Your Verdict on Empress of Mars & Episode Ranking
Joshua Yetman reveals what DWTV readers made of the ninth episode of Series 10.
With the Monk Trilogy done and dusted, Series 10 returned to a brief spate of historically themed stand-alone episodes, starting with Empress of Mars. This is the latest contribution from Mark Gatiss, who has written his fair share of controversial episodes in the past (most recently his found-footage styled Series 9 contribution, Sleep No More, which is now generally regarded as one of the worst episodes of the revival) and has never truly written anything for the show that could be statistically defined as a “classic” (discounting An Adventure in Space and Time, of course). Has that all changed with the advent of Empress of Mars, a steampunk inspired Ice Warrior story? Let’s take a look!
Empress of Mars: Stat Rundown
- The average score for Empress of Mars was 7.724, a very healthy score indeed, especially for a writer who, previous to this episode, was averaging a lowly 6.461! Moreover, this score confirms that this is Gatiss’ highest rated episode of the revival, positively smashing the score of the previous holder, The Crimson Horror (7.279). For what is hinted to be his last ever contribution to the show, it’s certainly a great way to bow out! For interest, the full rank of Gatiss’ episodes from 2005 to 2017 are given below:
- Empress of Mars is the 70th highest rated episode of the revival. Coincidentally, it was also the 140th episode of the revival. This means it is pretty much bang on the “median” episode of the revival. Thus, despite how well Gatiss performed relative to his previous work, he has not truly the cracked the upper echelons of quality dominated by Messrs Moffat, Davies, Mathieson et al.
- The standard deviation of this episode – which is our measure of how divisive the episode was – was 1.844. This is an ‘average’ figure that suggests the episode was only moderately divisive. For Gatiss, this is his least divisive episode since The Unquiet Dead back in 2005. In Series 10 alone, there are five episodes that are more divisive, and in the overall revival it is the 67th most divisive (so, again, about halfway).
- As far as modern Ice Warrior stories go – of which there are only two, both written by Mark Gatiss – Empress of Mars is the superior showcase. Cold War, the other Ice Warrior story, only achieved an average score of 6.852.
Series 10 Ranking
When it comes to the Series 10 rankings, Empress of Mars slots in at sixth. The complete rankings look like this:
- 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
- Knock Knock – 7.487
- The Lie of the Land – 7.156
- Smile – 7.095
- The Eaters of Light – TBC
- World Enough and Time – TBC
- The Doctor Falls – TBC
This means the Series 10 average to date (excluding specials) is 7.778, an average which would mean that Series 10 is currently the fourth highest rated series of the revival after Series 9, 4 and 5 (averages of 8.171, 7.832 and 7.780 respectively) with three remaining episodes left.
Conclusion
Mark Gatiss’ perfectly respectable contribution was a welcome comeback from the rather cool reaction to The Lie of the Land last week. As we enter the finale quarter of this series, we must consider where we stand; Series 10 has, so far, been a warmly received and non-divisive collection of episodes but it has escaped true critical acclaim. Extremis and Oxygen have come the closest, but most series have had one or two or sometimes even three episodes higher rated than Extremis and Oxygen at this point. However, a Moffat finale looms excitingly on the horizon and that may very well change everything. Join us for these final few weeks as we determine just what kind of mark this series will make, and the exciting statistics that follow in its wake. Until then, keep voting!
