The Best Episodes of Doctor Who Season 20
Every episode of Doctor Who Season 20 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Doctor Who Season 20!
The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.
Season 20 Ratings Summary
The best episode of "Doctor Who" season 20 is "Arc of Infinity (1)", rated 6.7/10 from 486 user votes. It was directed by Ron Jones and written by Johnny Byrne. "Arc of Infinity (1)" aired on 1/3/1983 and is rated 0.2 point(s) higher than the second highest rated, "Arc of Infinity (2)".
6.7/10 486 votes#1 - Arc of Infinity (1)
Season 20 Episode 1 - Aired 1/3/1983
On Gallifrey, someone on the high council is perpetrating a treasonous act - transmitting the Doctor's bio-extract from the space/time matrix to an anti-matter being. On Earth, two English lads spend their last night in Amsterdam sleeping in a crypt where they're attacked by an alien creature under the same anti-matter being's control.
Director: Ron Jones
Writer: Johnny Byrne
6.9/10 435 votes#2 - Arc of Infinity (2)
Season 20 Episode 2 - Aired 1/5/1983
With an anti-matter being trying to enter the universe through the Doctor, risking the destruction of everything, there is only one clear course of action for the High Council of Time Lords to take: execute the Doctor. Meanwhile, Tegan arrives in Amsterdam and hears about what's become of her cousin from his unscathed friend.
Director: Ron Jones
Writer: Johnny Byrne
6.8/10 432 votes#3 - Arc of Infinity (3)
Season 20 Episode 3 - Aired 1/11/1983
Something seemed amiss about the Doctor's execution, so the Castellan has Commander Maxil discreetly but fully look it. Meanwhile, as the Doctor meets the anti-matter being inside the Time Lord Matrix, Tegan and her cousin's friend run afoul of a bird-like alien back on Earth.
Director: Ron Jones
Writer: Johnny Byrne
6.8/10 436 votes#4 - Arc of Infinity (4)
Season 20 Episode 4 - Aired 1/12/1983
The High Council creates a distraction so the Doctor and Nyssa can find Omega on Earth and prevent his reentry into our universe.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.8/10 484 votes#5 - Snakedance (1)
Season 20 Episode 5 - Aired 1/18/1983
Tegan steers the TARDIS to the planet Manussa, without meaning to - but why? And is it a coincidence that the planet is about to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the expulsion of the insidious Mara?
Director: Fiona Cumming
Writer: N/A
6.9/10 437 votes#6 - Snakedance (2)
Season 20 Episode 6 - Aired 1/19/1983
The Doctor talks to Ambril and Chela to try and stop the 500th anniversary celebrations. A possessed Tegan finds herself in Dugdale's Hall of Mirrors to where she summons Lon. The Doctor and Nyssa return to the caves.
Director: Fiona Cumming
Writer: Christopher Bailey
6.8/10 428 votes#7 - Snakedance (3)
Season 20 Episode 7 - Aired 1/25/1983
The possessed Tegan and Lon try to find the whereabouts of the Great Crystal. The Doctor finds himself in prison, with only Nyssa to try and get him out. Chela tells the Doctor tales of Dojjen.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.8/10 441 votes#8 - Snakedance (4)
Season 20 Episode 8 - Aired 1/26/1983
The Doctor and the original snakedancer Dojjen work to rid the planet of the Mara.
Director: Fiona Cumming
Writer: N/A
7.5/10 503 votes#9 - Mawdryn Undead (1)
Season 20 Episode 9 - Aired 2/1/1983
The Doctor discovers a starship trapped in a time warp over Earth. Meanwhile, public schoolboy - and secret alien émigré, Turlough, learns he can have that which he most desires, in return for the murder of the Doctor...
Director: Peter Moffatt
Writer: Peter Grimwade
7.8/10 465 votes#10 - Mawdryn Undead (2)
Season 20 Episode 10 - Aired 2/2/1983
The TARDIS lands on Earth six years out of date, stranding the Doctor in 1983 while leaving Tegan and Nyssa to look for him in 1977. Both parties also encounter former companion, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, though curiously, he has no memory of the Doctor at all.
Director: Peter Moffatt
Writer: Peter Grimwade
7.6/10 450 votes#11 - Mawdryn Undead (3)
Season 20 Episode 11 - Aired 2/8/1983
Mawdryn and his eternal mutants reveal the truth: they are exiles, they are in pain and need the Doctor's future 'lives', as afforded by each of his remaining regenerations.
Director: Peter Moffatt
Writer: Peter Grimwade
7.6/10 461 votes#12 - Mawdryn Undead (4)
Season 20 Episode 12 - Aired 2/9/1983
As the Doctor's ethics are challenged and the two Brigadiers finally meet, Turlough plots with the Black Guardian to bring the Time Lord down once and for all...
Director: Peter Moffatt
Writer: Peter Grimwade
6.4/10 467 votes#13 - Terminus (1)
Season 20 Episode 13 - Aired 2/15/1983
Deep space, some time in the future. Still following the Black Guardian's orders, Turlough sabotages the TARDIS, forcing an emergency fusion with an apparently deserted starship. But the ship is headed for the notorious plague colony, Terminus. Surrounded by plague victims and space pirates, is the Doctor too preoccupied to notice the greatest threat of all - a threat connected to the position of Terminus at the exact centre of the universe?
Director: Mary Ridge
Writer: Stephen Gallagher
6.3/10 421 votes#14 - Terminus (2)
Season 20 Episode 14 - Aired 2/16/1983
The Doctor's party remains divided and scattered as the immense transport docks at the Terminus space station, which turns out to be a leper colony at the exact centre of the known universe. As they find their way around and investigate, Nyssa shows signs of contracting the disease.
Director: Mary Ridge
Writer: Stephen Gallagher
6.1/10 427 votes#15 - Terminus (3)
Season 20 Episode 15 - Aired 2/22/1983
Since the Doctor's party represents neither lazars nor handlers, they're presumed to be investigators, which is enough to spark the disgruntled Valgard into challenging Eirak over leadership of the handlers. Meanwhile, as the giant, dog-like Garm takes a terrified Nyssa off for "treatment," Bor returns from the forbidden zone with interesting news about the ship.
Director: Mary Ridge
Writer: Stephen Gallagher
6.2/10 424 votes#16 - Terminus (4)
Season 20 Episode 16 - Aired 2/23/1983
In attempting to reopen a doorway into the TARDIS, Turlough activates Terminus' automated fuel-jettisoning sequence. The first time this sequence was engaged, it flung its first of two massive loads of unstable fuel into the distant past, producing the Big Bang that created the universe. This second sequence - if the Doctor can't find a way to shut it down - will release a second massive load, the explosion of which will entirely negate the effects of the first.
Director: Mary Ridge
Writer: Stephen Gallagher
7.7/10 488 votes#17 - Enlightenment (1)
Season 20 Episode 17 - Aired 3/1/1983
After receiving a warning from the White Guardian, the Doctor initially believes the TARDIS has landed aboard an Edwardian clipper ship - but all is not as it seems. While the time travellers are caught up in the omnipotent Eternals' race for the ultimate prize, the Black Guardian's scheme to destroy the Doctor enters the end-game - but which side is Turlough a pawn of?
Director: Fiona Cumming
Writer: Barbara Clegg
7.7/10 454 votes#18 - Enlightenment (2)
Season 20 Episode 18 - Aired 3/2/1983
Captain Striker and his officers reveal themselves to be Eternals, mind-reading creatures who live outside of time and who require Ephemerals (humans and other "time dwellers") to relieve them of their emptiness. They race against other Eternals for the grand prize of Enlightenment, by which to grant their deepest wishes. That can't be good for the universe, but how can the Doctor strategise against beings adept at reading his every thought?
Director: Fiona Cumming
Writer: Barbara Clegg
7.6/10 447 votes#19 - Enlightenment (3)
Season 20 Episode 19 - Aired 3/8/1983
Turlough's panic puts him aboard a pirate ship where Captain Wrack uses his presence to invite all the other captains over for dinner. She's been picking off a few of her greatest rivals in the race and now sees an opportunity to clear the field once and for all and become the clear winner.
Director: Fiona Cumming
Writer: Barbara Clegg
7.7/10 455 votes#20 - Enlightenment (4)
Season 20 Episode 20 - Aired 3/9/1983
Tegan isn't aware she been outfitted with a device to destroy Captain Striker's ship. While the detonation will merely slip the indestructible Eternals back into the realm of eternity, nothing nearly so elegant or as tidy awaits the Ephemerals aboard the ship.
Director: Fiona Cumming
Writer: Barbara Clegg
6.4/10 464 votes#21 - The King's Demons (1)
Season 20 Episode 21 - Aired 3/15/1983
In 1215 at the castle of Ranulf Fitzwilliam, son Hugh is jousting on a matter of honor against Sir Gillis Estram, the champion of King John, when the TARDIS appears. The Doctor, Turlough and Tegan are immediately hailed as demons and welcomed warmly by the King. Something is wrong with this picture, observes the Doctor.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.2/10 422 votes#22 - The King's Demons (2)
Season 20 Episode 22 - Aired 3/16/1983
England, 1215. With the historic signing of the Magna Carta supposedly only days away, the Doctor is startled to find King John apparently intent on provoking civil war - and seemingly in two places at once...
Director: N/A
Writer: Terence Dudley