Best
1. Mummy on the Orient Express
2. The Caretaker
3. Into the Dalek
4. Flatline
5. Kill the Moon
6. Deep Breath
7. Time Heist
8. Robot of Sherwood
9. Listen
Worst
^I might be alone in this, but one of the reasons I didn't like 'Flatline' was the look of the episode.
I like aesthetically pleasing DW - whether the action takes place on an alien world or in a 'period' setting.
Following in the heels of Mummy - with it's sumptuous sets and sophisticated society - the ASBO teens and graffiti-spattered walls of backstreet Bristol was quite a come down!
I have to agree with you to some extent.
I mean, lotrjw has rightly pointed out that the nature of the show is to find itself absolutely anywhere and anywhen, but that's not to say it can't still be aesthetically strong. The show has even done episodes that have been set in a more contemporary, gritty urban environment and it's pulled them off effectively.
Directors don't get nearly enough credit for their work most of the time, which is a shame as knowing how to film a scene is pivotal, and the setting of a story can almost be a character in its own right. Series 6's Night Terrors wasn't anyones favourite ever episode, but in terms of direction it definitely lent that sort of environment a strong sense of character and identity about it. It had a distinctive feel that contributed to the tone of the episode. I don't think Flatline was as good at that to be honest, it felt a bit tonally off, a bit sloppy and whilst I could probably find ten things to praise about it for every negative I'll just say that it felt like the most poorly directed episode of the series. There were a handful of interesting looking scenes, but a lot of it felt bland by nature and that's an oddity in a series that has been so wonderfully put together so far. It wasn't Fear Her levels of bland and dreary, but off the back of some very distinctive episodes from the same writers and directors I'd agree it was a bit of a comedown.
I've watched them all at least twice apart from Listen, as I enjoyed it so much I don't want another watch to open up plot holes or irritations just yet! I'm also biased towards the latter half of the season - I think, primarily, because it was only with The Caretaker that I felt Capaldi became the Doctor.
1. Mummy on the Orient Express - great stuff. Scary, interesting, internally logical.
2. Listen - at last a cracker, even if it did take 5 episodes!
3. The Caretaker - Capaldi went from playing the Doctor to being the Doctor in this for me.
4. Flatline - inventive story and some brilliant VFX. The Boneless as 'humans' and the hand reaching out from behind were fantastically well done.
5. Kill the Moon - pretty spooky then pretty intense. Had to go all 'la la la I can't hear you' with the 'science' on the second watch, and it was much better for it.
6. Into the Dalek - I might like this more now Capaldi's the Doctor in my mind, but I did think it was an interesting idea with a pretty dull execution.
7. Deep Breath - some bits of this were fantastic, but I found it a bit too long. Normally I'd be on Tom Tit's side, but not here.
8. Time Heist - just never felt like Doctor Who to me. And I thought the Teller was not far off the Dalek/human hybrid for tacky headpiece.
9. Robot of Sh**wood - I like a good old light-hearted Who romp, but this was just a turd. Pantomime acting and it thought it was far funnier than it was (and could have been). Felt like it had been rattled off, and the less said about the resolution the better. 'It completed a circuit'. There you go Mr. Gatis, 4 words to save that ending.
Good series overall. Looking forward to the last 3!
1. Robot of Sherwood
2. Mummy on the Orient Express
3. Listen
4. Deep Breath
5. The Caretaker
6. Time Heist
7. Flatline
8. Into the Dalek
9. Kill the Moon
9. Robot of Sh**wood - I like a good old light-hearted Who romp, but this was just a turd. Pantomime acting and it thought it was far funnier than it was (and could have been). Felt like it had been rattled off, and the less said about the resolution the better. 'It completed a circuit'. There you go Mr. Gatis, 4 words to save that ending.
Good series overall. Looking forward to the last 3!
lol! I'll think of that every time I remember the episodes from series 8
The show has even done episodes that have been set in a more contemporary, gritty urban environment and it's pulled them off effectively.
^True. 90% of 'Blink' took place in a contemporary urban setting, yet was full of atmosphere.
As you say, better direction and location would've definitely improved 'Flatline'. Though, I must say, the story itself felt a bit 'flat' at times.
1st) Mummy on the Orient Express 10/10 Favourite Moffat era story.
2nd) Listen 10/10 The Moff's best self penned story from his era thus far.
3rd) Flatline 9/10 Very original story beautifully realised. Slight snag towards the end where it appears the Doctor defeats the "Boneless" by waving his screwdriver at them (I know this isn't exactly what was happening but a little dialogue to explain this wouldn't have gone a miss).
4th) Into The Dalek 9/10 Some say it was too derivative of "Dalek". I see their point a bit, but I still loved it.
5th) The Caretaker 8/10 Good story, shame about the shit monster.
6th) Deep Breath 7/10 Pretty good opener. Hit and miss. Mostly hit though.
7th) Time Heist 7/10 As above. Felt a bit rushed.
8th) Kill the Moon 6/10 Some good drama. Some spectacularly bad science.
9th) Robot of Sherwood 5/10 Promising from the start, funny moments, disappointing third act with ludicrously nonsensical resolution.
1st)
3rd) Flatline 9/10 Very original story beautifully realised.
It really isn't as original an idea as a lot of people think it is. Quite a fresh idea for a mainstream TV show perhaps.
I also tend to agree with the people begging to differ about how well realized it was. The direction was flat, the characters one-dimensional and the threat not really getting the chance to develop.
I also thought the plot carried too may 'just becauses':
The TARDIS was so drained that the Doctor was left practically defenceless. Just because the writer said it was.
The Boneless 'hid in the walls', just because the writer said they did. I mean, why? Walls aren't 2-dimensional. The Boneless would be invisible wherever they were located (before they took on their 3D avatars). They didn't have to hide anywhere. I understand it was to create the cool visual idea but plot-wise it's another 'just because'.
Why was the TARDIS shrinking? It's power was being siphoned but so? Why would that cause the outer shell to shrink? Just because the writer thought it was cool.
The whole episode was filled with this kind of thing.
People accuse Moffat of overly ambitious stories that he cannot fully explain or pay off but people accept this so enthusiastically? If it was credited to Moffat a lot of these elements would be getting slated (that's a general observation, not directed at the poster I initially quoted).
I also found this episodes main thrust of character drama with the Doctor and Clara to be a little flat. Supposedly Clara is learning the Doctor's ways and he acknowledges it ruefully but really, what did she do that was terribly contentious? 'Lied' to the community servers by telling them she could get them out? Really? Keeping morale up is a dark, morally ambiguous strategy? Who did she willingly sacrifice for the greater good? No-one. What depths did she plumb to defeat the Boneless? None really. It rang very hollow as the episodes main point of melodrama. Really quite weak compared to the previous week's incident with the Doctor lying to the woman to get her to come out of hiding with Clara, which was very well handled.
I really think it was one of the most overrated for a while with people judging intent more than what was on the screen and with a surfeit of good will from the previous week's very good episode by the same author.
I'm not sure about my ranking of the episodes so far, but Into the Dalek would very definitely be at the bottom. It's the only story I haven't enjoyed this year, so far.
1. Listen 10+/10
2. Flatline 10/10
3. Mummy on the Orient Express 10/10
4. Robot of Sherwood 8/10
5. Kill the Moon 8/10
6. Deep Breath 7/10
7. Time Heist 7/10
8. The Caretaker 5/10
9. Into the Dalek 4/10
1. Mummy on the Orient Express
2. Flatline
3. Listen
My top three are all 9+ out of 10 episodes, the only really exceptional ones there have been this season. Three examples of Doctor Who at its finest, albeit in very different ways, and all with the common thread of an outstanding performance from Jenna Coleman.
4. The Caretaker
5. Time Heist
6. Deep Breath
Decent episodes, solid but not spectacular.
7. Kill the Moon
8. Into the Dalek
Disappointing episodes, particularly Kill the Moon given how much the reviews hyped it! Wouldn't re-watch.
Now that Series 8 has aired in its entirety (excluding Christmas special) it would be interesting to see how the rankings stand now!
Here's my UPDATED ranking (best-to-worst):
1)Mummy on the Orient Express 2)Dark Water 3) Listen
^
^ 4)Kill The Moon 5)Deep Breath 6)Death in Heaven
^
^ 7)Robot of Sherwood 8)Flatline 9)Time Heist
^
^ 10)In the Forest of the Night 11)Into the Dalek
^
^
^
^
^ 12)Caretaker
EXCELLENT (5/5)
1. Mummy on the Orient Express
2. Flatline
3. Listen
4. Into the Dalek
5. The Caretaker
GREAT (4/5)
6. Kill the Moon
7. Deep Breath
GOOD (3/5)
8. Time-Heist
9. Robot of Sherwood
To put that in context, I have no major criticisms of Deep Breath, and very few of Time-Heist for that matter, so this really is a very high-scoring series. Equally, though, I don't think Mummy is on the level of The Impossible Planet, Human Nature, Blink, Silence in the Library, The Waters of Mars, Vincent and the Doctor, The Girl Who Waited, etc. etc., so unless one of the last two stories pulls some serious witchcraft out of the bag I can't see anything breaching my top ten. Really superb, though, some fantastic television. With it all laid out like that, I'm genuinely surprised by how low Kill the Moon and Deep Breath are.
To add the final few...
EXCELLENT (5/5)
1. Mummy on the Orient Express
2. Flatline
3. Dark Water
4. Listen
5. Into the Dalek
6. Death in Heaven
7. The Caretaker
GREAT (4/5)
8. Kill the Moon
9. Deep Breath
GOOD (3/5)
10. In the Forest of the Night
11. Time-Heist
12. Robot of Sherwood
Dark Water was utterly spellbinding. Death in Heaven was also excellent, but a little messy, didn't quite deliver on the promise. Steven Moffat always said that he wanted The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon to feel like a series finale, he wanted that sort of scale, and I think he succeeded. Dark Water and Death in Heaven felt more like an introduction. Missy was introduced, superbly, but didn't accomplish much; the newborn Cybermen were great value on the plane but didn't do much else. A thrilling yarn, but it somehow felt like it ended too soon. Santa said it best - it can't end like that!
In the Forest of the Night was lovely, but nothing more. Silly ending, with the missing sister, and some of the blather struggles to convince, but well acted and gorgeously directed. Disappointing if you're tuning in for monsters and explosions, but I think we'll appreciate it as a different breed of Who in years to come.
Dark Water/Death In Heaven
Listen
Mummy On The Orient Express
Flatline
Into The Dalek
Deep Breath
The Caretaker
Kill The Moon
Robot Of Sherwood
Time Heist
In The Forest Of The Night
Now the series is complete, here's my Best to Worst list...
Mummy on the Orient Express
Dark Water
Listen
Time Heist
In The Forest of the Night
Kill the Moon
Flatline
Robot of Sherwood
Death in Heaven
Into the Dalek
Deep Breath
The Caretaker
On reflection, Series 8 is a consistently good series but it seldom ventures into anything overwhelmingly strong. Of that list only the top two episodes offered the totally immersion and strengths of the shows best ever episodes, and whilst they are two brilliant episodes, neither are serious contenders for all-time greats. On the plus side, I didn't feel like I saw a real clunker either and even my opinions on the lowest ranking episodes are generally more positive than not, which suggests a very respectable quality.
Series 8 has by far been my favourite Moffat series, in turn making me feel sorry for Matt Smith who I really liked as well. But Series 8 never knocks the ball out of the park with anything extra special - I think the stories were a bit lacking in their concepts a few times and it felt a bit like we were going through the motions. I love it to pieces, but Series 8 will be the first series where I definitely don't have a contender for an episode securing a spot in the cramped Top Ten Ever Episodes list.
I really enjoyed Mummy on the Orient Express so much and I am pretty sure it is in my top five new Who episodes. But it made me a bit sad about the rest of the season and what might have been. Any way, mustn't harp on that- I also thought that Deep Breath had some interesting ideas pretty well executed. Dark Water was greatly enlivened by our new Master or Mistress. So those are my top three in the poll.
I kind of want to bang on about the awfulness of Forest again... but must restrain myself...
1. Listen (10)
2. Dark Water/Death in Heaven (10)
3. Deep Breath (9.5)
4. Into the Dalek (9.5)
5. Flatline (9)
6. Mummy on the Orient Express (9)
7. Robot of Sherwood (8.5)
8. Kill the Moon (8)
9. The Caretaker (8)
10. Time Heist (7.5)
11. In The Forest Of The Night (7)
9. Listen - can't believe this one isn't universally liked on here. One of the finest episodes of Doctor Who ever for me. I love that the whole thing was about the Doctors irrational fear. If you ever needed confirmation of Jenna Coleman's acting ability, her face when she grabbed the ankle from under the bed actually gave me chills. Her face just flooded with 'shock horror'. Amazing episode. Amazingly written. Perfection for me.
I seem to be in a bit of a minority. I didn't dislike Listen but it never really excited me very much. Just seemed like a wild goose chase with no defined threat. It was a cool twist with Clara being the source of his fears in the first place but I really wasn't that engaged, to be honest.
My top 10, best to worst:
Flatline 10/10
Mummy on the Orient Express 9/10
Time Heist 9/10
Robots of Sherwood 9/10
Dark Water 9/10
Deep Breath 8/10.
Caretaker 8/10
Kill the Moon 8/10
Listen 7/10
Into The Dalek. 7/10
Death In Heaven 7/10
Forest of the Night 6/10
1. Mummy on the Orient Express - A really enjoyable and interesting episode. Capaldi and Jenna at their best. This was the only episode of the series (and pretty much the only thing on TV this year) to give me that buzz you get when you've watched something brilliant and it enthuses you with energy and excitement, or does that just happen to me
2. Flatline - Loved the ideas in this one. The main characters were all done well. The Addams Family inspired scenes were priceless. Liked how they used the 2d creatures own power to defeat them. Oh and the doctors little dance
3. Listen - Capaldi is brilliant in this episode. I liked the ambiguity, and how there was no out right monster, I would like to see more episodes in a similar vein.
4. Deep Breath - I think that start of this episode isn't that good but from the tramp scene onward it comes alive. Great performances from the cast. Half face man was a good opponent. The episode has a good vibe to it, from the directing and set/costume design etc.
5. Robot of Sherwood - I couldn't help getting caught up in the fun of this episode to the point where I don't really care that the golden arrow of no sense saving the day thing is preposterous, I just let it wash over me and enjoyed the episode. Its funny how we can be forgiving for some things but not others (see moon/egg and trees) we all have a line.
6. Into the Dalek - Some standout moments (she cares so I don't have to) but overall I find this episode ok but nothing more, it lacked something.
7. The Caretaker - It was fine, nothing note worthy but nothing to go against.
8. Time Heist - Alien planet and a new alien great! but the episode wasn't the most exciting. Decent on first watch but not one to go back to.
9. Dark Water/Death in Heaven - Missy fantastic. The water concealing the Cybermen was a great idea and very affective. The doctor had some standout scenes. Chris Addison was a lot of fun. But the story falls flat and there was a lot I couldn't go with (water converting corpses to Cybermen, kid coming back)
10. In The Forest Of The Night - Trees take over the world and then disappear again and the world is fine, just fine, no ramifications at all, cause why would there be, sure a few animals escaped London zoo but other than that everything else would be just fine, it would all hold up and we can carry on as we were and don't even have to talk about it later cause we are all going to forget it ever happened, few that's lucky, and look here's someone that was missing who is now back, wow so rather than lots of people dying from this massive sea change we've actually helped out a family, and the world, cool.
I didn't like it.
11. Kill the Moon and the will to go with things - The moon is an egg. No just no.
I found this series to really test what a person is going to buy into, several episodes this series I havn't been able to go with, see the last three on my list and also the robin episode pushed close.
Past series had the odd one or two things such as towing the earth, the leaf in rings and people having their hearts stopped and started again in the power of three, but series 8 has really had a lot personally.
Comments
1. Mummy on the Orient Express
2. The Caretaker
3. Into the Dalek
4. Flatline
5. Kill the Moon
6. Deep Breath
7. Time Heist
8. Robot of Sherwood
9. Listen
Worst
I have to agree with you to some extent.
I mean, lotrjw has rightly pointed out that the nature of the show is to find itself absolutely anywhere and anywhen, but that's not to say it can't still be aesthetically strong. The show has even done episodes that have been set in a more contemporary, gritty urban environment and it's pulled them off effectively.
Directors don't get nearly enough credit for their work most of the time, which is a shame as knowing how to film a scene is pivotal, and the setting of a story can almost be a character in its own right. Series 6's Night Terrors wasn't anyones favourite ever episode, but in terms of direction it definitely lent that sort of environment a strong sense of character and identity about it. It had a distinctive feel that contributed to the tone of the episode. I don't think Flatline was as good at that to be honest, it felt a bit tonally off, a bit sloppy and whilst I could probably find ten things to praise about it for every negative I'll just say that it felt like the most poorly directed episode of the series. There were a handful of interesting looking scenes, but a lot of it felt bland by nature and that's an oddity in a series that has been so wonderfully put together so far. It wasn't Fear Her levels of bland and dreary, but off the back of some very distinctive episodes from the same writers and directors I'd agree it was a bit of a comedown.
1. Mummy on the Orient Express - great stuff. Scary, interesting, internally logical.
2. Listen - at last a cracker, even if it did take 5 episodes!
3. The Caretaker - Capaldi went from playing the Doctor to being the Doctor in this for me.
4. Flatline - inventive story and some brilliant VFX. The Boneless as 'humans' and the hand reaching out from behind were fantastically well done.
5. Kill the Moon - pretty spooky then pretty intense. Had to go all 'la la la I can't hear you' with the 'science' on the second watch, and it was much better for it.
6. Into the Dalek - I might like this more now Capaldi's the Doctor in my mind, but I did think it was an interesting idea with a pretty dull execution.
7. Deep Breath - some bits of this were fantastic, but I found it a bit too long. Normally I'd be on Tom Tit's side, but not here.
8. Time Heist - just never felt like Doctor Who to me. And I thought the Teller was not far off the Dalek/human hybrid for tacky headpiece.
9. Robot of Sh**wood - I like a good old light-hearted Who romp, but this was just a turd. Pantomime acting and it thought it was far funnier than it was (and could have been). Felt like it had been rattled off, and the less said about the resolution the better. 'It completed a circuit'. There you go Mr. Gatis, 4 words to save that ending.
Good series overall. Looking forward to the last 3!
2. Mummy on the Orient Express
3. Listen
4. Deep Breath
5. The Caretaker
6. Time Heist
7. Flatline
8. Into the Dalek
9. Kill the Moon
personally I think Listen is slightly overhyped and The Caretaker is underrated. (I'm not saying Listen isn't better than The Caretaker please note)
lol! I'll think of that every time I remember the episodes from series 8
And yes, it was utter crap.
2.Listen
3.The Caretaker
4.Deep Breath
5.Time Heist
6.Robot of Sherwood
7.Flatline
8.Into the Dalek
9th Last Kill The Moon
Yep. London then Cardiff.
:rolleyes:
^True. 90% of 'Blink' took place in a contemporary urban setting, yet was full of atmosphere.
As you say, better direction and location would've definitely improved 'Flatline'. Though, I must say, the story itself felt a bit 'flat' at times.
^Don't forget Llandlaff (Leadworth).
2nd) Listen 10/10 The Moff's best self penned story from his era thus far.
3rd) Flatline 9/10 Very original story beautifully realised. Slight snag towards the end where it appears the Doctor defeats the "Boneless" by waving his screwdriver at them (I know this isn't exactly what was happening but a little dialogue to explain this wouldn't have gone a miss).
4th) Into The Dalek 9/10 Some say it was too derivative of "Dalek". I see their point a bit, but I still loved it.
5th) The Caretaker 8/10 Good story, shame about the shit monster.
6th) Deep Breath 7/10 Pretty good opener. Hit and miss. Mostly hit though.
7th) Time Heist 7/10 As above. Felt a bit rushed.
8th) Kill the Moon 6/10 Some good drama. Some spectacularly bad science.
9th) Robot of Sherwood 5/10 Promising from the start, funny moments, disappointing third act with ludicrously nonsensical resolution.
It really isn't as original an idea as a lot of people think it is. Quite a fresh idea for a mainstream TV show perhaps.
I also tend to agree with the people begging to differ about how well realized it was. The direction was flat, the characters one-dimensional and the threat not really getting the chance to develop.
I also thought the plot carried too may 'just becauses':
The TARDIS was so drained that the Doctor was left practically defenceless. Just because the writer said it was.
The Boneless 'hid in the walls', just because the writer said they did. I mean, why? Walls aren't 2-dimensional. The Boneless would be invisible wherever they were located (before they took on their 3D avatars). They didn't have to hide anywhere. I understand it was to create the cool visual idea but plot-wise it's another 'just because'.
Why was the TARDIS shrinking? It's power was being siphoned but so? Why would that cause the outer shell to shrink? Just because the writer thought it was cool.
The whole episode was filled with this kind of thing.
People accuse Moffat of overly ambitious stories that he cannot fully explain or pay off but people accept this so enthusiastically? If it was credited to Moffat a lot of these elements would be getting slated (that's a general observation, not directed at the poster I initially quoted).
I also found this episodes main thrust of character drama with the Doctor and Clara to be a little flat. Supposedly Clara is learning the Doctor's ways and he acknowledges it ruefully but really, what did she do that was terribly contentious? 'Lied' to the community servers by telling them she could get them out? Really? Keeping morale up is a dark, morally ambiguous strategy? Who did she willingly sacrifice for the greater good? No-one. What depths did she plumb to defeat the Boneless? None really. It rang very hollow as the episodes main point of melodrama. Really quite weak compared to the previous week's incident with the Doctor lying to the woman to get her to come out of hiding with Clara, which was very well handled.
I really think it was one of the most overrated for a while with people judging intent more than what was on the screen and with a surfeit of good will from the previous week's very good episode by the same author.
1. Listen
2. Flatline
3. Deep Breath
4. The Caretaker
5. Into the Dalek
6. Time Heist
7. Kill the Moon
8. Robot of Sherwood
2. Flatline 10/10
3. Mummy on the Orient Express 10/10
4. Robot of Sherwood 8/10
5. Kill the Moon 8/10
6. Deep Breath 7/10
7. Time Heist 7/10
8. The Caretaker 5/10
9. Into the Dalek 4/10
Brilliant season!
1. Mummy on the Orient Express
2. Flatline
3. Listen
My top three are all 9+ out of 10 episodes, the only really exceptional ones there have been this season. Three examples of Doctor Who at its finest, albeit in very different ways, and all with the common thread of an outstanding performance from Jenna Coleman.
4. The Caretaker
5. Time Heist
6. Deep Breath
Decent episodes, solid but not spectacular.
7. Kill the Moon
8. Into the Dalek
Disappointing episodes, particularly Kill the Moon given how much the reviews hyped it! Wouldn't re-watch.
9. Robot of Sherwood
Utterly abysmal. 45 minutes of my life wasted!
Here's my UPDATED ranking (best-to-worst):
1) Mummy on the Orient Express
2) Dark Water
3) Listen
^
^
4) Kill The Moon
5) Deep Breath
6) Death in Heaven
^
^
7) Robot of Sherwood
8) Flatline
9) Time Heist
^
^
10) In the Forest of the Night
11) Into the Dalek
^
^
^
^
^
12) Caretaker
To add the final few...
EXCELLENT (5/5)
1. Mummy on the Orient Express
2. Flatline
3. Dark Water
4. Listen
5. Into the Dalek
6. Death in Heaven
7. The Caretaker
GREAT (4/5)
8. Kill the Moon
9. Deep Breath
GOOD (3/5)
10. In the Forest of the Night
11. Time-Heist
12. Robot of Sherwood
Dark Water was utterly spellbinding. Death in Heaven was also excellent, but a little messy, didn't quite deliver on the promise. Steven Moffat always said that he wanted The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon to feel like a series finale, he wanted that sort of scale, and I think he succeeded. Dark Water and Death in Heaven felt more like an introduction. Missy was introduced, superbly, but didn't accomplish much; the newborn Cybermen were great value on the plane but didn't do much else. A thrilling yarn, but it somehow felt like it ended too soon. Santa said it best - it can't end like that!
In the Forest of the Night was lovely, but nothing more. Silly ending, with the missing sister, and some of the blather struggles to convince, but well acted and gorgeously directed. Disappointing if you're tuning in for monsters and explosions, but I think we'll appreciate it as a different breed of Who in years to come.
Listen
Mummy On The Orient Express
Flatline
Into The Dalek
Deep Breath
The Caretaker
Kill The Moon
Robot Of Sherwood
Time Heist
In The Forest Of The Night
Mummy on the Orient Express
Dark Water
Listen
Time Heist
In The Forest of the Night
Kill the Moon
Flatline
Robot of Sherwood
Death in Heaven
Into the Dalek
Deep Breath
The Caretaker
On reflection, Series 8 is a consistently good series but it seldom ventures into anything overwhelmingly strong. Of that list only the top two episodes offered the totally immersion and strengths of the shows best ever episodes, and whilst they are two brilliant episodes, neither are serious contenders for all-time greats. On the plus side, I didn't feel like I saw a real clunker either and even my opinions on the lowest ranking episodes are generally more positive than not, which suggests a very respectable quality.
Series 8 has by far been my favourite Moffat series, in turn making me feel sorry for Matt Smith who I really liked as well. But Series 8 never knocks the ball out of the park with anything extra special - I think the stories were a bit lacking in their concepts a few times and it felt a bit like we were going through the motions. I love it to pieces, but Series 8 will be the first series where I definitely don't have a contender for an episode securing a spot in the cramped Top Ten Ever Episodes list.
I kind of want to bang on about the awfulness of Forest again... but must restrain myself...
Mummy was really, really good.
1. Listen (10)
2. Dark Water/Death in Heaven (10)
3. Deep Breath (9.5)
4. Into the Dalek (9.5)
5. Flatline (9)
6. Mummy on the Orient Express (9)
7. Robot of Sherwood (8.5)
8. Kill the Moon (8)
9. The Caretaker (8)
10. Time Heist (7.5)
11. In The Forest Of The Night (7)
An absolutely cracking series IMO.
I seem to be in a bit of a minority. I didn't dislike Listen but it never really excited me very much. Just seemed like a wild goose chase with no defined threat. It was a cool twist with Clara being the source of his fears in the first place but I really wasn't that engaged, to be honest.
My top 10, best to worst:
Flatline 10/10
Mummy on the Orient Express 9/10
Time Heist 9/10
Robots of Sherwood 9/10
Dark Water 9/10
Deep Breath 8/10.
Caretaker 8/10
Kill the Moon 8/10
Listen 7/10
Into The Dalek. 7/10
Death In Heaven 7/10
Forest of the Night 6/10
2. Flatline - Loved the ideas in this one. The main characters were all done well. The Addams Family inspired scenes were priceless. Liked how they used the 2d creatures own power to defeat them. Oh and the doctors little dance
3. Listen - Capaldi is brilliant in this episode. I liked the ambiguity, and how there was no out right monster, I would like to see more episodes in a similar vein.
4. Deep Breath - I think that start of this episode isn't that good but from the tramp scene onward it comes alive. Great performances from the cast. Half face man was a good opponent. The episode has a good vibe to it, from the directing and set/costume design etc.
5. Robot of Sherwood - I couldn't help getting caught up in the fun of this episode to the point where I don't really care that the golden arrow of no sense saving the day thing is preposterous, I just let it wash over me and enjoyed the episode. Its funny how we can be forgiving for some things but not others (see moon/egg and trees) we all have a line.
6. Into the Dalek - Some standout moments (she cares so I don't have to) but overall I find this episode ok but nothing more, it lacked something.
7. The Caretaker - It was fine, nothing note worthy but nothing to go against.
8. Time Heist - Alien planet and a new alien great! but the episode wasn't the most exciting. Decent on first watch but not one to go back to.
9. Dark Water/Death in Heaven - Missy fantastic. The water concealing the Cybermen was a great idea and very affective. The doctor had some standout scenes. Chris Addison was a lot of fun. But the story falls flat and there was a lot I couldn't go with (water converting corpses to Cybermen, kid coming back)
10. In The Forest Of The Night - Trees take over the world and then disappear again and the world is fine, just fine, no ramifications at all, cause why would there be, sure a few animals escaped London zoo but other than that everything else would be just fine, it would all hold up and we can carry on as we were and don't even have to talk about it later cause we are all going to forget it ever happened, few that's lucky, and look here's someone that was missing who is now back, wow so rather than lots of people dying from this massive sea change we've actually helped out a family, and the world, cool.
I didn't like it.
11. Kill the Moon and the will to go with things - The moon is an egg. No just no.
Past series had the odd one or two things such as towing the earth, the leaf in rings and people having their hearts stopped and started again in the power of three, but series 8 has really had a lot personally.