For the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, I thought I'd take a look at which doctors were associated with the highest rated episodes, and which season has been rated the most highly by viewers.

Since people have already ranked all the episodes by actual viewing figures and polled people for their favourite doctor, I tried something different. Using IMDb, I compiled a list of every episode (excluding telemovies and prequels), along with user ratings, which doctor appeared in it, and the director. I wanted to include writers as well, but this was difficult due to the way writers are credited on IMDb.

I then grouped the episodes by doctor, season, and director to get the mean user rating of each. As the old series has far fewer user ratings overall per episode (the mean is 76 reviews per episode, compared with 1,659 for the new series), I've separated the two from direct comparison. Because of the higher number of ratings, the figures for the newer series are probably more reliable.

For the old series, the doctor appearing in the highest-rated episodes was the fourth: Tom Baker.

Series Doctor Actor Mean rating New Tenth David Tennant 7.92 New Eleventh Matt Smith 7.90 New Ninth Christopher Eccleston 7.89 Old Fourth Tom Baker 7.55 Old Third Jon Pertwee 7.43 Old Second Patrick Troughton 7.24 Old Fifth Peter Davison 7.15 Old First William Hartnell 7.08 Old Sixth Colin Baker 6.79 Old Seventh Sylvester McCoy 6.71

The new series was topped by David Tennant, the tenth Doctor.

As for seasons, in the newest series, season four, starring David Tennant, had the highest mean rating. Season 13 was the highest in the older series, with Tom Baker.

Series Season Doctor Mean rating New 4 Tenth 8.01 New 6 Eleventh 7.98 New 5 Eleventh 7.95 New 3 Tenth 7.93 New 1 Ninth 7.89 New Special Tenth 7.88 New 2 Tenth 7.83 New 7 Eleventh 7.77 Old 13 Fourth 8.05 Old 14 Fourth 7.99 Old 7 Third 7.87 Old 12 Fourth 7.76 Old 10 Third 7.57 Old 5 Second 7.52 Old 26 Seventh 7.39 Old 16 Fourth 7.37 Old 15 Fourth 7.33 Old 8 Third 7.32 Old 4 First 7.31 Old 21 Fifth 7.28 Old 11 Third 7.26 Old 17 Fourth 7.24 Old 3 First 7.16 Old 4 Second 7.15 Old 9 Third 7.14 Old 18 Fourth 7.14 Old 23 Sixth 7.14 Old 20 Fifth 7.12 Old 19 Fifth 7.08 Old 6 Second 7.06 Old 2 First 7.02 Old 1 First 7.00 Old 25 Seventh 6.94 Old 22 Sixth 6.81 Old 24 Seventh 5.81 Old 21 Sixth 5.55

Here are the top 10 for user ratings grouped by directors:

Series Director Mean rating Count Old David Maloney 7.807 45 Old Graeme Harper 7.800 6 Old Douglas Camfield 7.794 52 Old Michael Leeston-Smith 7.725 4 Old Rodney Bennett 7.710 10 Old Paddy Russell 7.683 18 Old Timothy Combe 7.638 13 Old Michael Hayes 7.629 14 Old Michael E. Briant 7.625 8 Old George Spenton-Foster 7.550 8 New Hettie Macdonald 9.400 1 New Peter Hoar 8.600 1 New Toby Haynes 8.600 5 New Adam Smith 8.533 3 New Nick Hurran 8.275 4 New Colin Teague 8.200 3 New James Hawes 8.200 5 New Joe Ahearne 8.200 5 New Graeme Harper 8.158 12 New Alice Troughton 8.050 2

This table is, unfortunately, vulnerable to skewing by low numbers – a director who has directed a single, well-received show is more likely to be placed higher than someone who has directed more.

David Maloney stands out in the older series, having directed the second-highest number of episodes and yet maintaining the highest average rating.

Hettie Macdonald's top position was due to directing the highest-rated episode overall: Blink, which introduced the memorable new Doctor Who enemy the Weeping Angels.

Here are the top episodes by mean rating:

Series Mean rating Title Season Episode Old 8.7 Genesis of the Daleks: Part Three 12 13 Old 8.6 Genesis of the Daleks: Part Two 12 12 Old 8.6 Genesis of the Daleks: Part Four 12 14 Old 8.6 Genesis of the Daleks: Part Five 12 15 Old 8.6 The Talons of Weng-Chiang: Part One 14 21 Old 8.5 The Brain of Morbius: Part Four 13 20 Old 8.5 The Seeds of Doom: Part One 13 21 Old 8.5 The Seeds of Doom: Part Five 13 25 Old 8.5 The Seeds of Doom: Part Six 13 26 Old 8.5 The Talons of Weng-Chiang: Part Two 14 22 Old 8.5 The Talons of Weng-Chiang: Part Three 14 23 Old 8.5 The Talons of Weng-Chiang: Part Five 14 25 Old 8.5 City of Death: Part One 17 5 Old 8.5 City of Death: Part Two 17 6 Old 8.5 City of Death: Part Three 17 7 Old 8.5 City of Death: Part Four 17 8 New 9.4 Blink 3 10 New 8.9 The Name of the Doctor 7 14 New 8.8 Vincent and the Doctor 5 10 New 8.7 The Empty Child 1 9 New 8.7 The Doctor Dances 1 10 New 8.7 The Parting of the Ways 1 13 New 8.7 The Girl in the Fireplace 2 4 New 8.7 The Satan Pit 2 9 New 8.7 Human Nature 3 8 New 8.7 Forest of the Dead 4 9 New 8.7 The Stolen Earth 4 12 New 8.7 Journey's End 4 14 New 8.7 The Pandorica Opens 5 12 New 8.7 The Impossible Astronaut 6 1 New 8.7 Day of the Moon 6 2 New 8.7 The Doctor's Wife 6 4

Please keep in mind this is based only on the sample of IMDb users, and in the case of the older series the average number of ratings is rather low, so it should all be taken with a grain of salt. It's still a bit of fun. Who do you think was the best Doctor? Which are your favourite episodes?