LogFAQs > #965149676

4. Series 9 (The Doctor: Peter Capaldi, Companion/s: Clara Oswald)

*SPOILERS BELOW FOR SERIES NINE OF DOCTOR WHO*

Best Episode: Heaven Sent
Worst Episode: Sleep No More

Is there ANY other season of the show in which the best and worst episodes are indisputable the way Heaven Sent and Sleep No More are? Yeah, series nine has a few weaker episodes (Hell Bent and Zygon Invasion), and some stronger episodes (Girl Who Died, Woman Who Lived, Zygon Inversion, Face the Raven), but none of those can ever compare to the praise heaped upon Heaven Sent, or the disdain heaped upon Sleep No More. This doesn't really have anything to do with this ranking...just something I thought about when looking at my choices for best and worst episodes of the season.

Obviously, I've ranked series nine in my top four overall, but there is a bit a gap between my top three and 4/5. There are just a few minor things that hold series nine back from being truly great (beyond Sleep No More...which isn't all that worse than some other seasons' worst episodes). For starters--and I know this is minor and nitpicky--but for starters, I'm not a huge fan of the season's formatting. Don't get me wrong, I don't think any of the two parters are full-blown misses (even if Hell Bent and Zygon Invasion are disappointments in comparison to their better halves). But having a season made up almost entirely of two-part episodes reduces the number of stories overall and kind of prevents the slow burn, long-term storylines that I think Doctor Who is very much capable of providing. I love Heaven Sent, but there feels very little build-up in the season itself to the grand reveal of Gallifrey, which I think might've been better with a little bit lengthier of a story schedule.

This ties into my next minor criticism with series nine: it lacks a bit of cohesion to its overarching narrative. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but most seasons of the show, for better or worse, have long-running themes that span the duration of the season. I think nine and eleven are the weakest in this regard. The only real theme that comes on display in nine is that of Clara slowly abandoning her humanity to become more like the Doctor (which she ultimately fails at in one regard...and succeeds at in a different regard). It's subtle, and it's not QUITE strong enough to anchor the season the way that the themes of my top three do.

All that being said, series nine is still awesome. For what it lacks in season-long theming, it makes up for in great performances from Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez, and Maisie Williams. The opening two-parter is extremely fun, largely because we get to see a new dynamic as Missy becomes the Doctor and Clara becomes Missy's companion. Sure, Peter is still around, and he gets to have a bizarrely emotional moment with Davros (which will always be shrouded in mystery as to just how much both of them are faking their reaction to one another). It's just solidly enjoyable all around.

Under the Lake/Before the Flood is a great story and does a great job of introducing a new enemy that fulfills one of my favorite monster designs in the reboot. The Weeping Angels, the Silence, the Vashta Nerada...I love a monster that has a specific set of rules governing how to defeat it. The ghosts in this story are horrifying, yet they still appeal to that nerdy, scientific part of my brain. Then the Ashildr two-parter is another solid episode, with a strong back half as the Doctor's chickens come home to roost, and he discovers that his actions in the past have an impact on Ashildr's life in the future. Come to think of it, with Capaldi's best moment in Zygon Inversion being his speech about the pointlessness of war, maybe THAT'S a theme this season: decisions rippling outward, for better or worse.

Sleep No More is dumb and bad and leaves on a cliffhanger that remains unresolved 4 seasons after the fact, but then we get the tenuous three-part finale. Face the Raven is an amazing send-off to Clara (I choose to believe it's her finale moreso than Hell Bent), with the perfect culmination to her story arc. sure, Hell Bent allows her to continue a bit longer, but Face the Raven is just perfect as is. Heaven Sent is a masterclass in acting from Capaldi, carrying a whole episode of basically him, talking to himself. And it's such an interesting time loop plot twist as well. I just wish Hell Bent was stronger, since it has the finale issue of having to tie up a bunch of loose ends, and it KINDA succeeds. I guess. Still, it's a strong end stretch, and at least Hell Bent has enough goofiness to be a tolerable finale, which is more than some of the lesser finales I've discussed thus far. And the end result is a very good season of the show, that I think some fans would even call Capaldi's best season. Not me, but I can understand the logic.