It is nearly that time again, kiddos. Doctor Who Series 9 is upon us, with new episodes starting September 19th. Within the Fraser household, prep-mode is in full swing. Biscuits, tea, coffee, and boxed snacks are being stocked while the cable is renewed and verified twice. After all that hustling about, there is only one way to keep the Whovian spirits up when one is finally sitting down: to recap the last season or watch your favorite episodes of all time. I found surprisingly that I am largely a Moffat fan, even prior to the departure of Russel T. Davies from the series. That makes me wonder if I’m a tad morbid. However, if you’ll indulge me, as a brief introduction to myself and this blog, I would like to share my Top Ten Doctor Who episodes from 2005 to present.
There are a large amount of factors that go into choosing your top ten. The most important two I find are: Is it memorable? Did I, the viewer, emotionally connect with the story? Obviously, when you watch a serial, you must connect somehow, be it through excitement, intrigue, fear, or another emotion. With a time travelling alien from outer-space, there has to be some humanity that keeps you going. As a writer, I tend to go for story-line more than anything and shun episodes that feel too “Monster-of-the-Day”, a term coined for expendable, forgettable minions. Without further ado, I shall present the best, most gripping episodes to date.
10. Dark Water/Death In Heaven (s8:e11 & e12)
After Clara nearly betrays The Doctor, they journey to the Afterlife to find Danny. There they discover Missy, a female incarnation of The Master, has been keeping them together this whole time and has made a Cyberman army of the dead. While Clara playing at being The Doctor in these episodes was really a good show, the character who really made these episodes worth-while was none other than Missy. The new series had brought back The Master before, but the last rendition was found wanting. The idea of The Doctor’s longtime nemesis coming back as some sort of evil Mary Poppins was inspired. As she twirled around the screen, even floating down on an umbrella at one point, she had just the right amount of comedy, sadism, and brutal honesty required to unhinge The Doctor on screen. In the end, despite all of her maniacal, yet lucid showmanship, her rational for destroying earth and making a Cyber-army is the saddest, most simple thing: It is The Doctor’s birthday and she just wants her friend (The Doctor) back in her life.
9. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances (s1:e9 &e10)
This was actually a two episode dalliance in World War II England, where The Doctor and Rose meet Captain Jack Harkness for the first time and unravel the mystery and terror behind… The Gas Mask Boy. To some it may sound silly, but these episodes were truly terrifying. With a dreadful, questioning chant of “Are you my mummy?”, the gas mask boy terrorized London’s streets during the Blitz, turning passersby and some good natured people into his minions with a mere touch. During Eccleson’s brief tenure, he shined through as ever the optimist, hoping in the end once the mystery was solved that everything would happen for the best. It is one of the few times in Doctor Who where everyone truly does win, no deaths occurred.
8. The Girl in the Fireplace (s2:e4)
A brief romance for The Doctor, a long lived one for Madame de Pompadour, The Doctor and companions fight a ship full of crazed repair robots who are using human parts to fix their ship. The robots are also honing in on Madame de Pompadour, waiting for her to be “complete” for the harvesting. Using time windows, The Doctor pops in and out of her life, rescuing her throughout her life, though for him it is only one day. After the defeat of the crazed robots, he promises to take her on his Tardis as a new companion, but when he returns, he is too late. A sad episode, this is a perfect example of companion’s lives when The Doctor gets involved.
7. The Doctor’s Daughter (s4:e6)
Donna, Martha, and The Doctor are unwittingly whisked off by the Tardis to a planet where a colony of Hath (fish people) and humans have been long fighting a war. Upon arrival, the human soldiers force The Doctor’s hand into a progenitor machine, which makes a girl soldier who is derived of his own genetics and therefore, a Time Lady. The Doctor rejects her as his child and a Gallifreyan, calling her a genetic anomaly. Donna then gives her the name Jenny based off of this. Jenny was a brilliant character, good natured and cheerful in spite of circumstances compared to Tennant’s dark and moody personality throughout. His rejection of her and later acceptance reflected his own self-deprecation which was interesting to watch. I hope they bring her back in later episodes, however, this seems unlikely.
6. Waters of Mars (2009 special)
In what can only be seen as Tennant’s darkest moment, The Doctor, all alone after his loss of Donna, goes on a trip to Mars and, despite all his protests and attempts at leaving, gets swept into a terrifying, death riddled escapade. The monster of this episode is akin to John Carpenter’s The Thing, being merely microbes in the water, turning the Mars mission’s crew black mouthed and alien. While it may sound like The Doctor couldn’t resist this one, it turns out that the Mars mission was a fixed point. What truly made the episode was the horror the viewer experiences at the end. The Doctor always travels with a companion for a reason, to keep him level. Here, we see him as anything but.
5. The Doctor’s Wife (s6:e4)
Neil Gaiman guest wrote this wonderful piece, weaving a story of The Doctor and his Tardis on a human level. The dialogue, clearly Gaiman’s style, was quick, believable interaction and a tad sly at times. The character he gave to the Tardis, portrayed by Suranne Jones, was moving and witty. With comments such as, “Biting is like kissing, except there’s a winner,” and her insesant poking at The Doctor, Smith and Jones seem like a wedded couple on screen, showing just how much The Doctor and his Tardis complete each other. This episode succeeded in beng a beautiful side love story of The Doctor and his Tardis as well as giving clues to events during the sixth series.
4. Asylum of the Daleks (s6:e1)
Talk about an unexpected turn, this episode hit on two fronts. The first was the main plot, The Doctor and companions invading the Dalek asylum trying to restore order. His only guide was a girl called Oswin who’d been trapped there for quite some time, baking souffles. She wound him through the labyrinth to save her and to restore order, growing close to The Doctor the whole time. The surprise ending was terrifying and unprecedented, leaving me with my mouth open and heart broken. The second front was that of Rory and Amy, who’s love story spanned an entire two seasons. We find them in the midst of a divorce, which was surprising. Their reasons only prove that they should stick together, but the mere thought of their separation was a little earth shaking.
3. Vincent and The Doctor (s5:e10)
After seeing a figure in a Van Gogh painting, The Doctor and Amy go on an escapade to meet and assist Vincent Van Gogh in the defeat of a monster. While hurried, The Doctor’s meeting with and showing the future to Van Gogh is one of the things I have always wanted to do, in the event I ever had a time machine. Van Gogh was a tortured soul in life and showing him how loved he was, how people came from around the world to appreciate his work, made him light up. Though it did not help in the long run, it still mattered to him.
2. The Wedding of River Song (s6:e13)
I will say that, if I had the audacity, I would have written every single River and Doctor episode down here. Their romance made me weep, the idea of loving each other so intensely and being at a constant cross in paths, literally being star crossed lovers. While borne from a mission of destruction, River says it best, “Take a child, raise her into the perfect psychopath, introduce her to the Doctor. Who else was I going to fall in love with?” The first episode The Doctor meets her is her last day alive, and her first time meeting him is her own birth. Its a beautiful, slightly twisted life they weave. This episode in particular made me weep. This season lead up all along to The Doctor’s apparent death at the hands of his beloved, and instead of go through with it, River pulls a slick one and instead collapses time. The lengths she goes to avoid this fixed point quite literally ends the world, and she attempts anything and everything to avoid having to go through with the murder, to the point where her only out is to send a distress signal to every race that is willing to help The Doctor. Here in this episode is the most beautifully composed monologue about The Doctor and River’s love for him. Tear-jerker.
1. The Time of The Doctor (2013 special)
The number one episode was a struggle. The Time of The Doctor was in a hard tie with End of Time Part 2, an episode not listed here. Both being death/change of actor episodes and phenomenal performances from both Tennant and Smith, the decision came down to how the episode played out. The story is told from the perspective of Clara and Tasha Lem, head of the papal mainframe, as The Doctor defends the town called Christmas and his own home world through a crack in time. It shows The Doctor come out truly victorious against the Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, and more foes from the past. He teams up with The Silence just to save this town and fights his nature to run on more than one occasion. In the end, the thing that gets him is old age, surprising everyone. His final performance, Smith plays it out to the bitter end at full throttle. If there’s one thing Smith’s Doctor has got, it is emotion and he goes through the range. At the death of Handles and in his final monologue, he had me in tears!
Overall, it tends to be a weep-a-thon for me, somewhere finding myself between boxes of kleenex and a pint of ice cream. I also do love the River chronology and, yes, I have watched the episodes through in her order. They were just as distressing. What do you think? Is there an episode I missed or should have picked! Do not hesitate to let me know! I look forward to reviewing the new season for you.
