Every Episode of Doctor Who Series 7 Ranked From Worst to Best

Series 7 is a disappointing low point for Doctor Who. Moffat’s time running the show felt like it was running out of momentum, and the production schedule for this season was massively to its detriment. The result is a series that starts off fairly strong in the first half, but completely falls off a cliff after that, introducing a new companion at the wrong time and telling a long string of mediocre or worse stories.

It’s a disappointing way to see out the Eleventh Doctor’s tenure on the show, especially as the following specials, Day of the Doctor and The Time of the Doctor, were excellent.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

I may have complemented the first half of the series, but that doesn’t stop it from holding one of the all-time worst episodes in the show’s history, courtesy of Chris Chibnall. If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if someone came up with the episode title first and then worked backward, this is it, and every element in this story flops to an extreme degree.

For some bizarre reason, Chibnall thought it would be fun to stuff the TARDIS crew full of random new side characters whose presence adds absolutely nothing to the story. Admittedly, Rory’s dad Brian is a pretty great character on the whole, but even he has some truly cringeworthy moments. Chibnall’s style of humor is painfully unfunny, and the joke about “Brian’s balls” is all you need to show this. You can practically hear the 90s sitcom laugh track when he pulls those golf balls out of his pocket.

The plot is by-the-numbers and bland aside from that. The dinosaurs don’t factor into it as much as they should, as the villain is just the most baseline “evil dude” you’ve ever seen. Why anyone who saw this episode thought Chibnall would make a good showrunner, I have no idea.

The Bells of Saint John

While I wouldn’t call it one of the worst episodes ever, The Bells of Saint John is perhaps the most forgettable adventure the Doctor has ever been on, which is saying something considering it technically introduces a new companion.

After everyone fell in love with the Victorian version of Clara from The Snowman, this modern version is entirely inferior, and it shows as she does very little in this episode aside from making snide comments at the Doctor’s expense. She will eventually become a much more compelling character in the Capaldi era, but for now, we’re stuck with this shell of a personality.

The plot is boring too, with some evil wifi trapping people in the cloud. It’s a fun concept, and it could’ve worked, but the lack of focus across the whole episode stops it from leaving an impression.

The Crimson Horror

This episode wins points only through having fun shenanigans with the Paternoster Gang, as the actual plot is barely worth mentioning. The villain’s motivation is unclear at best, and the weird creature on her chest falls on the wrong side of weird and uncomfortable. We get a nice bit of subtle horror over what the process does to the Doctor and Clara, but it’s reversed so easily that it barely matters.

Plus the ending thrusts those annoying brats Clara babysits into the plot of the next episode, which is only a negative.

Nightmare in Silver

Speaking of.

When Neil Gaiman came in and wrote an all-time great episode of Doctor Who for Series 6, you’d be forgiven for thinking that he could repeat that magic a second time around, but here we are. I know this episode has its fans, but I find Nightmare in Silver extremely underwhelming.

As previously mentioned, Angie and Artie are just the worst, and every moment they’re on the screen just makes me more annoyed, and what’s more, their presence drags down the energy of both the Doctor and Clara. By this point 11 is pretty childish and Flanderized anyway, but this episode brings it to a new low.

The Doctor having to fight for his own mind is the only bit of this episode I enjoyed, but even that wears out its welcome by the end. At the very least, it makes the Cybermen seem like a proper threat, although I can’t say the ultimate solution was all that clever or satisfying.

The Name of the Doctor

This episode is in an unfortunate position. It’s technically the series finale, but it can’t actually resolve anything, because it’s also the setup episode for the 50th anniversary special that would follow. Instead, we get an adventure that just never picks up a good sense of momentum or threat.

The Doctor keeps going on about the idea that a time traveler can never visit their own grave, yet there doesn’t seem to be any consequences for doing so. The Doctor can stand next to his own timestream just fine, it’s only someone else interfering in it that causes problems. On that note, the sequence where the Great Intelligence rewrites the Doctor’s timeline is great, and I love how it affects everyone around him.

What I don’t love is how Clara entering his timeline somehow fixes everything. The Snowmen did show how she can help him combat the Great Intelligence, but the idea that she suddenly becomes this insanely important figure in the Doctor’s life in ridiculous. Her being strung along his timestream is fine, but making her the person who told her which TARDIS to steal back on Gallifrey? That’s taking things too far.

It also puts into focus the biggest problem with Clara in this series, which is that she’s not a person, she’s a plot device. Thankfully the series to come would work on making her more a person, but it still makes this moment fall painfully flat.

Good cliffhanger though, love a surprise John Hurt.

Hide

The problem with the second half of this series is that even the episodes with fairly interesting concepts end up being quite forgettable. Hide is the best example of this, as it manages to give us some decently compelling secondary characters and pulls a nice twist with their monsters. Still, I always come away from it finding it a rather unremarkable episode.

I like the twist that the creatures are just looking to reunite with their lost lovers, but most of the action leading up to it falls really flat, and the stupid drama behind Clara’s identity kills the flow on more than one occasion.

Cold War

The Ice Warriors were a strange choice to bring back from classic Doctor Who, and this episode proves that by throwing a lot of their established lore out of the window. I can’t help but feel this episode would’ve benefitted from having an original monster instead of something with even the slightest bit of name recognition for the older fans.

Still, there are some fun tense scenes, especially the one where Clara has to go in and talk to the creature on her own. Still, it doesn’t do enough to stand out compared to the episodes around it.

Journey to the Center of the TARDIS

Much like the Doctor, the less we know about the TARDIS, the better it is, and while Journey to the Center of the TARDIS has a lot of fun moments, it reveals too much about the machine’s inner workings. I much prefer the concept of the TARDIS shown in The Doctor’s Wife, where it’s a mess of corridors that bend both space and time, with the being in control of it able to control all of it if they want to. We get a little bit of that in this episode, but for the most part, the TARDIS itself is quite passive.

It doesn’t help that the secondary characters that come along for the ride aren’t likable or entertaining in any way. I like how easily the Doctor manipulates and tricks them into helping, but that’s about all the importance they have until it’s time to kill them off. The solution isn’t worth shouting about either, with a typical time-loop “the plot never happened” ending, which is just plain cheap.

Asylum of the Daleks

There’s a lot to be said for how big of a difference it makes when the Doctor and companions have solid chemistry in an episode. 11 and Clara simply didn’t work together, and that becomes painfully obvious when watching the first half of the season and seeing how well 11 works with Amy and Rory.

This is still a flawed episode though. The divorce angle is stupid. It tried to touch on some real trauma given Amy and Rory technically lost their only daughter, but instead, it’s presented like some petty squabble that’s solved really quickly and never mentioned again. Also, to get the full concept for it you have to watch a mini-series on YouTube, which is never a good idea.

The actual plot plays with some fun ideas, as Oswin’s introduction raises loads of cool questions. It once again makes the Daleks a complete non-threat, which is a shame, but it’s still a fun adventure that doesn’t stray from the typical Doctor Who formula.

A Town Called Mercy

Now we suddenly have a massive jump in quality, to finally find an episode that I would say is good with very few caveats. We get to have some real challenges to the Doctor’s principles. It may not be the best it’s ever been done, but it leaves an impact nonetheless, and once again his relationship with Amy aids this story massively.

The Gunslinger ends up being a bit underwhelming once he gets properly involved in the action, but serves as a strong looming threat until then. It makes for an episode that, while nothing super special, has fun with Western tropes and turns them into something uniquely Doctor Who.

The Rings of Akhaten

This episode may be a one-scene wonder, but what a scene.

To cut right to the meat of it, that speech from the Doctor is incredible and easily one of the best Doctor Who speeches of all time. It’s a bit cheesy, and it is a little stupid that it doesn’t even serve as the resolution to the episode, but when a scene is able to stick in your mind like that, it’s worth the praise.

The rest of the episode, while it doesn’t live up to the epicness of that speech, is still a solid adventure. It gives Clara her first adventure in a truly alien environment, and while I still don’t believe her connection with 11, it’s enjoyable to watch her slowly adapt to her new environment and ultimately work out how to save the day on her own.

The Power of Three

I’ve made no secret of hating the majority of episodes written by Chris Chibnall, but credit where it’s due, this is a fantastic story…until the final 5 minutes. This slow, creeping mystery of random black cubes raining from the sky is brilliant. It’s a surprisingly accurate depiction of how the human race would react as well, with people almost immediately just shrugging their shoulders and accepting them as part of life.

We get some fun comedy out of the Doctor’s inability to stay still, even if it does start to wear out its welcome eventually. Plus, Amy and Rory’s struggle to balance their real life with their life in the TARDIS is interesting, although I would’ve liked to have seen it play out over multiple episodes.

It’s such a shame that the episode has such a lame conclusion though. I know there are rumors that it was because the actor playing the villain wasn’t very cooperative, but whatever the reason, the fact that the Doctor quite literally just waves his magic wand (Sonic Screwdriver) around and saves the day is a big disappointment.

Also, the episode should’ve been called Cubed. That isn’t relevant, but it needs to be said.

The Snowmen

It took me a while to come around on this episode initially, but it stands as one of the better Christmas episodes in Doctor Who history. As much as I’ve whined about 11 and Clara’s lack of chemistry, this Victorian incarnation of Clara works well with him. I’ve seen plenty of fans say that this is the version of Clara that should’ve become a full-time companion and I find it difficult to disagree.

The Paternoster Gang is once again a highlight, as their comedic tone works well for a Christmas episode, and the Great Intelligence makes for a menacing villain. The only major downside is that I don’t think it does enough with the Doctor’s grief over losing the Ponds. It would be difficult to have him brooding for the whole episode, but it feels like he recovers a little too quickly once Clara’s in the mix.

Either way, it’s a briskly-paced adventure that will give you a lot of laughs and fun memories.

The Angels Take Manhattan

Despite only being the midpoint, this feels like the true season finale, as we say goodbye to some of the most iconic companions in the show’s history in Amy and Rory, and this is even when River Song’s semi-regular presence on the show comes to an end, save for a couple of surprise appearances.

It’s a good story to go out on. While the Angels aren’t as scary as they once were by this point, they are still a formidable series of opponents, now doing some really horrific stuff. Being shot back in time is bad enough, but being repeatedly touched shot back in time just so the Angels can keep feeding off of your energy is such a heartbreaking prospect.

The Ponds’ goodbye is perfect too. Amy choosing Rory over the Doctor is the ultimate answer to the question posed back in Series 5, and the scene itself is one of the show’s biggest tear-jerkers to this day.