My previous ranking of every modern Doctor Who episode had become out of date…until now. Series 9 wrapped up earlier this month, and this year’s Christmas special was the last new episode until probably next fall. Time for an update.
I’ve inserted the new episodes into the overall worst-to-best rankings, which debuted in four parts early this year:
But if you just want to focus on the newest season, I’m including the Series 9–only list below (same text I’m inserting into the full list). Note that this was a more serialized season than previous years. It featured a mix of conventional two-parters (The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar, Under the Lake/Before the Flood, and The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion) and episodes that directly continued into each other while each maintaining its own flavor (The Girl Who Died/The Woman Who Lived and Face the Raven/Heaven Sent/Hell Bent). The episodes in the latter category are separately ranked because their different flavors merit individual attention.
This was an excellent season on the whole, a big improvement over the past few years, with no real clunkers in the mix. But, as always, some are better than others.
You read that right. This is a movie rec—for a movie that doesn’t even have a trailer out yet, no less.
First, let me introduce you to the BAFTA-winning minds behind this movie, the zany gentlemen and lady at the heart of CBBC’s Horrible Histories and Sky1’s Yonderland:
Horrible Histories, which is based on books by Terry Deary and bills itself as “History with the nasty bits left in,” has both taught and delighted British children and parents alike for five immensely popular seasons. Because it’s a children’s show, the Python-esque humor is clean (except for the gross-out gags) and conveys facts in a memorable manner, especially through recurring sketches like “” and “Stupid Deaths” and parodies like “” and “.” In fact, the team composed “The Rulers Song” in response to fanmail, to challenge young viewers to memorize the kings and queens since the Norman Conquest—and !
The show’s covered Shakespeare a few times before in sketch and song:
But now that Horrible Histories has ended, the cast is moving to the big screen to tackle Shakespeare again… from a different perspective.
If you’ve studied Shakespeare much—and if you haven’t, get thee to a bookstore!—you know that there’s a twelve-year gap in his chronology for which almost no records survive, the “Lost Years” between his leaving school and his marriage to Anne Hathaway (1578-1582) and between his marriage and the first record of a performance of his plays (1582-1592). Screenwriters and stars Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond realized that Shakespeare could have been doing anything in that period, which gave them free reign to tell whatever story their imaginations could conjure.
The result is , which looks to be part fact, part fantasy, part comedy of errors, part Tudor spy thriller. Here’s the official synopsis:
Bill tells the story of ‘what really happened’ during Shakespeare’s ‘lost years’ – how the hopeless lute player Bill Shakespeare left his family and home to follow his dream. Along the way he encounters murderous kings, spies, lost loves, and a plot to blow up Queen Elizabeth.
The six main cast members—Rickard, Willbond, Simon Farnaby, Jim Howick, Mathew Baynton, and Martha Howe-Douglas—together play over 40 roles in the film, including Bill (Baynton) and Anne (Howe-Douglas). But that still leaves room for other co-stars, including Homeland’s Damien Lewis as Sir Richard Hawkins, who appears to be in cahoots with King Philip II of Spain (Willbond).
Production partners BBC Films, Cowboy Films, and Punk Cinema haven’t released many details about the movie, which has a UK release date of February 20; they haven’t even announced when the film will premiere in the US. However, given the team’s track record, I expect first-rate silliness, if nothing else… and if it gets people interested in Shakespeare again, so much the better.
Doctor Who fans are getting ready to meet the latest incarnation of the ancient alien who travels through all of space and time in a blue box that’s bigger on the inside.
A clever plot device has helped keep the BBC series on the air for so many years. Whenever the Doctor dies, he regenerates into a new body and picks up life right where he left off—with some new personality quirks and different taste in clothing, but his core characteristics and memory remain more or less intact.
That’s certainly one way to keep things fresh.
Unlike James Bond, Doctor Who has a valid in-story reason for why 11 (and now 12) different actors have taken on the title role over the past 50 years.
Peter Capaldi will star in his first full episode Aug. 23, and Whovians will get to meet the Doctor all over again. A season premiere is that much more exciting when it basically doubles as a series premiere of sorts, too.
So, let’s take a quick look back in time at the introductions of the previous three “modern” Doctors (since the series returned to television in 2005).
Christopher Eccleston
9 – Christopher Eccleston took over the role in the 2005 pilot “Rose.” So yes, he didn’t just take over the role—he resurrected it for a whole new generation. If he had flopped, Entertainment Weekly would have had significantly fewer Doctor Who articles over the past several years.
Just a little bit of pressure then.
“Rose” had a lot to do, and thankfully, it didn’t try to do everything. No talk of far-flung concepts like Time Lords or regenerations (though Eccleston’s Doctor takes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glance in a mirror to check out what his face looks like these days). This is a straightforward adventure told from the point of view of a normal 19-year-old Earth girl, Rose (Billie Piper). Through her, we gradually learn about this strange man and become intrigued by him.
It’s not perfect. The episode is rather cheesy in places. (How does Rose not notice her boyfriend isn’t quite himself?) But it’s fun and establishes Eccleston’s Doctor as a man you’d want protecting the world.
David Tennant
10 – Fans had grown accustomed to traveling with Christopher Eccelston for one whole season…and then he became David Tennant.
Longtime Who fans were used to their hero regenerating ever since the original Doctor, William Hartnell, morphed into Patrick Troughton into the 1960s. But the newcomers still needed someone to convince them that the Doctor was worth following no matter who was playing the role.
Tennant’s first full episode was “The Christmas Invasion” at the end of 2005. This new Who universe was already established, as was his companion Rose and her supporting cast. It just had to establish Tennant’s Doctor.
So, naturally, he spends much of the episode in a regeneration-induced coma, not fully emerging until the grand finale.
And it’s brilliant. We watch Rose wrestle with the idea of her dear friend suddenly becoming a new person, mirroring the concerns some viewers may have had. We’re left in suspense as mankind struggles to deal with a visit from not-so-benevolent aliens while the Doctor sleeps. When he finally does make his big entrance, it’s well worth the wait, and we’re assured that, yes, this is the Doctor, even though it’s not exactly the same Doctor.
Matt Smith
11 – Tennant wound up being such a beloved Doctor that whoever came next would need to prove himself very quickly. And Matt Smith does just that in “The Eleventh Hour” in 2011.
This episode is basically a re-pilot. Not only do we have a new Doctor, but we have a new companion (Amy Pond, played by Karen Gillan), and a new showrunner (Steven Moffat, taking over for Russell T Davies).
A fast-paced adventure builds up to this moment, in which the new Doctor talks down an alien invader while figuring out his wardrobe.
His monologue and the flashing images show us that there’s continuity between what’s gone on before and where we’re going from here. We even get quick glimpses of the previous 10 Doctors in rapid succession, until Smith’s Doctor steps through, appearing in his soon-to-be-trademarked outfit for the first time, all while composer Murray Gold’s new “The Doctor is about to do something awesome” score plays.
And we’re sold. Matt Smith is the Doctor.
At least, he was until last Christmas.
Modern Who is three-for-three when it comes to successful introductions of new Doctors. Hopefully, Capaldi’s premiere will continue the trend.
