Doctor Who: Every Doctor's First Episode Ranked Worst To Best

The Star Beast is a hard one to judge, because its central premise relies on viewers seeing the Fourteenth Doctor as an aged version of the Tenth.

But Fourteen never establishes himself as a new incarnation with an old face. Instead, he's just the Tenth Doctor but with stubble and bags under his eyes.

On the plus side, that means any tedious post-regeneration amnesia is quickly dispensed with, as the Doctor's crisis becomes a core part of the story. Why has the Doctor chosen that face? What will it do to Donna Noble?

On the downside, The Star Beast just feels like a throwback to 2008, and doesn't signal some bold new era for Doctor Who. While that's very obviously the point (this was the big 60th anniversary party, after all), that makes it a strange entry in the long history of Doctor debuts.