Last Updated on 8 October 2023

I searched the Internet for lists of the best episodes of Doctor Who of all time. Criteria included the episodes being ranked, not just listed; covering all time, not just a season or a doctor; and generally created by groups, whether teams or committees or based on general public voting (like Ranker.com).

I found 17 different ranked lists online of “best Doctor Who episodes,” but only five were from all time. The rest focused on just the "modern era" so I extracted the modern episodes from those five lists and combined them with the other 12. Since the show is still being made, the lists don’t include the most recent episodes. I averaged the rankings each episode got and divided that average by a factor of the number of lists that episode was on. The lowest score meant a high ranking average on many lists. The complete spreadsheet is attached at the bottom.

The episodes that were on the most lists (out of 17):

  • Blink (#186 – 9 Jun 2007) - 17 lists
  • Vincent and the Doctor (#210 - 5 Jun 2010) - 15 lists
  • The Day of the Doctor (#240 - 23 Nov 2013) - 15 lists
  • The Eleventh Hour (#203 - 3 Apr 2010) - 14 lists
  • Silence in the Library (#195a - 31 May 2008) - 14 lists
  • The Family of Blood (#185b - 2 Jun 2007) - 13 lists
  • Forest of the Dead (#195b - 7 Jun 2008) - 13 lists
  • The Empty Child (#164a - 21 May 2005) - 12 lists
  • Heaven Sent (#261 - 28 Nov 2015) - 12 lists
  • Journey's End (#198b - 5 Jul 2008) - 12 lists
  • The Stolen Earth (#198a - 28 Jun 2008) - 12 lists

Here are links to the lists I used along with dates the lists were created or last updated:

Best-Doctor-Who-Episodes-of-All-TimeDownload

Loading