10 Most Overrated Doctor Who Episodes

Village of the Angels is often thrown into the ring as one of Thirteen’s best, but we mostly put that down to two things: a fan-favourite monster getting their own story for the first time since Series 7, and Kevin McNally giving us a lovely guest character in Professor Jericho. What a top geezer.

Where this episode starts to fall apart is a lack of direction. The front half, while genuinely spooky, spends an awful lot of time not saying a lot, while the back half is essentially half an hour of running away. There’s an interesting idea in there about the Angels being an extraction squad for Division, but not a lot is done with it beyond some rather dull Chibnall-style expositioning, and after the cliffhanger is resolved, the Angels are swept under the rug very quickly.

It makes this story feel like filler (pretty fun filler, we’ll admit), but NuWho’s most iconic original creation deserve a lot better than to be a taxi service moving the Doctor from one plot to another.

Claire was built up quite a lot in Flux, to the point where it seemed like she was going to be integral to the plot (and some people thought, for who knows what reason, that she was a Clara echo). But she was hardly relevant to the wider story at all, leaving her scenes feeling a little redundant.

If you want a Thirteen story that’s creepy and atmospheric, but actually has a bit of substance to it, The Haunting Of Villa Diodati is the one you want.