Ranking Doctor Who (2005)

The Parting of the Ways is masterful television, which gives Christopher Eccleston quite possibly the best finale of any Doctor in the show's history, and has quite possibly the strongest depiction of the Daleks in the revived series.

While the presence of early 21st century gameshows somewhat dates the episode, Bad Wolf is a prescient examination of our society's obsession with reality television which signals the beginning of the end for Eccleston's time as the Doctor.

The Doctor Dances is a terrifying, heartfelt and surprisingly funny conclusion to the story started in The Empty Child, and is easily one of the best stories of the revived series.

Despite only being the first part of a two-part story, The Empty Child is a wonderfully suspenseful episode with a great script.

A wonderfully heartbreaking love story making good use of the time travel concept, The Girl in the Fireplace is an utter delight, but can be also seen as Steven Moffat's prototype for Series 5.

Dalek is a powerful episode which does a fantastic job at taking apart every tired joke about the old pepperpots and making them terrifying again, with one of Christopher Eccleston's best performances as the 9th Doctor.

As an exploration into Rose Tyler's familial past, Father's Day ranks as one of Doctor Who's most emotional episodes.

This is the episode that brought Doctor Who into the 21st Century in my eyes. The production, acting and storytelling for the revived series really feel like they come into their own in this episode.

As the finale to series 2, Doomsday is a satisfying conclusion which delivers the ultimate fanservice in the form of the Daleks and the Cybermen going to war and hurling petty insults at each other. Yet like Army of Ghosts, it's a little too reliant on exposition, and Rose Tyler's departure doesn't emotionally resonate with me personally due to my dislike for the character during series 2.

Although the episode's main threat is overshadowed by the number of characters that need establishing, this is a great return to form that still holds up almost 17 years later.

Tooth and Claw is a very strong historical episode, with a great guest performance from Pauline Collins as Queen Victoria and a werewolf which still holds up today, only slightly bogged down by Rose's inappropriately toned bet.

The End of the World has some impressive production design and visual effects for 2005 and some beautiful scenes, sure not all of it holds up nowadays and parts of the narrative don't feel properly thought out but it's a strong first trip in the TARDIS.

Boom Town's first 30 minutes are a surprisingly mature morality game with Annette Badland firing on all cylinders, but it's a shame that it chooses to cop out in its ending, not to mention it brings Rose's questionable treatment of Mickey to a head.

Doctor Who's first proper Christmas special is a mixed bag. The decision to have the Tenth Doctor incapacitated for most of the episode makes David Tennant's debut even more impactful, but the juxtaposition of killer Christmas with the near-suicide of one third of Earth's population is too tonally jarring for my tastes.

The 9/11 and government satire in World War Three is surprisingly poignant, plus Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North is an absolute legend. But the tonal issues brought on by the Slitheen drag it down overall.

The Age of Steel unfortunately takes a lot of the wind out of its predecessor's sails due to its sluggish pace and unclear plotting, but serves as a very strong showcase for Mickey Smith's character development.

The London part of Aliens of London is handled really well, but it's unfortunately hurt by the juvenile tone brought on by the Slitheen's farting.

The Long Game is a very fitting title, because this is an episode, which, despite containing a great performance from Simon Pegg as The Editor, never really feels like it comes alive because of the wonky pacing, not to mention Adam Mitchell.

Love & Monsters isn't quite as bad as its reputation suggests, the idea of an episode centred around ordinary people in the Doctor Who universe is actually novel and Peter Kay is a lot of fun as Victor Kennedy/The Abzorbaloff, but the tone is all over the place and the sex joke during the ending is still cringeworthy.

Normally, I would write The Idiot's Lantern off as a middling episode with a few decent moments of darkness for the Tenth Doctor, but it's ending's refusal to outright condemn Mr. Connelly's treatment of his son and have Rose encourage Tommy to go back to him seriously struck a nerve with me.

Much like The Christmas Invasion, New Earth suffers from a tonal crisis. It's hard to take the walking lepers and the attempt at a poignant ending seriously when you have David Tennant and Billie Piper's ridiculously hammy performances when they're possessed by Cassandra, and it ultimately gets Series 2 off to a shaky start.

A bottle episode made to take the place of an overexpensive script by Stephen Fry, Fear Her is truly as dire as its reputation suggests. Whilst the effects for the scribble monster are laughably terrible, the episode also suffers from overly broad characterisation of the Doctor and a weak supporting cast, not to mention the ending denouement is especially cheesy even for this show's standards.