Every Modern Doctor Who Season Ranked From Best To Worst

While the series is looked upon with more rose coloured glasses nowadays, it was actually a tough start for Matt Smith and his 'junior' companions. It was always going to be a tough task to follow in the footsteps of the ultimate Doctor in David Tennant, and casting an inexperienced 25 year old seemed a strange choice.

Even stranger was to make his companion the 22 year old Karen Gillan, and in the process make the show seem more like the Sarah Jane Adventures than the show we loved.

The series is still extremely watchable and does contain some strong episodes, even if there were few outstanding ones. Tony Curran is incredible in a pitch perfect rendition of Vincent Van Gogh in the Richard Curtis penned Vincent and the Doctor, while The Pandorica Opens delivers as good a cliffhanger as any NuWho series.

The series is clearly at its best when River Song is present, with Alex Kingston bringing a genuine pathos to the series that is too regularly lacking when she is not around. Having her as the sole companion may have been a better choice, although the Amy/Rory combo worked well from Season 6 onwards.

Overall it was a very bumpy start for the Moffat era, with even Karen Gillan noting that her acting in her first season left a lot to be desired. The series was too often guilty of missteps, particularly around Amy, whose refusal to comfort a mourning woman one episode and attempts to seduce the Doctor the next feeling completely out of place.