Rating Doctor Who, post “reboot,” episode 3

In a previous post, I posed the following question (edited for brevity):

Which of the 131 Doctor Who episodes (115 Series episodes, 12 Christmas episodes, three 10^th Doctor specials, 50^th anniversary special), nine Series’ and four Doctors have been the most (and least) admired since Rose first aired on March 26, 2005?

I then posed a follow-up question:

Which episodes have become more admired over time, and which have lost their luster?

Answer: A total of 77 episodes remain below- or above-average in stature. Twenty-seven episodes have moved from below- to above-average, topped by the Series 9 finale Heaven Sent/Hell Bent; the first two 9^th Doctor episodes (Rose, The End of the World) also have increased stature, though they are still below average. Twenty-seven episodes moved in the opposite direction, topped by The Lazarus Experiment, The Curse of the Black Spot, and Daleks in Manhattan. Many of these latter episodes feature the 10^th Doctor.

In this “series finale,” I will use AI scores, IMDB ratings and number of IMDB user-raters to determine which of the nine Series’ and four Doctors since the 2005 reboot were—and are—the most- and least-admired.

Series’: There have actually been 10 post-reboot Doctor Who Series’ (Table 1), as Series 7 was split into two halves: one with companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams, and one with companion Clara Oswald. While Series 6 featured a nearly three-month gap between the first seven and the final six episodes, this will be treated here as a single Series because there was no change in regular companions or unifying story arc.

Further complicating the demarcation of individual Series’ are the 12 Christmas episodes, three 10^th Doctor specials (Planet of the Dead, The Waters of Mars, The End of Time: Part 2) and the 50^th anniversary special (The Day of the Doctor). It is not clear into which, if any, Series these episodes should be placed.

For simplicity, I will assess individual Series’ using only the 115 episodes listed in Table 1; I list the AI scores, IMDB ratings and number of user-raters for the 16 non-Series episodes in Table 2 below.

Table 1: Doctor Who Series’ (2005-16)

#	Dates	# Episodes	Doctor	Primary Companion(s)
1	March 26-June 18, 2005	13	9	Rose Tyler
2	April 15-July 8, 2006	13	10	Rose Tyler
3	March 31-June 30, 2007	13	10	Martha Jones
4	April 5-July 5, 2008	13	10	Donna Noble
5	April 10-June 26, 2010	13	11	Amy Pond/Rory Williams
6	April 23-June 4, 2011; August 27-October 1, 2011	7 6	11	Amy Pond/Rory Williams
7a	September 1-29, 2012	5	11	Amy Pond/Rory Williams
7b	March 30-May 18, 2013	8	11	Clara Oswald
8	August 23-November 8, 2014	12	12	Clara Oswald
9	September 19-December 5, 2015	12	12	Clara Oswald

Just bear with me while I briefly discuss data presentation. In a more formal analysis, for each average score/rating there would also be a 95% confidence interval. However, I have chosen not to bog down this blog (oy) with unnecessary statistical arcana. If you crave additional details, however, send me a short note, and I will do my best to oblige.

Figure 1: Average AI Scores and IMDB Ratings, Doctor Who Series’ (2005-16)

average-ai-score-and-imdb-rating-by-series

Series 1 started slowly (Figure 1; AI scores are divided by 10 for ease of comparison), although four of the final five episodes rank among the most well-regarded now (The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, average IMDB score=9.0). Each of the next three Series gained in stature, both at the time and with further reflection, peaking with Series 4.

Regardless, in terms of both average AI scores (88.1) and IMDB ratings (8.42), Series 4 is the most-admired. This Series started slowly: while Partners in Crime through The Unicorn and the Wasp (n=7) have a solid AI score average of 87.3, their average IMDB rating is only 7.84. This Series turned dramatically, however, with the two-part episode Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead: the six episodes from Silence through Journey’s End have astonishingly-high average AI score (89.0) and IMDB rating (9.10)! Outside of the three episode sequence of The Name of the Doctor (88, 9.2), The Day of the Doctor (88, 9.4) and The Time of the Doctor (83, 8.4), this is the pinnacle of the modern Doctor Who, rivaled only by the end of Series 9.

Following the 10^th Doctor’s regeneration, however, Series’ 5 and 6 dropped back to the Series 3 stature level. As noted earlier, Series 6 had two distinct parts: while The Impossible Astronaut through A Good Man Goes to War (n=7) have solid average AI score (86.7) and IMDB rating (8.27), the averages for Let’s Kill Hitler through The Wedding of River Song (n=6) drop to 85.7 and 8.10, respectively.

Starting in Series 7a, these measures diverge, with average AI score jumping to 87.2 and average IMDB rating dropping to 8.14; the Series started (Asylum of the Daleks, 89, 8.8) and ended (The Angels Take Manhattan, 88, 9.1) well, while faltering in between (n=3, 86.3, 7.6).

Table 2: AI Scores and IMDB Ratings for the Doctor Who Christmas and Special Episodes (2005-16)

Title	Date	Doctor	AI Score	IMDB Rating
Christmas Specials
The Christmas Invasion	December 25, 2005	10	84	8.2
The Runaway Bride	December 25, 2006	10	84	7.6
Voyage of the Damned	December 25, 2007	10	85	7.7
The Next Doctor	December 25, 2008	10	86	7.6
The End of Time: Part One	December 25, 2009	10	87	8.3
A Christmas Carol	December 25, 2010	11	83	8.6
The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe	December 25, 2011	11	84	7.4
The Snowmen	December 25, 2012	11	87	8.5
The Time of the Doctor	December 25, 2013	11	83	8.4
Last Christmas	December 25, 2014	12	82	8.4
The Husbands of River Song	December 25, 2015	12	82	8.6
The Return of Doctor Mysterioso	December 25, 2016	12	82	7.7
David Tennant Specials (after Series 4, excluding Christmas)
Planet of the Dead	April 11, 2009	10	88	7.6
The Waters of Mars	November 15, 2009	10	88	8.7
The End of Time: Part Two	January 1, 2010	10	89	8.9
50th Anniversary Special
The Day of the Doctor	November 23, 2013	12	88	9.4

Still, admiration for Doctor Who declined sharply in Series 7b, as Clara Oswald became the 11^th Doctor’s companion, and further still with the 12^th Doctor in Series 8, before rebounding sharply at the end of Series 9 (average IMDB rating=9.1 for the three-part Series finale (Face the Raven/Heaven Sent/Hell Bent).

There is little to say about the Christmas episodes other than that, on average, they were less admired at initial airing (average AI score=84.1) than all other episodes (85.2), while being equal in current admiration (average IMDB rating=8.16). The four other Specials, however, were—and, with the exception of Planet of the Dead, are—much more admired.

Which brings me, finally, to…

Doctors. Figure 2 displays average values for the 13 9^th Doctor episodes, 47 10^th Doctor episodes (including five Christmas episodes, three Specials), 44 11^th Doctor episodes (four Christmas episodes, 50^th anniversary special), and 27 12^th Doctor episodes (including three Christmas episodes). Excluding Christmas episodes and Specials made no appreciable difference in these averages.

Figure 2: Average AI Scores and IMDB Ratings, Doctor Who Doctors (2005-16)

average-ai-score-and-imdb-rating-by-doctor

While websites like WatchMojo.com suggest that David Tennant’s 10^th Doctor is the most well-regarded Doctor ever (even more than Tom Baker’s 4^th Doctor), this is not as clear in the data. In terms of initial reception, there is a clear demarcation between the 10^th and 11^th Doctors, with the former barely edging the latter in average AI score 86.3 to 86.0, and the 9^th and 12^th Doctors (82.2 and 82.7, respectively). And when you consider their current appeal, as measured by IMDB scores, the 9^th Doctor (8.06) is well below the other three Doctors, with #10 (8.19) again edging out his two ensuing regenerations (8.15 each).

Conclusions. The Doctor Who reboot started slowly, not really finding its footing until late in Series 1, though there has been a positive reconsideration of the earliest episodes. The 10^th and 11^th Doctors were held in higher regard than the 9^th and 12^th Doctors, while the 9^th Doctor is currently the least-admired of the four and the end of Series 9 (12^th Doctor) is very highly-regarded now. The pinnacle of the reboot is the latter half of Series 4 (particularly at the time these episodes first aired), although the most highly-rated episode currently is Blink (Series 3), followed by Heaven Sent (Series 9) and The Day of the Doctor (50^th anniversary special). Blink and Day also have received the most IMDB user-ratings by far (well over 12,000). At the same time, many 10^th Doctor episodes have lost stature over time. Finally, multi-episode arcs tend to have higher stature, especially when they conclude a Series.

Bear in mind that the vast majority of these AI scores and IMDB ratings are fairly high, even if they are lower relative to other Doctor Who episodes. Indeed, an average AI score of 85.1 and an average IMDB rating of 8.16 are remarkable figures, demonstrating just how well-received the Doctor Who reboot has been.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have created a PDF of the data I used in these analyses (doctor-who-episode-data-2005-16). Please feel free to analyze them and challenge my conclusions!

Until next time…