Doctor Who: Favorite Christmas Episodes (and some ratings for other episodes)

[butterfly]

I was originally planning on letting the poll run longer (and I am leaving it open), but the percentages for 'favorite episode' are so interestingly stable that I needed to post.

Poll Results as of Friday Night at 8:14 pm (PST)

Overall Favorite Episode

"The Christmas Invasion" is the clear winner, with 50% of the vote.

Interestingly, it's had between 40-50% of the vote since near the very beginning and stabilized at around 50% pretty quickly.

"The Runaway Bride" has consistently has around 25% of the vote (or, in other words, half the number of votes as TCI).

"The Unquiet Dead" and "The Next Doctor" have been in a dead heat since almost the beginning and have stayed at a bit over 10% each for most of that time.

This is utterly, utterly fascinating. The shape of the poll has, basically been exactly the same shape since it had around eight votes in it.

Episode with most fives

"The Christmas Invasion" got twenty-six standing ovations, but "The Runaway Bride" was close behind it, with twenty-three.

Episode with fewest ones, twos

"The Unquiet Dead" got four twos and zero ones.

Episode with the most ones

"Voyage of the Damned", by a landslide of fifteen. None of the others come close.

Now, if I set Ones at -2, Twos at -1, Threes at 0, Fours at +1, and Fives at +2, this is what you end up with:
TUD: +42
TCI: +71
TRB: +49
VotD: -34
TND: +50

Which has "The Next Doctor" showing more strongly than TUD. TCI is still the clear favorite.

Raw Numbers
The Unquiet Dead
One: 0
Two: 4
Three: 20
Four: 34
Five: 6

The Christmas Invasion
One: 3
Two: 3
Three: 4
Four: 28
Five: 26

The Runaway Bride
One: 1
Two: 5
Three: 15
Four: 20
Five: 23

The Voyage of the Damned
One: 15
Two: 19
Three: 16
Four: 13
Five: 1

The Next Doctor
One: 0
Two: 5
Three: 17
Four: 23
Five: 16

Favorite
TUD: 7
TCI: 32
TRB: 16
VotD: 1
TND: 7

What does it all mean? Nothing, really, except that it was kinda fun to do all that.

So, regarding the rating system that I used for this poll, where one = horrible; two = mostly bad; three = good and bad; four = mostly good; and five = excellent, I just thought I would share how much I adore this show by telling you where the lines for all the episodes fall for me.

Back in August, I listed all fifty-five episodes of New Who in order of preference. So, the episodes that would be considered number 'ones' would be the first three -- "Silence in the Library", "Forest of the Dead" and "Girl in the Fireplace".

I don't have any category two episodes.

"Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks" are the only occupants of category three.

Number 50-26 on my list are in category four, the 'mostly good' category.

The other twenty-five (twenty-six if you include "The Next Doctor", which would likely fit right between "Blink" and "Bad Wolf" and would be the very start of this category) are all category five for me.

That's fifty-one episodes in the 'mostly good' to 'completely good' range, with only five episodes falling underneath those numbers. Yeah, I kinda love this show a lot.

Comments

[thehornedgod.livejournal.com]

I always find it so hard to choose whether I like The Christmas Invasion or The Runaway Bride best, because on the one (severed?) hand that feeling of OMG TEN ILU STAY FOREVER! has never faded, but on the other hand there's OMG DONNA ILU STAY FOREVER! to be carefully considered.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Some of these choices can be very difficult. TCI is so happy at the end -- I think that's why it wins out for me.

[larissa-j.livejournal.com]

Back in August, I listed all fifty-five episodes of New Who in order of preference. So, the episodes that would be considered number 'ones' would be the first three -- "Silence in the Library", "Forest of the Dead" and "Girl in the Fireplace".

BAH, throw these out. These episodes bring new Who down especially SiL/FotD which are just plain bad. At least GitF was pretty to look at if awful in all other ways. Like Reinette's dialogue? Ewwww.

When you rate below DiM/EoD, you should probably give up, yeah?

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

SitL/FotD still manage to surprise me with their complete horribleness. Like you say, GitF at least had something going for it, even if that something had nothing to do with Doctor Who. SitL and FotD are just bad.

[larissa-j.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Moffat was running a experiment with SiL/FotD? Seeing if he could write absolute crap and if his fans would still herald it as genius?

*snort*

[goldy-dollar.livejournal.com]

Awww, poor VoTD! I liked it quite a lot, actually, and probably a smidgen more than TND. I mean, the Queen waved at the Doctor as he steered the Titanic over Buckingham Palace. I just don't see how anything could compete with that! :D

Anyway, very interesting poll. I'm glad to see that TCI came out ahead as it will always be one of my very favourites, for the adorable Ten/Rose interaction if nothing else.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I know! I've been feeling quite bad for VotD, which actually ranks above TUD and TRB for me.

Anyway, very interesting poll. I'm glad to see that TCI came out ahead as it will always be one of my very favourites, for the adorable Ten/Rose interaction if nothing else.

Yes. It's nice to see that the happiness and cuteness of the Doctor and Rose are favored. See, RTD! Happy can sell!

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed that I'm the only one who hated TRB so much, she'd rather be eaten by a giant spider than watch it again. I daresay, that the episode got retroactively more popular because of Donna in Season 4.

Well, that, or people are really scared of giant spiders.

Interesting poll in general!

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed that I'm the only one who hated TRB so much, she'd rather be eaten by a giant spider than watch it again. I daresay, that the episode got retroactively more popular because of Donna in Season 4.

I suspect that you're right about this, at least in part. I liked Donna from the start, but I know quite a few people who came to like her because of S4.

Well, that, or people are really scared of giant spiders.

Hee!

Thanks for taking the poll.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I liked The Voyage of the Damned at the time, but I suppose it hasn't ended up a fan favourite because of Kylie not making a particularly great companion. Whereas TRB features Donna's intro, and TCI has Ten and Rose's first interaction

Honestly though I've never been that keen on any of the Xmas specials other than TCI. (I haven't seen the latest one yet). They're so designed to come across as blockbusters to appeal to a mass audience on Xmas day, and I've always been fonder of episodes like Human Nature and Father's Day

[pluckyyounggirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks for taking the stats apart like that! :D [/media studies major]

Yeah, I kinda love this show a lot.

Yeah, me too. <3

[shinyopals.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty much the same when I try and score the episodes. With the exception of Moffat, they pretty much all fall into "ILU SHOW NEVER CHANGE". Some of them I'm a little less enthusiastic about, must most the capslock squee can be found!