Your Verdict on The Lie of the Land & Episode Ranking
Joshua Yetman reveals what DWTV readers made of the eighth episode of Series 10.
Last week, the Monk Trilogy concluded with The Lie of the Land, an Orwellian themed contribution from veteran Doctor Who writer Toby Whithouse. In a show which has perhaps struggled with its endings in the past few years, it was crucial that Whithouse stuck the landing of what has been an ambitious and prolific three part epic in the heart of the series. So did he succeed? Let’s consider the statistics!
The Lie of the Land: Stat Rundown
- The average score for The Lie of the Land was 7.156. Although this is hardly a bad score, and, in fact, would nestle comfortably in the “good’ echelon as per DWTV’s score system, one can’t help but feel slightly disappointed in this average when compared to the scores attained by Extremis and Pyramid. The numbers do suggest this conclusion to the Monk Trilogy was indeed weaker than it should have been. It also means that the Monk Trilogy consistently declined in quality as it progressed. Plus, this is the second lowest score in Series 10 to date.
- The Lie of the Land is the 90th highest rated episode of the revival, sandwiched between A Town Called Mercy (another Whithouse offering, with a score of 7.158 in 89th) and The Unicorn and the Wasp (7.147, in 91st). 90th position amongst 139 episodes essentially means that two thirds of the revival were rated higher than this episode.
- This episode marks Toby Whithouse’s 7th contribution to the show. Whithouse is generally a well-received writer, and has averaged 7.640 over his 7 episodes. The Lie of the Land unfortunately sits in 6th position, with The Vampires of Venice remaining in last position with a score of 6.778.
- The standard deviation of the episode – which is our measure of how divisive an episode is – was a relatively high 2.146. This is by far and away the most divisive episode of the series to date, and the first episode of the series to have a standard deviation above 2, which is generally the threshold that sets off alarm bells for significant discordance. This standard deviation means The Lie of the Land is the 25th most divisive episode of the revival.
- The Monk Trilogy – taken holistically as an overall story – averaged 7.854. This means that this three part story is the 17th highest rated multi-part story of the revival (and there are 24 in total, according to my own personal interpretation of what constitutes a multi-part story), scoring better than The End of Time (7.846) but falling short of Army of Ghosts / Doomsday (7.985).
Series 10 Ranking
The Lie of the Land was the seventh highest rated episode of the series to date. So far, the Series 10 episode rank looks 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
- Knock Knock – 7.487
- The Lie of the Land – 7.156
- Smile – 7.095
- 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 7.785, an average which would mean that Series 10 is currently the third highest rated series of the revival after Series 9 (which averaged 8.171) and Series 4 (which averaged 7.832).
Conclusion
With the Monk Trilogy now over, we return to a brief run of stand-alone adventures before the epic finale commences. Join us next week when we analyse Empress of Mars, the latest offering from Mark Gatiss, which should guarantee some interesting numbers. Until then, keep voting!
