Doctor Who: Every Series 1 Episode Ranked 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.