• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Ranking Series 8 Episodes

intrinsical

intrinsical

Commodore
Commodore
Now that I've had the time to digest series 8, I find it to be better than most of Matt Smith's run (except his first year). I like that there's a little of everything including horror, comedy, drama, romance, soap. Of course it is not perfect by any means. There's some really solid episodes that can rank up there among the top Doctor Who episodes, and there are clunkers that rank close to the bottom. Here's my ranking of episodes:

1) Flatline
2) Mummy on the Orient Express
3) Dark Water
4) Death in Heaven
5) Into The Dalek
6) Listen
7) Deep Breath
8) Robots of Sherwood
9) Time Heist
10) Kill The Moon
...
Significant gap
...
11) The Caretaker
12) In the Forest of the Night
 
this ranking is going to be pretty interchangeable...

1) Dark Water absolutely thrilling part one. bonus points for killing Danny!
2) Into The Dalek great idea for a Dalek story
3) Death in Heaven so, so many problems. but still, a big finale with the Master and the Cybermen
4) Flatline really great concept, Clara in charge is great fun, tiny Tardis is awesome
6) Mummy on the Orient Express
7) Time Heist
8) Deep Breath
9) The Caretaker
10) Kill The Moon
11) Robots of Sherwood not bad not great
12) Listen this is where I really started despising Danny. and I have a HUGE problem with Clara being able to travel back to Gallifrey
13) In the Forest of the Night ugh. so many ridiculous problems.
 
1) Mummy on the Orient Express
2) Flatline
3) Into the Dalek
4) Deep Breath
5) Dark Water/Death in Heaven
6) Robot of Sherwood
7) The Caretaker
8) Listen
9) Time Heist
10) Kill the Moon
11) In the Forest of the Night
 
GREAT
Flatline
Listen

GOOD
Into the Dalek
Mummy on the Orient Express
Dark Water
Robot of Sherwood
The Caretaker
Time Heist
Kill the Moon

DIDN'T ENJOY
Deep Breath
In the Forest of the Night
Death in Heaven
 
Ok here's mine, although there are some I definitely need to see again like Flatline given how much other people seemed to like it. Overall a fairly average season (I don't mean that in a negative way, I mean it's fairly similar to most seasons in terms of the proprtion of good/bad/absolute shit episodes.

As I've said elsewhere I do like Capaldi, but I have to be honest, I do miss the bonkers exuberance of the Smith years. Still S8 was way better than 7B at least!

1) Listen
2) Mummy on the Orient Express
3) Dark Water
4) Into the Dalek
5) Death in Heaven
6) Deep Breath
7) Time Heist
8) The Caretaker
9) Flatline
10) Robots of Sherwood
11) In the Forest of the Night
12) Kill the Moon
 
1. Listen
2. Flatline
3. Time Heist
4. Into the Dalek
5. Mummy on the Orient Express
6. Deep Breath
7. Dark Water
8. Robot of Sherwood
9. The Caretaker
10. Kill the Moon
11. Death in Heaven
12. In the Forest of the Night
 
1) Listen
2) Mummy on the Orient Express
3) Dark Water
4) The Caretaker
5) Kill the Moon
6) Robot of Sherwood
7) In the Forest of the Night
8) Flatline
9) Deep Breath
10) Into the Dalek
11) Time Heist
12) Death in Heaven
 
Absolutely loved:
Flatline
Listen

Didn't care for:
Caretaker
Death in Heaven

The rest I thought were anywhere from solid to really good. And overall I thought it was a pretty strong season.
 
Not sure how I would rank them, but I think my favourite from this season was Listen, I'll have to revist this after I've watched the blu-rays.
 
1) Into the Dalek. We need more Rusty.
2) Flatline. Creepy, fun and what I like best about the Moff.
3) Time Heist. A good self-contained story with fun supporting characters.
4) Mummy on the Orient Express. Good. The whole soldier bit and saluting from this season wears thin.
5) Deep Breath. A good introduction to Capaldi, if a bit overlong. We didn't need Moff defending Capaldi against the rabid Smith fangirls, or Smith's cameo, but overall it worked.
6) Listen. Not as good as it should have been, but it's ambiguity was enjoyable.
7) Robot of Sherwood. I expected more from a historical where they meet such a notable figure.
8) The Caretaker. The villain looked like something right out of a budget-slashed SJA story, and Danny's jump was stupid.
9) Dark Water. Not as bad as the second part. The lead into the reveal was tense, and by the time the episode rolled around I forgot about the spoiler in the preview, so I was surprised.
10) Kill the Moon. Completely illogical. One of several episodes where the Doctor does absolutely nothing. Probably would have been better as a Smith episode, given Smith's passive nature compared to Capaldi's fire. It actually started out as a Smith story, and the heavy rewrites show its basic weakness.
11) Death in Heaven. It killed of Osgood and Danny, both of which were good things. I didn't mind a female master, but she shouldn't have taken all her cues from Simm. Her goal, just to try and run off with the Doctor was fun, but the execution and the overall story were atrocious.
12) In the Forest of the Night. Full of Danny, annoying kids and a zero-stakes plot. Absolutely the worst of NuWho in a long time.
 
I've only given up to Time Heist a second viewing, but currently.....

Very much enjoyed, can't say enough good things:
1) Listen
2) Flatline

Relatively fun episodes:
3) Time Heist - The more times I watch this, the more I like it.
4) Dark Water - Fun build up to not a very great ending with part 2.
5) Deep Breath
6) Robot of Sherwood - Worth The Doctor arguing with Robin Hood alone
7) Mummy on the Orient Express
8) The Caretaker

And then.....

9) Death in Heaven - Lots of good things, I could buy a lot of the Cybermen stuff, up until I realized Moffet had not fleshed out any real reason why Missy was doing it all. It needed a couple of more drafts. The only thing I got out of it was.... Missy somehow escaped Galifrey, knows what happened, and won't tell the Doctor. Events which also may in part explain how the end of "Listen happened.

10) Into the Dalek - I had a hard time buying it, and the ending felt like RTD wrote it. Press some buttons, Dalek remembers, hooray!

11) In the Forest of the Night - I just have no words for this episode. They tried to make it something..... I applaud that, but... it just did not work.

12) Kill the Moon - I didn't like the Doctor in this at all. It did not sit well with me.
 
1. Mummy on the Orient Express
2. Time Heist
3. Flatline
4. Dark Water
5. Listen
6. Into the Dalek
7. Deep Breath
8. Death in Heaven
9. The Caretaker
10. Robot of Sherwood
11. In the Forest of the Night
12. Kill the Moon
 
For me, "Flatline" was one of the better episodes. It had a strong cohesive story logic, a monster that wasn't disposable, and good ancilliary characters.

Watching "The Pyramids of Mars", I have a less harsh opinion of the two parter "Dark Water"/"Death in Heaven". Doctor Who has always flirted with zombiefication and love being a means for a zombified person to overcome their condition, if they can.

My hope for next season is that the season arc is planned out before the episodes are produced.
 
I don't know why people are ranking Dark Water and Death in Heaven as different episodes since they are essentially the same story. Meh Oh well, here's my ratings:

1) Dark Water/Death in Heaven
Fantastic finale! Some fantastic imagery such as Cybermen crawling on the outside of a plane, Cybermen coming out of graves, some very deep scenes (especially when Brigadier saved Kate) and yeah, it was just brilliant. I found Missy rather annoying in part two though, she didn't rub with me well. I didn't see the point of her having a Scottish accent, why does the Doctor and the Master need to be Scottish? Plus her voice is to shrill. But other than that very good.
2) Deep Breath
A really good way to open a series, felt very Steampunk and since that's what I like, it's probably why it's so high up on my list.
3) Robot of Sherwood
Surprisingly good. I don't usually like humour in Doctor Who, but for some reason this episode sat particularly well with me.
4) Into the Dalek
Rather enjoyable!
5) The Caretaker
Also surprisingly enjoyable, and that's what matters.
6) Mummy on the Orient Express
Also surprisingly enjoyable. One of the worst and least imaginative names for an episode in any show ever but I actually liked the episode quite a bit.
7) Time Heist
An average episode. Not bad but not brilliant. Still better than most of Smith's dreadful run mind you.
8) In the Forest of the Night
Average. Rather silly, quite stupid actually. But I still enjoyed it a little.......but still really stupid.
9) Listen
I don't get why people like this one so much. It's rather boring really. For the whole thing I was just waiting for it to get started. And the whole Clara on Galifrey pissed me (and everyone else) off.
10) Flatline
Seriously, why the fuck do people like this one so much? I got some rather bad memories of Fear her and the likes from this. This whole Clara taking charge thing was silly, the Doctor in a mini TARDIS was laughable and the special effects were rather poor. A really silly episode in conclusion, I don't get why people liked it so much.
11) Kill the Moon
UGH!!!!! Kill it, kill it with fire!!! The moon is an egg, THE MOON IS AN EGG! The Doctor was a colossal dick in this, the science behind this was silly, and ugh, this was just awful. It's like it's from the very depths of the worst part of the Smith era. *stabs violently*
 
Last edited:
<<I don't know why people are ranking Dark Water and Death in Heaven as different episodes since they are essentially the same story.>>

Because Part One was really good and exciting and didn't have any huge gaping plot holes... while Part Two is where everything just falls apart and everybody acts like an idiot. There's such a huge difference in quality between the two episodes I didn't lump them together like I would normally do.
 
Add in to the fact, that isn't it normal procedure to rank muliple part stories as individual episodes if they orignally aired as individual episodes.
 
Personal Preference. I usually group them together. Usually because I can't remember where one ends and the other begins. Usually a two parter doesn't have such a drastic difference between the segments. I wouldn't be able to tell you which events were in "The Impossible Planet" versus "The Satan Pit", for example.
 
Mr Light said:
<<I don't know why people are ranking Dark Water and Death in Heaven as different episodes since they are essentially the same story.>>

Because Part One was really good and exciting and didn't have any huge gaping plot holes... while Part Two is where everything just falls apart and everybody acts like an idiot. There's such a huge difference in quality between the two episodes I didn't lump them together like I would normally do.
Click to expand...

I feel they were equally good personally.
 
I ranked them differently because one is far superior to the other. The stories are also quite different. One is a fun mystery and the other is a pile of garbage. I would have ranked Dark Water higher if the reveal hadn't been so stupid and if that one guy behind the desk hadn't spent what felt like three minutes trying to not tell them what the three words were.
 
I think the finale was hurt when they made a change in the arc. The arc initially had robots looking for the Promised Land. This was dropped, and now I, and maybe others, are left wondering why were robots looking for this fabled place. I think that if they do another arc, they might take the time to map it out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top