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.
00:07If 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, I will scream.
00:16I'm Ellie for Who Culture and these are the 10 most overrated Doctor Who episodes.
00:21Number 10, The Zygon Invasion slash The Zygon Inversion.
00:25Let'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 back half of this two-parter.
00:32It remains one of the absolute highlights of 12's run and watching it back,
00:36it's clear why Moffat had the confidence to give Capaldi the show's first one-hander in that very same series.
00:42But beyond its final 20 minutes, the Zygon Invasion slash version spends a lot of time treading water.
00:48It finds itself in the rather awkward position of clearly needing two parts,
00:52but also not having quite enough story to justify the double run time.
00:56Jenna Coleman's turn as Bonnie is enjoyable and she's clearly having a lot of fun playing the villain,
01:01but the unit stuff here is weaker than usual and tends to kind of just plod along.
01:05A lot of the first episode feels like padding, to the point where it's kind of difficult to 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 scene when they rave about this whole story.
01:22Number 9, The Woman Who Fell to Earth.
01:24The Woman Who Fell to Earth has some strengths going for it.
01:27It introduces a likeable cast of companions who are more fleshed out here than for most of the era,
01:32though 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 for a first episode.
01:41It also features the most relatable and beloved character of Chibnall's run.
01:47Eat my salad.
01:48I mean, what a legend.
01:49Where it falls apart is in establishing a new Doctor.
01:53Whittaker gets plenty of silly post-regen babbling as per the norm,
01:57but comparatively little material that solidifies her authority, intelligence or grit.
02:02It culminates in her big I am the Doctor moment falling rather flat,
02:05with us not really seeing what 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,
02:14and between introducing four companions, a villain that gets way too much screen time,
02:19and so much needless fluff,
02:20I mean, the subplot about the guy finding the space mushroom could have easily been cut,
02:24this script completely fumbles its primary goal of establishing the new Doctor.
02:28Number 8.
02:29The Fires of Pompeii.
02:31This is perhaps our first truly controversial pick,
02:34and despite The Fires of Pompeii being part of the stellar fourth series,
02:38this is another one of those episodes that's remembered for the last ten minutes,
02:41which, granted, are fantastic in a horribly traumatic sort of 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,
02:52and then the Pyrovials who crumble the moment they come into contact with water,
02:56which undercuts their threat significantly.
02:58The main antagonist, Lucius Petrus Dextrus, is painfully hammy,
03:03and not the good kind of hammy,
03:04the kind of hammy that makes you want to slap him in the face really hard.
03:07The plot itself meanders around Donner telling people
03:10Vesuvius is about to ruin their day,
03:12and everyone else responding with a resounding,
03:14nah, meh, it won't happen.
03:15This element of the plot, while vital in introducing Donner to the rules of time travel,
03:19starts to grate the third time you hear the same conversation.
03:23The family themselves are fun enough characters,
03:25and Capaldi is naturally a delight,
03:27but the insistence on using modern-day slang,
03:30plus the running joke of comparing Quintus to a 21st century teenager,
03:34take you out of a plot that would have benefited from a more serious 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 Fires of Pompeii is solid,
03:46but it's on the lower end of the Series 4 scale.
03:48To be fair, though, it is up against some fierce competition.
03:52Number 7, Village of the Angels.
03:54Village of the Angels is often thrown into the ring as one of 13's best,
03:58but we mostly put that down to two things.
04:00A fan-favourite monster getting their own story for the first time since Series 7,
04:04and Kevin 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,
04:14spends an awful lot of time not saying a lot,
04:16while the 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,
04:30the Angels are swept under the rug very quickly.
04:32It makes this story feel like filler.
04:34Pretty fun filler, we'll admit,
04:36but New Who's most iconic original creations deserve a lot better
04:39than to be a taxi service moving the Doctor from one plot to another.
04:43Claire was built up quite a lot in Flux,
04:45to the point where it seemed like she was going to be integral to the plot,
04:48and some people thought, for who knows what reason, that she was a Clara Echo.
04:52But she was hardly relevant to the wider story at all,
04:55leaving her scenes feeling a little redundant.
04:57If you want a 13 story that's creepy and atmospheric,
05:00but actually has a lot of substance to it,
05:02the haunting of Villa Diodati is the one you want.
05:05Number 6. Army of Ghosts slash Doomsday
05:07The ending of Army of Ghosts,
05:09which teased the showdown between the Doctor's two greatest foes,
05:12was enough to shatter Whovian brains in 2006.
05:16But the payoff for that long-awaited moment has always been lacking.
05:19Doomsday starts off very strongly,
05:21with the iconic Dalek-Cyberman-Slam poetry throwdown.
05:25Outline resembles the inferior species known as Cybermen,
05:30but quickly descends into an army of Cybermen being absolutely minced by four Daleks.
05:35And the end result?
05:36The Daleks solidify their already established threat level,
05:39but the Cybermen are so thoroughly trounced
05:41that it takes them until the final episodes of the Capaldi era to be scary again.
05:46Tent and Rose don't end on a particularly high note either,
05:49with their cringe factor reaching its apex just in time for the finale.
05:53Lots of you-wouldn't-get-it in-jokes,
05:55and a slightly obnoxious honeymoon period vibe.
05:58We're not against romantic interests for the Doctor,
06:01but with Rose, things are far too sickly sweet.
06:04It might be sacrilege to say this,
06:05but that famous wall scene,
06:07while hauntingly scored by Murray Gold,
06:09has not aged well,
06:10and verges into looking like a melodramatic Green Day music video.
06:13And a special mention has to go to Mickey stacking it
06:16and accidentally activating the Genesis arc,
06:18despite knowing that he needs to steer completely clear of the thing.
06:22It's a piece of spectacularly awkward writing
06:24that nobody ever seems to comment on.
06:26We really feel like Mickey doesn't get enough stick
06:28for almost dooming the planet with his bumbling incompetence.
06:31Army of Ghosts is a solid hype builder,
06:33but Doomsday fumbles the bag.
06:35Probably the weakest of RTD's finales.
06:38Number 5.
06:39The Rings of Akaten
06:40Confession time.
06:41We've got a soft spot for The Rings of Akaten.
06:43However, we must concede that, like many fans,
06:46that's mainly due to the episode's amazing speech.
06:48Few moments in the show manage to convey the burden
06:50of the Doctor's immortality like this one,
06:53and Matt Smith, backed by a stirring choir,
06:55is the perfect Doctor to deliver it.
06:57Take that scene away, though,
06:58and The Rings of Akaten is a bit slow at best,
07:01and boring at worst.
07:02The central plot is split between
07:04Mary running away from her big performance,
07:06and the Doctor trying to ascertain what on earth is going on.
07:08There'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,
07:16the core mystery has to provide enough intrigue
07:19to justify the time spent unraveling it.
07:21And this one doesn't.
07:23And with the Doctor and Clara's relationship not moving forward
07:25due to them spending a lot of time separated,
07:28you 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
07:35to feed the evil Teletubby son is actually quite neat,
07:38but it doesn't work.
07:40The Doctor literally pours his hearts out,
07:42reliving an extended lifetime of trauma.
07:44And that's beaten by a leaf?
07:46Tosh, we say.
07:47Absolute tosh.
07:48But on the bright side,
07:49the long song is a total banger.
07:52Number four, Rose.
07:54Sorry, I'm just putting on my riot gear before I start this one.
07:57Rose, the episode, not the companion,
07:59isn't very good.
08:01Yes, we know,
08:02series one seems to be immune from criticism.
08:04But frankly,
08:05its opener is one of those episodes
08:06that's difficult to watch without second-hand embarrassment.
08:09It's hard to justify this as a starting point
08:11over the 11th 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?
08:23A contender for Eccleston's best moment.
08:25But the rest?
08:26Oh boy.
08:27It's hard to decide what's worse.
08:28The burping bin with its truly awful CGI,
08:31or Rose not realising there's something deeply,
08:33deeply wrong with her boyfriend
08:34when he's stuttering about pizza with a deranged expression
08:37and swerving his car across the road.
08:39There's a lot of talk about there being a grittier,
08:41darker tone for a modern audience in series one.
08:44And that's certainly delivered on throughout the series.
08:47But we're baffled to this day
08:48that with such a strong vision
08:50for what he wanted the show to be in 2005,
08:53RTD launched with one of the most juvenile episodes he's penned.
08:56Without the end of the world swooping in the following week,
08:59we wouldn't have got anything juicy until Dalek,
09:01around halfway through the series.
09:04From which point, on the plus side,
09:06the episodes are consistently fantastic.
09:08So, swings and roundabouts and all that.
09:11Number 3.
09:12Fugitive of the Jadoon.
09:13All together now,
09:14cameos do not equal substance.
09:17This could be levelled at quite a few episodes of New Who,
09:20but none of them are as lazy as Fugitive of the Jadoon.
09:24This episode brought back Captain Jack Harkness
09:26for the first time since the RTD era,
09:28and proceeded to do absolutely nothing with him.
09:32Aside from him not actually interacting with the Doctor,
09:35his sole purpose in this episode is to drop saucy gags
09:38and deliver some needlessly vague foreshadowing
09:40about 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,
09:50who is actually pretty baller.
09:51But all the teasing about her origins
09:53and the introduction of the Division
09:54amounts to net zero by the end of 13's run.
09:58Instead, it's clear that the Fugitive Doctor was created
10:00because a mysterious incarnation sounded fun,
10:03and not because Chibbers knew what to do with her,
10:05which is a crying shame and a waste of talent.
10:08On first watch, this episode makes you sit up and pay attention,
10:11so fair play to it.
10:12But on reflection,
10:13it's a soulless, empty mystery box
10:15that doesn't deserve as much praise as it gets.
10:17Number 2.
10:18Listen.
10:18Oh, sorry, just double-checking my riot gear for this one as well.
10:22Listen seems to generate a level of hype
10:24we don't quite understand,
10:26with more than a handful of fans
10:28deeming it the pinnacle of Series 8,
10:30a baffling statement regarding a series
10:32that contains Mummy on the Orient Express,
10:34Flatline, and Dark Water and Death in Heaven.
10:36Listen is very unnerving and atmospheric,
10:39and whatever was hiding under that blanket
10:40can go straight to hell.
10:42But the episode loses steam in a major way
10:45once we get to Orson Pink.
10:46His appearance at all is paradoxical,
10:48given Danny's little incident with a passing car
10:51later in the series.
10:52But beyond that,
10:53he's just a little bit of a charisma vacuum.
10:55We understand this story is about
10:57the Doctor's need to know all the answers
10:58and his refusal to admit his fears
11:00might be unjustified,
11:02but the resolution doesn't land.
11:03If the entire future segment was removed
11:05and we had an episode with the same sentiment,
11:08but entirely set in the creepy orphanage
11:10with Danny as a child,
11:11Listen would have had a much stronger story.
11:13The Monster of the Week is still paranoia,
11:16but it would allow us to spend more time
11:17on the creepiest part of the episode
11:19while developing Danny in a far more meaningful way,
11:22rather than using the bargain bin version of him.
11:24Elsewhere, we get what Moff was doing
11:26with the Clara and Danny date subplot,
11:29but two smart people would not talk or act like that.
11:32It's cringy, as intended no doubt,
11:34but painfully contrived.
11:36And number one,
11:38The Girl in the Fireplace.
11:39A lot of fans consider every single Moffat script
11:42in the RTD era a straight 10 out of 10,
11:45but lumbering this one in with the empty child,
11:47blink, and the library two-parter
11:49is a major disservice to the other three.
11:51Throughout this story,
11:5210 is a bit of an arse.
11:54Slapbang in the middle of this romance arc with Rose,
11:56he drops her for the first woman
11:58who offers him a cheeky dance,
11:59leaving Rose and Mickey on a creepy spaceship
12:01covered in human organs
12:02while he parties and gets hammered
12:04in pre-revolutionary France.
12:06Later on,
12:06he full-on abandons them
12:08without a second thought
12:09by trapping himself in the past with Renette.
12:11This feels like it should have major,
12:13major repercussions
12:14for his burgeoning connection with Rose.
12:16But despite her intense jealousy of Sarah Jane
12:18just one week prior,
12:20Rose is now totally chill
12:22with the Doctor dropping her like a sack of potatoes.
12:24It feels like a major missed opportunity.
12:26Their relationship could have benefited
12:27from a bit of straining,
12:29given how Rose sees him as completely flawless.
12:32Elsewhere,
12:32while the main plot is highly entertaining
12:34with some great location shooting and costume work,
12:37plus the brilliantly creepy clockwork droids,
12:40the B-plot with Rose and Mickey
12:41drags the episode down
12:43every single time it comes back around.
12:45And you can tell that Moffat had no idea
12:46what to do with the companions
12:47in such a Doctor-centric story.
12:50The Girl in the Fireplace absolutely has merit,
12:52and it's still one of the best episodes of Series 2,
12:54although that probably speaks more
12:56to the amount of mediocre episodes in that series.
12:58But Moffat has definitely written
13:00a lot better than this,
13:02let's be honest.
13:03Now, if you'll excuse me,
13:04I'm just going to go and hide
13:05before Sean Ferrick finds out
13:07that I've just slandered
13:07his all-time favourite Doctor Who episode.
13:10Bye-bye!