Rank Series 6

Discussion in 'Doctor Who' started by Ood Sigma, Oct 7, 2011.

  1. Ood Sigma

    Ood Sigma Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2009
    Location:
    Ood Sigma
    Now that I've had a bit of time to digest the final episode and the series as a whole, I thought it would be fun to rank the individual episodes in series 6 to see which are the best and which are the worst.

    My rankings, from worst to best...

    13. The Almost People
    12. The Rebel Flesh
    11. The Curse of the Black Spot
    10. Night Terrors
    9. Closing Time
    8. The God Complex
    7. A Good Man Goes to War
    6. The Wedding of River Song
    5. Day of the Moon
    4. The Impossible Astronaut
    3. The Doctor's Wife
    2. Let's Kill Hitler
    1. The Girl Who Waited
     
  2. mimic

    mimic Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 30, 2001
    Location:
    Virginia
    This is basically how I'd group them:

    1. The Girl Who Waited
    2. The Doctor's Wife

    3. The God Complex
    4. Day of the Moon/The Impossible Astronaut
    5. The Wedding of River Song
    6. Closing Time
    7. A Good Man Goes To War
    8. Let's Kill Hitler

    9. The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People
    10. Curse of the Black Spot
    11. Night Terrors
     
  3. tomalak301

    tomalak301 Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2003
    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    From best to least best:

    1. The God Complex
    2. A Good Man Goes to War
    3. The Doctor's Wife
    4. Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon
    5. The Girl who Waited
    6. Wedding of River Song
    7. Let's Kill Hitler
    8. Closing Time
    9. The Rebel Flesh/Almost People
    10. The Curse of the Black Spot
    11. Night Terrors
     
  4. Mr Light

    Mr Light Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 7, 1999
    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    1. The Doctor's Wife: a perfect episode, felt right out of the RTD era in a good way
    2. A Good Man Goes to War: jammed packed full of goodness
    3. Wedding of River Song: pretty good ending to the story
    4. Let's Kill Hitler: too bad they wasted the Nazi Germany setting but the River stuff was interesting
    5. Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon: cool and epic opening!
    6. Closing Time: I really enjoyed the fun after the recent bleak episodes
    7. The God Complex: it's alright.
    8. The Girl who Waited: well done but too bleak and depressing
    9. The Curse of the Black Spot: not terribly interesting until the ending.
    10. The Rebel Flesh/Almost People: boring. uninteresting. should've only been one episode.
    11. Night Terror: I was just completely uninterested. I don't say that often with Dr Who. I think this might be my least favorite episode of the revival.
     
  5. Winterwind

    Winterwind Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Feb 11, 2007
    Location:
    London, Canada
    ^ You found Night Terrors worse than Fear Her?
     
  6. Mr. Astley

    Mr. Astley Ensign Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Sep 3, 2011
    Location:
    The Netherlands
    13. Night Terrors

    - The worst episode of Doctor Who i've ever seen. There are so many illogical plot points, not scary, not funny, boring characters, and then the dolls are defeated with love :barf:

    12. The Almost People
    11. The Rebel Flesh

    - This should have been one episode. The concept of a small group of people stranded with an enemy that looks like them is done to death. Boring.

    10. The Curse of The Black Spot

    - Too much elements from previous stories. Monster of the week that turns out to be misguided medical thingy.

    09. The Girls Who Waited
    08. The God Complex

    - Not bad episodes, they just followed Night Terrors with two depressing episodes. If these episodes were shown in a different order i probably would have liked them much better.

    07. Closing Time

    - Closing Time could have been great if it wasn't for the way the Cybermen were defeated. (combination of love :barf: and technobabble) The interaction between The Doctor and Craig is fantastic though. I hope we see Craig again (but not as a full time companion).

    06. A Good Man Goes to War
    05. Day of the Moon
    04. The Impossible Astronaut
    03. The Wedding of River Song
    02. The Doctor's Wife
    01. Let's Kill Hitler

    All excellent.
     
    Last edited: Oct 9, 2011
  7. Mr Light

    Mr Light Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 7, 1999
    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    I've only seen "Fear Her" once back in the day, and I remember it being average but not terrible. I don't remember the details anymore. "Night Terrors" on the other hand just left me totally uninterested and completely uncaring if I saw the ending or not. I don't think I've ever felt that way about NuWho before.
     
  8. VDCNI

    VDCNI Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    May 26, 2009
    Location:
    London UK
    From best to worst

    1 - The Doctor's Wife (by a mile)
    2 - Closing Time
    3 - The Girl Who Waited
    4 - The God Complex
    5 - Night Terrors

    Then miles further down
    6 - A Good Man Goes To War
    7 - Let's Kill Hitler
    8 - The Impossible Astronaut
    9 - Day Of The Moon
    10 - The Wedding Of River Song
    11 - The Curse Of The Black Spot
    12 - The Rebel Flesh
    13 - The Almost People
     
  9. Sadistro

    Sadistro Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Sep 1, 2008
    So, in order of best to worst:

    1) The Rebel Flesh.
    2) The Almost People.
    3) The Curse of the Black Spot.
    4) The Doctor's Wife.
    5) The God Complex.

    Those were the episodes I did kind of like.

    6) The Impossible Astronaut.
    7) Day of the Moon.
    8) Closing Time.

    I didn't really like those episodes, but they had their moments.

    9) Let's Kill Hitler.
    10) A Good Man Goes to War.
    11) The Wedding of River Song.
    12) The Girl Who Waited.
    13) Night Terrors.

    And these... well, better luck next time, eh?


    Not for the first time, I find that my tastes put me in opposition with 'the agreed wisdom'. But I stand by my choices, and I'm particularly sorry to see how little people think of the flesh 2 parter. Though it did perhaps suffer from a constrained budget at times, I found it to be full of interesting ideas, and had some actual emotional weight, unlike most of the smoke and mirrors we get from Moffat's era.

    As for Moffat, I'm surprised how highly I ranked some of his episodes, but that's perhaps more down to how truly self-harm inducingly dull I found The Girl who Waited and Night Terrors, as well as the sheer volume of clunkers from Moffat. In deference to the fact that the 'death' sequence of the Doctor in Impossible Astronaut was well executed, and because I kind of like the Silents, I was willing to mitigate my belief that the opening 2-parter was a painfully slow, confusing mess (plus I like Mark Sheppard in anything).

    I also continue to defend Curse of the Black Spot against its many, many detractors. The opening 5-10 minutes are fairly painful, as is the presence of yet another 'dying man's last words' (averted in this case, but we're getting quite a few of those too...) But otherwise, I found it a very solid and enjoyable episode, mercifully free of the all the fanwank and impossibly uninteresing arc material (what little COTBS did include at the end, was back when it seemed like it just might be interesting, but that didn't last long).

    Speaking of fanwank - The Doctor's Wife. Although I didn't like this anywhere near as much as everyone else seems to, it was still one of the better episodes of this tepid season. It still felt like Neil Gaiman by numbers, brought in something that I wished had not been (the TARDIS given a tragic human form etc etc - how many times have we seen this kind of thing from Gaiman and in sci-fi shows of all kinds?)

    But still... it was alright, and worth it just for the scenes with the 'Timelord collection'. Gaiman also wrote very well for Smith's Doctor, giving him much better dialogue than most did, this year.

    So overall then, this was a pretty awful season IMO. The first half was fairly enjoyable, once the stodgy 2 parter with Moffat endlessly recycling his bag of tricks was out of the way. But from 'A Good Man...' onwards, it all fell apart. The arc quickly shifted from 'reasonably interesting' to 'utterly dreadful', and with the exception of the alrightish God Complex, the second half of the season was just appalling.

    (And no, I can't believe I put Closing Time so far up either, but I really hated the episodes below it, so...)

    As should be plain, I do not approve of Moffat as showrunner. He had a decent start up until about 'Flesh and Stone', but since then, his episodes have been very, very poor. Very disappointing season, IMO - right 'up' there (od down there if you like) with Seasons 4 and 5 as the worst of the new series.
     
    Last edited: Oct 9, 2011
  10. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2005
    1. The Doctor's Wife
    2. A Good Man Goes to War
    3. The Girl Who Waited
    4. The God Complex
    5. Day of the Moon
    6. The Impossible Astronaut
    7. Let's Kill Hitler
    8. Closing Time
    9. The Wedding of River Song
    10. The Rebel Flesh
    11. The Almost People
    12. The Curse of the Black Spot
    13. Night Terrors
     
  11. JRoss

    JRoss Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Dec 19, 2010
    Location:
    Stain'd-by-the-Sea
    13. The Curse of the Black Spot
    12. Let's Kill Hitler
    11. The Wedding of River Song
    10. A Good Man Goes to War
    9. The God Complex
    8. Closing Time
    7. Night Terrors
    6. The Almost People
    5. The Rebel Flesh
    4. The Girl Who Waited
    3. The Impossible Asronaut
    2. Day of the Moon
    1. The Doctor's Wife
     
  12. WinstonSmith

    WinstonSmith Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    May 25, 2011
    1. Doctor's wife
    2. Good man goes to war
    3. Impossible astronaut/Day of the moon
    4. The god complex
    5. Closing time
    6. Night terrors
    7. Wedding of River song
    8. Girl who waited
    9. Almost people/Rebel flesh (should have been one episode)
    thus endeth the ones I liked

    10. Black spot
    thus endeth the one that was "meh"

    11. let's kill hitler
    thus endeth the one with the most tacked together plot I have ever seen. sorry Hitler :P
     
  13. Newspaper Taxi

    Newspaper Taxi Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Feb 8, 2004
    Location:
    Newspaper Taxi
    TIER I: Episodes I loved
    1.The God Complex
    2.The Girl Who Waited
    3. The Doctor's Wife
    4. Day of the Moon /The Impossible Astronaut
    5. A Good Man Goes to War

    TIER II: Episodes I enjoyed
    6.The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People
    7. Let's Kill Hitler

    TIER III: Episodes I thought were average
    8. Closing Time
    9. Night Terrors
    10. The Wedding of River Song

    TIER IV: Episodes I did not enjoy watching
    11. Curse of the Black Spot

    It's a shame about The Curse of the Black Spot...I'm a big pirate fan. : (
     
  14. auntiehill

    auntiehill The Blooness Premium Member

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2006
    Location:
    on the couch
    1. The Doctor's Wife
    2. The Girl Who Waited
    3. The Impossible Astronaut
    4. The God Complex
    5. Day of the Moon
    6. A Good Man Goes to War
    7. The Wedding of River Song
    8. Closing Time
    9. Let's Kill Hitler
    10. The Rebel Flesh
    11. The Almost People
    12. The Curse of the Black Spot
    13. Night Terrors
     
  15. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 22, 2001
    Location:
    Behind Enemy Lines
    1. The Doctor’s Wife. Just brilliant.
    2. The God Complex. Fine example of how to do spooky in a claustrophobic location (Gatiss take note)
    3. The Girl Who Waited. Not perfect, lumbering start, but once Amy 2 shows up just brilliant.
    4. A Good Man Goes to War. Just fun from start to finish.
    5. Closing Time. Sweet and funny, I’m no fan of Corden but he’s great as Craig.
    6. Let’s Kill Hitler. Mad as a box of frogs.
    7. The Wedding of River Song. Brilliant and frustrating in equal measure.
    8. The Rebel flesh. Brilliant opening half to a story, very classic Who in feel…shame about pt 2 really.
    9. Day of the Moon. Really need to go back and re-watch this in hindsight, but if nothing else fantastic last few minutes.
    10. The Impossible Astronaut. Not terrible, but I just couldn’t connect with it for some reason.
    11. The Almost People. Lousy second part, all over the place.
    12. Night Terrors. ZZZzzzzz
    13. The Curse of the Black Spot. An entire character vanishes and then we get an ending lifted straight from The Doctor Dances. Just really bad!
     
  16. 23skidoo

    23skidoo Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2002
    Location:
    Fifth Circle of Hell
    This was actually the first season of the revival not to contain one single episode I didn't like. Yes, I even liked The Curse of the Black Spot, which I considered the "most classic-style" story of the bunch; forgetting the bells and whistles of which companions, this was a pure Tom Baker story, just substitute Leela for Amy. Or make it a Harry/Sarah Jane story if you like.

    Several of the stories pushed Doctor Who into an area it rarely enters - hard SF. The God Complex was one (yes, even with all that faith business), and definitely the gangers two-parter.

    Three stories pushed this season to a new level: The Doctor's Wife, which rewrote the rulebook for the series, A Good Man Goes to War (which any other season would have been the finale; meanwhile, it expanded the universe by providing us with several new characters arriving fully-formed for later return by Moffat or expansion by the fanbase); and the aforementioned God Complex which is one of the best "bottle shows" the franchise has done in years (and would have been a perfect Pertwee or Davison episode).

    A perfect season? Of course not - that can't be done in any series. But it definitely, for me, was the most consistent in terms of quality and engagement. My only big complaint is I did not like the decision to split it, because it made the two halves go by too quickly. I think The Wedding of River Song would have had more impact (and maybe more people would have been able to follow it) had it come at the end of a 13-week run rather than a half-dozen.

    Alex
     
  17. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 27, 2002
    Location:
    Gotham
    1. The Doctor's Wife
    2. A Good Man Goes to War
    3. The God Complex
    4. The Girl Who Waited
    5. The Curse of the Black Spot
    6. The Wedding of River Song
    7. The Impossible Astronaut
    8. Closing Time
    9. Day of the Moon
    10. The Rebel Flesh
    11. The Almost People
    12. Night Terrors
    13. Let's Kill Hitler