The Worst Episodes of Doctor Who
Every episode of Doctor Who ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Doctor Who!
The Doctor is a Time Lord: a 900 year old alien with 2 hearts, part of a gifted civilization who mastered time travel. The Doctor saves planets for a living—more of a hobby actually, and the Doctor's very, very good at it.
Lowest Rated Episodes Summary
The worst episode of "Doctor Who" is "Orphan 55", rated 4.2/10 from 7035 user votes. It was directed by Lee Haven Jones and written by Ed Hime. "Orphan 55" aired on 1/12/2020 and is rated 0.9 point(s) lower than the second lowest rated, "Arachnids in the UK".
4.2/10 7,035 votes#1 - Orphan 55
Season 12 Episode 3 - Aired 1/12/2020
The Doctor and her friends discover that the luxury resort where they are holidaying is hiding a number of deadly secrets. What are the ferocious monsters attacking Tranquillity Spa?
Director: Lee Haven Jones
Writer: Ed Hime
5.1/10 8,577 votes#2 - Arachnids in the UK
Season 11 Episode 4 - Aired 10/28/2018
“Something's happening with the spiders in this city.” The Doctor, Yaz, Graham and Ryan find their way back to Yorkshire - and Yaz's family - only to find something is stirring amidst the eight-legged arachnid population of Sheffield.
Director: Sallie Aprahamian
Writer: Chris Chibnall
5.1/10 8,003 votes#3 - The Tsuranga Conundrum
Season 11 Episode 5 - Aired 11/4/2018
Injured and stranded in the wilds of a far-flung galaxy, the Doctor, Yaz, Graham and Ryan must band together with a group of strangers to survive against one of the universe's most deadly - and unusual - creatures.
Director: Jennifer Perrott
Writer: Chris Chibnall
5.1/10 6,627 votes#4 - The Timeless Children (2)
Season 12 Episode 10 - Aired 3/1/2020
The Cybermen are on the march. The last remaining humans are hunted down. Lies are exposed, truths are revealed, and for the Doctor nothing will ever be the same.
Director: Jamie Magnus Stone
Writer: Chris Chibnall
5.2/10 5,281 votes#5 - Praxeus
Season 12 Episode 6 - Aired 2/2/2020
The mysterious “Praxeus” will cause the quartet to split up (never a good idea) to investigate mysteries all over Earth. And what they find will threaten all human life (again).
Director: Jamie Magnus Stone
Writer: Pete McTighe
5.3/10 6,122 votes#6 - The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos
Season 11 Episode 10 - Aired 12/9/2018
On the planet of Ranskoor Av Kolos, a battlefield, a conflict-scarred survivor, and a deadly reckoning await the Doctor, Ryan, Yaz and Graham.
Director: Jamie Childs
Writer: Chris Chibnall
5.3/10 3,538 votes#7 - The Vanquishers
Season 13 Episode 6 - Aired 12/5/2021
In the final epic chapter in the story of the Flux, all hope is lost. The forces of darkness are in control. But when the monsters have won, who can you count upon to save the universe?
Director: Azhur Saleem
Writer: Chris Chibnall
5.7/10 4,823 votes#8 - Can You Hear Me?
Season 12 Episode 7 - Aired 2/9/2020
As Graham, Yaz and Ryan return home to see friends and family, they find themselves haunted by very different experiences. Who is the figure calling from beyond the stars for help, and why? And what are the fearsome Chagaskas terrorising Aleppo in 1380? To find the answers, Team TARDIS must embark on a mission which forces them to face their darkest fears.
Director: Emma Sullivan
Writer: Chris Chibnall, Charlene James
5.8/10 8,306 votes#9 - Fear Her
Season 2 Episode 11 - Aired 6/24/2006
When the TARDIS lands in 2012, the Tenth Doctor plans to show Rose the London Olympics. However, ordinary children are vanishing into thin air, a mother living in a seemingly normal British household is trying to hide her daughter's unnatural powers from the world, and a demonic presence lurks in an upstairs cupboard.
Director: Euros Lyn
Writer: Matthew Graham
5.8/10 6,076 votes#10 - Sleep No More
Season 9 Episode 9 - Aired 11/14/2015
This terrifying story is assembled from footage discovered in the wreckage of Le Verrier Space Station.
Director: Justin Molotnikov
Writer: Mark Gatiss
5.8/10 6,869 votes#11 - The Witchfinders
Season 11 Episode 8 - Aired 11/25/2018
The Doctor, Ryan, Graham and Yaz arrive in 17th-century Lancashire and become embroiled in a witch trial run by the local landowner. As fear stalks the land, the arrival of King James I only serves to intensify the witch hunt. But is there something even more dangerous at work? Can the Doctor and friends keep the people of Bilehurst Cragg safe from all the forces that are massing in the land?
Director: Sallie Aprahamian
Writer: Joy Wilkinson
5.9/10 3,728 votes#12 - Once, Upon Time
Season 13 Episode 3 - Aired 11/14/2021
'Time is beginning to run wild.' On a planet that shouldn’t exist, in the aftermath of apocalypse, the Doctor, Dan, Yaz and Vinder face a battle to survive.
Director: Azhur Saleem
Writer: Chris Chibnall
6.0/10 6,410 votes#13 - In the Forest of the Night
Season 8 Episode 10 - Aired 10/25/2014
One morning in London, and every city and town in the world, the human race wakes up to the most surprising invasion yet: the trees have moved back in. Everywhere, in every land, a forest has grown overnight and taken back the Earth.
Director: Sheree Folkson
Writer: Frank Cottrell Boyce
6.1/10 9,227 votes#14 - The Ghost Monument
Season 11 Episode 2 - Aired 10/14/2018
Still reeling from their first encounter, can the Doctor and her new friends stay alive long enough, in a hostile alien environment, to solve the mystery of Desolation? And just who are Angstrom and Epzo?
Director: Mark Tonderai
Writer: Chris Chibnall
6.1/10 3,425 votes#15 - Survivors of the Flux
Season 13 Episode 5 - Aired 11/28/2021
As the forces of evil mass, the Doctor, Yaz and Dan face perilous journeys and seemingly insurmountable obstacles in their quest for survival.
Director: Azhur Saleem
Writer: Chris Chibnall
6.2/10 9,282 votes#16 - Love & Monsters
Season 2 Episode 10 - Aired 6/17/2006
An ordinary man named Elton Pope becomes obsessed with the Tenth Doctor, Rose and their strange blue box, joining a group of like-minded people in hopes of finding him. But when the mysterious Victor Kennedy joins the group, the fun soon stops and Elton discovers a darker side to his hobby.
Director: Dan Zeff
Writer: Russell T Davies
6.3/10 7,282 votes#17 - Kerblam!
Season 11 Episode 7 - Aired 11/18/2018
“Delivery for the Doctor!” A mysterious message arrives in a package addressed to the Doctor, leading her, Graham, Yaz and Ryan to investigate the warehouse moon orbiting Kandoka, and the home of the galaxy’s largest retailer: Kerblam!
Director: Jennifer Perrott
Writer: Pete McTighe
6.3/10 6,644 votes#18 - It Takes You Away
Season 11 Episode 9 - Aired 12/2/2018
On the edge of a Norwegian fjord in the present day, the Doctor, Ryan, Graham and Yaz discover a boarded-up cottage and a girl named Hanne in need of their help. What has happened here? What monster lurks in the woods around the cottage - and beyond?
Director: Jamie Childs
Writer: Ed Hime
6.5/10 7,660 votes#19 - The Lazarus Experiment
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 5/5/2007
Martha has to save her family from the lunatic schemes of the monstrous Professor Lazarus.
Director: Richard Clark
Writer: Stephen Greenhorn
6.5/10 6,248 votes#20 - Spyfall (2)
Season 12 Episode 2 - Aired 1/5/2020
In part two of this epic spy thriller, a terrifying plan to destroy humanity is about to reach fruition. Can the Doctor and her friends escape multiple traps and defeat a deadly alliance?
Director: Wayne Che Yip
Writer: Chris Chibnall
6.5/10 5,739 votes#21 - Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror
Season 12 Episode 4 - Aired 1/19/2020
1903. On the edge of Niagara Falls, something is wrong at Nikola Tesla’s generator plant. Who or what is sabotaging the maverick inventor’s work? Has he really received a message from Mars? And where does his great rival Thomas Edison fit into these events? The Doctor, Yaz, Ryan and Graham must join forces with one of history’s great minds to save both him and planet Earth.
Director: Nida Manzoor
Writer: Nina Metivier
6.5/10 4,751 votes#22 - Ascension of the Cybermen (1)
Season 12 Episode 9 - Aired 2/23/2020
In the far future, the Doctor and her friends face a brutal battle across the farthest reaches of space to protect the last of the human race against the deadly Cybermen.
Director: Jamie Magnus Stone
Writer: Chris Chibnall
6.6/10 7,610 votes#23 - Victory of the Daleks
Season 5 Episode 3 - Aired 4/17/2010
The Doctor has been summoned by old friend Winston Churchill, but in the Cabinet War Rooms far below the streets of blitz-torn London, it's his oldest enemy he finds waiting for him, as the time-travelling adventures continue. The Daleks are back – but can Winston Churchill be in league with them?
Director: Andrew Gunn
Writer: Mark Gatiss
6.6/10 7,081 votes#24 - The Curse of the Black Spot
Season 6 Episode 3 - Aired 5/7/2011
The TARDIS is marooned onboard a 17th-century pirate ship whose crew is being attacked by a mysterious and beautiful sea creature. Becalmed and beset by cabin fever, the pirates have numerous superstitious explanations for the Siren's appearance. The Doctor has other ideas but, as his theories are disproved and every plan of escape is thwarted, he must work to win the trust of the implacable Captain Avery and uncover the truth behind the pirates' supernatural fears – and he must work quickly, for some of his friends have already fallen under the Siren's spell...
Director: Jeremy Webb
Writer: Stephen Thompson
6.6/10 6,997 votes#25 - Kill the Moon
Season 8 Episode 7 - Aired 10/4/2014
In the near future, The Doctor and Clara arrive on a decrepit shuttle making a suicide mission to the Moon. Crashing on the lunar surface, they find a mining base full of eviscerated corpses, spider-like creatures scuttling about in the dark, and a terrible dilemma.
Director: Paul Wilmshurst
Writer: Peter Harness