You may have noticed, in the right hand column of this blog, where I have all the various links and such like, that each episode of Doctor Who, and its spin-offs, I review gets a score out of five.
This is a purely subjective "enjoyment rating" and then at the end of each complete season I average out these marks to get an Enjoyment Ratings Average (or ERA... little nod to baseball statistics there), which serves a guide to the overall quality of the season.
My baseline series for comparison was the single season of The Dresden Files which has an ERA of 3.67.
TORCHWOOD
Season One: ERA 3.31
Season Two: ERA 3.81
SARAH JANE ADVENTURES
Season One: ERA 3.58
DOCTOR WHO
Season One: ERA 3.65
Season Two: ERA 4.08
Season Three: ERA 4.18
Season Four: ERA 4 (however, excluding Voyage Of The Damned, raises its ERA to 4.23).
As you will see, every show has improved season on season. I feel it's only right and proper to exclude Voyage Of The Damned from the Season Four scores because while it is technically part of that season, it doesn't directly feature Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) - who made that season for me - just her grandfather, Wilf (Bernard Cribbins).
Season Four suffered from a couple of episodes that I didn't enjoy as much as some other fans (namely The Fires of Pompeii and The Doctor's Daughter), however I loved the finale so much that I could have easily given it a score of six out of five... and made a mockery of my whole ratings system (as well as setting a dangerous precedent for future seasons!)
The Sarah Jane Adventures scored less than any season of Doctor Who because of (a) the presence of the annoying supercomputer Mr Smith and (b) the repetition of Earth-threatening plots that, strangely, never seemed to attract the attention of Torchwood, UNIT or The Doctor.
I'd prefer it if Mr Smith was scrapped and the writers allowed K-9 out of his cupboard to serve as Sarah Jane's computer. While K-9 can sometimes seem as convenient as The Doctor's sonic screwdriver for getting people out of sticky situations, he has more charm and personality than Mr Smith - which just appears to be one big deus ex machina.
(UK only video clip)
I've seen a lot of negative reviews of the final episode of season 4 of Dr Who on the interwebs. I'm wondering whether they saw the same show as you and I.
ReplyDeleteVoyage of the Damned. That explains why season 4 has a lower score than the previous 2 seasons. I was wondering that. I didn't think VotD was *that* bad and would've given it 2.5 but then again - it's not my blog! :)
The criticism of Journey's End (from the old school fans) is one of style over content, but I disagree. I think it was a very clever script and ,yes, RTD did throw in everything but the kitchen sink... but so what? It was a joyous celebration of his time on the show!
ReplyDeleteAs to VotD: I've tried to like it, watched it again a little while ago, but nothing works in it for me. Wasn't impressed by Kylie or the villain, the plot was one big cliche, the stuff with the Queen irritated me no end... I could go on :-)