DOCTOR WHO: SEASON 9
100%
#1
Peter Capaldi and the writers have settled into an emotionally engaging tone, allowing the show to raise the stakes for the Twelfth Doctor

http://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/...tm_source=twtr


Also, #4 on their "best returning shows" of 2015 (Fargo is #1): http://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/...-tv-show-2015/

Awesome

Indeed

It deserves it, not counting Big Finish audio dramas it's some of the best quality Doctor Who in a very, very long time.

Must be some bad sci-fi shows around.

Love how GOT is second lol

apples and oranges though

Nice to see.

Some odd name checks there! I mean, I rate Graeme Harper, but....

Well done to DW but it's not quite as impressive as it first seems.

DW's 100% score is based on 22 reviews compared to (for example) GoT's 98% based on 55 reviews.

Logical since GOT has a much. much wider audience on a massively popular pay per view channel, 100 times the budget, the publicity, etc,

More mainstream critics are going to review it.

Never seen it, apart from clips courtesy of Charlie Brooker (Oh look! Breasts! as the Fourth Doctor never said) but out of mild curiosity, approximately how many viewers does GOT get in the UK? A friend who's a fan went into some detail about what it was about and how I'm missing out, but just made me think....nah, doesn't sound like my sort of thing, really.

The front screen score and sources are indeed not as impressive as first glance suggests although its an odd statistic because in fact if you go into each episode for Season 9 the stats are still rather fantastic based as they are on a good cross section of reviewers from various sources.

From the 12 episodes in S9 Rotten Tomatoes counted 193 reviews of which 169 were considered fresh/good- excellent leaving only 24 bad reviews for the entire season.

So S9 was 87.5 % 'fresh'.

Even the much maligned Sleep No More managed 10 good reviews from the 15 considered which puts into perspective the laughably frantic reaction to it on here. That did still represent a series low however.

Of course to most right thinking people this is a brilliant achievement and testament to the often fantastic work Moffat and Capaldi and Coleman put into S9 along side the other writers and directors and guest stars...most noticeably Rachel Talalay. It's a pretty wide ranging source of reviews and reviewers from the whole spectrum of publications so further evidence that S9 was indeed considerably well loved in the wider world compared to the at times deafening echo chamber of negativity that this forum became (but which again was never really reflected in the episode polls...funny that.)

Of course some will still cry 'emperors new clothes' or suggest Moffat/BBC have been sending cheques out to every online and off line publication because how could anyone possibly enjoy Doctor Who? Luckily most of us know such people are talking out of their arses.

As for G.O.T- it is a much bigger concern internationally than DW most of all in the States which accounts for the fact each of its episodes was getting often double the reviews/coverage than that of DW.

G.O.T Season 5 finale hit an all time high of 3.1 million consolidated viewers (so including catch-up etc) in the UK which was a Sky record. It is worth considering that it was also the most pirated show in the world again for last year though despite the US and UK broadcast times being brought into sync.

First four episodes of GoT were slow moving (by it's standards), and some of the weakest of the show.

That didn't help them

I think it's been generally accepted on here that S9 got amazing reviews throughout. Even an absolute stinker like "Sleep No More" mustered little worse than "not the strongest episode this season".

And an interesting example of the difference between something being critically acclaimed and something being popular. I have no doubt we're in for TV BAFTA nominations this year even though the show's at its peak when it's winning NTAs.

Yeah, whoopee, 22 reviewers gave Series 9 top marks. Of course, these people are professional reviewers so their opinions are far more important than the hundreds of plebs on this site who didn't have such a high opinion of S9. And, of course, the 1.5 million "real people" who watched Series 8 but didn't bother with Series 9 are just ignorant peasants. We are so lucky to have a self proclaimed elite on here to tell us to ignore the evidence of our own eyes and that, no, really, DW under Moffat is just brilliant (stop that laughing at the back) and that we should just be grateful that we are allowed to watch DW in the first place.

Indeed.

Ooh I commented on a nice positive little thing I read about Doctor Who. Does that make me a self proclaimed 'Elite-y'. Well done me and a happy new year to you, Bozza!

Happy New Year to you too! No, I don't think your comments make you a self proclaimed "Elite-y", I didn't read anything of yours where you were looking down at and making disparaging remarks about those who don't agree with your views. It's great if you personally enjoyed S9.

i find this hard to take this list seriously when game of thrones has better individual scores and better average

If you look at the individual episode scores the highest individual doctor who episode was 95 percent. 7 out of the 10 episode game of thrones got higher than that. The average for doctor who episodes 87.1 however game of thrones got 96.9

Some people get so salty when anyone challenges their personal opinions! Its pretty funny. Keep laughing at the back

I think as a nation we need to move back towards something approaching cultural snobbery. Regain a sense of pride in being elitist and not afraid to call out the worst of popular culture. Doesn't mean we have to look down on or condemn those than enjoy more populist concerns. We all like to slum it occasionally. And Vive le Difference! Some people just prefer the simpler things in life...Coronation Street, eating meatballs from a can, reading TV Quick magazine. But some of us have more developed cultural taste buds. and that's fine to.

My problem with this is.....DW is slumming it for me. Sorry, but it is. Anyone who gets on their high horse about popular culture and puts DW on a higher level gets me laughing back, front and sideways.

DW is great. I love it. Let's be honest, though, it's not Shakespeare. Or Pinter. The kind of cultural snobs who only watch "good" stuff won't be watching DW (well maybe with the lights out and curtains drawn so their chattering-class mates can't see).

Some of us actually want DW to be popular and to have great ratings and hope the BBC will ignore the critics and go down the mass appeal route again.

(Btw, does anyone care what critics say? I've sat through too many dire films, and tried to read too many dire books because the critics said they were good to give any credence to their views).

I agree, this isn't just about Doctor Who, but people take certain reviewers opinions as fact when for the most part they are forced to be bias for good publicity, and give everything high ratings.

And i agree that i feel Doctor Who definitely is dropping in quality, there was a pick up this season, but things like this is sort of papering over the cracks and they think everything is fine and will continue to do the same things. And this isn't just Doctor Who reviews, that if it has Nostalgia, good graphics it is good, and the number of times as i have seen this as reasoning of why an episode is quality just irritates me.

I honestly believe if you put Love and Monsters on Gallifrey with Romana, couple throwback lines, Rassilon all of them it would be getting amazing reviews.

It is of course all relative. DW is not high culture. Nor should it be. But it doesn't slum it. It doesn't lack for ambition. I notice you voiced similar sentiments before and I think its a shame. And I'm glad the likes of RTD and Moffat and Gatiss and Tennant and Capaldi hold it in considerably higher esteem than you do- they never dismissed it as as just a silly sci-fi show. They take it very seriously. And in fact I think in its very finest moments it transcends the limitations of its genre and IS the equal of the very best drama.

Everyone wants different things from the show. If you want a bit of light silly Saturday night fluff to pass the time then thats fine. But I dont want that. I have greater expectations for the program because it is so much more than that.

I would be inclined to agree that listening to critics is a fools errand for the most part. However there is no escaping that many of them are very educated and held in great esteem in their field so they are often worth taking into consideration. And to be quite frank I would certainly value the opinions of critics above anonymous AI data, the braying morons who fill the hall for the NTA or I am afraid many people on here who struggle to pay attention for more than 7 minutes before saying they are confused and switching off let alone offer an insightful opinion about anything.

So yes,. In the grand scheme of things rather unimportant. Its best to be at ease with your own opinions and not obsess over whether or not your own personal view falls in line with or represents some kind of consensus. Because at the end of the day all that matters is what the individual thinks. But then things would be rather quiet here if we followed such a wise path all the time. And after weeks and weeks of the same voices droning on about falling viewing figures and lower AIs and just how jolly wrong everything is I think its fair to for once post a counterpoint and celebrate something about the show. I hope thats ok with you.

There is a delicious irony about certain forum members getting upset about people being 'elitist' and dismissive of others views. What short memories they must think we all have. It was not long ago that certain people that will remain nameless were popping up in episode threads basically telling those that were enjoying the last series that they were easily pleased or had bad taste and lacked the necessary critical faculties to properly evaluate the shows quality. And when the tables are turned? The reaction is exactly as one would expect.

It doesn't matter.

Even if the Lord himself came down and wrote the best episode in the history of time there would still be people moaning about because some people enjoy moaning about things rather than enjoying them.

And can we put to bed the farce of TV Ratings. They are just an approximation based on a small sample size and the ratings are suspect at best. They are still being used as there is nothing better. We cannot know how accurate these, or previous ratings are. The small sample size means that if a family who likes Doctor Who signs off the survey and their replacements don't then the figures will be skewed even though the viewing habits won't have changed in the slightest.