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I’d add - The Woman Who Fell To Earth - It Takes You Away - Witchfinders.
I forgot It takes you away, the ending really let it down though
Ironically the ending is my favourite part, it was that weird buffer zone I think they should have skipped
A lot of Chibnall’s stories would have worked much better with an extra 30 minutes to organically wrap things up. It Takes You Away is the best example of that, IMO.
there is a pulp fiction reference tho so its not too bad. i think there is anyway
Add Woman Who Fell to Earth and I'd back that.
I can't remember the damn episode, might be Haunting of Villa Diodati, but when Jodie lays down the law to the TARDIS crew about who in crisis situations is actually in charge. It was that moment i really locked in my opinion "Some of the writing is letting her down overall because that right there was fantastic."
Definitely The Haunting of Villa Diodati. Watched it the other day. An episode or two previously the Doctor says how they have a flat team structure but then in this episode she says how it’s a mountain with her in the stratosphere alone making the tough calls. Like you said it was a great scene and really solidified her as The Doctor in my opinion
It takes you away
It’s good. But it’s not quite amongst my favourites.
Off the top of my head- all of Flux (I consider it one long serial ala Happiness Patrol), Demons of the Punjab, It Takes You Away, Ascension of the Cybermen/Timeless Children, Witchfinders, Eve of the Daleks, Ghost Monument, Power of the Doctor.
I am probably missing a few that will hit me right after I've hit "post".
I'm confounded by the words "ala happiness patrol". Why that specific relatively short serial?
Because it was 4AM & I was watching that particular serial at the time, so it was the first one that came to mind. Ala Ambassadors of Death? Ala Thr Chase?
Ala The Chase is today’s drag name
You could just say “like Classic Who”
Because Happiness Will Prevail
I really liked The Flux conceptually. The Halloween Apocalypse had me really excited to see how all the disparate pieces would come together like a puzzle box. It had a lot of cool pieces but they didn’t all fit together in a satisfying way for me. I think what caused the issue was that The Flux was tied up with The Timeless Children narrative. I feel like they should have saved The Timeless Children narrative for the Specials and instead had The Flux as its own story that would be wrapped up by the end of the season. I hope they will try something like this again in the future with a better writer. The show seems designed to tell a story like this.
This sentiment kind of sums up a lot of how I feel about Jodi’s era as a whole. There were bits and pieces I loved in many episodes, but there were also major issues I had in almost every one too.
These are the episodes that I thought were some of the best standalone episodes that hold up pretty well against my other favorite New Who stories. There were other episodes I did enjoy, but might have contained one or two issues that I just can’t get past (sometimes the script, sometimes the story, sometimes the lore). Ultimately, these are the ones I’d watch again voluntarily:
- Demons of the Punjab
- It Takes You Away
- Fugitive of the Judoon
- The Witchfinders (almost entirely for Alan Cumming)
- The Haunting of Villa Diadoti
- War of the Sontarans
- Eve of the Daleks
- The Power of the Doctor (maybe?)
In general I'm warming up on Whittaker's era. Here are three I especially like for quite different reasons.
It Takes You Away: I love when Who gets weird, and this certainly delivers that.
Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror: in contrast, this is very standard, but it's pretty textbook execution. It's not as good as Mummy on the Orient Express, but it has the same feeling of monster of the week done very well.
Power of the Doctor: truly excellent fanservice, and this is coming from someone who's not usually into that. It's extremely over the top and silly in all respects, and it commits so hard that I didn't mind and had a blast.
The Tesla episode is really the best version of 13 that we saw IMO. She came across as in control, you saw her Doctor that liked to build things and shared that with the guest star. The conclusion played into her strengths. I've got a soft spot for 13.
I had so much fun with POTD. It really highlighted to me that I don’t need my Who to be perfect and foolproof if you make it fun.
The Master becoming Rasputin (presumably) just so he could dance to the song is probably my favourite part of Jodie's era
There's some fun stuff.
It takes you Away for how it's Who bonkers
The Witchfinders, as Cummings is a delight
Fugitive of the Judoon is pretty good, just don't worry about the implication too much.
Eve of the Daleks is a pretty neat looping story.
Power of the Doctor. It makes little sense but carries itself with all the bombast of an anniversary episode despite not technically being one.
The two kind of mostly historical episodes are good too - Rosa and Demons of the Punjab.
The Haunting of Villa Diodati.
Demons of the Punjab is the only one I had the urge to rewatch, so that I guess.
Eve of the Daleks. Just a fun episode.
It Takes You Away.
It's a silly, cheesy but heartwarming ending that encapsulates what's great about this show. What other show would have a sentient universe portray itself as a frog because it wants to make friends?
Also, Fugitive of the Judoon, for a genuinely brilliantly executed twist.
Mine are:
• Demons of The Punjab
• It Takes You Away
• Can You Hear Me
• Haunting of Villa Diodati
• War of The Sontarans
• Once, Upon Time
• Village of The Angels
• Survivours Of The Flux (Until Tecteun gets killed)
• Power of The Doctor
Demons of the punjab Witchfinders It takes you away Spyfall Fugitive of the Judoon Nicola Teslas night of terror Praxeus Haunting of the villa diodati Eve of the daleks (not seen this on anyone else's list but I liked it).
Honestly 13s second season is mostly good, apart from orphan 55 I saw that twist coming a mile off. The first series is pretty bad though (the first good episode on most peoples lists is 6 in a ten episode run thats enough time to loose casual viewers). And the flux was poorly executed (I loved the ideas it was just so fast moving I didn't have time to care before the next thing happened as a full length series it might have worked).
I love Power of the Doctor for the fan service even if it is kind of mess of an episode. Big fan of Dr Whos 5 to 8 so seeing them again made me so happy.
The Witchfinders!! I love the setting, I love the Doctor wearing that goofy Witchfinder General hat, I love the way the she casually just breaks out of the chains when they try to drown her for being a witch (vaguely saying something about hanging out with Houdini as she makes her way back to land), and I love the energy the actor who played King James brought!!
I really like the way the writer (Joy Wilkinson I believe?) portrayed the Doctor confronting the overt sexism women have dealt with in a tangible way for the first time. And further I very much enjoyed the way she still took charge of the situation subversively to figure out what was happening with the sentient mud aliens and putting a stop to it.
All around a fun episode that I go back to often when I find myself missing Thirteen and Jodie Whittaker's performance!!
I enjoy a great deal of Thirteen's era as a whole and can probably list off a ton more, but this episode always makes me smile!!
One of my favourites too, for the reasons you mentioned, but also because Graham's line about "special measures" always cracks me up.
Surprised no one's said Spyfall yet. I need more Doctor Who in the murder mystery & spy genre
It's also the first Doctor Who episode in her run to have the cold open! God, I love the cold open
Wasn’t necessarily bad until the absolutely awful “Guess what? I destroyed Gallifrey!” scene. That caused me to give up on the show. Although I will say that the evil CEO murders his own mom and has some plan to store data in people, what the hell was that? What was the figurine?
It's been too long but I have very strong memories of the historical episodes, the "Amazone prime" episode, the one with the race through the desert and the Witchfinders. But I've only seen season 1. And the beginning of season 2, which was memorable for it's bonkers reveal.
I really like Jodie, so maybe that's why it clicks with me a bit more than with others!
The whole of flux I thought she was great in that. I wished she had better writers to make her shine. I think she was a great doctor. I hope it’s not the end of female doctors, the show sometimes needs shacking up.
It Takes You Away is genuinely great.
Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror was pretty good.
The spy-themed two part opener with Sacha Dhawan's Master is just so fun. A blast from start to end, and his performance really takes it up another few levels.
In the same vein, I loved The Power of the Doctor purely because Sacha got to just chew the scenery for essentially an entire episode and he makes it so much fun to watch.
Honestly I'm really sad we won't get to see more of that version of the Master. He might've taken Michelle Gomez's place as my favorite incarnation if he'd had more time.
Edit: oh and Fugitive of the Judoon is also great, even with the weird shit it does to the "canon".
The Pting. He’s just too damn cute
I like the one with the talking frog.
Demons of the Punjab was the first one I loved. The realisation of who the “real demons” were was fantastic. Spyfall part 1 just for the Master reveal. I had stayed away from spoilers so the M=Master thing was a jawdropper for me. In the realms of the YANA reveal for me, loved it. Didn’t stick the landing with part two though. Fugitive of the Judoon was another completely unexpected hit for me with the two big reveals of Fugitive Doctor and Jack’s return.
Basically I love it when the show surprised me like that. Like the Simm master returning in World Enough and Time. Chibnall/Jodie’s era was lacklustre, but the big twists and reveals were some of the absolute best it had to be said.
Shout out to Village of the Angels for being an unexpectedly good return of the Weeping Angels.
I think the only one I look back on and think is legitimately good without a dozen asterisks to qualify the statement is The Haunting of Villa Diodati.
Ones that I'd consider OK, with "buts" are Demons of the Punjab, Resolution, Nicola Tesla's Night of Terror, Revolution of the Daleks, War of the Sontarans, Village of the Angels and Eve of the Daleks.
Appreciate your honesty on this - I will check them out but I'm still certain this series was a lame duck
I think It Takes You Away is the highlight
Eve of the Daleks, it takes you away, the witch finders, power of the doctor, resolution, the woman who fell to earth, revolution of the Daleks, fugitive of the Judoon, the demons of the Punjab, Flux, Spyfall, can you hear me, Ascension of the Cybermen & Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror.
I thought the best ones were It Takes You Away, Nikola Tesla's Night Of Terror, and Eve Of The Daleks
- The Woman Who Fell to Earth
- Arachnids in the UK
- The Witchfinders
- Resolution
- Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror
- Fugitive of the Judoon
- The Haunting of Villa Diodati
- Revolution of the Daleks
- The Halloween Apocalypse
- Village of the Angels
- Eve of the Daleks
- The Power of the Doctor
The Haunting of Villa Diodati
It Takes You Away
Eve of the Daleks
Village of Angels
- The Witchfinders
- It Takes You Away
- Fugitive of the Judoon
- The Haunting of Villa Diodati
- Village of the Angels
- Eve of the Daleks
That's about it. There are some others that are okay (Punjab, the Tesla one, the first two NYE specials) but I don't like those as much as others seem to.
Demons of the Punjab and It Takes You Away are so much better than the rest of the era it's not even funny. I'd call them the two legit classics of Chibnall years.
There's other episodes that I do think are good, though. Honestly, the entire middle run of series 12 is kind of really solid - especially Praxeus and Fugitive of the Judoon. And as much as I dislike Flux as a whole, War of the Sontarans has the seeds of an absolutely killer script, if you had removed the overcomplicated arc elements and let it be a standalone, I think it could have been a really great one.
Ooooh, and forgot The Witchfinders, which isn't amazing, but has a lot of very intersting things in it, + great direction.
Demons of the Punjab
It Takes You Away
Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror
The Halloween Apocalypse
War of the Sontarans
Village of Angels
Eve of the Daleks
Power of the Doctor
Demons of the Punjab, It Takes you Away, Haunting of the Villa Diodati, and Flux are like the only highlights
I like all the new year ones. Yes, even that one.
- Spyfall Part 1
- Spyfall Part 2 (with the obvious caveat)
- The Haunting of Villa Diodati (best of the Chibnall era in my opinion)
- War of the Sontarans
- Village of the Angels
So that means I like a grand total of 5 episodes from that era. That really puts it into perspective, if it wasn’t already LOL.
S11 - The Witchfinders S12 - Fugitive of the Judoon S13- Village of the Angels Specials - Power of the Doctor
The Haunting of Villa Diodati, Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror and The Woman Who Fell to Earth, they’re all quite good stories, shout out to The Witchfinders and It Takes You Away, decent stories which while I did like I have major issues with (especially It Takes You Away)
I absolutely love The Ghost Monument it just feels like a classic fun adventure with gorgeous cinematography and music and a great Tardis reveal at the end.
The three dalek specials are some of my favourite episodes of all time so I’m going to have to go with those
The Power of the Doctor, Demons of the Punjab, The Timeless Child 2 parter and the episode before it.
The ony episodes I actually remember enjoying were Praxeus and the first few Flux Episodes. Power of the Doctor was a banger too
The Witchfinders by a long shot. Currently reading the novelization.
Basically any of her episodes written by a woman are actually good.
Wasn’t a fan of the era but I have good memories of watching
Village of Angels Rosa Eve of the Daleks (definitely my favourite of her era) And Power of the Doctor
Village of Angels is super underrated in my opinion too, snapping it right up when it’s novelised.
Village of the angels is probably my favourite episode of her era and in general one of my favourite episodes. Nikola Tesla’s night of terror and demons of punjab are 2nd and 3rd
Where can you watch any of the who seasons outside UK? Is the only way to purchase a dvd or what. I don't mind paying.
The newest season is in disney+
In the US, the Classic series is available on Tubi for free, 9th Doctor - 13th Doctor is on Max, and the newest episodes are on Disney+
What about in Europe🤔
That's likely country-dependent. I'd look at the website JustWatch and look up where it is in your specific country.
My own personal highlights from Jodie's run, in chronological order:
Series 11:
- Rosa.
- The Witchfinders.
- It Takes You Away.
- Resolution.
Series 12:
- Spyfall, Parts 1 & 2.
- Nikola Tesla's Night Of Terror.
- The Haunting Of Villa Diodatti.
- Ascension Of The Cybermen / The Timeless Children.
- Revolution Of The Daleks.
Series 13:
- War Of The Sontarans.
- Village Of The Angels.
- The Power Of The Doctor.
I will never forget watching Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror for the first time, the week after watching the first episode of Who I ever disliked on broadcast, and being absolutely captivated and somewhat blown away by how good it was. I put it down to the low expectations following the previous week, but it’s become my most re-watched episode by far and I think it’s a genuinely perfect episode. It’s everything great and goofy about Doctor Who, it’s educational to a perfect level, weaves its education and characters thematically into the monster-of-the-week plot, has an outrageously camp (but well-executed) monster-of-the-week, it looks great and it’s one of the few stories where the main cast feel well used. I love a good number of Jodie’s episodes but this is certainly my comfort episode of the era.
Kerblam! was the first of the series (since TWWFTE) that made me feel like I was watching the same old Doctor Who and, despite the confused messaging, I think it’s a really fun story. Praxeus is ambitious and similarly well-executed and well-paced, It Takes You Away is suitably creepy and bonkers (and balanced well), and Flux is a complete mess that I absolutely adore and was thoroughly entertained by (and really needed) when it was first broadcast, especially Once Upon Time. And The Power of the Doctor is just a pure dopamine hit for Whovians!
Woman who fell to earth
Demons of the Punjab
It takes you away
Resolution
Spyfall
Fugitive of the judoon
Can you hear me?
haunting of villa diodati
War of the sontarons
Once, upon time
Village of the angels
Eve of the daleks
Power of the doctor
I tried to only include episodes I really liked/stood out to me, there are others I have found decent/good. For the most part I enjoyed the historical episodes wayyyyyyy more than the previous eras, I liked how they expanded the show to cover more countries internationally and their respective histories.
it takes you away and demands of the Punjab being some of my favourite doctor who episodes in general and I feel are unique to this particular era.
I like to think "It takes you away", "can you hear me?" And "once, upon time" are a little trilogy which I call "doctor who being trippy and weird and good"... Need to work on that title.
I like the whole of Flux, just for being bonkers. It did everything I wanted it to.
Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror was a fun historical story, and I’m honestly surprised it took that long for the Doctor to meet Tesla.
I think the Dalek stories in general were handled well, but I particularly like Eve of the Daleks. The Daleks are permanently in danger of villain decay, so it’s nice to see a simple story that plays to their strengths. No complicated universal domination plan - they’re here to kill the Doctor.
The Haunting of Villa Diodati is good. Demons of the Punjab, as long as you don’t think about the aliens’ motivations and behavior too much, because the twist is set up incompetently. It Takes You Away isn’t a bad watch despite being willing to paper over some real cruelty. Kerblam! is well-constructed and directed if you can get over the fact that it’s utterly morally bankrupt. There aren’t any other good episodes in the run.
Kerblam! pisses me off for both the normal reasons and because up until like halfway through it's genuinely fucking great. The directing, acting, and production are all fantastic. The Kerblam Man is a wonderfully designed "monster" that both fits in as a corporate mascot and uncanny enough to be spooky. The mystery is built up well early on. It actually feels like all the companions get things to do. It's great!... And then it isn't
It’s so well made! The writing and direction are all professional. It stands out for quality in one one of the show’s worst eras. It’s just… evil and wrong 😂
Time enough and space.
That's the only one featuring her I've rewatched. She's a great actor, it's not her fault it was so meh.
The Witchfinders is amazing. Alan Cummings campy chewing the scenery is great.
EVE OF THE DALEKS
I stopped after the Spyfall two parter, but Demons of the Punjab was the only one that was pretty interesting.
Until Fifteen came around, I would say the episode in which 13 regenerated, now I have to rethink that...
Demons of Punjab manages to be one of the best all time historical episodes in my opinion. Then again, it wouldn't have been difficult to make that time period compelling to me in any aspect.
Zero
Nostalgia watch???? Yikes.
Nostalgia watch for me is watching Keeper of Traken.
Jeez I’m old lol
So, frankly, I didn't enjoy season 11. Was happy to see the Dalek episode at the end, thought the idea of a Scout was interesting.
Season 12, I was actually falling asleep halfway through most of the episodes. Somewhat enjoyed the one about the Eternals and Sleep. Did not like the Dalek episode at the end of it all.
Season 13 was a bit rubbish because it was all over the place. Didn't know where it wanted my focus to be drawn to. Probably all COVID's fault, amirite guys?
I liked Eve of the Daleks, hated the Sea Devils episode which is super annoying because I wanted their return to be amazing.
Power of the Doctor was... fine. Had a lot of problems. The Rasputin dance was not one of those problems. Nor was the regeneration scene (though she says a line at the end "Tag, you're it" like it's a catchphrase she's been saying, or like it's something she's known for, dunno why)
My goodness it was such a terrible Doctor - I really wanted her to be good but the story writers were really very lame. Did she have a good episode? I've tried watching them but they're all so terrible for so many reasons
The Woman Who Fell to Earth Resolution The Haunting of Villa Diodati War of the Sontarans The Village of Angels Eve of the Daleks.
The highlights for me are:
Demons of the Punjab
Resolution
Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror
Fugitive of the Judoon
The Haunting of Villa Diodati
War of the Sontarans
Village of the Angels
Eve of the Daleks
The Power of the Doctor