Posted June 7, 2025Jun 7 A week on from the finale of Season 2 (and what ended up being the end of Ncuti Gatwa's time as the Doctor), let's look back on this era of the show and create a ranking of the episodes.It was the start (of sorts) of Russell T Davies' big return to Doctor Who following Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker's departure, following the 60th Anniversary specials. Alongside David Tennant's return as the new fourteenth Doctor and with a very different regeneration to anything we'd seen before on the show, Ncuti managed to dominate the final act of The Giggle before taking centre stage in The Church on Ruby Road as the first black actor to be the Doctor in the main role. This era also saw Disney come on board as a worldwide streaming partner, and both finales were taken for outings to the big screen.Simply rank each of the stories from the Ncuti Gatwa era from favourite (1) to least favourite (16) and in a couple of weeks we'll see what comes out on top for BuzzJack The Ncuti Gatwa EraThe Church on Ruby RoadSpace BabiesThe Devil's ChordBoom73 YardsDot and BubbleRogueThe Legend of Ruby Sunday / Empire of DeathJoy to the WorldThe Robot RevolutionLuxThe WellLucky DayThe Story & The EngineThe Interstellar Song ContestWish World / The Reality War
June 7, 2025Jun 7 01 The Well02 The Interstellar Song Contest03 73 Yards04 Lux05 Dot and Bubble06 Lucky Day07 Boom08 Wish World / The Reality War09 Rogue10 The Legend of Ruby Sunday / Empire of Death11 The Story & The Engine12 The Robot Revolution13 Joy to the World14 The Devil's Chord15 Space Babies16 The Church on Ruby Road...I think! Honestly a really strong era despite some minor issues along the way.
June 8, 2025Jun 8 Author The WellRogueLucky DayBoomThe Interstellar Song ContestLuxWish World / The Reality WarJoy to the WorldThe Legend of Ruby Sunday / Empire of DeathThe Story & The EngineThe Robot RevolutionDot and BubbleThe Devil's Chord73 YardsSpace BabiesThe Church on Ruby RoadHonestly that run from The Well to Joy to the World could be very interchangeable, all amazing.
June 8, 2025Jun 8 The Well - 9/1073 Yards - 8/10Lucky Day - 8/10Dot and Bubble - 7/10Lux - 7/10The Interstellar Song Contest - 7/10Boom - 7/10Joy to the World - 6/10The Robot Revolution - 6/10The Story & The Engine - 6/10Rogue - 6/10Wish World / The Reality War - 5/10The Legend of Ruby Sunday / Empire of Death - 5/10The Church on Ruby Road - 5/10The Devil's Chord - 3/10Space Babies - 2/10Better than Chibnall, but it's a sadly short list that feels very incomplete, I think only the top 2 are real Who classics for me.
June 12, 2025Jun 12 Apparently, I’m a sucker for a Ruby-centric story 01 = 73 Yards02 = Lucky Day03 = Dot and Bubble04 = The Well05 = Rogue06 = The Interstellar Song Contest07 = Lux08 = Boom09 = The Church on Ruby Road10 = The Legend of Ruby Sunday / Empire of Death11 = The Robot Revolution12 = Wish World / The Reality War13 = Joy to the World14 = The Story & The Engine15 = The Devil's Chord16 = Space Babies Empire of Death and The Reality War had big issues, however both the 2 parters are pulled up by the 1st parts.
August 29, 2025Aug 29 Author Gonna speed through these results soon to give the verdict of the four of us that voted , eyes peeled x
August 30, 2025Aug 30 Forgot all about this 😅 only remember Joseph's countdown as he likes every comment so I remember to go look 🫣
August 30, 2025Aug 30 I also forgot about this, but also I’m very late. Interested to see the results.
September 20, 2025Sep 20 Author 16Space BabiesWritten by Russell T DaviesDirected by Julie Anne Robinson6 points15The Devil's ChordWritten by Russell T DaviesDirected by Ben Chessell11 pointsThe Giggle and The Church on Ruby Road aside as a unique case of us having what feels like three separate beginnings to a new Doctor's era, Space Babies and The Devil's Chord were released together to launch Season 1 and the beginning of this bold new era with Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor. Bold, however, is what a lot of people were left questioning following the release of both Space Babies and The Devil's Chord. When you think about what a double bill premiere of Rose and The End of the World, New Earth and Tooth and Claw, The Eleventh Hour and The Beast Below, Deep Breath and Into the Dalek, or even The Woman Who Fell to Earth and The Ghost Monument would have looked like, it's not difficult to acknowledge that none of those firsts needed to be propped up by the double-bill release strategy. Space Babies, unfortunately, while a fun romp to turn your brain off to just didn't work. And I think a lot of the reasons why Space Babies doesn't work - both in isolation and as part of a bigger picture - we will now never know because it seemed it was all going to come to fruition in seasons 2 and 3. The Devil's Chord, while still having issues of its own, serves largely as a fun, camp episode with lots to enjoy despite under-utilising most of the guest cast barring Jinkx Monsoon as Maestro. Moments of brilliance scattered throughout these first two offerings of Ncuti's first season as the Doctor, but at the bottom of the pack here among all 4 (!) voters.
September 20, 2025Sep 20 Poor Space Babies 🥲 was inevitable but alas its definitely not as bad as it gets treated, do think gatwas rushed exit makes it feel even worse than it should of been , The devil's cord another underrated episode but a (anti) musical episode and doctor who was always gonna be marmite
September 21, 2025Sep 21 Author 14The Church on Ruby RoadWritten by Russell T DaviesDirected by Mark Tonderai13 points13The Story & The EngineWritten by Inua EllamsDirected by Makalla McPherson23 pointsWhile it's a shame to see The Story & The Engine finish so low down, we see a clear jump in quality going from 13 points scored all the way to 23; signalling a clear consensus of what belongs at the bottom of any countdown in the Ncuti Gatwa era of Doctor Who. In 14th place is Ncuti's first full episode as the Doctor, Christmas special The Church on Ruby Road. Marking the show's return to the Christmas Day slot for the first time since 2017 (Twice Upon a Time), was this really the episode that would make people sit up and think 'damn, I've missed Doctor Who at Christmas'? No. But nonetheless, it was nice to see Christmas trees and all the festivities in the show again. Ncuti makes a stellar first impression though when handed the reins completely (he was fantastic in The Giggle, but still in David Tennant's shadow somewhat) and Millie Gibson is given plenty story as we're introduced to Ruby Sunday and her family. Jump forward two seasons and we find ourselves in a mysterious barber shop for The Story & The Engine. Something really different for Doctor Who, and with elements based off a stage play also written by Inua Ellams himself it's little wonder it gives off that vibe as you watch. Some of the sci-fi elements feel shoehorned into the episode (namely when we start to reach the episode's climax and head through the maze of the barber shop), but I think this is a beautiful story overall that packs a big punch to really celebrate black culture and give viewers a different - and oft overlooked or sidelined - perspective; something that could have been done sooner and/or more frequently with both Jo Martin having already debuted as the show's first black Doctor in 2020 and Ncuti Gatwa in his second season.
September 21, 2025Sep 21 TCORR wasn't a bad episode, I do feel the overall arc resolution possibly hinders this a bit, one of the few that actually enjoyed the goblin king song should of been number 1 🥲🤣 TSATE suprised this is so low was definitely a lot worse but im guessing the scores must be very close, jo Martin needs her own special or one off tv series at least
September 21, 2025Sep 21 The right episodes have gone so far I think. I like The Story & the Engine though, it's just a bit heavy on exposition.
September 21, 2025Sep 21 Author 12The Robot RevolutionWritten by Russell T DaviesDirected by Peter Hoar25 points11The Legend of Ruby Sunday / Empire of DeathWritten by Russell T DaviesDirected by Jamie Donoughue26 points (less higher positions)Another two RTD-penned stories drop out before we reach the top 10 of the Ncuti Gatwa era; probably something that cannot proportionately be judged re. the quality of RTD's writing in this era simply due to how much of the era's episodes were written by him with minimal focus on guest writers in (what we thought at the time) to be the early days. The first to drop out is the season 2 opener The Robot Revolution. Personally, this serves as a much stronger opener than Space Babies did, despite still just being camp fun more than anything. It's how you do a camp episode right and still hook viewers in. Belinda Chandra was immediately likeable and a strong match for the Doctor; something we rarely get to see in companions when they're plucked from their everyday lives and thrown into time and space travel with a mad man (or woman!) in a box. And then we move on to the curious tale of The Legend of Ruby Sunday and Empire of Death, the first big finale of Ncuti's era, offering a lot of promise and answers to a lot of questions, as well as the return of a villain - Sutekh - that hadn't been seen on screen since the Classic era. Credit where it's due, the first part of this story had me captivated. A lot of brilliant set-up, and the last five minutes plus that cliffhanger is up there with the best of Doctor Who (granted, still side-eyeing RTD for thinking that Sutekh is an anagram of Susan Triad Technology x). Truly haunting and a real sense of dread and panic. However, fast forward a week and Empire of Death pretty much undoes a lot of what The Legend of Ruby Sunday set up and promised, and was overall quite disappointing despite being a decent enough episode to stick on if you're ever bored and fancy a re-watch. The biggest flaw in it all is the resolution of Ruby's story (some would have you believe Sutekh is the biggest problem here, and while we don't see enough of him and the devastation he's left on the world and how it's all unfolded over time it really isn't the biggest issue). PE teacher Fifteen, you will forever be handsome and iconic in this finale though!
September 21, 2025Sep 21 Still no complaints - The Legend of Ruby Sunday is fantastic but Empire of Death doesn't quite capitalise on it. It's better than it often gets credit for, though.
September 21, 2025Sep 21 Fair TRR was definitely the better of the 2 openers but was also weakest/ 2nd weakest of an otherwise almost flawless series TLORS agreed was a fantastic 2 part opener with such great promise if it was judged alone I reckon it might of been higher EOD just took a giant stick of dynamite and ruined it 🥲 Sutekh had so much promise but for a big classic villain was resolved too fast standard, and the Ruby story conclusion might not of been anticlimactic if the family thing was actually explored further afterwards
September 22, 2025Sep 22 Author 10Joy to the WorldWritten by Steven MoffatDirected by Alex Sanjiv Pillai26 points (more higher positions)9Wish World / The Reality WarWritten by Russell T DaviesDirected by Alex Sanjiv Pillai29 pointsMy mind seeing these two end up next to each other just wanders to being intrigued that both stories directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai are held in a similar regard, as well as both stories sharing the link (albeit arbitrary) of Joy to the World itself. Joy to the World was our second helping in the RTD2 era of Steven Moffat returning to pen an episode following Boom in season 1. Honestly, I think Joy to the World gets a hard time purely based on its closing moments with a dodgy COVID scene and some dodgy CGI where Joy becomes the star. While the episode absolutely under-utilised Nicola Coughlan in the so-called companion role, this is such a beautiful story and it's something that Moffat just brings to Doctor Who so effortlessly. Given time away, his two contributions to this era stand up as some of the very best away from RTD's absurdity. Anita and the Doctor's time together serves as some of the best character-driven scenes we got in the era too. And then we move onto what - for now - are the final episodes of Doctor Who. Wish World, while unremarkable, does a decent enough job of setting up what's to come in The Reality War and while totally unoriginal and another example of RTD cherry-picking elements from Disney shows he enjoys and not knowing how to realise them fully it's still alright. Archie Panjabi shines so much in the first half of the story as the Rani (as does Anita Dobson, fully realised and unmasked at last!), but both playing such a minor part in the second act was a major oversight that was detrimental to what could have been such a brilliant finale had it not been necessary to shoehorn in so much with an unplanned regeneration and resolution to stories that weren't quite at their natural climax. All that said, I still remember how I felt watching this finale and coming to the realisation that this really was going to be the end for Ncuti, and a sudden rush of emotion. Ncuti made the most of it and played it so beautifully, and it's still such a massive shame that we've lost a Doctor with so much potential and one that was finally hitting his stride sooner than anticipated.
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