Last Updated on 16 October 2023

The following list is the Official Definitive List of the best Doctor Who episodes of the modern era.

I found 17 different ranked lists online of “best Doctor Who episodes.” Twelve were of the modern version of the show and five were from all time, so I extracted the modern episodes out of those five. Since the show is still being made, the lists don’t include the most recent episodes. See my Methodology page for the research process that was used, including links to all 17 lists that were averaged and the dates they were posted. For more information about the show and about each episode, visit the Tardis Wiki, the main Doctor Who Fandom site. Below is the ranked list of all the modern episodes.

  1. Blink (#186 – 9 Jun 2007)
  2. Vincent and the Doctor (#210 – 5 Jun 2010)
  3. The Empty Child (#164a – 21 May 2005)
  4. The Family of Blood (#185b – 2 Jun 2007)
  5. The Eleventh Hour (#203 – 3 Apr 2010)
  6. Silence in the Library (#195a – 31 May 2008)
  7. The Girl in the Fireplace (#171 – 6 May 2006)
  8. The Day of the Doctor (#240 – 23 Nov 2013)
  9. The Doctor Dances (#164b – 28 May 2005)
  10. Forest of the Dead (#195b – 7 Jun 2008)
  11. Midnight (#196 – 14 Jun 2008)
  12. Heaven Sent (#261 – 28 Nov 2015)
  13. Human Nature (#185a – 26 May 2007)
  14. Doomsday (#177b – 8 Jul 2006)
  15. Journey’s End (#198b – 5 Jul 2008)
  16. Listen (#245 – 13 Sep 2014)
  17. The Stolen Earth (#198a – 28 Jun 2008)
  18. The Pandorica Opens (#212a – 19 Jun 2010)
  19. Rose (#157 – 26 Mar 2005)
  20. Dalek (#161 – 30 Apr 2005)
  21. Turn Left (#197 – 21 Jun 2008)
  22. Army of Ghosts (#177a – 1 Jul 2006)
  23. The Doctor’s Wife (#216 – 14 May 2011)
  24. Father’s Day (#163 – 14 May 2005)
  25. Rosa (#279 – 21 Oct 2018)
  26. The Fugitive of the Judoon (#291 – 26 Jan 2020)
  27. The Impossible Planet (#174a – 3 Jun 2006)
  28. The Satan Pit (#174b – 10 Jun 2006)
  29. The Waters of Mars (#201 – 15 Nov 2009)
  30. The Impossible Astronaut (#214a – 23 Apr 2011)
  31. The End of Time, Part 2 (#202b – 1 Jan 2010)
  32. Day of the Moon (#214b – 30 Apr 2011)
  33. A Good Man Goes to War (#218 – 4 Jun 2011)
  34. The Big Bang (#212b – 26 Jun 2010)
  35. The Parting of the Ways (#166b – 18 Jun 2005)
  36. School Reunion (#170 – 29 Apr 2006)
  37. Mummy on the Orient Express (#249 – 11 Oct 2014)
  38. Utopia (#187a – 16 Jun 2007)
  39. World Enough and Time (#275a – 24 Jun 2017)
  40. The Christmas Invasion (#167 – 25 Dec 2005)
  41. The Time of Angels (#206a – 24 Apr 2010)
  42. Flesh and Stone (#206b – 1 May 2010)
  43. The End of Time, Part 1 (#202a – 25 Dec 2009)
  44. The Angels Take Manhattan (#230 – 29 Sep 2012)
  45. Tooth and Claw (#169 – 22 Apr 2006)
  46. The Doctor Falls (#275b – 1 Jul 2017)
  47. Last of the Time Lords (#187c – 30 Jun 2007)
  48. Face the Raven (#260 – 21 Nov 2015)
  49. Hell Bent (#262 – 5 Dec 2015)
  50. The Runaway Bride (#178 – 25 Dec 2006)
  51. The Name of the Doctor (#239 – 18 May 2013)
  52. The Girl Who Waited (#221 – 10 Sep 2011)
  53. The Sound of Drums (#187b – 23 Jun 2007)
  54. Big Bang (#212b – 26 Jun 2010)
  55. A Christmas Carol (#213 – 25 Dec 2010)
  56. Bad Wolf (#166a – 11 Jun 2005)
  57. The Beast Below (#204 – 10 Apr 2010)
  58. The Fires of Pompeii (#190 – 12 Apr 2008)
  59. Amy’s Choice (#208 – 15 May 2010)
  60. Dark Water (#252a – 1 Nov 2014)
  61. The End of the World (#158 – 2 Apr 2005)
  62. Gridlock (#181 – 14 Apr 2007)
  63. Last Christmas (#253 – 25 Dec 2014)
  64. The Unquiet Dead (#159 – 9 Apr 2005)
  65. The Lodger (#211 – 12 Jun 2010)
  66. Genesis of the Daleks (#078 – 8 Mar 1975)
  67. Death in Heaven (#252b – 8 Nov 2014)
  68. The Wedding of River Song (#224 – 1 Oct 2011)
  69. Partners in Crime (#189 – 5 Apr 2008)
  70. The Time of the Doctor (#241 – 25 Dec 2013)
  71. Cold War (#234 – 13 Apr 2013)
  72. Flatline (#250 – 18 Oct 2014)
  73. The Pilot (#265 – 15 Apr 2017)
  74. Smith and Jones (#179 – 31 Mar 2007)
  75. Asylum of the Daleks (#226 – 1 Sep 2012)
  76. Let’s Kill Hitler (#219 – 27 Aug 2011)
  77. The Snowmen (#231 – 25 Dec 2012)
  78. Deep Breath (#242 – 23 Aug 2014)
  79. The Caves of Androzani (#135 – 8 Mar 1984)
  80. The Rebel Flesh (#217a – 21 May 2011)
  81. The Almost People (#217b – 28 May 2011)
  82. The Shakespeare Code (#180 – 7 Apr 2007)
  83. 42 (#184 – 19 May 2007)
  84. Planet of the Ood (#191 – 19 Apr 2008)
  85. The Unicorn and the Wasp (#194 – 17 May 2008)
  86. The Magician’s Apprentice (#254a – 19 Sep 2015)
  87. Boom Town (#165 – 4 Jun 2005)
  88. The Next Doctor (#199 – 25 Dec 2008)
  89. New Earth (#168 – 15 Apr 2006)
  90. The Power of Three (#229 – 22 Sep 2012)
  91. City of Death (#105 – 29 Sep 1979)
  92. The God Complex (#222 – 17 Sep 2011)
  93. The Caretaker (#247 – 27 Sep 2014)
  94. Love & Monsters (#175 – 17 Jun 2006)
  95. Voyage of the Damned (#188 – 25 Dec 2007)
  96. Twice Upon a Time (#276 – 25 Dec 2017)
  97. Daleks in Manhattan (#182a – 21 Apr 2007)
  98. Evolution of the Daleks (#182b – 28 Apr 2007)
  99. The Sontaran Stratagem (#192a – 26 Apr 2008)
  100. The Poison Sky (#192b – 3 May 2008)
  101. The Long Game (#162 – 7 May 2005)
  102. Rise of the Cybermen (#172a – 13 May 2006)
  103. The Age of Steel (#172b – 20 May 2006)
  104. The Vampires of Venice (#207 – 8 May 2010)
  105. The Doctor’s Daughter (#193 – 10 May 2008)
  106. Hide (#235 – 20 Apr 2013)
  107. Into the Dalek (#243 – 30 Aug 2014)
  108. The Lazarus Experiment (#183 – 5 May 2007)
  109. Talons of Weng Chiang (#091 – 26 Feb 1977)
  110. The Bells of Saint John (#232 – 30 Mar 2013)
  111. Demons of the Punjab (#282 – 11 Nov 2018)
  112. Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (#236 – 27 Apr 2013)
  113. Nightmare in Silver (#238 – 11 May 2013)
  114. Robot of Sherwood (#244 – 6 Sep 2014)
  115. Kill the Moon (#248 – 4 Oct 2014)
  116. Time Heist (#246 – 20 Sep 2014)
  117. Closing Time (#223 – 24 Sep 2011)
  118. The Hungry Earth (#209a – 22 May 2010)
  119. Cold Blood (#209b – 29 May 2010)
  120. Thin Ice (#267 – 29 Apr 2017)
  121. Aliens of London (#160a – 16 Apr 2005)
  122. World War Three (#160b – 23 Apr 2005)
  123. Planet of the Dead (#200 – 11 Apr 2009)
  124. Under the Lake (#255a – 3 Oct 2015)
  125. Before the Flood (#255b – 10 Oct 2015)
  126. The Rings of Akhaten (#233 – 6 Apr 2013)
  127. A Town Called Mercy (#228 – 15 Sep 2012)
  128. The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe (#225 – 25 Dec 2011)
  129. The Crimson Horror (#237 – 4 May 2013)
  130. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (#227 – 8 Sep 2012)
  131. The Idiot’s Lantern (#173 – 27 May 2006)
  132. Victory of the Daleks (#205 – 17 Apr 2010)
  133. Night Terrors (#220 – 3 Sep 2011)
  134. Pyramids of Mars (#082 – 25 Oct 1975)
  135. The Curse of the Black Spot (#215 – 7 May 2011)
  136. In The Forest of the Night (#251 – 25 Oct 2014)
  137. It Takes You Away (#285 – 2 Dec 2018)
  138. Fear Her (#176 – 24 Jun 2006)
  139. Remembrance of the Daleks (#148 – 5 Oct 1988)
  140. The Power of the Doctor (#300 – 23 Oct 2022)
  141. The Witch’s Familiar (#254b – 26 Sep 2015)
  142. Village of the Angels (#297d – 21 Nov 2021)
  143. The Zygon Invasion (#258a – 31 Oct 2015)
  144. The Zygon Inversion (#258b – 7 Nov 2015)
  145. The Pyramid at the End of the World (#271 – 27 May 2017)
  146. Resolution (#287 – 1 Jan 2019)
  147. The Husbands of River Song (#263 – 25 Dec 2015)
  148. The Lie of the Land (#272 – 3 Jun 2017)
  149. The Eaters of Light (#274 – 17 Jun 2017)
  150. The Return of Doctor Mysterio (#264 – 25 Dec 2016)
  151. Extremis (#270 – 20 May 2017)
  152. The Girl Who Died (#256 – 17 Oct 2015)
  153. The Woman Who Lived (#257 – 17 Oct 2015)
  154. Smile (#266 – 22 Apr 2017)
  155. Oxygen (#269 – 13 May 2017)
  156. The Ghost Monument (#278 – 14 Oct 2018)
  157. The Witchfinders (#284 – 25 Nov 2018)
  158. The Haunting of Villa Diodati (#294 – 16 Feb 2020)
  159. The Timeless Children (#295b – 1 Mar 2020)
  160. The Woman Who Fell to Earth (#277 – 7 Oct 2018)
  161. Kerblam! (#283 – 18 Nov 2018)
  162. Empress of Mars (#273 – 10 Jun 2017)
  163. Knock Knock (#268 – 6 May 2017)
  164. The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos (#286 – 9 Dec 2018)
  165. The Tsuranga Conundrum (#281 – 4 Nov 2018)
  166. Arachnids in the UK (#280 – 28 Oct 2018)
  167. Sleep No More (#259 – 14 Nov 2015)
  168. Spyfall (#288 – 1 Jan 2020)
  169. Ascension of the Cybermen (#295 – 23 Feb 2020)
  170. War of the Sontarans (#297b – 7 Nov 2021)
  171. Eve of the Daleks (#298 – 1 Jan 2022)
  172. The Halloween Apocalypse (#297a – 31 Oct 2021)
  173. Survivors of the Flux (#297e – 28 Nov 2021)
  174. The Vanquishers (#297f – 5 Dec 2021)
  175. Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror (#290 – 19 Jan 2020)
  176. Once, Upon Time (#297c – 14 Nov 2021)
  177. Revolution of the Daleks (#296 – 1 Jan 2021)
  178. Orphan 55 (#289 – 12 Jan 2020)
  179. Praxeus (#292 – 2 Feb 2020)
  180. Can You Hear Me? (#293 – 9 Feb 2020)
  181. Legend of the Sea Devils (#299 – 17 Apr 2022)

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