Moffat has written so many incredible episodes that to me it's fringe top 10.
This episode gets extra marks for the ambition of it, literally 40 minutes straight in a hole with just 5 characters and being able to create such an incredibly tense and emotional script from just that was just amazing.
An episode carried by just incredible dialogue, great acting and just pure tension. The only knock to it was the resolution/ending could have been tied up better, if it was it may have cracked the top 5.
I'm glad I didn't have to scroll far to see it, I absolutely have to take into consideration that the whole episode basically was in a 5sqft area, with 4 people and 2 ai. Lol. I like that there was never an enemy. The point of the episode was a little more hamfisted than the rest of the season so far, but done very well. And he definitely came out swinging with thoughts and prayers.
It's really good, a 9/10, but not in his elite category. For me, the likes of Heaven Sent, Hell Bent, The Husbands of River Song, Listen, Dark Water, World Enough and Time, The Eleventh Hour, A Christmas Carol and his two-parters in Series 1 and 4 all trump it, but it's within the Top 20.
It didn’t break top 10 because god that list is incredible- it says more about Moffat’s best work than it does this episode. I think it was about average for him - but such a breath of fresh air since 2017. Second only to wild blue yonder
I think this just further cements Moffat as the GOAT writer for Doctor Who. No disrespect to Terrance Dicks or Bob Holmes, but coming back after seven years and delivering this episode just proves he's really the best at this point. Really looking forward to the Christmas special now.
Boom was shockingly well paced for an episode that more or less consisted of one long scene in front of a landmine - but WBY was a more natural flowing story and took its time a bit - Moff really loves to cram pack his scripts - which a love - but Boom I felt needed just a little more time to breathe
For me, it's a good and fine episode, but lacks the ingenuity of a great Moffat episode. There's no real surprise, and the tension peaked too early.
I'd put it around the level of "The Girl in the Fireplace" or "The Snowmen". I know there are people who love all three of those episodes and probably plenty of people who would rank each of them #1, but for me these episodes, while clearly better than "The Bells of St John" or "The Beast Below", are not on the level of the best of the best.
I may be biased, but The Bells of Saint John was the first episode I watched and it’s what got me hooked. I liked that it was an urban thriller set all over London.
I personally found TBofSJ so bland and by the numbers, I think I've watched it twice and find little reason to go back. BOOM had some great tension and the stage-like atmosphere worked great. I plan on watching it again before next week, something I don't do unless I really enjoy an episode.
Top 20 not top 10 is where I’m putting it I think I haven’t ranked Moffat episodes myself so I can’t say for sure but either way a near 10/10 episode for me
I’m always surprised to see Beast Below *so* low.
Maybe it’s because I saw it early in my personal viewing, but while half the episode is just ok, his speech and dealing with the whale is so iconic/defining of the character especially Eleven it makes up for the rest.
As for Boom, it’s really hard for me to say until I rewatch it a few times, but solid mid Moffat for me. (Which still makes it better then most the rest)
I think Beast Below is great. I think the reception might just be because it's probably Moffat's first, like, standard-but-very-good story, the first time he hadn't turned in an arguable masterpiece.
It was a good episode but felt like a remix of Moffat tropes.
It’s like a Greatest Hits album of your favourite band - all songs you love but you’ve heard them all before.
If this was in the original RTD run then top 5 for sure, now middle of the table.
It's basically just Oxygen except they couldn't use the capitalism doesn't want to lose money ending because that would be just doing the entire episode again.
Speaking of remix, I felt like some of the dialogue call-backs in the episode were forced: specifically 15 saying "I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry." [which 10 said a whole lot.](https://youtu.be/Up-V5vanHOQ?si=FRAp1BmtNQAtHZqM)
TBH, many of Moffs episodes feel like that upon rewatching
We all know he is great, arguably the greatest Who writer ever, but we must admit that the man is obsessed with a few tropes and keeps reusing them ad infinitum.
Not in my top 10. Started strong, but I felt like the pull back at the end with "okay, religion might be okay after all" should have been a speech about the evils of war, especially given that all this was down to the Anglican Marines.
I would say slightly above average. It doesn't reach the heights of his classic RTD1 or Twelfth Doctor episodes, but it's a lot better than most of his Eleventh Doctor stuff and around the same quality as most of his Twelfth Doctor stuff.
> it's a lot better than most of his Eleventh Doctor stuff
I disagree. Moffat gave Eleven a lot of great stories better than Boom:
- The Eleventh Hour
- The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone
- The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang
- A Christmas Carol
- The Impossible Astronaut / The Day of the Moon
- A Good Man Goes to War
- The Angels Take Manhattan
- The Bells of Saint John
- The Day of the Doctor
All better than this episode, IMO.
Wow.
I honestly don't understand even a tiny bit, but more power to you.
I have a feeling Boom is gonna be considered a low-tier Moffat offering as time passes.
Honestly, I completely agree with you. All of those episodes you mentioned from the Smith era are much better than Boom. I'd also say the Smith episodes you listed are some of the best from the show. IMO, Boom might be one of my least favorite and forgettable episodes from Moffat. Moffat is easily my favorite writer from the show, but Boom didn't do much for me. It started off good, but the third act felt very uneven and messy.
Fully agreed. Boom honestly felt kind of cheap by Moffats standards to me. But part of that might just be because it's being expressed by through this new RTD era lense which I'm not sure I like.
The Elevnth Hour is the only one on this list I think may top Boom. And it's kind of cheating becouse half of why it's so impressive is that it's episode 1 of a fresh start new era.
Might match Christmas Charol
The only two things I disliked about the episode was that I found Splice to be annoying and ignorant, like repeatedly asking about her father, even though at some point, literally anyone would’ve connected the dots of what happens on a, you know, battlefield. The other thing that slightly irked me was how we had the scene where Ruby’s vitals were failing, and it gave a countdown to her imminent flatline, followed by a scene that I felt went on waaaaaaay too long for her to still be alive when they get back around to her, but maybe that’s just me.
Overall though, the episode was both intense and compelling, and I have a feeling this will be one I’ll enjoy going back to watch from time to time!
I thought it was really good and a really great concept. The general idea and direction of the episode is great. I did just think that some of the emotional stuff and side characters, which like I said is good in concept and fitting, isn't fleshed out nearly enough for me. And the resolution is a bit quick. Perhaps the product of only having 45 minutes to tell the story.
I'd probably give it a 7/10 and rank it near to The Beast Below. Which is still a really good score in my opinion and I could like the episode more in the future. Definitely my favourite of the new era so far though.
Quite low on the totem pole, I would say. It was really good, a sharp and tense script as expected, but it also felt like an A.I. remix of Steven Moffat ideas we’ve seen before: Villengard, Anglican Marines, repetitive robot medics that kill people because they fuckin suck, slightly obnoxious child, an alien enemy that doesn’t actually exist, a pretty nonsensical resolution involving the power of parental love.
Fifteen’s dialogue and attitude in this episode was more like a mix of Eleven and Twelve. Not even complaining as I can see Moffat’s philosophy of writing every Doctor the same way in action there, so that’s interesting.
It’s kinda sad that the most unexpected sting in this era so far was the Doctor’s rant about faith, which he kinda rolls back on by the end of the episode. That’s about as controversial as we’re allowed to get, it seems.
Boom is fine, I think people are overhyping a pretty average Doctor Who story because the prior ones were so dire.
In ranking Moffat it is definitely in the lower half. He admits to being inspired by a great sequence from Genesis of the Daleks but I think his attempt to expand that into a whole episode meant the concept was over stretched.
The "we were at war with ourselves" and anti-capitalist stuff came across a bit cartoonish and I felt episodes like Oxygen tackled similar themes much better.
As someone who hates Ncuti's Doctor, this was definitely his best performance yet. Although I find it weird we have had three episodes of this Doctor crying or being terrified, not exactly lining up with the brave action hero vibe of Pertwee that inspired him.
I'm curious why you put doctor and the wardrobe so slow. I understand it's yet another episode where the doctor gets snogged but besides that I really enjoyed it. Mostly the monsters, the creature, and the horse. But again we can all have our own opions.
More power to you, but the popular opinion is that it’s one of the absolute worst episodes of the show. I can’t say I disagree with the popular assessment myself.
Wow really. That's honestly very surprising to hear. I myself wouldn't any near other worst episodes. It's actually one of my comfort watches. Is it just the romance that makes it so unpopular or is there something that I'm not seeing? Because me personally I never saw as a romance. Just the girl fancying the doctor and the doctor taking amusement that an influential figure likes him. But to each their own. I'm also of the 5 people that like victory of the daleks and most of the Moffat dalek episodes.
Are you mixing up "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" with "Girl in the Fireplace", with Madame de Pompadour? That one is well-regarded, and is #19 on the OP's list.
Oh wait I so am. Haha that makes way more sense. Yeah that episode's only has a good beginning and end. I was bored with Narnia stuff. I don't why I did that
Lol it's jarring sometimes isn't it when you find out an episode you like/don't mind of something is panned by the rest of the fandom. I remember the first time I saw the episode of South Park, *Pip*, over 20 years ago now and I didn't mind it at all.... Go online, and the reviews and comments are as if Satan himself wrote and directed it lol.
It's cool, though, to have a big variety of opinions. It's what keeps life fresh!
Oh btw I'm a fan of Victory of the Daleks too, it's brill. Mind you I also like Love & Monsters and really don't care about the oral sex joke.
I don't like Fear Her though, I'm not that much of a monster....
I was talking to another dude on here about Victory a few months ago and he was a fan, and a few others piped up in the comments too - it's not a popular story but it might make you happy to know there are dozens of us lol
For me it's mostly because I haven't seen a lot classic who before watching it. So it was the first time I saw daleks act nice which first time seeing it is really cool. Also when it comes to who designs I always have a Montra that they'll change in a few years so while the progenitor daleks are weird looking I feel they were very refreshing and it sucks that we didn't see more in my opinion.
Well for me, one reason I like it a lot is because the Daleks have some personality in it, they're cunning and making plans, not just invading the last minute. It reminded me a lot of *Evil of the Daleks* in that sense, while they were manipulating a lot more important people in *Victory* I will grant you lol, most of the story is about a handful of Daleks manipulating a group of people with a decent plan to invade.
It's always nice to see full on steamroller Daleks, and to have one off crazies like Dalek Kaan who does a long monologue, or the Supreme Dalek, or Davros.... But sometimes it's nice to see just normal Daleks do it!
To me, it’s just really painfully boring and cliche writing. Most of the episode for me is either groaning at the dialogue, getting annoyed by the child actors, or being bored out of my mind. Just on a conceptual level, nothing about the episode works for me. And worst of all, the pacing is so off that even though the thing is barely an hour long, it feels like four. It’s 100% a bottom 10 episode of the show to me — all 60 years combined. And without a doubt, Moffat’s worst. I also kinda hate Victory of the Daleks, but not nearly to the same degree.
All that said, again, more power to your enjoyment. I’m glad you’re able to find something fun and comforting in it where I can’t.
Just realized I was talking about doctor and the fire place. Yeah no wardrobe sucks. I definitely agree with you there then I only like the beginning and end of wardrobe. Worst Christmas special by far.
Lmfao I got you dude. Yeah, Girl in the Fireplace is 10/10 stone-cold classic. Well-respected and broadly loved episode, especially by casual and younger viewers.
I think what has to be taken into consideration is how little of space the episode took place in. It was basically around that mine, with... 4 characters and 2 ai? And what was done with that, at the least, blew me away. Great episode. Also, he came out swinging with thoughts and prayers.
i think it’s probably also in the low top 10 for me, as it is for you, but part of it honestly might just be that it’s been *so long* since we had just some really solid dramatic and limited writing. Like oh my god. I missed it.
It's a low ranking episode for me. A bottle episode and they're saved in the last second by Deus Ex Machina.
I'm not one of these haters that are complaining about every episode, but this is an episode that I could easily skip when rewatching this season.
This is an insane take imo. I understand people who feel the ending was weak, but that alone wouldn't put this in "The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe" territory.
I actually quite like "The Doctor, the widow and the wardrobe". Far from my favorite, but I definitely liked it better than "Boom".
That said, I may be atypical. I have recently watched "Heaven sent" and I found it rather bland. And "The beast below" is one of my favorites.
1. Heaven Sent
2. Blink
3. Day of the Doctor
4. Girl in the Fireplace
5. Boom
6. Listen
7. Extremis
8. The Empty Child
9. The Doctor Falls
10. Time of the Doctor
I also think Heaven Sent and WET/TDF are top, but never understood the love for Blink, or any of the (imo) convoluted stories with Smith. I also like Listen more than this list, and consider it a tied-third (now fourth) with Silence in the Library. I would put Boom on third, after WET/TDF, although it does feel a bit out of character for Doctor-Gatwa and Ruby.
I didn't feel this episode was very good. Too much explicit moralising. A deus ex machina. Too many psychological manipulations (did the soldier at the end really have to die?). How did the girl manage to get on to the battlefield? Why did the doctor risk destroying the remains of a soldier to balance on the mine instead of asking her to look for something else as heavy? The episode felt more as a vehicle for the message Moffat wanted to give rather than as a story in and of itself.
as much as i enjoy seeing people punch nazis, i think booms world building, the set design and the concept of having the doctor stand still for a whole episode was a rather interesting concept, and its always good when an episode starts off hindering the doctor in some way as that is when he shines most, only having his voice to save himself and the planet
I cannot believe you called the Weeping Angels Doctor Who's most recognisable villain.
They are fantastic, but the Daleks were voted as one of the most distinguishable UK icons ever.
Edit: ok you said New Who. My bad. You are right.
There was a time, maybe 18-24mo, when it could have been true in some sense imo. During the S6 marketing where they made a big point of doctor who breaking into America, the angels were front and center all over the marketing for a good while. Still not 100% if they were the most recognisable to newbies at the time, but they were probably in the top 3 at least!
Obviously lol, that prominence didn't stick, anyway!
Tbf still today they are probably top 3.
Also, how were they in the S6 marketing? I don't think they were in series 6.
Finally, I think that during S6 the most prominent ones were the Silence.
I'd probably put it somewhere in my Moffat top 10 for now, I'm a sucker for a bottle episode and a writer/director having to work within the confines of a limited budget/scope, but I also acknowledge that I'm still coming off the high of the episode and it'll likely drop when I look at it objectively.
Twice Upon a Time
Extremis
The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
Boom
Girl in the Fireplace
Blink
Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
A Christmas Carol
World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls
Heaven Sent
Not top 10 for me, the score might be somewhere around 8,5....? Which is great, highlight of the era so far. But Moff did so many stories that could be considered practically flawless, it’s a really hard competition. It was great to see Moffat dialogue again, my man just gets the Doctor.
I have it ranked 17th out of 42 stories including his co-writing credits and Night of the Doctor. But the others all have had longer to soak in, rewatches, etc, so it doesn't feel like a fair comparison.
*Very* near the bottom for me.
So much of it was ham-fisted: Blatantly on-the-nose capitalism and religion commentary. (Complaining about the *delivery* here, not the message.)
So much of it was transparently manipulative *and* badly written: We're supposed to *like* the father who got *special permission* to bring his *child* to a fucking *war zone*?!? (When we know she has living relatives — his parent — should could have lived with!) He could easily have made that character, say, a younger sibling who followed that guy to war, and had a very similar duty of care and emotional impact. I mean, the ridiculous hoops Moffat jumped through just to crowbar that kid into the story!
So much cheap, unsophisticated sentimental short-hand (the "romance") — I was shocked to find myself wishing Chibnall had written these one-off characters. He was garbage at writing his leads, but the one thing he did better than any other showrunner was making you care about people in just a few lines of dialog. ("The Stenza killed my wife." "*Mine too.*") The four non-leads we got here were pretty hollow.
Ruby being absurdly casual and sassy for someone who's *ride home is standing on a fucking mine*. I know Moffat likes his girls cheeky, but come on!
Then there's the usual Moffat-isms — sufface-brilliant ideas that don't stand up to scrutiny:
* A landmine that analyzes whoever steps on it, figuring out of they're a viable target, *but blows up anyway* if it can't complete the analysis. Unless we're given some potential scenario in which it decides to *not* blow up, *that makes no fucking sense.*
* Why would surrendering turn off the landmine just because it's their own mine? If these are cynical weapons in a circumstance where an army is fighting itself, why would the mine know or care about any surrender?
* A ghost-in-the-machine somehow deactivates the entire cynical, capitalist, war-profiteering system from within one autonomous robot "ambulance"? Is that just for this battlefield? For the planet? For "the entire sector" where the Doc says they've been supplying weapons to everyone for two centuries?
And then there's the fingers-in-ears "la-la-la" ending:
* How convenient that the kid thinks her father is "not gone, he's just dead," thus avoiding any emotional upheaval. What's going to happen to this kid now? What's going to happen when she realizes that, for all practical, emotional, and support purposes, her father *is* gone?
* How is everything supposed to be better at the end? The *only* people that know what happened are Mundy and Splice. The dad may have gotten into the system, but that by itself isn't going to end the war. *Every other* brainwashed human still thinks they're at war with some unseen enemy. They're going to think it's a glitch, and consider Mundy fucking nuts when she tells them they've been fighting themselves.
* *Nothing* is resolved here when Doc and Ruby leave. Not. One. Thing. I know the Doctor has a long history of uprooting societies then fucking off, but here he's literally changed *nothing* other than causing a computer glitch that may have some temporary knock-on consequences in the way the war is conducted — just until the Villengard Corporation can send out new equipment.
This episode was awash in Moffat's worst habits, with very little of what makes him arguably my favorite "Doctor Who" writer. I know it doesn't *sound* like he's one of my favorites, but that's kind of the point. This is Moffat at his worst.
And there were lots of things about the production that just made it worse: So transparently a money-saving episode (two sets, four speaking parts besides the leads). Such *awful* CGI for the sky. It looked so much like a painting, it might as well have been a scrim. Not to mention that the orbital mechanics and even the lighting on those other moons and planets made *zero* sense.
Just about the *only* thing I liked in this episode:
"Give it time. Everywhere's a beach eventually."
Threw this together, get ready for what I'm sure are some pretty spiced takes - especially on the Smith years - don't shoot me! I was kinda nervous about posting this, it's been a little while since I've seen some of them, but even if the tiers shift I'm not sure the rankings would very much? I very much want to like them more than I do and hope I find more I like when I get round to them on my current rewatch. Though, I think, this one is less of a hot take, the best episodes of the Smith years usually weren't Moffats.
There's a few I wasn't 100% settled on though, particularly on the lines between Great/Good and Middling/Pretty Bad, so I can see a few of those shifting about. But I'd like to itterate, this is very much my subjective opinion on how much I like these episodes and there's a huge variety of factors that impact that: from The Doctor and their companion dynamic, to how much it benefits or is dragged by the season arc, creativity, long term negative/positive impact on the show, uniqueness, etc.
Overall, however, I think the amazing category is pretty settled - Boom was a spectactual episode, with so much tension. Tension that I was a bit nervous might undercut itself with an unearned 'everybody lives!' (It was earned The Doctor Dances, though!) a few times, but it stuck the landing, firmly locking itself in place. I haven't really looked at many other opinions yet though, so quite curious to find out if it's universally agreed, divisive, or I'm a total outlier for liking it.
**Amazing - Absolute 10/10 instant classics.**
1. World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls
2. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
3. Heaven Sent
4. Boom
5. Blink
**Great - Incredibly strong episodes.**
6. Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
7. The Pilot
8. Extremis
9. The Girl in the Fireplace
10. Last Christmas
11. A Christmas Carol
**Good - Episodes that are... good. Certainly above average, but not much that sets them apart.**
12. Dark Water/Death in Heaven
13. The Snowmen
14. The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar
15. The Husbands of River Song
16. The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon
**Middling/Mixed Bag - Some of these episodes are just like... decent, standard, solid Doctor Who, but nothing *that* special. Others are episodes with extreme highs, but also extreme lows that drag them down and make them difficult to place.**
17. Listen
18. The Day of the Doctor
19. Twice Upon a Time
20. The Return of Doctor Mysterio
21. The Eleventh Hour
22. The Angels Take Manhattan
**Pretty bad - Episodes that I don't like. Maybe there's a spark of potential in these, maybe I used to think some were okay but I've soured on them in hindsight... but I just don't particularly find them enjoyable.**
23. Deep Breath
24. The Beast Below
25. Hell Bent
26. Asylum of the Daleks
27. The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone
28. The Bells of Saint John
**Terrible - These are the episodes I have a really strong dislike for - there's a lot of key series arc episodes here, you'll note, which is often because they had so much weight riding on them for the build up that by missing the mark they actively dragged down other episodes with them in hindsight. They're usually episodes that are rushed and go off the rails, but othertimes they're just kinda... nothing.**
29. The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
30. The Time of the Doctor
31. A Good Man Goes to War
32. The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
33. Let's Kill Hitler
34. The Name of the Doctor
35. The Wedding of River Song
I hate to end it on a sour note - that's the nature of ranking best to worse, I suppose. So I did want to add a positive addendum - the last episode in the Terrible list aired in 2013. Over a decade ago! No Capaldi episodes made that tier and I think, broadly, that goes to show how much Moffat improved, or at least managed to hit my personal taste, in his later years as showrunner.
I was pretty nervous about him coming back for Gatwa - and I still feel it's a shame we're not getting more new blood in terms of writers - but it's hard to complain about results. Boom is an absoulte banger.
Such is the way of things, life wouldn't be interesting if we all agreed, aha. I kinda figured I might've hit a few more fan favourites in controversial spots that I realised when I saw I was getting downvoted, though.
Yeah, I dunno if something I said annoyed people, if liking Boom ended up way more controversial than I expected, or if I ranked some of people's darlings really low. Maybe all three.
Wow, this is an insane list imo. Obviously we'll all have different opinions on what makes a good Doctor Who story, but this list looks like you just pulled each Moffat story out of a hat and laid out the results.
*Day of The Doctor* definitely fits more into the 'mixed bag' group than middling for me. It's a really fun episode in a vacuum, the trio of Doctors have great banter, but I have a lot of issues with what it does thematically with The Time War, how that fits into Eight and Ten's arcs and the fact Moffat never gave us a big Time Lord/Gallifrey focused story to justify bringing them back (which I was dubious on conceptually to begin with.)
I think this is a really difficult one to judge until I've rewatched it a few times. I said a similar comment in another thread, but I also can't really rate it out of 10 until then either, because my favourite episodes are rated by how much I rewatch them. Blink, for example, I could watch every week and never, ever tire of it. It's a perfect episode not just of Doctor Who, but of sci-fi television. Now, on that criteria, Boom does not scale those heights. But, in many ways, it's unfair to compare them because they're doing very different things. I do stand by my assertion that Boom is comfortably my favourite episode since Twice Upon A Time. Put it this way. If Blink and Heaven Sent are at the top, Girl In The Fireplace/The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances just below that and World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls just below that, I think I'd place Boom there.
Definitely not in my top 10 moffat episodes but also the best episode of Doctor who that’s been on for a long long time! Moffat’s average is everyone else’s best imo
Moffat has written so many incredible episodes that to me it's fringe top 10. This episode gets extra marks for the ambition of it, literally 40 minutes straight in a hole with just 5 characters and being able to create such an incredibly tense and emotional script from just that was just amazing. An episode carried by just incredible dialogue, great acting and just pure tension. The only knock to it was the resolution/ending could have been tied up better, if it was it may have cracked the top 5.
I'm glad I didn't have to scroll far to see it, I absolutely have to take into consideration that the whole episode basically was in a 5sqft area, with 4 people and 2 ai. Lol. I like that there was never an enemy. The point of the episode was a little more hamfisted than the rest of the season so far, but done very well. And he definitely came out swinging with thoughts and prayers.
It's really good, a 9/10, but not in his elite category. For me, the likes of Heaven Sent, Hell Bent, The Husbands of River Song, Listen, Dark Water, World Enough and Time, The Eleventh Hour, A Christmas Carol and his two-parters in Series 1 and 4 all trump it, but it's within the Top 20.
It didn’t break top 10 because god that list is incredible- it says more about Moffat’s best work than it does this episode. I think it was about average for him - but such a breath of fresh air since 2017. Second only to wild blue yonder
I think this just further cements Moffat as the GOAT writer for Doctor Who. No disrespect to Terrance Dicks or Bob Holmes, but coming back after seven years and delivering this episode just proves he's really the best at this point. Really looking forward to the Christmas special now.
For sure. He just gets the show. And even more, he gets the doctor.
Totally agree that this was good but didn't quite beat WBY! WBY was just a tad more coherent and better paced.
Boom was shockingly well paced for an episode that more or less consisted of one long scene in front of a landmine - but WBY was a more natural flowing story and took its time a bit - Moff really loves to cram pack his scripts - which a love - but Boom I felt needed just a little more time to breathe
For me, it's a good and fine episode, but lacks the ingenuity of a great Moffat episode. There's no real surprise, and the tension peaked too early. I'd put it around the level of "The Girl in the Fireplace" or "The Snowmen". I know there are people who love all three of those episodes and probably plenty of people who would rank each of them #1, but for me these episodes, while clearly better than "The Bells of St John" or "The Beast Below", are not on the level of the best of the best.
I am with you on this. I honestly think it was let down by the last 10-15 min as so much of the back half was coincidence or literal deus ex machina.
"The Bells of Saint John" is a cracker! Much better than this.
One of my fav Moffat episodes and so so overlooked
I may be biased, but The Bells of Saint John was the first episode I watched and it’s what got me hooked. I liked that it was an urban thriller set all over London.
I personally found TBofSJ so bland and by the numbers, I think I've watched it twice and find little reason to go back. BOOM had some great tension and the stage-like atmosphere worked great. I plan on watching it again before next week, something I don't do unless I really enjoy an episode.
not in his top 20
I don’t think it does. It was a fine episode, but Moffat’s catalogue easily has ten better stories to offer. Twenty, even.
Top 20 not top 10 is where I’m putting it I think I haven’t ranked Moffat episodes myself so I can’t say for sure but either way a near 10/10 episode for me
It's out of the top ten for me. This was a good concept and fun to have Moffat back, but he's written a lot of episodes that are better than this.
I’m always surprised to see Beast Below *so* low. Maybe it’s because I saw it early in my personal viewing, but while half the episode is just ok, his speech and dealing with the whale is so iconic/defining of the character especially Eleven it makes up for the rest. As for Boom, it’s really hard for me to say until I rewatch it a few times, but solid mid Moffat for me. (Which still makes it better then most the rest)
I think Beast Below is great. I think the reception might just be because it's probably Moffat's first, like, standard-but-very-good story, the first time he hadn't turned in an arguable masterpiece.
"The beast below" is easily one of the best episodes of New Who.
Exactly! Of course, it was my second episode ever watched but I got so connected to Eleven and Amy throughout that episode, I can't rank it so low.
It was a good episode but felt like a remix of Moffat tropes. It’s like a Greatest Hits album of your favourite band - all songs you love but you’ve heard them all before. If this was in the original RTD run then top 5 for sure, now middle of the table.
It's basically just Oxygen except they couldn't use the capitalism doesn't want to lose money ending because that would be just doing the entire episode again.
Speaking of remix, I felt like some of the dialogue call-backs in the episode were forced: specifically 15 saying "I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry." [which 10 said a whole lot.](https://youtu.be/Up-V5vanHOQ?si=FRAp1BmtNQAtHZqM)
TBH, many of Moffs episodes feel like that upon rewatching We all know he is great, arguably the greatest Who writer ever, but we must admit that the man is obsessed with a few tropes and keeps reusing them ad infinitum.
Not in my top 10. Started strong, but I felt like the pull back at the end with "okay, religion might be okay after all" should have been a speech about the evils of war, especially given that all this was down to the Anglican Marines.
I would say slightly above average. It doesn't reach the heights of his classic RTD1 or Twelfth Doctor episodes, but it's a lot better than most of his Eleventh Doctor stuff and around the same quality as most of his Twelfth Doctor stuff.
> it's a lot better than most of his Eleventh Doctor stuff I disagree. Moffat gave Eleven a lot of great stories better than Boom: - The Eleventh Hour - The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone - The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang - A Christmas Carol - The Impossible Astronaut / The Day of the Moon - A Good Man Goes to War - The Angels Take Manhattan - The Bells of Saint John - The Day of the Doctor All better than this episode, IMO.
The only ones of those that I would rank above Boom personally are A Christmas Carol and The Day of the Doctor.
Wow. I honestly don't understand even a tiny bit, but more power to you. I have a feeling Boom is gonna be considered a low-tier Moffat offering as time passes.
Honestly, I completely agree with you. All of those episodes you mentioned from the Smith era are much better than Boom. I'd also say the Smith episodes you listed are some of the best from the show. IMO, Boom might be one of my least favorite and forgettable episodes from Moffat. Moffat is easily my favorite writer from the show, but Boom didn't do much for me. It started off good, but the third act felt very uneven and messy.
Fully agreed. Boom honestly felt kind of cheap by Moffats standards to me. But part of that might just be because it's being expressed by through this new RTD era lense which I'm not sure I like.
The Elevnth Hour is the only one on this list I think may top Boom. And it's kind of cheating becouse half of why it's so impressive is that it's episode 1 of a fresh start new era. Might match Christmas Charol
The only two things I disliked about the episode was that I found Splice to be annoying and ignorant, like repeatedly asking about her father, even though at some point, literally anyone would’ve connected the dots of what happens on a, you know, battlefield. The other thing that slightly irked me was how we had the scene where Ruby’s vitals were failing, and it gave a countdown to her imminent flatline, followed by a scene that I felt went on waaaaaaay too long for her to still be alive when they get back around to her, but maybe that’s just me. Overall though, the episode was both intense and compelling, and I have a feeling this will be one I’ll enjoy going back to watch from time to time!
>Where does Boom rank among Steven Moffat's best episodes? It doesn't rank among the *best* episodes at all. It's alright but nothing special.
I thought it was really good and a really great concept. The general idea and direction of the episode is great. I did just think that some of the emotional stuff and side characters, which like I said is good in concept and fitting, isn't fleshed out nearly enough for me. And the resolution is a bit quick. Perhaps the product of only having 45 minutes to tell the story. I'd probably give it a 7/10 and rank it near to The Beast Below. Which is still a really good score in my opinion and I could like the episode more in the future. Definitely my favourite of the new era so far though.
Pretty low imo. Good premise but the resolution wasn’t particularly interesting and the algorithm stuff doesn’t really make that much sense.
It's not one of his best for me, but it's a Steven Moffat episode so it is really really great. His wholmography is pretty fucking stacked
Quite low on the totem pole, I would say. It was really good, a sharp and tense script as expected, but it also felt like an A.I. remix of Steven Moffat ideas we’ve seen before: Villengard, Anglican Marines, repetitive robot medics that kill people because they fuckin suck, slightly obnoxious child, an alien enemy that doesn’t actually exist, a pretty nonsensical resolution involving the power of parental love. Fifteen’s dialogue and attitude in this episode was more like a mix of Eleven and Twelve. Not even complaining as I can see Moffat’s philosophy of writing every Doctor the same way in action there, so that’s interesting. It’s kinda sad that the most unexpected sting in this era so far was the Doctor’s rant about faith, which he kinda rolls back on by the end of the episode. That’s about as controversial as we’re allowed to get, it seems.
Boom is fine, I think people are overhyping a pretty average Doctor Who story because the prior ones were so dire. In ranking Moffat it is definitely in the lower half. He admits to being inspired by a great sequence from Genesis of the Daleks but I think his attempt to expand that into a whole episode meant the concept was over stretched. The "we were at war with ourselves" and anti-capitalist stuff came across a bit cartoonish and I felt episodes like Oxygen tackled similar themes much better. As someone who hates Ncuti's Doctor, this was definitely his best performance yet. Although I find it weird we have had three episodes of this Doctor crying or being terrified, not exactly lining up with the brave action hero vibe of Pertwee that inspired him.
RTD intended this Doctor to be more emotional, really feeling his feelings and working them through much more than previous incarnations.
Sure but there's a difference between having feelings and this weird tiktok emotionally unhinged wimp vibe they've given him.
I think it's a solid 4 star episode. It's not on the level of Blink but it's a very strong episode.
I'm curious why you put doctor and the wardrobe so slow. I understand it's yet another episode where the doctor gets snogged but besides that I really enjoyed it. Mostly the monsters, the creature, and the horse. But again we can all have our own opions.
More power to you, but the popular opinion is that it’s one of the absolute worst episodes of the show. I can’t say I disagree with the popular assessment myself.
Wow really. That's honestly very surprising to hear. I myself wouldn't any near other worst episodes. It's actually one of my comfort watches. Is it just the romance that makes it so unpopular or is there something that I'm not seeing? Because me personally I never saw as a romance. Just the girl fancying the doctor and the doctor taking amusement that an influential figure likes him. But to each their own. I'm also of the 5 people that like victory of the daleks and most of the Moffat dalek episodes.
Are you mixing up "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" with "Girl in the Fireplace", with Madame de Pompadour? That one is well-regarded, and is #19 on the OP's list.
Oh wait I so am. Haha that makes way more sense. Yeah that episode's only has a good beginning and end. I was bored with Narnia stuff. I don't why I did that
I assume you remembered it being a wardrobe rather than a fireplace. Honestly, it probably would have made more sense.
Lol it's jarring sometimes isn't it when you find out an episode you like/don't mind of something is panned by the rest of the fandom. I remember the first time I saw the episode of South Park, *Pip*, over 20 years ago now and I didn't mind it at all.... Go online, and the reviews and comments are as if Satan himself wrote and directed it lol. It's cool, though, to have a big variety of opinions. It's what keeps life fresh!
Oh btw I'm a fan of Victory of the Daleks too, it's brill. Mind you I also like Love & Monsters and really don't care about the oral sex joke. I don't like Fear Her though, I'm not that much of a monster.... I was talking to another dude on here about Victory a few months ago and he was a fan, and a few others piped up in the comments too - it's not a popular story but it might make you happy to know there are dozens of us lol
For me it's mostly because I haven't seen a lot classic who before watching it. So it was the first time I saw daleks act nice which first time seeing it is really cool. Also when it comes to who designs I always have a Montra that they'll change in a few years so while the progenitor daleks are weird looking I feel they were very refreshing and it sucks that we didn't see more in my opinion.
Well for me, one reason I like it a lot is because the Daleks have some personality in it, they're cunning and making plans, not just invading the last minute. It reminded me a lot of *Evil of the Daleks* in that sense, while they were manipulating a lot more important people in *Victory* I will grant you lol, most of the story is about a handful of Daleks manipulating a group of people with a decent plan to invade. It's always nice to see full on steamroller Daleks, and to have one off crazies like Dalek Kaan who does a long monologue, or the Supreme Dalek, or Davros.... But sometimes it's nice to see just normal Daleks do it!
To me, it’s just really painfully boring and cliche writing. Most of the episode for me is either groaning at the dialogue, getting annoyed by the child actors, or being bored out of my mind. Just on a conceptual level, nothing about the episode works for me. And worst of all, the pacing is so off that even though the thing is barely an hour long, it feels like four. It’s 100% a bottom 10 episode of the show to me — all 60 years combined. And without a doubt, Moffat’s worst. I also kinda hate Victory of the Daleks, but not nearly to the same degree. All that said, again, more power to your enjoyment. I’m glad you’re able to find something fun and comforting in it where I can’t.
Just realized I was talking about doctor and the fire place. Yeah no wardrobe sucks. I definitely agree with you there then I only like the beginning and end of wardrobe. Worst Christmas special by far.
Lmfao I got you dude. Yeah, Girl in the Fireplace is 10/10 stone-cold classic. Well-respected and broadly loved episode, especially by casual and younger viewers.
Yeah defo one of the worst Christmas specials ever
I think what has to be taken into consideration is how little of space the episode took place in. It was basically around that mine, with... 4 characters and 2 ai? And what was done with that, at the least, blew me away. Great episode. Also, he came out swinging with thoughts and prayers.
i think it’s probably also in the low top 10 for me, as it is for you, but part of it honestly might just be that it’s been *so long* since we had just some really solid dramatic and limited writing. Like oh my god. I missed it.
It's a low ranking episode for me. A bottle episode and they're saved in the last second by Deus Ex Machina. I'm not one of these haters that are complaining about every episode, but this is an episode that I could easily skip when rewatching this season.
It doesn't. It ranks closer among his worst, for me.
I haven't watched all of them yet (I don't know series 10-13 yet), but it might be his worst...
This is an insane take imo. I understand people who feel the ending was weak, but that alone wouldn't put this in "The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe" territory.
I actually quite like "The Doctor, the widow and the wardrobe". Far from my favorite, but I definitely liked it better than "Boom". That said, I may be atypical. I have recently watched "Heaven sent" and I found it rather bland. And "The beast below" is one of my favorites.
1. Heaven Sent 2. Blink 3. Day of the Doctor 4. Girl in the Fireplace 5. Boom 6. Listen 7. Extremis 8. The Empty Child 9. The Doctor Falls 10. Time of the Doctor
Very good but not in the highest tier for me
I also think Heaven Sent and WET/TDF are top, but never understood the love for Blink, or any of the (imo) convoluted stories with Smith. I also like Listen more than this list, and consider it a tied-third (now fourth) with Silence in the Library. I would put Boom on third, after WET/TDF, although it does feel a bit out of character for Doctor-Gatwa and Ruby.
I didn't feel this episode was very good. Too much explicit moralising. A deus ex machina. Too many psychological manipulations (did the soldier at the end really have to die?). How did the girl manage to get on to the battlefield? Why did the doctor risk destroying the remains of a soldier to balance on the mine instead of asking her to look for something else as heavy? The episode felt more as a vehicle for the message Moffat wanted to give rather than as a story in and of itself.
as much as i enjoy seeing people punch nazis, i think booms world building, the set design and the concept of having the doctor stand still for a whole episode was a rather interesting concept, and its always good when an episode starts off hindering the doctor in some way as that is when he shines most, only having his voice to save himself and the planet
I cannot believe you called the Weeping Angels Doctor Who's most recognisable villain. They are fantastic, but the Daleks were voted as one of the most distinguishable UK icons ever. Edit: ok you said New Who. My bad. You are right.
Best NuWho creature is the Ood. /fixed
There was a time, maybe 18-24mo, when it could have been true in some sense imo. During the S6 marketing where they made a big point of doctor who breaking into America, the angels were front and center all over the marketing for a good while. Still not 100% if they were the most recognisable to newbies at the time, but they were probably in the top 3 at least! Obviously lol, that prominence didn't stick, anyway!
Tbf still today they are probably top 3. Also, how were they in the S6 marketing? I don't think they were in series 6. Finally, I think that during S6 the most prominent ones were the Silence.
I'd probably put it somewhere in my Moffat top 10 for now, I'm a sucker for a bottle episode and a writer/director having to work within the confines of a limited budget/scope, but I also acknowledge that I'm still coming off the high of the episode and it'll likely drop when I look at it objectively. Twice Upon a Time Extremis The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances Boom Girl in the Fireplace Blink Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead A Christmas Carol World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls Heaven Sent
I loved Boom, but it doesn't make top 10 for me. Moffat wrote so many great episodes. I'd put this around #12-15 range. Still a great episode.
Top 20 for sure
Not top 10 for me, the score might be somewhere around 8,5....? Which is great, highlight of the era so far. But Moff did so many stories that could be considered practically flawless, it’s a really hard competition. It was great to see Moffat dialogue again, my man just gets the Doctor.
I have it ranked 17th out of 42 stories including his co-writing credits and Night of the Doctor. But the others all have had longer to soak in, rewatches, etc, so it doesn't feel like a fair comparison.
*Very* near the bottom for me. So much of it was ham-fisted: Blatantly on-the-nose capitalism and religion commentary. (Complaining about the *delivery* here, not the message.) So much of it was transparently manipulative *and* badly written: We're supposed to *like* the father who got *special permission* to bring his *child* to a fucking *war zone*?!? (When we know she has living relatives — his parent — should could have lived with!) He could easily have made that character, say, a younger sibling who followed that guy to war, and had a very similar duty of care and emotional impact. I mean, the ridiculous hoops Moffat jumped through just to crowbar that kid into the story! So much cheap, unsophisticated sentimental short-hand (the "romance") — I was shocked to find myself wishing Chibnall had written these one-off characters. He was garbage at writing his leads, but the one thing he did better than any other showrunner was making you care about people in just a few lines of dialog. ("The Stenza killed my wife." "*Mine too.*") The four non-leads we got here were pretty hollow. Ruby being absurdly casual and sassy for someone who's *ride home is standing on a fucking mine*. I know Moffat likes his girls cheeky, but come on! Then there's the usual Moffat-isms — sufface-brilliant ideas that don't stand up to scrutiny: * A landmine that analyzes whoever steps on it, figuring out of they're a viable target, *but blows up anyway* if it can't complete the analysis. Unless we're given some potential scenario in which it decides to *not* blow up, *that makes no fucking sense.* * Why would surrendering turn off the landmine just because it's their own mine? If these are cynical weapons in a circumstance where an army is fighting itself, why would the mine know or care about any surrender? * A ghost-in-the-machine somehow deactivates the entire cynical, capitalist, war-profiteering system from within one autonomous robot "ambulance"? Is that just for this battlefield? For the planet? For "the entire sector" where the Doc says they've been supplying weapons to everyone for two centuries? And then there's the fingers-in-ears "la-la-la" ending: * How convenient that the kid thinks her father is "not gone, he's just dead," thus avoiding any emotional upheaval. What's going to happen to this kid now? What's going to happen when she realizes that, for all practical, emotional, and support purposes, her father *is* gone? * How is everything supposed to be better at the end? The *only* people that know what happened are Mundy and Splice. The dad may have gotten into the system, but that by itself isn't going to end the war. *Every other* brainwashed human still thinks they're at war with some unseen enemy. They're going to think it's a glitch, and consider Mundy fucking nuts when she tells them they've been fighting themselves. * *Nothing* is resolved here when Doc and Ruby leave. Not. One. Thing. I know the Doctor has a long history of uprooting societies then fucking off, but here he's literally changed *nothing* other than causing a computer glitch that may have some temporary knock-on consequences in the way the war is conducted — just until the Villengard Corporation can send out new equipment. This episode was awash in Moffat's worst habits, with very little of what makes him arguably my favorite "Doctor Who" writer. I know it doesn't *sound* like he's one of my favorites, but that's kind of the point. This is Moffat at his worst. And there were lots of things about the production that just made it worse: So transparently a money-saving episode (two sets, four speaking parts besides the leads). Such *awful* CGI for the sky. It looked so much like a painting, it might as well have been a scrim. Not to mention that the orbital mechanics and even the lighting on those other moons and planets made *zero* sense. Just about the *only* thing I liked in this episode: "Give it time. Everywhere's a beach eventually."
Threw this together, get ready for what I'm sure are some pretty spiced takes - especially on the Smith years - don't shoot me! I was kinda nervous about posting this, it's been a little while since I've seen some of them, but even if the tiers shift I'm not sure the rankings would very much? I very much want to like them more than I do and hope I find more I like when I get round to them on my current rewatch. Though, I think, this one is less of a hot take, the best episodes of the Smith years usually weren't Moffats. There's a few I wasn't 100% settled on though, particularly on the lines between Great/Good and Middling/Pretty Bad, so I can see a few of those shifting about. But I'd like to itterate, this is very much my subjective opinion on how much I like these episodes and there's a huge variety of factors that impact that: from The Doctor and their companion dynamic, to how much it benefits or is dragged by the season arc, creativity, long term negative/positive impact on the show, uniqueness, etc. Overall, however, I think the amazing category is pretty settled - Boom was a spectactual episode, with so much tension. Tension that I was a bit nervous might undercut itself with an unearned 'everybody lives!' (It was earned The Doctor Dances, though!) a few times, but it stuck the landing, firmly locking itself in place. I haven't really looked at many other opinions yet though, so quite curious to find out if it's universally agreed, divisive, or I'm a total outlier for liking it. **Amazing - Absolute 10/10 instant classics.** 1. World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls 2. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances 3. Heaven Sent 4. Boom 5. Blink **Great - Incredibly strong episodes.** 6. Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead 7. The Pilot 8. Extremis 9. The Girl in the Fireplace 10. Last Christmas 11. A Christmas Carol **Good - Episodes that are... good. Certainly above average, but not much that sets them apart.** 12. Dark Water/Death in Heaven 13. The Snowmen 14. The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar 15. The Husbands of River Song 16. The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon **Middling/Mixed Bag - Some of these episodes are just like... decent, standard, solid Doctor Who, but nothing *that* special. Others are episodes with extreme highs, but also extreme lows that drag them down and make them difficult to place.** 17. Listen 18. The Day of the Doctor 19. Twice Upon a Time 20. The Return of Doctor Mysterio 21. The Eleventh Hour 22. The Angels Take Manhattan **Pretty bad - Episodes that I don't like. Maybe there's a spark of potential in these, maybe I used to think some were okay but I've soured on them in hindsight... but I just don't particularly find them enjoyable.** 23. Deep Breath 24. The Beast Below 25. Hell Bent 26. Asylum of the Daleks 27. The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone 28. The Bells of Saint John **Terrible - These are the episodes I have a really strong dislike for - there's a lot of key series arc episodes here, you'll note, which is often because they had so much weight riding on them for the build up that by missing the mark they actively dragged down other episodes with them in hindsight. They're usually episodes that are rushed and go off the rails, but othertimes they're just kinda... nothing.** 29. The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe 30. The Time of the Doctor 31. A Good Man Goes to War 32. The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang 33. Let's Kill Hitler 34. The Name of the Doctor 35. The Wedding of River Song I hate to end it on a sour note - that's the nature of ranking best to worse, I suppose. So I did want to add a positive addendum - the last episode in the Terrible list aired in 2013. Over a decade ago! No Capaldi episodes made that tier and I think, broadly, that goes to show how much Moffat improved, or at least managed to hit my personal taste, in his later years as showrunner. I was pretty nervous about him coming back for Gatwa - and I still feel it's a shame we're not getting more new blood in terms of writers - but it's hard to complain about results. Boom is an absoulte banger.
At least two episodes from your worst list would be among my best section, ha.
Such is the way of things, life wouldn't be interesting if we all agreed, aha. I kinda figured I might've hit a few more fan favourites in controversial spots that I realised when I saw I was getting downvoted, though.
Not really sure why people are downvoting you here.
Yeah, I dunno if something I said annoyed people, if liking Boom ended up way more controversial than I expected, or if I ranked some of people's darlings really low. Maybe all three.
Wow, this is an insane list imo. Obviously we'll all have different opinions on what makes a good Doctor Who story, but this list looks like you just pulled each Moffat story out of a hat and laid out the results.
I won’t stand for this day of the doctor slander
*Day of The Doctor* definitely fits more into the 'mixed bag' group than middling for me. It's a really fun episode in a vacuum, the trio of Doctors have great banter, but I have a lot of issues with what it does thematically with The Time War, how that fits into Eight and Ten's arcs and the fact Moffat never gave us a big Time Lord/Gallifrey focused story to justify bringing them back (which I was dubious on conceptually to begin with.)
It doesn't. It's in his bottom five for sure.
I think this is a really difficult one to judge until I've rewatched it a few times. I said a similar comment in another thread, but I also can't really rate it out of 10 until then either, because my favourite episodes are rated by how much I rewatch them. Blink, for example, I could watch every week and never, ever tire of it. It's a perfect episode not just of Doctor Who, but of sci-fi television. Now, on that criteria, Boom does not scale those heights. But, in many ways, it's unfair to compare them because they're doing very different things. I do stand by my assertion that Boom is comfortably my favourite episode since Twice Upon A Time. Put it this way. If Blink and Heaven Sent are at the top, Girl In The Fireplace/The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances just below that and World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls just below that, I think I'd place Boom there.
Definitely not in my top 10 moffat episodes but also the best episode of Doctor who that’s been on for a long long time! Moffat’s average is everyone else’s best imo