10. Series 10: The Pilot
“The Pilot” was an interesting twist on Series 5’s episode “The Lodger,” where an alien ship went looking for a pilot who wanted to run away, countered by someone who wanted to stay. But in this instance, the person staying in place was the Doctor, a deviation from his normal behavior that honored his life with (and the loss of) River Song, as well as his commitment to guarding Missy.
The episode did a great job introducing Bill, playing with the romance and horror genres to show different sides of her personality. Both her eventual fate and the Doctor’s mission were set up clearly here, along with the idea that much of that season would be more grounded than what came before it. The episode itself was not particularly memorable, since so much of its time was spent on how the Doctor got to this place and what he and Bill would go through, but it did its job.
9. Series 11: The Woman Who Fell To Earth
Despite all of the hatred for the Chibnall era, “The Woman Who Fell To Earth” was an effective series premiere, introducing audiences to the new cast and demonstrating a clear shift in the show’s tone and aesthetic. While the villain wasn’t amazing, he had a memorable design and was defeated in a way that allowed Jodie Whittaker to prove herself as the Doctor.
The downside to the episode is that, as happened multiple times in Season 11, there were simply too many characters that audiences were asked to care about. In addition to the new Doctor, there were four companions, a victim to be rescued, and multiple people who had strong emotional moments before they were killed. There wasn’t anything particularly bad here, but there wasn’t enough of any of the things that did work.