Your Verdict on the Series 10 Finale & Ranking
Joshua Yetman reveals what DWTV readers made of the two-part Series 10 finale.
With Series 10 now concluded, it’s time to reflect on the scores received by its epic and explosive two-part finale, World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls. The last finale of both Steven Moffat’s and Peter Capaldi’s respective tenures, this outing witnessed the return of John Simm’s Master, the Mondasian Cybermen, a beautiful companion exit and even the First Doctor himself, albeit as a lead-in for Christmas. Such factors should contribute to some very interesting statistics, so let’s see how this two-parter faired.
World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls: Stat Rundown
- This was an extremely well received two-parter; World Enough and Time received an astonishing average score of 9.048, making it one of the very few episodes on record to score higher than a 9/10 on DWTV, whilst The Doctor Falls averaged out at a brilliant 8.491.
- Within Series 10, these are the best two episodes, with World Enough and Time officially becoming the best episode of the series, and The Doctor Falls narrowly pushing Oxygen into third place.
- World Enough and Time is the 6th highest rated episode ever – a top ten entry for Series 10! It stands amongst icons such as The Eleventh Hour (5th – 9.051) and The Doctor Dances (7th – 9.041), and is only the 9th episode in DWTV history to score above 9/10. Meanwhile, The Doctor Falls enters the charts in 30th
- The overall average for this two-parter was 8.770. This makes World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls the 5th best two-parter ever and the 2nd best finale (after the Series 5 finale, The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang).
- World Enough and Time was one of the least divisive episodes ever. Its standard deviation – our measure of divisiveness – was 1.379, the 7th lowest on record. The Doctor Falls was much more divisive – at 1.947 – but this is still miles from the contention received by Hell Bent, the previous finale, which received the record breaking standard deviation of 2.829! As far as finales go, The Doctor Falls was a relatively harmonious affair that most people seemed to love.
Series 10 Ranking
The final Series 10 rankings (sans the upcoming Christmas special, of course) are as follows:
- World Enough and Time – 9.048
- The Doctor Falls – 8.491
- Oxygen – 8.484
- Extremis – 8.417
- The Pyramid at the End of the World – 7.988
- The Pilot – 7.842
- Thin Ice – 7.814
- Empress of Mars – 7.724
- The Eaters of Light – 7.667
- Knock Knock – 7.487
- The Lie of the Land – 7.156
- Smile – 7.095
What a healthy set of scores! Unlike most series, Series 10 avoided any episode that could considered a failure by any measure, achieving a lot of statistically ‘good’ episodes whilst still churning out a fair number of greats. It may have frustrated those who want more experimental, envelope-pushing episodes, but the overall quality was solid.
The series average was 7.934, which means Series 10 is the second best series of the revival. Series 9 is still first, and is still the only series ever to average above 8/10 on DWTV (8.171), but second place is not to be scoffed at.
Conclusion
And so ends yet another series of Doctor Who! Series 10 was a very interesting set of episodes, both narratively and statistically, and it’s been a pleasure to analyse the numbers that interposed and permeated this enjoyable slice of programming. Although it owes a lot to its spectacularly received finale, it was a very consistent run of episodes that produced no verifiably bad episode, and was, at worst, just ‘good’.
However, though the series is completed, the stats are not! Next week, look forward to (or dread, depending on your opinion of numbers) a two-part article considering Series 10 holistically, reflecting on some further areas of analysis and comparing this run in more detail to past series. We will also reveal your overall score for Series 10, the poll of which is still open.
Until then, it’s farewell, and thank you for voting!
- See the results for episode 1 here.
- See the results for episode 2 here.
- See the results for episode 3 here.
- See the results for episode 4 here.
- See the results for episode 5 here.
- See the results for episode 6 here.
- See the results for episode 7 here.
- See the results for episode 8 here.
- See the results for episode 9 here.
- See the results for episode 10 here.
