Doctor Who

The Eleventh Hour: 8.5/10
The Beast Below: 7/10
Victory of the Daleks: 6/10
The Time of the Angels: 8/10
Flesh and Stone: 8/10
The Vampires of Venice: 6.5/10
Amy's Choice: 7.5/10
The Hungry Earth: 6/10
Cold Blood: 7/10
Vincent and the Doctor: 10/10
The Lodger: 7/10
The Pandorica Opens: 9/10
The Big Bang: 8/10

Season 5 Average: 7.58/10

Alright so Season 5 only just missed Season 4 and I'd say it's a more than worthy followup. Moffat did a great job taking the show in what feels like a fresh new direction. And at the same time you can tell he really respects the show's history. It doesn't feel like a total break with RTD era but just different enough.

Matt Smith I kind remember as being my least favorite Doctor but man he really shines here. On paper he's quite similar to Tennant but he brings such a different energy to the show. My one gripe is that I don't think he has the gravitas of Eccleston or Tennant (or Capaldi) and can't feel quite as intimidating.

I think the story arc with the cracks might be the best so far. Idk why they spent all four of the last seasons making us try to guess what the arc even is. Here we know it's the cracks but its a huge mystery what they mean. 11 and Amy have a great dynamic. It's really cleverly conceptualized and a lot more fun than what we got in Season 2 and 3.

This was an exceptional season, with very few weaknesses.

A Christmas Carol really makes no damn sense in the rules of Doctor Who but somehow I don't mind here. It's a really enjoyable special that hits all the right notes. My favorite so far on the rewatch.

9/10.

The Impossible Astronaut: 8/10
Day of the Moon: 7.5/10
Curse of the Black Spot: 5/10
The Doctor's Wife: 8/10
The Rebel Flesh: 7/10
The Almost People: 7.5/10
A Good Man Goes to War: 9.5/10
Let's Kill Hitler: 5.5/10
Night Terrors: 4/10
The Girl Who Waited: 7.5/10
The God Complex: 8/10
Closing Time: 5/10
The Wedding of River Song: 6.5/10

Season 6 Average: 6.87/10.00

Season 6 is an interesting one. I like that in this one they had a clear storyline with loads of questions posed at the beginning. The characters I think were all portrayed very well and the writers worked out their dynamic. Smith felt natural as the Doctor throughout.

But that storyline really loses a lot of steam in the second half. All of the satisfying payoffs come in A Good Man Goes to War. The stuff with Mels I think was pretty poorly done and needed to be foreshadowed in Season 5. And then it was all dropped for a while.

And the finale really doesn't deliver for me. The Doctor surviving feels both inevitable and groan worthy. It just felt like a huge cop out and just ends on a much worse note than pretty much any other season.

A lot of strong elements but they don't all come together.

The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe is actually pretty alright. I remember being pretty let down when I first saw it, probably because I was hoping for more Narnia references. But it’s ok. Not the best but it has some nice moments, especially the end. And I’m not gonna question the time vortex logic too much.

6/10

Amy telling Oswin she doesn’t know how angry Scots can get feels like some next level foreshadowing btw.

The Bells of St John: 7/10
The Rings of Ahkaten: 7.5/10
Cold War: 6/10
Hide: 6/10
Journey to the Center of the TARDIS: 4.5/10
The Crimson Horror: 3/10
Nightmare in Silver: 5/10
The Name of the Doctor: 8/10

Season 7 Average: 6.23/10.00

Okay Season 7, particularly the second part, is a disappointment. It beat Season 2 as the lowest rated, and I don’t think it’s gonna lose that title. It’s not really so much that it’s stacked with garbage, but it features a lot of forgettable episodes with not many standouts to bump up the score.

The mystery for the season isn’t bad on paper, but is fumbled in execution. The Doctor never gets any closer to figuring out what Clara is; its all just laid out on a plate in the season finale. Especially compared to the mysteries of Seasons 5 and 6, this is pretty weak.

And speaking of Clara 3.0, her and 11 just aren’t that interesting together. They’re too much like a boring couple, kind of like 10 and Rose. Beyond the mystery, which isn’t handled well, there’s not much to them. It’s not bad acting, just uninspired writing.

Not horrible but is irritatingly bland, never reaching its potential.

The Day of the Doctor: 10/10
The Time of the Doctor: 7.5/10

They really got it right with the 50th anniversary (only Christopher Eccleston could have improved it). Its hard to go into detail about everything it gets right so I’ll just say it’s incredibly satisfying and respectful to the legacy and let the score speak for itself.

I have more to say about Matt Smith’s final outing. I think it falls short a bit as a regeneration episode. No, it doesn’t need to be an epic with a heart pounding decision to make like with 9 and 10, plus we basically got that in the last episode. A more quiet reflective episode is fine. But the episode didn’t really do that either.

I feel like it should be a big moment to have the Doctor kind of resign himself to his final fate. Like he doesn’t need to have a Tennant style meltdown, but he says he struggled with it but it all happened offscreen. Like I just wish we got to be more in the Doctor’s head in the episode instead of Clara’s.

That being said though, the actual regeneration scene is masterfully done. My favorite in all of Doctor Who. Exactly the right tone and and beautifully delivered words. I just wish the rest of the episode matched.

That's a couple good points about Rose and also how Clara interacted with every single version. Though I don't remember exactly how the second thing went down or which season it was in...

No I remember that I was thinking about that montage where she tells the first doctor to steal the TARDIS and whatnot. Idk if that's the same Clara or if there were multiple versions of her or something I literally don't remember anything lol

Deep Breath: 7/10
Into the Dalek: 6/10
Robots of Sherwood: 4/10
Listen: 8/10
Time Heist: 6/10
The Caretaker: 5.5/10
Kill the Moon: 4.5/10
Mummy on the Orient Express: 8.5/10
Flatline: 7/10
In the Forest of the Night: 3/10
Dark Water: 8/10
Death in Heaven: 8.5/10

Season 8 Average: 6.33/10.00

Not a great season but definitely not the worst. It has a lot of mediocre episodes that really add nothing to the plot, just like Season 7. But there's definitely some more highlights here so I guess it edged that one out. Also nothing here pisses me off as much as Season 2 so there's that. I actually like the character of Danny Pink quite a bit so I don't strongly dislike the season as a lot of people do. I find him a lot more interesting that Mickey or Rory.

Gotta give them respect for daring to make the Doctor so different, especially when the last few were so similar to each other. There was a lot of hand holding in Season 2 and 5 saying "don't worry, it's still the Doctor" but here they throw all that out the window. I can see why some casual fans wouldn't like that but I think it's an interesting choice. Still there was a little too much back and forth whether Clara was cool with him or not. Like her wanting to quit and then being fully onboard in the next episode is a little much.

But anyway, yeah not much to say. Uneven season. I do like the finale a lot though. I've seen it ranked as the worst of the new show and I definitely don't agree. Despite not everything leading there perfectly, I think it does a good job tying the season together and works on an emotional level as well.

Season 8 has a lot of meh to get through, but it also has quite a lot that is worthy of coming back to.

I don't really like season 8 that much tbh. It's just kinda dark and depressing and also Clara and Danny and maybe even the Doctor are kinda annoying at times

How do Vikings know what corn is?

Season 9 was pretty fire from what I remember, it felt like a course correction from the overly dark season 8 and a return to more classic-ish Who. Don't really remember Hell Bent at all though or if I thought it was bad or not

Curious to see where the final season places. I've only seen it once and don't actually remember a lot of it.