When all is said and done, 2014 has been another remarkable year for Doctor Who. For the first time since 2010, the series returned to its full uninterrupted run (although it was a week shorter than usual) which meant that fans could fully invest themselves in the long awaited debut adventures of the Twelfth Doctor. Back in August, after months of anticipation and fevered speculation, Peter Capaldi made his explosive debut as the titular Time Lord in the Victorian venture Deep Breath. The feature-length premiere episode was screened simultaneously in cinemas as another example of the show's ever growing cinematic scale and scope. Over the next 3 months, audiences accompanied our new leading man on a momentous journey which took them from the furthest reaches of the galaxy to the end of the universe itself, stopping off in a sun-dappled Sherwood forest and facing a time heist in the most dangerous bank in the cosmos along the way. The Doctor also journeyed where no Time Lord has been before, into the maniacal mind of a Dalek itself, and in the epic series finale, Steven Moffat tore up the rulebook by introducing the first ever female incarnation of the Master. As we await this year's Christmas Special, here is the pecking order of Series 8's episodes, ranked from worst to best. It's probably worth pointing out that 'worst' doesn't really mean 'worst' in this scenario, as it has been statistically proven that a 'bad' episode of Doctor Who is still considerably better than your average TV programme. Doctor Who fans love a list, though, so here is a definite one analysing the highs and lows of the Twelfth Doctor's explosive debut series. The journey begins in a forest...
Dan Butler is the Doctor Who Editor at WhatCulture.com. When he isn't writing his own articles or editing other people's, he can be found trawling the internet for gifs of Steven Moffat laughing. Contact him via dan.butler@whatculture.co.uk.
