YOUR Verdict On “The Tsuranga Conundrum” – Record Breaking (For the Wrong Reasons)
It’s time to reveal DWTV’s poll results for the fifth episode of Series 11, “The Tsuranga Conundrum”, as voted for by you over the last week or so.
“The Tsuranga Conundrum”: Stat Breakdown
As always, we asked you to rate the episode on a scale from 1 to 10. We then took an average.
- A few thousand of you voted, and the average score was 5.17. According to the Doctor Who TV score guide, this indicates the episode was generally considered to be in the “Average” range. In a similar situation to last week, “Average” isn’t an awful result on that term alone. But then we take into consideration how it fares in the wider context of all the scores of the past, and in the revival era as a whole, and things don’t look great. “The Tsuranga Conundrum” did even worse than the last (which was already just outside the bottom 10).
- This is the lowest recorded score DWTV has ever seen after only a week or so of voting! Usually, the immediate “post-air hype” period plays a role in the score. Episodes, even more divisive ones, generally start out with a more positive score than they end up when rated again years later. However, this episode is so low to begin with, it has little room to drop any lower.
- “Tsuranga” is now the 6th lowest rated episode of the whole revival (according to the DWTV ranking polls taken from earlier in 2018). It’s a record-breaking entry for Chris Chibnall, but for all the wrong reasons! Yes, we have a new story to add to the undesirable bottom ten (and a whisker away from bottom 5). More specifically, it is situated between “The Curse of the Black Spot” (5.46) and “Sleep No More” (5.04).
- Just one week after achieving his worst rated Doctor Who episode yet, Chibnall has topped himself again. His previous lowest was “Arachnids in the UK” (5.91).
- The standard deviation – which is our measure for how divisive an episode is – was 2.65. The trend continues, although it’s only a slight increase on last week. It’s still massively polarising and up there with the highest of the whole revival in the grand scheme of things though.
- All in all, it’s unfortunately another very disappointing result for the series.
Series 11 Episode Ranking (So far)
After five episodes, the Series 11 episode ranking looks like this:
- 1. Rosa – 7.94
- 2. The Woman Who Fell to Earth – 7.35
- 3. The Ghost Monument – 6.84
- 4. Arachnids in the UK – 5.91
- 5. The Tsuranga Conundrum – 5.17
- X. Demons of the Punjab – TBC
- X. Kerblam! – TBC
- X. The Witchfinders – TBC
- X. It Takes You Away – TBC
- X. The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos – TBC
At the half-way mark, the Series 11 average now isn’t looking too healthy. The poor performance of “Tsuranga” has pushed it down to 6.64.
Conclusion
Join us next week when we examine the results of “Demons of the Punjab”, the sixth episode of Series 11. With Chibnall taking a hands-off approach, will the new writers fare better? Find out next time. Until then, keep voting!
