Season 1 acts as a relaunch for Doctor Who with the Disney+ platform pushing the show to a whole new audience. The series has its highs and lows, but its strength is in its varied experimentalism and inventiveness. You have a unique Doctor with Ncuti Gatwa and a wide range of different stories which experiment with genre and contrasting flavours of storytelling. I thought it was time to rank these stories from worst to best. Let’s begin!!!
8.) Space Babies (2024) written by Russell T Davies
The decision to feature Space Babies as not only the first proper episode of Season 1 but also the proper launching pad for Doctor Who on Disney+ I think is a shockingly bad one. It’s an episode that feels guaranteed to turn people off. The chemistry and interaction between Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson is a highlight. There is a magic in a companion's first adventure in the Tardis and Millie Gibson brings a lot of reality to that. However, it feels like a rehash of the best parts of the End of the World only in a rather more rushed manner. The idea of talking space babies was always going to have laughable and absurd results. Doctor Who has always had absurdity but the inability to mix absurdity and drama and things falling into pure idiocy is what fails Space Babies. The CGI of child actors faces onto babies is uncomfortable and irksome and feels closer to creepy than adorable. It takes an already very stupid concept and makes it even more confusing and questionable with the horrible execution. The Bogeyman seems very scary, but the revelation that it is literally made from bogies strips any legitimacy or threat from it. The crass, gross and very immature humour is very grating and ill judged. It’s tonally confused and the efforts to make the Bogeyman sympathetic fail. It tries too hard in trying to be comforting for children and becomes clunky in its forced emotion.
7.) Rogue (2024) written by Kate Herron and Briony Redman
The problem with Rogue is how run of the mill and conventional it feels, which results in an incredibly weak story overall. The regency period I don’t think is especially interesting in this context. The story is only interested in the period in imitating the vibe and the glamour of Bridgerton, which feels painfully superficial. The constant Bridgerton references which are shoved down your throat just takes over the whole story and things soon become irritating with how uninterested the story is in the meat of the period itself. The Chuldur also aren’t very interesting villains. Their designs feel cartoonish and they descend so far into silliness that they become unthreatening. Their scheme is so simple with so little layers and the story feels very generic and unengaging as a result. I thought the romance between the Doctor and Rogue was very mishandled. I can’t deny the chemistry between Ncuti Gatwa and Johnathon Groff, but I struggle to invest in Doctor centric romances. Putting this aside, the whole thing feels so superficial, and attraction based and lacks important emotional depth to make you care about the relationship. It’s rushed to the finish line, and I don’t like seeing the Doctor actively pursuing someone romantically. It feels wrong for the character as does a lot of the Doctor's motivations and actions across the episode. The forced romantic cheesiness and Rogue acting as basically a prop for the love story means the story just does not appeal to me.
6.) The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death (2024) written by Russell T Davies
The two-part finale is one that I do think brings down the whole series, mainly because of how underwhelming Empire of Death ended up being. I did enjoy it a lot more than most fans though and whilst it's incredibly flawed, the finale as a whole I think is at the very least enjoyable and entertaining. I really like the setups and payoffs of the main mysteries with Susan Triad and the groaning of the Tardis. There have been breadcrumbs laid throughout the series which all tie together and pay off in a meaningful way linking into the return of Sutekh. I also really liked the conclusion of Ruby Sunday’s journey. The idea of her mother just being an ordinary person has a lot of relatable emotion in it and it surrounds the lives and journeys of ordinary people which has a fitting theming and emotionally ties together well. The story utterly fails to deliver on Sutekh, who is a bitter disappointment of an enemy and antagonist. The story does nothing with them, and the hype and buildup feels incredibly redundant and pointless, with little worth in bringing them back. You also have very hollow stakes which feel insincere, as it’s very obvious from the dusting that the death of the universe is going to be reversed. The lack of emotional consequences makes the whole threat feel very hollow, the stakes feel unbelievable, and the efforts of the story feel rather pointless and utterly redundant. It’s a story that is emotionally satisfying, but the stakes and lack of consequences means it underdelivers.
5.) The Church on Ruby Road (2023) written by Russell T Davies
The Church on Ruby Road is truly one of the best introductions to a Doctor that we have ever had. After years of the post-regeneration format being run into the ground, it feels refreshing to have a confident and fully formed Doctor just come in and take charge and be themselves. The Fifteenth Doctor is someone who knows who he is and is assertive in it. It was a wise decision to view the main story through the eyes of Ruby Sunday as the companion and more relatable character as the whole thing becomes her story. The story is her own personal character journey in venturing into her own roots and origins and finding who she is. It’s an intimate adoption story and you feel for and root for Ruby’s character in her progression throughout. The grounded family dynamics feel believable, especially with such likeable characters with Carla and Cherry Sunday who you can invest in. You have emotion merged with fantasy and magic in a way which is incredibly well judged. The silliness and mischievous nature of the Goblins mixed with music and Christmas is just wonderful. It all feels concisely woven in the efforts of a dramatic story. The way the Christmas Carol style of storytelling is skilfully merged with time travel mixed with madness and an emotional story is to be admired. Ncuti Gatwa also creates a refreshing and original Doctor that breaks free of past conventions.
4.) 73 Yards (2024) written by Russell T Davies
73 Yards is an episode that the more I think about it, the more I admire it. It’s been a while since the last Doctor-Lite story and 73 Yards is certainly unconventional and original, but that’s exactly what makes it superb. The whole story surrounds Ruby Sunday and her journey across her lifetime and Millie Gibson’s very emotional and incredibly real and raw performance. The idea at the centre of things is what makes the story. You have a sinister and eerie concept and image which drives things, a concept which sticks inside your mind when the story is long past. The idea of someone being constantly present and never approaching but always being there is very eerie and disconcerting and has a powerful sense of dangerous anxiety in it. The story does an effective job of showing how this impacts Ruby with the woman, causing all of Ruby’s friends and family to turn against her as she ends up totally alone and isolated and you feel for her sense of desperation and anger. The story has a hard-hitting sense of realism with the consequences which Ruby suffers. It’s unlike any other Doctor Who story in that this is a lifelong journey for Ruby. There is a supernatural mystique to the story and the true nature of the threat is up to interpretation. There is an emotional power to the story in how it details Ruby suffering penance for her actions and her disrespect as she, over her lifetime, makes up for her transgressions by an act of moral good. You have an astounding performance from Millie Gibson in a story which shapes Ruby.
3.) The Devil’s Chord (2024) written by Russell T Davies
The Devil’s Chord is a story that it is very easy to undervalue but when you look at everything which it pulls off, it really is admirable. It’s easy to dismiss the story because of the fun romp feel which it inhabits, which is reflective of the more light-hearted Doctor Who stories which don’t tend to be as respected. However, the Devil’s Chord is bold, incredibly experimental, daring and different and pushes the boundaries of what you expect from Doctor Who in a fantastic manner. What makes the Devil’s Chord special is the emotion and heart that is at the centre of the core idea. It terrifically explores the concept of what a world without music means. It shows how music inspires and brightens people and explores the bitterness and depression in the world without music. You feel the horrid and dark consequences without the presence of music with the human race going to war and causing destructive chaos. I adore Maestro as a villain portrayed by Jinkx Monsoon who just makes the story what it is. The drag queen look, sense of fun and possessiveness, and spitefulness of the character is a joy. Their godlike power creates the danger and stakes and puts the Doctor on the backfoot and in a vulnerable position, naturally building off the idea of the Toymaker. There is a vivid inventiveness to the story and the way it verges into the musical territory and boldly plays with the fourth wall gives the story a wonderful self-aware cheekiness in how it pushes limitations.
2.) Dot and Bubble (2024) written by Russell T Davies
Dot and Bubble is a piece of very clever science fiction social satire that has something very powerful and relevant to say. It really feels like the statement has been brewing and developing within the mind of Russell T Davies for a very long time. It's similar to stories like the Macra Terror and has a vibe similar to Paradise Towers and the Happiness Patrol with its lively look and feel, but having a dark and disturbing nature under the surface. The character of Lindy Pepper-Bean is expertly portrayed by Cailee Cooke as a lead character of the story as you see everything through her eyes. She creates a great blend between an annoyance and loveable likeability at the same time. You have what looks like an attack on the pitfalls of the overreliance on technology and social media. It tackles the consequences of echo chambers and cutting ourselves off from reality with real thought and precision. The way the Mantraps go unnoticed plays into this rather cleverly. This is all tied into a grander statement about white supremacy and the state of the world in a way which is brilliantly indicated. The racism of Lindy feels like a shocking moment, but there are several indicators to alert you to her beliefs throughout. It’s a fantastic commentary on unnoticed racism and white privilege. It puts the Doctor in an untested situation not having the same respect he once had as a white man, and you get a thrilling emotional and raw performance from Ncuti Gatwa.
1.) Boom (2024) written by Steven Moffat
Boom is quite easily the best story in the season and shows that Steven Moffat hasn’t lost his spark as a writer. It builds off a small scene in Genesis of the Daleks and draws it out across 45 minutes in a way which has true unnerving and nail-biting tension. What you get in Boom is a very focused character piece, a character focused bottle episode which zooms in on the Doctor’s vulnerability and Ncuti Gatwa’s performance. The engineered setups and side plots are well designed to create havoc for the Doctor, creating tension and problems within a very dangerous and enclosed story. There is a cleverness to the way things are set up and tied together, which I admire. Ncuti Gatwa brings an incredible performance with a Doctor who is a true mastermind and genius, but is vulnerable with a sense of anxiety which he manages to hide and maintain a calm tranquillity. It brings a different side to the Fifteenth Doctor, with him forced to focus and make decisions. The story explores the biases and complexities of the Doctor in a very nuanced and interesting manner. However, it’s in the emotional storyline where the story shows its depth. You have a believable relationship between Splice and her dad in a story that shows the everlasting nature of parent power which has a powerful emotion. It’s message on the cruelty of capitalism in war and the worth of ordinary people taking a stand against cold capitalist interests is one that feels incredibly relatable with true meaning, and I adore it. Easily the best of the Ncuti Gatwa era so far!!!!
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