Doctor Who: Every Series 1 Episode Ranked Worst To Best
Which Ninth Doctor episodes are fantastic, and which should be cast into the time vortex?
Breaking news! It's 2023, and that means we are officially in the year of Doctor Who's 60th anniversary.
60 years of the Doctor travelling space and time inside the TARDIS, entertaining literal generations of fans. Though of course, it hasn't been on the air for all of those six decades, having trailed off into the darkest recesses of British culture in 1989.
Then, in March 2005, what we colloquially refer to as "NuWho" began, with Russell T Davies at the helm, and Christopher Eccleston in the starring role. From the off, it was brimming with enthusiasm and potential, and, unsurprisingly, the show once again solidified itself as a fixture of television for decades to come.
However, being that it was re-entering a previously occupied space and trying to reinvent itself for audiences both old and new, it had a tough task to conquer. Just what was Doctor Who supposed to be in this new millennium?
Well, in a word... fantastic.
From the awkward and forgettable to the signs of the brilliance that was to come, here's every episode of Doctor Who Series 1 - the first of the 2005 revival - ranked from worst to best.
10. Boom Town
Something has to be at the bottom of the list, and for all its small moments of brightness, Boom Town remains the dullest tale in Christopher Eccleston’s run.
The episode’s greatest strength is as an example of season one’s brilliant connective tissue. We have a returning villain, a story that centres on the time rift first seen in The Unquiet Dead, the first mention of the heart of the TARDIS and, considering it brings Captain Jack to Cardiff, Boom Town really feels like the soft launchpad for Torchwood.
However, more than that it feels like a bottle episode. Slitheen-in-a-skin-suit Margaret spends most of the story in human form flapping her gums about the moral quandaries of the Doctor taking her to her home world for certain execution. Unfortunately, there are much better episodes that look at the ramifications of the Doctor’s actions and choices.
Worse yet, the Doctor lucks into a solution for the issue when Margaret looks into the heart of the TARDIS and winds up deageing back into an egg - apparently giving her a second chance on life to not be a terrorist.
The worst thing you can perhaps be in a high energy sci-fi show is boring and Boom Town is almost better off slept through.