Doctor Who: Every Series 1 Episode Ranked Worst To Best

4. Bad Wolf/The Parting Of The Ways

Doctor Who Series 1 Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston
BBC Studios

Series 1’s strength is how everything connects together. As such, the two-part finale had to be high up this list, as it pretty much hits every important beat.

That being said, Bad Wolf in itself is a strange one, as it's mostly a comedy that places our heroes in some now very dated television references. The Doctor stars in Big Brother, and Rose takes on the Anne-Droid in The Weakest Link. There are some funny moments that unfortunately detract from the short-lived Controller character, who has brought them to Satellite 5 to fight her masters.

It’s a Doctor Who finale - so could these masters have been anything other than the Daleks?

Here, Bad Wolf ends on a stunning high that The Parting of the Ways knocks out of the park. As the Doctor works alone to face down his old enemy, we flip back to 2000s London, as Rose takes her destiny into her own hands and returns to the future, becoming the Bad Wolf and wrapping up the story of that mysterious phrase that had been sprinkled throughout the series.

As Eccleston’s final appearance, it creates a really neat loop from Rose to the finale, but you can’t help but feel that he had so much more to give.

 
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