I have gotten a general sense that the Eighth Doctor’s and the War Doctor’s runs in audio is considered to be by far the strongest, writing-wise, and that The Fourth Doctor’s had been a bit of a disappointment, considering how great Tom Baker is and how lauded his seasons are.
So, in order to test it out, I did a quick and dirty search of the different Doctors, filtered by audio and counted up how many stories with an average rating of 4.00 or above (which I consider to mean that the general consensus is that the story is ‘great’) each Doctor had, and did some quick maths to see what percentage of a specific Doctor’s audio releases were a 4.00 or better.
So, first, every numbered Doctor (and a few extras), number of stories with a 4.00 or higher (bearing in mind that not all numbered Doctors has had audio releases yet):
15 Twelfth Doctor - 0 Stories (whomp whomp)
14 Fugitive Doctor - 0 Stories (whomp whomp)
13 First Doctor - 3 Stories
12 Second Doctor - 4 Stories
11 Third Doctor - 6 Stories
10 Tenth Doctor - 7 Stories
9 Fourth Doctor - 8 Stories
8 Ninth Doctor - 8 Stories
7 War Doctor - 9 Stories
6 Eleventh Doctor - 10 Stories
5 Unbound Doctor - 15 Stories
4 Seventh Doctor - 21 Stories
3 Sixth Doctor - 22 Stories
2 Fifth Doctor - 23 Stories
1 Eight Doctor - 44 Stories (!!!)
So, Eight does indeed come out on top, War is at the middle of the pack and Four is close behind.
So, that sort of matches up to what I have heard, but not quite, let’s look deeper.
Let’s look at what percentage of their audio stories were ranked a 4.00 or better, to see how much of each Doctor’s run is considered ‘great’:
15 Twelfth Doctor - 0/11=0% (whomp whomp)
14 Fugitive Doctor - 0/4=0% (whomp whomp)
13 Fourth Doctor - 8/146=5.48% (whomp)
12 First Doctor - 3/30=10%
11 Sixth Doctor - 22/190=11.58%
10 Third Doctor - 6/45=13.33%
9 Seventh Doctor - 21/152=13.82%
8 Fifth Doctor - 23/164=14.02%
7 Tenth Doctor - 7/46=15.22%
6 Second Doctor - 4/26=15.38%
5 Eight Doctor - 44/227=19.38%
4 Ninth Doctor - 8/41=19.51%
3 War Doctor - 9/42=21.43%
2 Eleventh Doctor - 10/29=34.48%
1 Unbound Doctor - 15/26=57.69%
Now, that changes things up quite considerably, doesn’t it?
Eight is all the way down in 5th, War has jumped from 7th to 3rd, Four has fallen from 9th to 13th and, somehow, the Unbound Doctor comes out on top!
Now, that final one could be a statistical anomaly, due to the sample size being so small; 26 stories in total, as compared to, say The Eight Doctor’s 227.
But you have the numbers, so, if you’re better at maths than me and want to do a calculation that takes into account the sample size of each Doctor. Then, knock yourself out.
But, to do a simple bit of pruning, let’s take away any Doctor who hasn’t had at least 40 audio releases, as that is a mark a majority of the Doctors have reached:
9 Fourth Doctor - 8/146=5.48% (whomp)
8 Sixth Doctor - 22/190=11.58%
7 Third Doctor - 6/45=13.33%
6 Seventh Doctor - 21/152=13.82%
5 Fifth Doctor - 23/164=14.02%
4 Tenth Doctor - 7/46=15.22%
3 Eight Doctor - 44/227=19.38%
2 Ninth Doctor - 8/41=19.51%
1 War Doctor - 9/42=21.43%
And then for no other reason than to get my boy back on top, let’s say anything below 100 releases is worthless garbage:
5 Fourth Doctor - 8/146=5.48% (whomp)
4 Sixth Doctor - 22/190=11.58%
3 Seventh Doctor - 21/152=13.82%
2 Fifth Doctor - 23/164=14.02%
1 Eight Doctor - 44/227=19.38%
Yeeeeah. Paul McGann! Paul McGann!