Every Doctor Who Series Opener - Ranked Worst To Best

The opening episode of a TV series is the most important. A great opener can hook audiences and compel them to tune in week after week to see how the story finishes, or a terrible pilot can damn a series into oblivion before things have a chance to improve.

Doctor Who is no exception to this. Despite its huge fan base and status as one of the most iconic shows in television history, it is constantly being scrutinised. As such the beginning to each series is highly anticipated and much discussed. If it's good, then fans rejoice. If not, you can expect the audience ratings to plummet.

The 12 opening episodes of the revival era have ranged from the sublime to the downright terrible but how do they rank? Are the Russell T. Davies openers better than Steven Moffat's, or will current showrunner Chris Chibnall triumph ahead?

The Pilot episode (but not the pilot episode, it's just called The Pilot because there's a pilot in it and Steven Moffat was trying to be funny), got Peter Capaldi's final series off to a dismal start.

To begin with, the main villain is a puddle of intelligent space fuel, five words that do not belong in a sentence together. The plot is mostly nonsensical, with a lot of boring sequences, followed by a bizarre third act where the space fuel chases our heroes across the universe because the girl it has infected has a thing for Bill. That's not to mention the pointless Dalek cameo and the terrible, TARDIS looks like a kitchen line, which somehow made it past the first draft

It's not all bad however. The Doctor and Nardole working at a university is kind of cool, as is 'the what's in the vault?' mystery, that continues through Series 10. In addition we get introduced to Bill Potts and the scene where she sees pictures of her Mum for the first time, adds an emotional touch.

Unfortunately it's not enough to save this awful episode, which is a shame because there is some underrated quality in the rest of Series 10.