The Best Episodes of Doctor Who Season 21
Every episode of Doctor Who Season 21 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Doctor Who Season 21!
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 21 Ratings Summary
The best episode of "Doctor Who" season 21 is "Warriors of the Deep (1)", rated 6.3/10 from 494 user votes. It was directed by Pennant Roberts and written by Johnny Byrne. "Warriors of the Deep (1)" aired on 1/5/1984 and is rated 0.1 point(s) higher than the second highest rated, "Warriors of the Deep (2)".
6.3/10 494 votes#1 - Warriors of the Deep (1)
Season 21 Episode 1 - Aired 1/5/1984
Earth's ocean floor, 2084. With two superpowers poised on the brink of a devastating photonic war, a missile base comes under attack from the reptilian Sea Devils and Silurians, intent on eradicating the upstart human race and reclaiming the planet…
Director: Pennant Roberts
Writer: Johnny Byrne
6.2/10 440 votes#2 - Warriors of the Deep (2)
Season 21 Episode 2 - Aired 1/6/1984
Just as the Doctor gains a tentative trust from the humans, a Silurian battle cruiser approaches. The Doctor warns Commander Vorsha to hold his fire and find out what they want, but is the level-headed commander one who'll listen?
Director: Pennant Roberts
Writer: Johnny Byrne
6.1/10 432 votes#3 - Warriors of the Deep (3)
Season 21 Episode 3 - Aired 1/12/1984
As Vorshak's crew are cut down by Sauvix's Sea Devil Warriors, the Doctor is running out of ways to broker a peace between the opposing species.
Director: Pennant Roberts
Writer: Johnny Byrne
6.4/10 440 votes#4 - Warriors of the Deep (4)
Season 21 Episode 4 - Aired 1/13/1984
With Silurians in control of the base, Icthar reveals his plan for a final solution to Earth's human problem, which presents the Doctor a great moral dilemma.
Director: Pennant Roberts
Writer: Johnny Byrne
6.9/10 445 votes#5 - The Awakening (1)
Season 21 Episode 5 - Aired 1/19/1984
The sleepy English village of Little Hodcombe, 1984. The village re-enactment of the English Civil War is in full swing, but a malign alien presence intends the mock-battles to be rather more realistic than planned...
Director: N/A
Writer: Eric Pringle
6.8/10 413 votes#6 - The Awakening (2)
Season 21 Episode 6 - Aired 1/20/1984
The Malus, an alien that's purely evil, needs the civil war re-enactments to become authentic so it can feed off the psychic energy of dying and embattled men and fully revive. Not if the Doctor can derail things, of course.
Director: N/A
Writer: Eric Pringle
6.8/10 430 votes#7 - Frontios (1)
Season 21 Episode 7 - Aired 1/26/1984
The planet Frontios, in the distant future. Following Earth's destruction, a tiny colony struggles to eke out a life on this desolate world. But where do the bombardments that threaten them originate from? Little does the Doctor suspect that somewhere nearby lurks a power capable of ripping even the TARDIS apart…
Director: Ron Jones
Writer: N/A
6.8/10 391 votes#8 - Frontios (2)
Season 21 Episode 8 - Aired 1/27/1984
Following the destruction of the TARDIS, the only part of it left is the hat stand. So Turlough uses it as a weapon! Plantagenet gets swallowed by the earth, and Norna and Turlough discover the Tractators.
Director: Ron Jones
Writer: N/A
6.9/10 388 votes#9 - Frontios (3)
Season 21 Episode 9 - Aired 2/2/1984
Trying to rescue the Doctor from the Tractator's trap, Tegan lands them both in even more trouble. Turlough goes a bit mad, and reckons he knows the evil of the Tractators from old.
Director: Ron Jones
Writer: Christopher H. Bidmead
6.9/10 389 votes#10 - Frontios (4)
Season 21 Episode 10 - Aired 2/3/1984
The Doctor tries to deal with the Tractator's cunning plan, despite Turlough's best intervention. They discover the splintered TARDIS in the tunnels beneath the planet's surface, but how will they put it together again?
Director: Ron Jones
Writer: N/A
7.6/10 572 votes#11 - Resurrection of the Daleks (1)
Season 21 Episode 11 - Aired 2/8/1984
London's Docklands, 1984. Why are uniformed policemen gunning down strangely-dressed vagrants in broad daylight? A prison ship in the far future - who is the sole prisoner aboard the craft? And why are these two locations linked by the time corridor the TARDIS has been sucked into?
Director: Matthew Robinson
Writer: Eric Saward
7.7/10 514 votes#12 - Resurrection of the Daleks (2)
Season 21 Episode 12 - Aired 2/15/1984
As the surviving station crew work to destroy the space station, Davros consolidates his power and the Daleks launch a fiendish scheme to use the Doctor against the Time Lords.
Director: Matthew Robinson
Writer: Eric Saward
7.1/10 457 votes#13 - Planet of Fire (1)
Season 21 Episode 13 - Aired 2/23/1984
Lanzarote, 1985. Archaeologist Howard Foster raises a strange metal artefact from the sea floor. But how is it linked to the signal the TARDIS received? Why is Turlough suddenly so worried? And why is Kamelion acting so erratically?
Director: Fiona Cumming
Writer: Peter Grimwade
7.1/10 408 votes#14 - Planet of Fire (2)
Season 21 Episode 14 - Aired 2/24/1984
While the Master, victim of his own attempt to improve his TCE weapon, seeks restoration through Sarn's numismaton gas, the truth of Turlough's past comes out at last, though to guarantee the safety of his brother and the Sarn people, Turlough must consider a great personal sacrifice.
Director: Fiona Cumming
Writer: Peter Grimwade
7.1/10 404 votes#15 - Planet of Fire (3)
Season 21 Episode 15 - Aired 3/1/1984
Sarn prophesy foretells of an outsider who will come to aid the people. It's a role the Master is more than delighted to fill, which finally presents Timanov, the Sarn religious leader, the unbridled support he's sought in his campaign to cull the faithless from among his people. Turlough's secret past, however, is somehow intricately involved in all this, and the reluctance of its disclosure is enough to threaten all friendly ties with the Doctor.
Director: Fiona Cumming
Writer: Peter Grimwade
7.2/10 409 votes#16 - Planet of Fire (4)
Season 21 Episode 16 - Aired 3/2/1984
While the Master, victim of his own attempt to improve his TCE weapon, seeks restoration through Sarn's numismaton gas, the truth of Turlough's past comes out at last, though to guarantee the safety of his brother and the Sarn people, Turlough must consider a great personal sacrifice.
Director: Fiona Cumming
Writer: Peter Grimwade
8.3/10 767 votes#17 - The Caves of Androzani (1)
Season 21 Episode 17 - Aired 3/8/1984
The planet Androzani Minor, the distant future. In the planet's caves war rages between government troops and the android warriors of the mysterious Sharaz Jek. But what makes spectrox, the substance they battle to control, so valuable? And how far will the Doctor go to protect his companion?
Director: Graeme Harper
Writer: Robert Holmes
8.4/10 670 votes#18 - The Caves of Androzani (2)
Season 21 Episode 18 - Aired 3/9/1984
The Doctor and Peri have been rescued from the firing squad by the mysterious Sharaz Jek. But he has his own plans for them. And why are they suddenly feeling ill?
Director: Graeme Harper
Writer: Robert Holmes
8.6/10 682 votes#19 - The Caves of Androzani (3)
Season 21 Episode 19 - Aired 3/15/1984
The situation on Androzani Minor is building toward a violent confrontation, and the Doctor and Peri are slowly succumbing to spectrox toxemia.
Director: Graeme Harper
Writer: Robert Holmes
8.8/10 762 votes#20 - The Caves of Androzani (4)
Season 21 Episode 20 - Aired 3/16/1984
Events on Androzani reach a bloody climax. Will the Doctor and Peri survive the carnage? And at what cost?
Director: Graeme Harper
Writer: Robert Holmes
5.3/10 513 votes#21 - The Twin Dilemma (1)
Season 21 Episode 21 - Aired 3/22/1984
Earth, the future. The genius Sylvest twins, child prodigies, are kidnapped by the mysterious Professor Edgeworth and taken to the planet Jaconda. But who is Edgeworth? Why does he serve the giant slug Mestor? And what is Mestor's plan?
Director: Peter Moffatt
Writer: Anthony Steven
5.3/10 455 votes#22 - The Twin Dilemma (2)
Season 21 Episode 22 - Aired 3/23/1984
The Doctor takes Peri to Titan 3, a desolate hunk of rock in space where he hopes to find some solitude for a while. Instead he finds the lone but unconscious survivor of a recent spaceship crash in sight of a mound-shaped complex where no formalised structure should exist.
Director: Peter Moffatt
Writer: Anthony Steven
5.3/10 457 votes#23 - The Twin Dilemma (3)
Season 21 Episode 23 - Aired 3/29/1984
The Doctor arrives on Jaconda, once lush and green, to find it completely devastated by giant gastropods. Old legends about the planet's half-human/half-slugs weren't just myths after all. With or without help from the Doctor and his unpredictable mood swings, Lt. Lang is up for rescuing the twins, who are finally informed of the grand purpose they've been brought to Jaconda to accomplish.
Director: Peter Moffatt
Writer: Anthony Steven
5.3/10 459 votes#24 - The Twin Dilemma (4)
Season 21 Episode 24 - Aired 3/30/1984
The Doctor and Edgeworth deduce that the real plan of Mestor, the gastropod ruler of Jaconda, will not only destroy Jaconda but lead to the devastation of other planets. Together they hope to thwart him despite his formidable ability at slipping into people's minds and controlling them.
Director: Peter Moffatt
Writer: Anthony Steven