The BEST episodes of Doctor Who season 21

Every episode of Doctor Who season 21, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Doctor Who season 21!

The Doctor, a mysterious traveller in space and time, travels in his ship, the TARDIS. The TARDIS can take him and his companions anywhere in time and space. Inevitably he finds evil at work wherever he goes...

Last Updated: 10/31/2024Network: BBC OneStatus: Ended
The Caves of Androzani (3)
star
8.40
139 votes

#1 - The Caves of Androzani (3)

Season 21 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/15/1984

The situation on Androzani Minor is building toward a violent confrontation. And the Doctor and Peri are slowly succumbing to spectrox toxemia.

Directors: Graeme Harper
Watch Now:Amazon
The Caves of Androzani (4)
star
8.25
191 votes

#2 - The Caves of Androzani (4)

Season 21 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/16/1984

Events on Androzani reach a bloody climax. Will the Doctor and Peri survive the carnage? And at what cost?

Directors: Graeme Harper
Watch Now:Amazon
The Caves of Androzani (2)
star
8.23
120 votes

#3 - The Caves of Androzani (2)

Season 21 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/9/1984

The Doctor and Peri have been rescued from the firing squad by the mysterious Sharaz Jek. But he has his own plans for them. And why are they suddenly feeling ill?

Directors: Graeme Harper
Watch Now:Amazon
The Caves of Androzani (1)
star
8.21
121 votes

#4 - The Caves of Androzani (1)

Season 21 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/8/1984

The planet Androzani Minor, the distant future. In the planets' caves war rages between government troops and the android warriors of the mysterious Sharaz Jek. But what makes spectrox, the substance they battle to control, so valuable? And how far will the Doctor go to protect his companion?

Directors: Graeme Harper
Watch Now:Amazon
Resurrection of the Daleks (1)
star
7.87
151 votes

#5 - Resurrection of the Daleks (1)

Season 21 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/8/1984

London's Docklands, 1984. Why are uniformed policemen gunning down strangely-dressed vagrants in broad daylight? A prison ship in the far future - who is the sole prisoner aboard the craft? And why are these two locations linked by the time corridor the TARDIS has been sucked into? Lytton's men revive Davros as the Doctor fights off the Dalek in the warehouse. But alliances are shifting with each passing moment. Can anyone be trusted?

Directors: Matthew Robinson
Writer: Eric Saward
Watch Now:Amazon
Resurrection of the Daleks (2)
star
7.87
148 votes

#6 - Resurrection of the Daleks (2)

Season 21 - Episode 12 - Aired 2/15/1984

As the surviving station crew work to destroy the space station, Davros consolidates his power and the Daleks launch a fiendish scheme to use the Doctor against the Time Lords. The Doctor and his companions strive to defeat both Davros and the Daleks. But their victory may come at a terrible price.

Directors: Matthew Robinson
Writer: Eric Saward
Watch Now:Amazon
Planet of Fire (3)
star
7.58
168 votes

#7 - Planet of Fire (3)

Season 21 - Episode 15 - Aired 3/1/1984

Sarn prophesy foretells of an outsider who will come to aid the people. It's a role the Master is more than delighted to fill, which finally presents Timanov, the Sarn religious leader, the unbridled support he's sought in his campaign to cull the faithless from among his people. Turlough's secret past, however, is somehow intricately involved in all this, and the reluctance of its disclosure is enough to threaten all friendly ties with the Doctor.

Directors: Fiona Cumming
Planet of Fire (2)
star
7.47
170 votes

#8 - Planet of Fire (2)

Season 21 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/24/1984

While the Master, victim of his own attempt to improve his TCE weapon, seeks restoration through Sarn's numismaton gas, the truth of Turlough's past comes out at last, though to guarantee the safety of his brother and the Sarn people, Turlough must consider a great personal sacrifice.

Directors: Fiona Cumming
Planet of Fire (1)
star
7.47
173 votes

#9 - Planet of Fire (1)

Season 21 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/23/1984

Lanzarote, 1985. Archaeologist Howard Foster raises a strange metal artefact from the sea floor. But how is it linked to the signal the TARDIS received? Why is Turlough suddenly so worried? And why is Kamelion acting so erratically?

Directors: Fiona Cumming
Planet of Fire (4)
star
7.43
171 votes

#10 - Planet of Fire (4)

Season 21 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/2/1984

While the Master, victim of his own attempt to improve his TCE weapon, seeks restoration through Sarn's numismaton gas, the truth of Turlough's past comes out at last, though to guarantee the safety of his brother and the Sarn people, Turlough must consider a great personal sacrifice.

Directors: Fiona Cumming
Frontios (4)
star
7.30
135 votes

#11 - Frontios (4)

Season 21 - Episode 10 - Aired 2/3/1984

The Doctor tries to deal with the Tractator's cunning plan, despite Turlough's best intervention. They discover the splintered TARDIS in the tunnels beneath the planet's surface, but how will they put it together again?

Directors: Ron Jones
Frontios (2)
star
7.26
133 votes

#12 - Frontios (2)

Season 21 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/27/1984

Following the destruction of the TARDIS, the only part of it left is the hat stand. So Turlough uses it as a weapon! Plantagenet gets swallowed by the earth, and Norna and Turlough discover the Tractators.

Directors: Ron Jones
Frontios (3)
star
7.24
135 votes

#13 - Frontios (3)

Season 21 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/2/1984

Trying to rescue the Doctor from the Tractator's trap, Tegan lands them both in even more trouble. Turlough goes a bit mad, and reckons he knows the evil of the Tractators from old.

Directors: Ron Jones
Warriors of the Deep (1)
star
7.05
155 votes

#14 - Warriors of the Deep (1)

Season 21 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/5/1984

Seabase 4 is on alert as a strange craft approaches. But the crew has been infiltrated by the enemy, so Commander Vorshak's solutions are scuppered at every turn.

Directors: Pennant Roberts
Writer: Johnny Byrne
Warriors of the Deep (4)
star
7.03
147 votes

#15 - Warriors of the Deep (4)

Season 21 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/13/1984

Earth's ocean floor, 2084. With two superpowers poised on the brink of a devastating photonic war, a missile base comes under attack from the reptilian Sea Devils and Silurians, intent on eradicating the upstart human race and reclaiming the planet...

Directors: Pennant Roberts
Writer: Johnny Byrne
Warriors of the Deep (2)
star
6.97
149 votes

#16 - Warriors of the Deep (2)

Season 21 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/6/1984

The Silurians and Sea Devils send in the Myrka to spearhead their invasion of the Seabase. Meanwhile, Nilson and Doctor Solow work to bring the entire Bloc down...

Directors: Pennant Roberts
Writer: Johnny Byrne
The Awakening (2)
star
6.91
176 votes

#17 - The Awakening (2)

Season 21 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/20/1984

The Malus, an alien that's purely evil, needs the civil war re-enactments to become authentic so it can feed off the psychic energy of dying and embattled men and fully revive. Not if the Doctor can derail things, of course.

Writer: Eric Pringle
Warriors of the Deep (3)
star
6.90
147 votes

#18 - Warriors of the Deep (3)

Season 21 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/12/1984

As Vorshak's crew are cut down by Sauvix's Sea Devil Warriors, the Doctor is running out of ways to broker a peace between the opposing species.

Directors: Pennant Roberts
Writer: Johnny Byrne
The Awakening (1)
star
6.89
177 votes

#19 - The Awakening (1)

Season 21 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/19/1984

The sleepy English village of Little Hodcombe, 1984. The village re-enactment of the English Civil War is in full swing, but a malign alien presence intends the mock-battles to be rather more realistic than planned...

Writer: Eric Pringle
Frontios (1)
star
6.82
142 votes

#20 - Frontios (1)

Season 21 - Episode 7 - Aired 1/26/1984

The planet Frontios, in the distant future. Following Earth's destruction, a tiny colony struggles to eke out a life on this desolate world. But where do the bombardments that threaten them originate from? Little does the Doctor suspect that somewhere nearby lurks a power capable of ripping even the TARDIS apart…

Directors: Ron Jones
The Twin Dilemma (2)
star
6.67
154 votes

#21 - The Twin Dilemma (2)

Season 21 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/23/1984

The Doctor takes Peri to Titan 3, a desolate hunk of rock in space where he hopes to find some solitude for a while. Instead he finds the lone but unconscious survivor of a recent spaceship crash in sight of a mound-shaped complex where no formalised structure should exist.

Directors: Peter Moffatt
The Twin Dilemma (1)
star
6.62
178 votes

#22 - The Twin Dilemma (1)

Season 21 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/22/1984

Earth, the future. The genius Sylvest twins, child prodigies, are kidnapped by the mysterious Professor Edgeworth and taken to the planet Jaconda. But who is Edgeworth? Why does he serve the giant slug Mestor? And what is Mestor's plan?

Directors: Peter Moffatt
The Twin Dilemma (4)
star
6.24
168 votes

#23 - The Twin Dilemma (4)

Season 21 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/30/1984

The Doctor and Edgeworth deduce that the real plan of Mestor, the gastropod ruler of Jaconda, will not only destroy Jaconda but lead to the devastation of other planets. Together they hope to thwart him despite his formidable ability at slipping into people's minds and controlling them.

Directors: Peter Moffatt
The Twin Dilemma (3)
star
6.10
144 votes

#24 - The Twin Dilemma (3)

Season 21 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/29/1984

The Doctor arrives on Jaconda, once lush and green, to find it completely devastated by giant gastropods. Old legends about the planet's half-human/half-slugs weren't just myths after all. With or without help from the Doctor and his unpredictable mood swings, Lt. Lang is up for rescuing the twins, who are finally informed of the grand purpose they've been brought to Jaconda to accomplish.

Directors: Peter Moffatt