Every Episode of Doctor Who Series 8 Ranked From Worst to Best

Even though Series 7 proved a bit of a downer, the 50th anniversary and Christmas Specials picked things up again so there was a sufficient level of hype going into Series 8 with the arrival of Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor. The thing is, while Matt Smith’s run started out strong and slowly went downhill, Capaldi’s does the opposite. It will eventually reach some truly incredible heights, but Series 8 is undoubtedly the weakest of his three seasons.

This has a lot to do with the underwhelming series arc that – while it led to a great reveal – didn’t succeed in pulling together all the thematic threads it set up. Still, the only way to explain that is to break down each episode, so here’s Series 8 ranked from worst to best.

In the Forest of the Night

If you read my list of the worst Doctor Who episodes ever , you’ll know that this stands as my most hated single episode of the show of all time. I could write reams about why this thing is an absolute dumpster fire – and I have many times before – so I’ll try to keep it brief.

This episode spits in the face of what Doctor Who stands for as a show, and what the Doctor stands for as a character. There’s a lot throughout that’s bad, but it’s the kind of bad I might be able to overlook if the narrative delivered, but instead the utter failure to deliver any compelling drama of any kind makes every little issue feel all the worse.

It fails to understand what any of the main characters are about. The entire episode has this twisted version of The Doctor and Clara, acting out of character with writing from someone who simply can’t channel their voices into the script properly. This all leads to the one scene that makes me truly physically angry when I watch it – the scene where Clara tells the Doctor to let all of the children die, and he just sort of accepts it.

People rag on 13 for doing some horrific un-Doctorlike things, but I honestly think their crimes don’t even compare to this one moment where the Doctor accepts “the kids will miss their parents” as a reason to let them burn and die with the rest of the Earth. It’s insulting to the entire concept of Doctor Who as a show, and I haven’t even mentioned the hilariously awful “science” that saves the day.

The Caretaker

While I didn’t like Clara as a companion to the eleventh Doctor, I slowly came to like her during her time with Capaldi. Their chemistry is a lot more believable, and the fact that there was no romantic subtext between them helped their friendship blossom. This episode takes all of that good work and tosses it in the bin to make Clara an object for the two men to fight over.

The plot with the monster in the school is fine, but it’s barely the focus of the episode, and the fact that it gets pushed so firmly into the background means we barely get any excitement in this entire thing. Instead, we have to spend all this time focusing on the Doctor and Danny bickering while Clara stands in the middle failing to be seen as a real person by either of them. It was so egregious that I thought the episode was building to some kind of point about it, but no, there’s no subtlety to it and Clara’s opinion seems to matter very little to either character or the plot as a whole.

I can’t help but come away from it feeling like the Doctor just needs to get over himself. Sure, he doesn’t like soldiers, but the grandstanding about making sure Danny is “good enough” for Clara comes across more as dickish than sweet or protective, which again, definitely wasn’t the intention. It’s not like Danny is any better either, but we’ll get to him.

Time Heist

This episode has pretensions of greatness but just doesn’t quite get there. Doctor Who going full heist movie is a concept I would jump at if you pitched it to me, and this episode has all the ingredients to make it work. Cool sci-fi gadgets and concepts, a menacing villain that can psychically sense guilt, a crew with unique abilities, and a great big twist at the end.

The problem is that almost every twist is telegraphed way too heavily and it constantly gives itself away. Both of the Doctor and Clara’s heist-mates “die” way too early in the episode for me to believe they’re really dead, especially when the VFX is so obviously a teleport. Once you realize that, you lose the tension of pretty much every scene.

It’s also blindingly obvious that the Doctor is the one who set everything up, especially when you start the whole thing out explaining how all of the characters have just wiped their own memories. The only twist I didn’t see coming, and thus the one I enjoyed the most, is the fact that the whole heist was actually to save the Teller’s partner rather than to steal anything.

It doesn’t make up for how the entire build-up falls flat, but it did put a smile on my face in a way that made the whole thing end on a satisfying note – even if we continuously stumbled on our way there.

Listen

This episode is two different episodes awkwardly shoved together. One of them has an awesome concept that we get to have a lot of fun playing with, the other is extremely dull and drags the first half of the episode down with it.

The idea that the Doctor pitches to us at the start is brilliant. A creature that’s evolved to be perfect at hiding, existing all around us – not necessarily hostile, but always gives us the feeling that we’re not alone. It pulls that classic Doctor Who trick of making something entirely mundane – like talking to yourself – into something supernatural and slightly unnerving.

The fact that the episode ends uncertain about this is great too. The Doctor seems confident that these creatures do exist, but every encounter we have with them gives us some form of plausible deniability or some other explanation as to what it could have been.

We don’t get to sit back and enjoy that ride though, because instead, we have to keep cutting back to Clara’s budding relationship with Danny as they go on their first date. I just don’t buy the chemistry between these two. On both occasions, they blow up at each other so easily that I just don’t buy that they have any business being a couple, certainly not one that’s destined for any kind of happiness.

They both get a chance to be wrong, but that doesn’t somehow make everything ok. At that point, they’ve just both wronged each other, and the episode doesn’t put any effort into explaining why they forgive each other, they just sort of…do? The episode insists that they’re perfect for each other yet all the evidence it shows is telling me that they’re the exact opposite, and yet for the rest of the series we’re supposed to believe they have an undying love for each other – in fact, the finale hinges on that very fact.

I just don’t buy it, and by the end of this episode, the interesting secret monster stuff is entirely swept under the rug so Clara can give some vapid speech about fear, using that as an unsatisfying reason to cause Clara and Danny to forgive each other.

Into the Dalek

By 2014 it’s hard to have a Dalek episode that feels truly unique, but Into the Dalek manages it. Unfortunately, it’s yet another episode where, despite the overall plot being fun, the series arc keeps intruding upon it.

The Doctor is just straight-up a jerk throughout a lot of this episode and not in any kind of compelling morally grey way. The episode forces the Doctor to confront this in some small way, with his hatred for the Daleks fuelling this broken Dalek’s mind, but once that’s out of the way it takes the most boring option.

Having the Doctor outright ask Clara “Am I a good man?” in episode two of the series is a bit heavy-handed. What’s more, having Clara react in this non-commital way as if she genuinely isn’t sure is not believable at all this early in the series. This should’ve had more time to stew before outright asking the question.

Still, that stuff aside, this is a fun adventure that presents the Daleks in a unique light while still keeping them feeling like a threat. Even if in this case it’s because they’re directly inside one as opposed to facing down an army.

Kill the Moon

This episode has a reputation as being utterly terrible, and while yes, the resolution and twist are awful, I think people overlook some of the really great stuff that’s in here.

Starting with the bad, “The moon is an egg” is dumb, and the episode doesn’t even have a fun take on it. What’s worse, the twist after it hatches, where the creature just lays a new egg that is identical to the old moon is Doctor Who plot resolutions at their worst. It means nothing really ever had any stakes, and if our heroes had never even shown up things would’ve ended the same.

However, what happens immediately after this is an extremely compelling scene that made me love Clara in a way I hadn’t done up until this point, and put the Doctor’s morality into question in a compelling way.

The Doctor outright emotionally manipulated Clara, put her in a horrible situation, and then acted like a condescending ass about it after the fact. Then, unlike other episodes where he completely gets away with it, here Clara actually blows up at him and tells him he’s wrong. It gives her a feeling of agency she simply hasn’t had up until this point in the series and gives the Doctor some comeuppance for the way he’s been acting all series.

I do understand why people focus on the crappy moon stuff, but this is the only episode in the entire series that presents the question of the Doctor’s morality in an interesting light.

Robot of Sherwood

Whenever I rewatch this episode, I seem to forget that I like it. Maybe it’s something to do with the overall tone or the fact that the title gives away the twist, but for some reason, I always remember this one negatively yet come away feeling positive after a rewatch. I suppose in a season where so many episodes are bogged down by the lackluster seasonal arc, it’s nice to have something just unapologetically fun.

Doctor Who meets Robin Hood is a cartoony premise, and it’s bold to claim that he was a real person who was simply remembered as a legend. However, they use it to tell a light and breezy story that stands out from this series’ more downbeat tone. Robin and the Doctor bickering does get a bit tiresome after a while, but it leads to plenty of classic Robin Hood shenanigans in a plot that has low enough stakes for me to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Dark Water & Death in Heaven

I’ve spent a lot of this list so far ragging on the seasonal arc, but the two-part finale manages to make some of it work. The reveal of Missy as the Master is great and gives us our first no-question example of a Time Lord regenerating into a different gender, but it also doesn’t make a big deal out of it.

This incarnation of the Master would come to be beloved for other reasons in future series, but she’s immediately top-tier with her performance as an out-right villain in this finale. That menace and madness is still there but tinted through a very different lens to what John Simm brought to the role several years prior.

The story doesn’t always quite live up to that performance though, especially in the first half. I’ve said before that I don’t buy Danny and Clara as a couple, and I seriously don’t buy the idea that she loves him so much that she’d be willing to betray the Doctor over his death. However, the Doctor’s response to it is perfect. “Do you think I care about you so little that betraying me would make a difference?” is such a brilliant piece of dialogue that could only come out of the Doctor’s mouth.

We then go on to claim that Danny’s love for Clara is so strong that it somehow overrides the Cybermen’s emotional inhibitor – and no, I don’t buy the Doctor’s line about love not being an emotion either.

The climax of the “Am I a good man?” thread falls flat too. Missy gives the Doctor control of this Cyber-army to try and prove that he’d use it to rule the galaxy or whatever, but she doesn’t actually give him any reason to use it. There’s no pressing threat for which the Doctor might need an army, so the choice of whether or not to give it up has no jeopardy, and it doesn’t feel like a massive breakthrough when the Doctor rejects it.

Still, despite all of these complaints, I did come away from this one having enjoyed my time with it. The overarching plot threads may not quite stick the landing, but it knows how to have fun getting there, and the value of that should not be underestimated.

Deep Breath

A new Doctor needs to make a big first impression, and while this would not be his best season, Capaldi managed to hit the ground running, with his first episode still standing as one of his best. He puts his comedy chops to great use right out of the gate, hitting us with some truly hilarious lies as he goes around high on regeneration energy. “Don’t look in that mirror, it’s absolutely furious!” has me in stitches every time, as does the ramble about his “attack eyebrows”.

Clara feels like a real companion for the first time in her run too, trying to deal with the trauma that comes with seeing the Doctor regenerate, and understanding that this is a time when he needs her more than she needs him, which is topped off nicely by the phone call from 11 at the end.

The plot isn’t necessarily anything special, but it readdresses a concept Moffat played with back in Series 2, coming at it from a new angle. It allows us to have a classic Doctor hero moment to show what this incarnation is like fully formed, as well as giving us a glimpse of that morally grey side, manipulating Clara into a position where – though she was always safe – she didn’t feel it. Plus he either straight-up murdered the villain, or talked them into committing suicide, neither of which is a good look.

It was a strong start to a series that wouldn’t entirely live up to the example it set.

Flatline

While this episode isn’t technically Doctor-lite, it goes to great lengths to get him out of the way of the action and let Clara shine as a character. It’s weird that in a series where I disliked most of the overarching ideas, Clara went from a character I hated to one I’m quite fond of. It makes this episode’s late placement in the series perfect, I’ve had time to adjust to her new attitude and chemistry with Capaldi, and I’m ready to see her carry a story on her back.

It makes for one of the best stories of the season too, forcing her to take control of the situation in a way she’s never had to before, even if she does have the Doctor in her ear for the most part. She does a surprisingly good job at it too, but crucially it doesn’t kick the Doctor to the curb just to get her over.

The monsters were great too. The way these 2D images try to move into the 3D world is so creepy looking and remains shrouded in just enough mystery to leave you thinking about them after the credits roll. Not to mention we get a great classic Doctor moment when he’s finally allowed to re-enter the plot at the end.

Mummy on the Orient Express

For a story idea that was teased all the way back in Series 5, this episode had a fair bit to live up to, yet it manages to be one of the most memorable episodes from this entire era of the show. We get a bit of bickering between the Doctor and Clara thanks to the end of Kill the Moon which, while not ideal, does give some of the drama a little extra kick in the context of this (supposedly) being Clara’s final adventure with the Doctor.

It’s no surprise that she changes her mind by the end, but we get a nice bit of extra jeopardy in watching it get solved. It all serves as great background context to enhance the main thrust of the episode, an invisible mummy that keeps murdering people. There’s nothing complex to say about it really, it’s simply a brilliant mystery that the Doctor slowly solves in thrilling fashion. There’s nothing to overcomplicate or confuse it, we just get to watch this character at his genius problem-solving best, which we don’t really get often enough.