This post of Doctor Who rambling is brought to you by the flu
A bout of flu has kept me on my couch, re-watching episodes of Doctor Who and feeling generally despondent. So, for boredom’s sake, I’ve compiled my Top 10 episodes list... which turned into a Top 12 list, because I really wanted to include 42 and Father’s Day. I don’t think either of them are episodes which often make it into these sort of lists, so in a way, they’re more interesting to write about than some of the more obvious choices, like Blink. Oh, and of course, this list refers to New Who episodes only, since I’ve only seen a couple of episodes from the classic series. So, without further ado...
12. 42
I think in general, Doctor Who is much more fantasy than sci-fi. But there’s at least one episode in every season that falls into what I think of as the “hard sci-fi” category - the episodes where the fantasy elements are pruned back slightly, and it’s a little bit easier to imagine the situation as something that happens in humanity’s space-exploration future. I’m an absolute sucker for these episodes, because they take me back to the space-crazy days of my childhood - dreaming of becoming an astronaut and travelling to Mars, poring over Hubble Telescope images of distant nebulae, and reading books which question what’s possible.
So, 42 falls squarely into that category - already a win. Add to that the fact that it is a very tense and claustrophobic episode - something else I generally enjoy. Then, the idea of the sun being a living thing - a concept I’ve encountered before, and absolutely love - that life can take forms far stranger than we humans can imagine. And finally, I generally appreciate anything that pushes the Doctor outside his comfort zone, and 42 provides a rare and rather frightening moment of the Doctor seriously losing his shit.
Honourable mention: I can’t think about 42 without thinking about The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, and I came very close to blowing this list out to 13 and including them too. But I have to stop somewhere.
11. Father’s Day
For many, this episode is probably overwrought and cheesy. For me, it was the moment I realised Doctor Who was capable of delivering an emotional punch as well as wacky alien adventures. (Okay, actually, Dalek had done that a couple of episodes earlier - another episode that almost, but not quite, made this list. But Father’s Day solidifies my respect for the show.) There’s a lot of bittersweet human stuff going on in this episode. Forget the giant time-bat things - this is a story about a girl who grew up idolising her dead father discovering that life before his death wasn’t all sunshine and daisies, and that her mother’s claims that he was “The most wonderful man in the world” probably started only after his death. A sweet story about loss and regret - it was a nice change from farting aliens.
10. The Beast Below
I will make no secret of the fact that I am a hopeless David Tennant fangirl and may easily overlook a number of Ten’s flaws because of it. He remains, and I suspect will always remain, my favourite Doctor. I watched his seasons over the course of a couple of weeks, and was, quite honestly, devastated by his exit. (I knew it was coming, of course. Eleven was into his third season by the time I got into the show.)
Anyway, naturally, I was suspicious about his replacement, and not entirely ready to accept him. Still, The Eleventh Hour was a decent enough episode, so I cautiously moved on the The Beast Below. And there I was introduced to the new show called Doctor Who.
What The Beast Below does is establish the tone of the Eleven-era series, and introduce the new character of the Doctor. It forced me to stop looking for elements of Ten in Eleven’s character, and appreciate him as somebody different. Also, it has a star whale.
I think I’ve already written somewhere how much better the show looks in the Eleven era - I’m especially reminded of it now because I just wrote about Father’s Day and its terrible CGI time-bat thingies. Also, the Eleven era episodes have a more... whimsical air to them, which I think shows through nicely in The Beast Below. And lastly, the eleventh Doctor is in many ways more alien than his predecessor - Ten has a rather charming “just a silly human” act he occasionally tries on when he needs to blend in. Granted, it still lands him with a referral to psychiatry, but Eleven... doesn’t even try. On the other hand, I think Eleven is genuinely kinder, and more sensitive to human feelings than Ten, who can be rather self-absorbed and remarkably dense when it comes to matters of the heart. The Beast Below introduces the new Doctor - who is very old, very kind, and can’t stand to hear children crying. It was the episode that made me accept Eleven, and want to continue watching the show.
9. The Lodger
What did I say about Eleven being both more alien and more human than Ten? This episode is an absolute goldmine of examples of both sides of his character. When he moves into Craig’s flat, his efforts to appear “normal” are nominal at best, though he seems to think he’s not doing too badly. (Amy points out the folly of this.) Of course, there is the glorious scene of the Doctor playing football, which made me ridiculously happy even though I strongly suspect it was pure fanservice. But my favourite aspect of this episode are the Doctor’s efforts to get Craig and Sophie to admit their feelings for each other. Granted, the final kiss-the-girl moment also happens to be a life-and-death situation, but the conversations leading up to it are both sweet and hilarious (the Doctor gives a very good impression of being completely clueless, when in fact, he knows exactly what he’s doing.)
8. A Christmas Carol
Another very sweet episode, with enough sad undertone to make it truly memorable. What is it with Steven Moffat and fragmented love stories? It also looks stunning - easily the prettiest episode yet. I don’t really have much to add - the elements that make this a great episode were already there in The Beast Below and The Lodger. I will make a note that this was actually the first episode of Doctor Who that I ever saw - I came across it while flicking channels on TV once, before I had any idea what the show was about. It didn’t make any sense at the time, though I liked the flying fish.
7. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
Back to Series 1 and Nine - and who doesn’t have these two episodes in their list? World War II, Captain Jack Harkness, a creepy child monster and a brilliant plot. Though I have to say, the “Everybody lives” ending packs a bigger punch on re-watching - when I saw this for the first time, I wasn’t familiar enough with the Doctor to appreciate just how much death and tragedy he’s used to seeing, and how truly special it is for him to get “a day like this”. It also, on re-watching, makes me appreciate the chemistry between Nine and Rose - which I daresay is stronger than it ever will be between Ten and Rose, though the latter is a much more popular pairing. I just think that while Ten and Rose quite obviously love each other, it was never as likely to go beyond hugs and hand-holding as it was with Nine - especially in these two episodes.
6. Vincent and the Doctor
My favourite Eleven episode, Vincent and the Doctor would be almost perfect if it wasn’t for the giant invisible space chicken thing. I appreciate that this is Doctor Who and therefore some kind of alien threat is necessary, but just this once I kind of wish it could have simply been a human story. It’s another gorgeous-looking episode, especially when Vincent, the Doctor and Amy are star-gazing and the sky turns into Vincent’s painting. And the bittersweet conclusion carries a lovely message - one of those beautiful Eleven moments that makes me love the character. “The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice-versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things and make them unimportant. And we definitely added to his pile of good things.”
Also, the music in that episode is gorgeous.
5. Blink
Another episode that I’m sure makes it onto most people’s lists. What can I say? Tightly-plotted, brilliantly acted and absolutely terrifying. Steven Moffat is a freaking genius. I don’t scare easily - TV monsters are not likely to give me nightmares. Yet I think I will always be a little nervous around stone angels after this episode. Incidentally, I wonder if I’m the only one who felt their expanded powers in later episodes somehow diminished them?
I also have to say that the acting in this episode is superb - I have a great deal of respect for Doctor Who being able to make me care about a group of completely new characters within the space of a single episode, which barely features the Doctor at all.
4. Human Nature/The Family of Blood
The premise of a human Doctor is just too, too good. And David Tennant absolutely shines here - the character of “John Smith” is so beautifully, believably different to the Doctor, and I’m not sure another actor could’ve done it better. And again, we have a doomed romance - before I started watching this show, I remember hearing that there was no romance in Doctor Who. I wonder what show that person was watching?
I suppose the big gripe with this episode is the ending - Ten, who claims to be a pacifist and abhors guns, seems a bit too comfortable delivering the Family’s punishments. I guess the point is, he can be pretty terrible when pushed too far - but it still seems at odds with “a man who never would”. But that’s an inconsistency in the writing which prevails through the entire series.
3. The Girl in the Fireplace
Steven Moffat strikes again. This episode, in a way, feels more like an Eleven-era episode - I suppose that’s the Moffat effect. It has an enchanting quality to it - the mysterious spaceship, the beautiful Reinette, the Steampunk monsters... Also, some lovely music. And, yet again, doomed romance - but this time, so beautifully understated. Well, Reinette is far from shy with her feelings, but the Doctor never really says anything to truly give himself away. He gloats about having “snogged Mdame de Pompadour”, but that’s just typical Ten bragging. And he lists her accomplishments with obvious admiration, but again, this is just Ten fanboying a historical figure. And yet, when he finds out she has died, his sadness seems completely believable. The events of the episode unfold over just a few hours from his perspective - but it’s enough.
2. Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
And speaking of Stephen Moffat, complex emotional stories, terror and doomed romance... here’s a double episode combining all of the above. Let me count the ways I was blown away by these episodes. The Vashta Nerada are flesh-eating shadows: WHAM! River Song knows the Doctor in the future: WHAM! Miss Evangelista’s communicator is still talking even though she’s a skeleton: WHAM! Oh, River Song knows the Doctor’s name, and this clearly means a great deal to him: WHAM! Hey, who turned out the lights? WHAM! (By the way, the scariest monsters are NEVER the ones that need lots of CGI. Steven Moffat clearly appreciates this.) Wait, River Song is about to die and the Doctor will spend their entire future relationship knowing how it ends? WHAM and double WHAM! And just for one final little blow, Donna’s husband from the virtual reality world spots her in real life... and can’t get past his stutter to call out her name. She walks out and never knows he’s there. WHAM.
My one, single, but major gripe is the contrived happy ending. It’s not that I’m a glutton for doom and gloom - I like a happy ending as much as the next person. But River Song’s life in the virtual reality world is just... such a cop-out. He hasn’t saved her, not really - living in a fake world populated by identical children isn’t my idea of heaven. On the other hand, it destroys the impact of the tragedy of River’s fate - turns out he doesn’t spend his life with her knowing how she dies, because now he’ll spend it knowing how he “saved” her... so just why does he cry the last time he sees her? And now, when the “end” does come, future writers of the show have a quick and easy way to bring her back to life. So much for tragedy.
1. Midnight
This episode is so completely unlike any other Doctor Who episode ever (okay, I haven’t seen the classic series, but somehow I’m pretty sure “psychological thriller” wasn’t a common feature). I mean... the companion barely features, the Doctor doesn’t save the day and we never see the monster. Also, in a series that had generally fallen on the idealistic side with regards to humans and what they are capable of, suddenly we have a very dark, very cynical viewpoint. And I love it.
But there’s more to this besides being “different”. The script is brilliant - so tense I was actually biting my nails the first time I watched it. And the acting is just phenomenal. David Tennant shines, of course - the sheer terror and anguish he manages to convey with his eyes alone is something to see. But major kudos also goes to Lesley Sharp, who plays Sky. The moment when she turns around, after being taken over by the... whatever-it-is... and the alien intelligence in her eyes... somehow, she manages to be even scarier than the Weeping Angels.
12. 42
I think in general, Doctor Who is much more fantasy than sci-fi. But there’s at least one episode in every season that falls into what I think of as the “hard sci-fi” category - the episodes where the fantasy elements are pruned back slightly, and it’s a little bit easier to imagine the situation as something that happens in humanity’s space-exploration future. I’m an absolute sucker for these episodes, because they take me back to the space-crazy days of my childhood - dreaming of becoming an astronaut and travelling to Mars, poring over Hubble Telescope images of distant nebulae, and reading books which question what’s possible.
So, 42 falls squarely into that category - already a win. Add to that the fact that it is a very tense and claustrophobic episode - something else I generally enjoy. Then, the idea of the sun being a living thing - a concept I’ve encountered before, and absolutely love - that life can take forms far stranger than we humans can imagine. And finally, I generally appreciate anything that pushes the Doctor outside his comfort zone, and 42 provides a rare and rather frightening moment of the Doctor seriously losing his shit.
Honourable mention: I can’t think about 42 without thinking about The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, and I came very close to blowing this list out to 13 and including them too. But I have to stop somewhere.
11. Father’s Day
For many, this episode is probably overwrought and cheesy. For me, it was the moment I realised Doctor Who was capable of delivering an emotional punch as well as wacky alien adventures. (Okay, actually, Dalek had done that a couple of episodes earlier - another episode that almost, but not quite, made this list. But Father’s Day solidifies my respect for the show.) There’s a lot of bittersweet human stuff going on in this episode. Forget the giant time-bat things - this is a story about a girl who grew up idolising her dead father discovering that life before his death wasn’t all sunshine and daisies, and that her mother’s claims that he was “The most wonderful man in the world” probably started only after his death. A sweet story about loss and regret - it was a nice change from farting aliens.
10. The Beast Below
I will make no secret of the fact that I am a hopeless David Tennant fangirl and may easily overlook a number of Ten’s flaws because of it. He remains, and I suspect will always remain, my favourite Doctor. I watched his seasons over the course of a couple of weeks, and was, quite honestly, devastated by his exit. (I knew it was coming, of course. Eleven was into his third season by the time I got into the show.)
Anyway, naturally, I was suspicious about his replacement, and not entirely ready to accept him. Still, The Eleventh Hour was a decent enough episode, so I cautiously moved on the The Beast Below. And there I was introduced to the new show called Doctor Who.
What The Beast Below does is establish the tone of the Eleven-era series, and introduce the new character of the Doctor. It forced me to stop looking for elements of Ten in Eleven’s character, and appreciate him as somebody different. Also, it has a star whale.
I think I’ve already written somewhere how much better the show looks in the Eleven era - I’m especially reminded of it now because I just wrote about Father’s Day and its terrible CGI time-bat thingies. Also, the Eleven era episodes have a more... whimsical air to them, which I think shows through nicely in The Beast Below. And lastly, the eleventh Doctor is in many ways more alien than his predecessor - Ten has a rather charming “just a silly human” act he occasionally tries on when he needs to blend in. Granted, it still lands him with a referral to psychiatry, but Eleven... doesn’t even try. On the other hand, I think Eleven is genuinely kinder, and more sensitive to human feelings than Ten, who can be rather self-absorbed and remarkably dense when it comes to matters of the heart. The Beast Below introduces the new Doctor - who is very old, very kind, and can’t stand to hear children crying. It was the episode that made me accept Eleven, and want to continue watching the show.
9. The Lodger
What did I say about Eleven being both more alien and more human than Ten? This episode is an absolute goldmine of examples of both sides of his character. When he moves into Craig’s flat, his efforts to appear “normal” are nominal at best, though he seems to think he’s not doing too badly. (Amy points out the folly of this.) Of course, there is the glorious scene of the Doctor playing football, which made me ridiculously happy even though I strongly suspect it was pure fanservice. But my favourite aspect of this episode are the Doctor’s efforts to get Craig and Sophie to admit their feelings for each other. Granted, the final kiss-the-girl moment also happens to be a life-and-death situation, but the conversations leading up to it are both sweet and hilarious (the Doctor gives a very good impression of being completely clueless, when in fact, he knows exactly what he’s doing.)
8. A Christmas Carol
Another very sweet episode, with enough sad undertone to make it truly memorable. What is it with Steven Moffat and fragmented love stories? It also looks stunning - easily the prettiest episode yet. I don’t really have much to add - the elements that make this a great episode were already there in The Beast Below and The Lodger. I will make a note that this was actually the first episode of Doctor Who that I ever saw - I came across it while flicking channels on TV once, before I had any idea what the show was about. It didn’t make any sense at the time, though I liked the flying fish.
7. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
Back to Series 1 and Nine - and who doesn’t have these two episodes in their list? World War II, Captain Jack Harkness, a creepy child monster and a brilliant plot. Though I have to say, the “Everybody lives” ending packs a bigger punch on re-watching - when I saw this for the first time, I wasn’t familiar enough with the Doctor to appreciate just how much death and tragedy he’s used to seeing, and how truly special it is for him to get “a day like this”. It also, on re-watching, makes me appreciate the chemistry between Nine and Rose - which I daresay is stronger than it ever will be between Ten and Rose, though the latter is a much more popular pairing. I just think that while Ten and Rose quite obviously love each other, it was never as likely to go beyond hugs and hand-holding as it was with Nine - especially in these two episodes.
6. Vincent and the Doctor
My favourite Eleven episode, Vincent and the Doctor would be almost perfect if it wasn’t for the giant invisible space chicken thing. I appreciate that this is Doctor Who and therefore some kind of alien threat is necessary, but just this once I kind of wish it could have simply been a human story. It’s another gorgeous-looking episode, especially when Vincent, the Doctor and Amy are star-gazing and the sky turns into Vincent’s painting. And the bittersweet conclusion carries a lovely message - one of those beautiful Eleven moments that makes me love the character. “The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice-versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things and make them unimportant. And we definitely added to his pile of good things.”
Also, the music in that episode is gorgeous.
5. Blink
Another episode that I’m sure makes it onto most people’s lists. What can I say? Tightly-plotted, brilliantly acted and absolutely terrifying. Steven Moffat is a freaking genius. I don’t scare easily - TV monsters are not likely to give me nightmares. Yet I think I will always be a little nervous around stone angels after this episode. Incidentally, I wonder if I’m the only one who felt their expanded powers in later episodes somehow diminished them?
I also have to say that the acting in this episode is superb - I have a great deal of respect for Doctor Who being able to make me care about a group of completely new characters within the space of a single episode, which barely features the Doctor at all.
4. Human Nature/The Family of Blood
The premise of a human Doctor is just too, too good. And David Tennant absolutely shines here - the character of “John Smith” is so beautifully, believably different to the Doctor, and I’m not sure another actor could’ve done it better. And again, we have a doomed romance - before I started watching this show, I remember hearing that there was no romance in Doctor Who. I wonder what show that person was watching?
I suppose the big gripe with this episode is the ending - Ten, who claims to be a pacifist and abhors guns, seems a bit too comfortable delivering the Family’s punishments. I guess the point is, he can be pretty terrible when pushed too far - but it still seems at odds with “a man who never would”. But that’s an inconsistency in the writing which prevails through the entire series.
3. The Girl in the Fireplace
Steven Moffat strikes again. This episode, in a way, feels more like an Eleven-era episode - I suppose that’s the Moffat effect. It has an enchanting quality to it - the mysterious spaceship, the beautiful Reinette, the Steampunk monsters... Also, some lovely music. And, yet again, doomed romance - but this time, so beautifully understated. Well, Reinette is far from shy with her feelings, but the Doctor never really says anything to truly give himself away. He gloats about having “snogged Mdame de Pompadour”, but that’s just typical Ten bragging. And he lists her accomplishments with obvious admiration, but again, this is just Ten fanboying a historical figure. And yet, when he finds out she has died, his sadness seems completely believable. The events of the episode unfold over just a few hours from his perspective - but it’s enough.
2. Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
And speaking of Stephen Moffat, complex emotional stories, terror and doomed romance... here’s a double episode combining all of the above. Let me count the ways I was blown away by these episodes. The Vashta Nerada are flesh-eating shadows: WHAM! River Song knows the Doctor in the future: WHAM! Miss Evangelista’s communicator is still talking even though she’s a skeleton: WHAM! Oh, River Song knows the Doctor’s name, and this clearly means a great deal to him: WHAM! Hey, who turned out the lights? WHAM! (By the way, the scariest monsters are NEVER the ones that need lots of CGI. Steven Moffat clearly appreciates this.) Wait, River Song is about to die and the Doctor will spend their entire future relationship knowing how it ends? WHAM and double WHAM! And just for one final little blow, Donna’s husband from the virtual reality world spots her in real life... and can’t get past his stutter to call out her name. She walks out and never knows he’s there. WHAM.
My one, single, but major gripe is the contrived happy ending. It’s not that I’m a glutton for doom and gloom - I like a happy ending as much as the next person. But River Song’s life in the virtual reality world is just... such a cop-out. He hasn’t saved her, not really - living in a fake world populated by identical children isn’t my idea of heaven. On the other hand, it destroys the impact of the tragedy of River’s fate - turns out he doesn’t spend his life with her knowing how she dies, because now he’ll spend it knowing how he “saved” her... so just why does he cry the last time he sees her? And now, when the “end” does come, future writers of the show have a quick and easy way to bring her back to life. So much for tragedy.
1. Midnight
This episode is so completely unlike any other Doctor Who episode ever (okay, I haven’t seen the classic series, but somehow I’m pretty sure “psychological thriller” wasn’t a common feature). I mean... the companion barely features, the Doctor doesn’t save the day and we never see the monster. Also, in a series that had generally fallen on the idealistic side with regards to humans and what they are capable of, suddenly we have a very dark, very cynical viewpoint. And I love it.
But there’s more to this besides being “different”. The script is brilliant - so tense I was actually biting my nails the first time I watched it. And the acting is just phenomenal. David Tennant shines, of course - the sheer terror and anguish he manages to convey with his eyes alone is something to see. But major kudos also goes to Lesley Sharp, who plays Sky. The moment when she turns around, after being taken over by the... whatever-it-is... and the alien intelligence in her eyes... somehow, she manages to be even scarier than the Weeping Angels.