Your Verdict on Pyramid & Episode Ranking

Joshua Yetman reveals what DWTV readers made of the seventh episode of Series 10.

The so-called Monk Trilogy continued with the co-written middle chapter entitled The Pyramid at the End of the World, written by Capaldi era regular Peter Harness and showrunner Steven Moffat. Harness – on his own – has written some remarkably divisive episodes (Kill The Moon most notably), but his last outing with Moffat – The Zygon Inversion – was critically lauded. Has this apparent dream team struck gold twice? Let’s consider the statistics.

The Pyramid at the End of the World: Stat Rundown

• The average score for Pyramid was 7.988, a very strong score indeed, but a score which was a niggling whisker away from the 8/10 threshold. Unfortunately, this does mean we have broken the 8/10+ run instigated by Oxygen and Extremis.
• This score of 7.988 means that Pyramid is the 55^th highest rated episode of the revival, slotting in between The Husbands of River Song in 56^th (7.984) and School Reunion (8.010) in 54^th. Thus, it is the highest rated episode below the 8/10 threshold…if that’s any form of consolation.
• Considering Harness’ four contributions to the show to date (including his two cowrites), Pyramid would rank third. Kill The Moon remains Harness’ lowest rated episode, at 6.809, and both parts of the Series 9 Zygon two-parter rank higher than Pyramid.
• The standard deviation of the score – which is our measure of how divisive an episode was – was 1.899. This is a step down from Extremis, which attained a standard deviation of 1.971, and so Pyramid was less divisive than Extremis. Taken absolutely, a figure of 1.899 means the episode was only moderately divisive, and it is only the 57^th most divisive episode of the revival, so not many feathers were ruffled by this episode.
• The Monk Trilogy currently averages 8.203 – if this average were maintained, the trilogy would go down as the 13^th highest rated multi-part story of the revival.

Series 10 Ranking

The Pyramid at the End of the World slots in as the third highest rated episode of the series to date. So far, the Series 10 episode rank looks like this:

• 1. Oxygen – 8.484
• 2. Extremis – 8.417
• 3. The Pyramid at the End of the World – 7.988
• 4. The Pilot – 7.842
• 5. Thin Ice – 7.814
• 6. Knock Knock – 7.487
• 7. Smile – 7.095
• The Lie of the Land – TBC
• The Empress of Mars – TBC
• 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 7.875, an average which would mean that Series 10 is currently the second highest rated series of the revival after Series 9 (which averaged 8.171).

Conclusion

The Monk Trilogy continues to perform strongly but – as is often the case in Doctor Who – conclusions can easily go awry. Will The Lie of the Land act as a strong and statistically effective ending to the trilogy? Join us next week to find out, but until then, keep 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.