Personal Doctor Who Series 8 Episode Rankings

Well, it was a good season (Better than series 7, at least).
In order, from worst to best (In my personal, neither official nor final, opinion):

12. Time Heist
Best part about this season is that I don't hate any of it. However, this episode was bad. It had too many subplots and so many good ideas that needed their own episodes to flesh out. By flesh, I mean literally.

We have a bank heist, a mysterious Architect, a shapeshifter (who is a mutant), a cyborg who wishes to remember his past, a bank owner that hates her own clones, and a mind eater that was forced into servitude that is the second-last-of-its-kind, hoping to protect the only other one. There was too much and not enough substance to each. We could have had three episodes or so that could have been good:

First, Psi, the cyborg who forgot his friends and family could have been used to delve into the Doctor's past ever-so-slightly, making him remember the Master (Koschei) when they were kids and how he doesn't want to forget the past. That could have worked.

Second, the Teller and its second last friend. Could have drawn parallels to when the Doctor tried to save the Master.

Third, shapeshifter mutant girl and Madame Karabraxos, who doesn't trust people who looks like her. Could have maybe made MK a mutant with cloning powers, and maybe draw a reference to Cassandra, the "last human" (well, last pure one) and maybe add more to the whole mutant thing. I mean come on! We have an entire comic book series and SIX movies on the concept of humans vs. mutants. I'm sure we can draw more from that.

Overall, the timey-wimeyness and fast pace saved it from utter doom, but Steven Thompson episodes, according to my new bias, generally suck. He also wrote "Curse of the Black Spot" for Pete's sake! (Btw, worst Matt Smith episode). It was my least like episode of the season.

11. In the Forest of the Night
It was boring, and the random subplot about Maebh's sister was unneeded. It was basically reverse "Silence in the Library", what with magic fireflies and a forest to save humanity. Just bland. Should have focused on wither the field trip (ala Jurassic Park meets Night at the Museum meets Magic School Bus) or on Maebh, psychic kid (Seriously, what were the chances that one of Clara's kids was a psychic? There are a lot of psychics around). Boring. I like the trailer for "Dark Water" way better.

10. Into the Dalek
I did like this one, come on, Fantastic Voyage, but in a Dalek? But then it seemed reminiscent of the Tesselecta from "Let's Kill Hitler", so the novelty of it was lost to me. It felt like the aesthetics of "Let's Kill Hitler" meets "Asylum of the Daleks". It was average to me. The characterization of the Doctor in respect to the Daleks should have at least referenced what Davros said in "Journey's End" but nope. It did set up some of the new Doctor's traits well, though.

9. Deep Breath
Yes, it's the opener, but man, it feels weird. Can't say much other than dead dinosaur and creepy restaurant was pretty cool.

8. Kill the Moon
The greatest WTF? moment ever. And incredibly, everyone involved takes it seriously. Epic moral dilemma that makes no sense even in context. To quote Light of Triumph: "It's so bad, it's good."

7. Robots of Sherwood
This episode was hilarious for the first half, however the ending wasn't that great. But the banter, the archery match, the swordfight, man was it cool. Not higher because the villain was weird.

6. The Caretaker
Basically "The Lodger" meets "School Reunion". The reveal for Danny was hilarious, by the way. You know, the Skovox kinda sucked if it can be taken out by a Ghost buster type machine that sends it into the future or something. And it only kills one guy. LAAAME.

5. Mummy on the Orient Express
Freaking mummy soldier in space that kills you in 66 seconds. What gripes me is who the heck was Gus? But still, it was a freaking good episode.

4. Dark Water
All buildup. Heavy on the motion. Reveal of the year. Done very well. But still, all buildup.

3. Death in Heaven
It was good. But I still an't believe they killed off the Master again. Seriously, she's coming back. I liked her a lot, not much emphasis on being female, and more on the insane psychopath that she totally is. Also Mary Poppins. And the Brigadier and Danny as a Cyberman. Also the dead becoming an army. And the Master invented the afterlife. Seriously.

2. Flatline
Doctor Who meets Flatland. And the Flatlanders are horrifying. And Clara as the Doctor in a well-written episode was good.

1. Listen
Yep. The only episode to tug at my heart for so much of the story. The diving into the Doctor and Who he is. The Barn. The First Doctor as a kid. THE FEELS. I swear, this episode is a likely contender for the Hugo Award in 2015. If it does win, and man it looks like it might (Maybe, I don't know about the competition) then it means Steven Moffat would have won 5 Hugo Awards for Best Dramatic Presentation because of his writing, which is more than the entirety of Star Trek combined. (Right now he's personally tied 4-4 with all of Star Trek).

So yeah, my list. The majority of them I like a lot, and man was it cool.