Your Verdict on The Eaters of Light & Episode Ranking
Joshua Yetman reveals what DWTV readers made of the ninth episode of Series 10.
With Series 10 nearing its epic conclusion, The Eaters of Light – written by the delightful Rona Munro, who penned the 1989 serial Survival – is the last stand-alone story of the series and, indeed, the final story of the Moffat era not written by Moffat himself. As Survival was – and still is – a highly regarded and admired story which many consider to be a great conclusion to the classic series, anticipation for Munro was high in some quarters of the fandom. Has The Eaters of Light lived up to the hype? Let’s consider the statistics!
The Eaters of Light: Stat Rundown
- The average score for The Eaters of Light was 7.667, a perfectly respectable score, although it means we have yet another member of the 7/10 club. Being a member of this club is hardly a bad thing (after all, 7/10 is defined as ‘Good’ on the DWTV polling scales) but the high volume of 7’s in this series may frustrate those who yearn for something a little more substantial in their Who.
- DWTV has no poll data for Survival, but, on IMDB, the three parts scored 7.6, 7.6 and 7.8 respectively, averaging – by a remarkable coincidence – the same score of 7.667. Thus, by this measure, Rona has been very, very consistent!
- The Eaters of Light is the 73rd highest rated episode of the revival, falling into place between The Lodger in 72nd (7.688) and Father’s Day in 74th (7.650). This is arguably a good neighbourhood of stories, but 73rd place among 141 episodes implies that The Eaters of Light is very much an ‘average’ episode.
- The standard deviation of this episode – our measure of how divisive an episode was – was 2.026. A result above 2 essentially indicates that the episode was very divisive, which can be seen in the bar chart above – the vote was quite spread out, more so than usual. This is the second most divisive episode of the series after The Lie of the Land, and the 37th most divisive of all time. Overall, however, Series 10 remains a remarkably uncontentious run of episodes.
Series 10 Ranking
When it comes to the Series 10 rankings, The Eaters of Light slots in at seventh. 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
- The Eaters of Light – 7.667
- Knock Knock – 7.487
- The Lie of the Land – 7.156
- Smile – 7.095
- World Enough and Time – TBC
- The Doctor Falls – TBC
The Series 10 average (excluding specials) is currently 7.767, which would put the series fourth overall after Series 9, 4 and 5. In addition, it is, by a considerable margin, the most consistent series of the revival.
Conclusion
All attention now centres on the finale, which will be Moffat’s last in his capacity as showrunner. In the Capaldi years, Moffat has demonstrated a curious tendency to produce universally acclaimed Part 1’s which are then followed by hugely polarising Part 2’s. Will World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls conform to this trend, or break it altogether? Furthermore, where will Series 10 stand after this finale is over? It is unfortunately now mathematically impossible for Series 10 to top Series 9, but it could still come second if all goes well.
The results for World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls will be released together in just over two weeks, such that both episodes can be discussed together in detail. 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.
- See the results for episode 7 here.
- See the results for episode 8 here.
- See the results for episode 9 here.
