
06:22It's a piece of spectacularly awkward writing that nobody ever seems to comment on.
06:26We really feel like Mickey doesn't get enough stick for almost dooming the planet with his
06:30bumbling incompetence.
06:32Save Ghosts is a solid hype-builder, but Doomsday fumbles the bag, probably the weakest
06:36of RTD's finales.
06:385.
06:39The Rings of Akhaten
06:40Confession time.
06:41We've got a soft spot for The Rings of Akhaten.
06:43However, we must concede that, like many fans, that's mainly due to the episode's amazing
06:48speech.
06:49Few moments in the show manage to convey the burden of the Doctor's immortality like this
06:53one, and Matt Smith, backed by a stirring choir, is the perfect Doctor to deliver it.
06:57Take that scene away, though, and The Rings of Akhaten is a bit slow at best, and boring
07:02at worst.
07:03The central plot is split between Mary running away from her big performance, and the Doctor
07:06trying to ascertain what on earth is going on.
07:09There's absolutely nothing wrong with a slow burn.
07:11Look at episodes like Face the Raven and World Enough and Time.
07:14But in order to craft this kind of story, the core mystery has to provide enough intrigue
07:19to justify the time spent unravelling it.
07:22And this one doesn't.
07:23And with the Doctor and Clara's relationship not moving forward due to them spending a
07:26lot of time separated, you have to ask where the runtime even went.
07:30And then we have Clara's magic story leaf.
07:33The concept of using potential futures as a source of stories to feed the evil Teletubby
07:37son is actually quite neat.
07:39But it doesn't work.
07:40The Doctor literally pours his heart out, reliving an extended lifetime of trauma.
07:44And that's beaten by a leaf?
07:46Tosh, we say.
07:48Absolute tosh.
07:49But on the bright side, the long song is a total banger.
07:524.
07:53Rose
07:54Sorry, I'm just putting on my riot gear before I start this one.
07:57Rose, the episode, not the companion, isn't very good.
08:01Yes, we know, Series 1 seems to be immune from criticism.
08:04But frankly, its opener is one of those episodes that's difficult to watch without second-hand
08:09embarrassment.
08:10It's hard to justify this as a starting point over The Eleventh Hour, for example.
08:13Okay, the good bits.
08:15The introduction of the Doctor?
08:16Chef's kiss.
08:17The whole mystery man angle with Clive's conspiracy theories?
08:20Love it.
08:21The that's who I am speech?
08:22A contender for Eccleston's best moment.
08:24But the rest?
08:25Oh boy.
08:27It's hard to decide what's worse, the burping bin with its truly awful CGI or Rose not realising
08:32there's something deeply, deeply wrong with her boyfriend when he's stuttering about pizza
08:36with a deranged expression and swerving his car across the road.
08:39There's a lot of talk about there being a grittier, darker tone for a modern audience
08:43in Series 1, and that's certainly delivered on throughout the series, but we're baffled
08:47to this day that with such a strong vision for what he wanted the show to be in 2005,
08:53RTD launched with one of the most juvenile episodes he's penned.
08:56At the end of the world, swooping in the following week, we wouldn't have got anything
09:00juicy until Dalek, around halfway through the series.
09:04From which point, on the plus side, the episodes are consistently fantastic, so swings and
09:09roundabouts and all that.
09:113.
09:12Fugitive of the Jadoon
09:13Altogether now, cameos do not equal substance.
09:17This could be levelled at quite a few episodes of New Who, but none of them are as lazy as
09:22Fugitive of the Jadoon.
09:24This episode brought back Captain Jack Harkness for the first time since the RTD era and proceeded
09:29to do absolutely nothing with him.
09:32Aside from him not actually interacting with the Doctor, his sole purpose in this episode
09:37is to drop saucy gags and deliver some needlessly vague foreshadowing about the lone Cyberman.
09:41Does Jack knowing this information even make sense?
09:44He's not present for any of the events involving Ashad.
09:47Now, this episode did introduce us to Joe Martin's Doctor, who is actually pretty baller,
09:52but all the teasing about her origins and the introduction of the Division amounts to
09:55net zero by the end of 13's run.
09:58Instead, it's clear that the Fugitive Doctor was created because a mysterious incarnation
10:02sounded fun, and not because Chibbers knew what to do with her, which is a crying shame
10:06and a waste of talent.
10:08On first watch, this episode makes you sit up and pay attention, so fair play to it,
10:12but on reflection, it's a soulless, empty mystery box that doesn't deserve as much praise
10:16as it gets.
10:172.
10:18Listen
10:20Listen seems to generate a level of hype we don't quite understand, with more than a handful
10:27of fans deeming it the pinnacle of Series 8, a buffling statement regarding a series
10:32that contains Mummy on the Orient Express, Flatline, and Dark Water and Death in Heaven.
10:37Listen is very unnerving and atmospheric, and whatever was hiding under that blanket
10:40can go straight to hell, but the episode loses steam in a major way once we get to Orson
10:46Pink.
10:47His appearance at all is paradoxical, given Danny's little incident with a passing car
10:51later in the series, but beyond that, he's just a little bit of a charisma vacuum.
10:55We understand this story is about the Doctor's need to know all the answers, and his refusal
10:59to admit his fears might be unjustified, but the resolution doesn't land.
11:03If the entire Future segment was removed and we had an episode with the same sentiment,
11:08but entirely set in the creepy orphanage with Danny as a child, Listen would have had a
11:12much stronger story.
11:14The monster of the week is still Paranoia, but it would allow us to spend more time on
11:18the creepiest part of the episode, while developing Danny in a far more meaningful way, rather
11:22than using the bargain bin version of him.
11:24Elsewhere, we get what Moff was doing with the Clara and Danny date subplot, but two
11:29smart people would not talk or act like that.
11:32It's cringey, as intended no doubt, but painfully contrived.
11:371.
11:38The Girl in the Fireplace A lot of fans consider every single Moffat
11:42script in the RTD era a straight 10 out of 10, but lumbering this one in with the Empty
11:47Child, Blink and the Library two-parter is a major disservice to the other three.
11:51Throughout this story, 10 is a bit of an arse.
11:54Slap bang in the middle of this romance arc with Rose, he drops her for the first woman
11:58who offers him a cheeky dance, leaving Rose and Mickey on a creepy spaceship covered in
12:01human organs while he parties and gets hammered in pre-revolutionary France.
12:06Later on, he full on abandons them without a second thought by trapping himself in the
12:10past with Renette.
12:12This feels like it should have major, major repercussions for his burgeoning connection
12:15with Rose, but despite her intense jealousy of Sarah Jane just one week prior, Rose is
12:20now totally chill with the Doctor dropping her like a sack of potatoes.
12:24It feels like a major missed opportunity.
12:26Their relationship could have benefited from a bit of straining, given how Rose sees him
12:30as completely flawless.
12:32Elsewhere, while the main plot is highly entertaining, with some great location shooting and costume
12:37work, plus the brilliantly creepy clockwork droids, the B-plot with Rose and Mickey drags
12:42the episode down every single time it comes back around, and you can tell that Moffat
12:46had no idea what to do with the companions in such a Doctor-centric story.
12:50The Girl in the Fireplace absolutely has merit, and it's still one of the best episodes of
12:54Series 2, although that probably speaks more to the amount of mediocre episodes in that
12:58series.
12:59But Moffat has definitely written a lot better than this, let's be honest.
13:03Now if you'll excuse me, I'm just gonna go and hide before Sean Ferrick finds out that
13:07I've just slandered his all-time favourite Doctor Who episode.
13:10Bye bye!