The Official Site of Doug Lee

My Ten Favorite Episodes of Doctor Who

2011-05-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

Hi, it's me again. This is my blog, I think? I know I keep saying I want to turn this into more of a tumblr style blog, but this is something I need to get out of the way. I'd officially like to call myself a Doctor Who fan. In particular, a New Who fan, which I'm sure annoys some people. I'd like to consider myself an Old Who fan too, but I've only seen a handful of episodes of Old Who, with very little context (i.e., without the help of those wonderful DVDs with the extensive commentaries and documentaries), though I'm definitely willing to give them a chance. For awhile, I'm not sure I was a Doctor Who fan, rather, I thought maybe I was just a fan of Christopher Eccleston, I'm finally willing to admit it to myself though.

I spend a lot of time these days on Doctor Who, my Stepdad and I have weekly get together's to watch the latest episode, I listen to several Doctor Who related podcasts and spend quite a bit of time on NeoGAF, in the Doctor Who thread. I do my best to stay spoiler free and it works to my advantage pretty well. So, with that in mind, for the reason that I'm writing this blog, I want to write down and discuss a bit my favorite ten episodes of Doctor Who. For a little context, I've seen one episode of the First Doctor, two episodes of the Second Doctor, working on an episode of the Third Doctor as I write this and then, I've seen everything from the 2005 series on.

As I hinted at before, my favorite Doctor is the Ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston. While I love things that David Tennant did as the Tenth Doctor and I'm currently really loving Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, as it is for many Who fans, my favorite Doctor is the first one I saw. A combination of GAF and my Stepdad telling me about Doctor Who is what made me want to check out the series to begin with and I have to admit, the first episode of the relaunch, save for one scene, it didn't really grab me. It wasn't until the second episode, The End of the World, that I really started to latch onto the show.

So what is it about Who that grabs me so much? It's really simple, I've said it once and I'll say it hundreds of times again if I need to, but I love being told stories. In any medium. Films, Music, Television, Video Games, Podcasts, Radio Dramas, whatever your choice of medium is, sit me down and tell me a great story and I'll love you for it. I feel like these days, the opportunity that we have to tell original stories, with the countless amount and popularity of the reality television shows we have on now, that the medium of television is slowly fading away from telling stories. Or, if it's not reality, it's one of the dozens of Cop, Doctor (hah!) or Lawyer shows that are on television (not to disparage all of these shows, there a handful out there that are compelling).

So what grabs me about Who? No matter what the episode is or how much I like it, because I stay spoiler free, I'm always surprised about what the show is. It could be a horror show one week, a comedy show the next week or human drama the following week. I love being taken on that journey. I love sitting down one week and seeing (and the following examples will not be appearing on this list); The Satan Pit (horror), The Lodger (comedy) or Human Nature (drama). I love that Who is rarely the same thing recycled and I love that every couple of years, regardless of whether we like the new Doctor, that we'll have someone new who brings that new element to the show that wasn't there before. Anyway, enough with the babbling, let's get to the good stuff!

10. The Impossible Astronaut (2011)

This is the first of two episodes that I'm weary of putting on this list, because it's so fresh and I'm of course, real high on it because it's so fresh. Now, I stayed spoiler free for this, avoiding the big semi-reveal on DWM and so, well, I won't spoil it for anybody here (or the other 2011 episode), but the above scene shocked me like crazy. I love the Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey (which will annoy Moffat, of course) aspect of the show now. I love that it can blow your mind one minute, reassure you the next, terrify you the next moment and make you tear up the next. The Impossible Astronaut does all of these things, while being wonderfully acted. This cast is clicking together so well now and everyone fits so well into their roles, it's rare to have this kind of chemistry on a show. It helped that this was the first official episode that I got to sit down and watch the week it premiered (A Christmas Carol was the first). It helps to be in the moment with this show, to sit down and be able to theorize about what's to come. The part where I'm slightly weary of putting this episode on the list, is I bet a big part of the context of this episode will depend on how the season plays out. This list is all about what I loved though and this episode had me on the edge of my seat the entire time, so it deserves some respect.

9. The Doctor Dances (2005)

It's amazing to me, that as big of a fan of movies and television that I am, as many times as I had to of seen the guy before, that going into the 2005 season of Doctor Who, that I had no idea who Christopher Eccleston was. Getting to sit down, about a year or so ago and getting to watch through the entirety of the Ninth Doctor's story, consuming it like I did, was such a joy. I love when actor's embody a role completely, becoming that character. Again, as much as I love David Tennant and Matt Smith, Eccleston is on a whole different level for me as The Doctor. I'm going to borrow from a conversation they had on The Flashing Blade Podcast, but I love how you can tell Eccleston decided at some point, who this person was that he was playing and yeah, you have to give some credit to Steven Moffat here for writing about it, but credit has to mainly go to Eccleston for pulling off the depth that the Ninth Doctor has.

What I'm mainly talking about here, is the "Everybody lives!" moment. This is a Doctor that has been through war, that made a decision to wipe out not only his race, but the race of his main advesary, the Dalek's. He's living with the consequences of that decision and Eccleston pulls that off so wonderfully, but that moment. Dat. Moment. The moment where he just inhabits the pure joy of being able to save everyone, just this one time. Again, to borrow from The Flashing Blade Podcast, David Tennant and Matt Smith are wonderful actors, but they're acting and you can see it. They're great actors. Eccleston is more believable though, you can feel the weight that he carries with him. You can feel the joy of "Everybody lives!" It all just feels real with him.

I've said all of this and failed to mention this is the wonderful story that is still part of the introduction to Captain Jack Harkness and The Empty Child. There's the wonderful moment where The Doctor does indeed dance with Rose and while I loved the romantic relationship of the Tenth Doctor and Rose, I feel like Billie Piper had better chemistry with Eccleston and again, it was multi-layered, there was a hint of romanticism there, a hint of paternal love, friendship and even a bit of a mentor relationship. Major props to Billie Piper for playing the role of the audience while still building the character, the joy on her face when she gets to travel to a new place is something I don't think the other new companions have done as well.

8. Amy's Choice (2010)

I loved the Russell T. Davies era of Who. I can admit, it had ups and downs and I have different opinions than other Who fans do about what was good and what was bad (I uh, kinda liked Love & Monsters, at least conceptually). At times though, the show tended to be a little juvenile, such as the blowjob sidewalk stuff from the aforementioned Love & Monsters or the farting in the Series One two parter about World War Three. The Moffat era manages to, while still being family friendly, be a little mature. By that I mean, it doesn't talk down to it's audience. It wants you to pay attention and Amy's Choice is a perfect example of what I'm talking about.

The Dream Lord character, is just so fascinating. I love episodes of the show like this (again, why I liked Love & Monsters conceptually, because it examines The Doctor from another viewpoint). I love that twist, of how the aspects of The Dream Lord are different aspects of The Doctor. I love how the episode doesn't hit you over the head with that, it just expects that you'll click on to that. This episode is really where I bought into Amy and Rory too. It kind of seemed like they didn't know what to do with Amy up until this point, like they didn't know if they wanted to specifically make her a romantic interest for The Doctor like Rose. The episode really drew me into those two character stories though and made me care about what happened to them later down the line.

I love the different storylines in this episode and trying to figure out which is real or if any of it is or if it even matters which one is real. This is also the episode where I really started to appreciate the new look of the show. The above shot of the Tardis, spinning and freezing slowly next to the cold star is just some beautiful cinematography. I don't know what they've done to the show, if it has indeed gotten a boost in budget due to the collaboration with BBC America or if they bought new HD cameras or whatever it is, the show just looks so much better than it used to and that shot kind of exemplifies that.

7. Midnight (2008)

It turns out that this list is heavy on Steven Moffat stuff, not surprisingly for a New Who fan, whether it be his era of who or an episode he wrote himself, so this is the episode I wanted to use to really appreciate not only David Tennant, but Russell T. Davies as well. We'll start with the latter, because I think, at least among GAF, his era tends to have a lot of negativity. Whether it is the deus ex machina endings to each series, or the silliness of things like Love & Monsters, whatever reason there is, it seems like the hate has largely fallen on him. I don't think that's entirely fair. Yeah, I was let down after the awesome build-up of Utopia like many and the over reliance of Dalek's, but this episode I think points to the fact that Davies was and could be a great writer.

I'm a big fan of one-setting stories (shout out to Alfred Hitchcock's Rope for a great example of this) and that is largely what Midnight is. It all takes place on a sort of space train, that is traveling through a planet called Midnight, which is, not surprisingly, in a state of perpetual midnight. On this train, a creature appears who inhabits you. So at this point you're thinking, great, yet another remake of The Thing? You're on the right track, so what the creature does, is it starts out mimicking you. What at first is nothing but an annoyance, slowly makes way for horror as the creature starts to match what you say as you say it. Finally, it begins to anticipate what you're going to say before you can say it, completing the process of inhabiting you.

Come on, that's a brilliant concept and Russell T. Davies completely pulls it off. It's reasons like this that I love Doctor Who. This is just not a story I was expecting to see, especially in the midst of the Donna season of Who, which I have to admit, was my least favorite of the era. That just speaks to how strongly I feel of this episode though. Tennant is amazing in the episode though and you see a lot of different aspects of the Tenth Doctor here. You see his joy at being on the train, the joy of traveling, of being with people and Davies even starts to lay a bit of the groundwork here of the Tenth Doctor's arrogance. This isn't my favorite performance of Tennant's, but I just wanted to have an episode on here where he shines and that was written well, that wasn't a Moffat episode and I can't think of a better one than Midnight.

6. The Girl in the Fireplace (2006)

Speaking of Tennant, this was the episode that sold me on the Tenth Doctor. Series Two was a bit of a shock to me and this is something I'm sure every Who fan has experienced, but it's that period of time where you learn to live without your Doctor. I still had Rose, so there was that something to hold onto for the opening parts of Season Two, but Tennant played the role so differently from Eccleston, that I hadn't latched onto him yet. No surprise that it's Moffat that brought me around to him though.

The episode brought up an interesting aspect of The Doctor to me and it's something they tried to play with three episodes earlier in School Reunion, but it didn't really click to me until here. That aspect, is that The Doctor gets kind of bored with his companions. Here, he has Rose, kind of the first companion he loves, yet he largely ignores her for the bulk of this episode in favor of Reinette. For some reason, that really clicked with me here, The Doctor likes the newer, shinier thing, even when he has something that he loves. It helps that I bought into the chemistry between David Tennant and Sophia Myles far more than Tennant and Billie Piper (not surprising, for those not in the know Tennant and Myles dated).

That relationship though is what makes this episode great. The clockwork killers are fine and all, but the acting of David Tennant and Sophia Myles and the chemistry between the two, as well as the writing of The Doctor and Reinette is what sales this episode. Again, it's amazing that in an episode that is largely character drama between two characters, that you can have so many different aspects in it, with the clockwork killers adding a horror aspect to the show. Moffat is great at that, weaving several genres together and making it feel cohesive and natural.

5. The Doctor's Wife (2011)

Here is the second episode that I should feel slightly iffy about putting on this list, especially this high up the list, seeing as how this episode is only two weeks old at this point. In a season that has baffled, surprised, terrified and confused me, it was great to be reminded what exactly it is, why it is that I love this show. In many ways this is the ultimate episode of Doctor Who.

WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, slow down there, I'm sure you're saying. Well, I'm not going to. And I can say that, having only watched this episode once, where most of the rest of the episodes on this list I've seen more than once. That's how much I love this episode though. I'm fairly confident this episode, no matter how this season turns out, could only go up higher on the list and maybe eventually in time, become my favorite episode of Doctor Who and it's all credit to Neil Gaiman, who wrote this episode.

I'm a pretty big fan of Gaiman's, even before having seen this episode. I've read and loved; American Gods, Coraline and Neverwhere. I love his imagination and that even though each of his stories are distinctly written in his voice, they all feel different from one another. I just recently started on Sandman, which is just as incredible as the hype would lead you to believe. Again, I've remained fairly spoiler free, so I knew Neil Gaiman was writing an episode of Doctor Who, but was delighted to find out a week ago, as I sat down with my Stepdad, to find out that this was the episode that Gaiman had written. You want to know why I love Doctor Who? Watch this episode. Everything I love about Doctor Who is encapsulated in it.

4. The Empty Child (2005)

If this list has the effect that I intend for it to have and you go and watch these episodes and your intention is to watch these in the order I've listed them, watch this episode before you watch The Doctor Dances. This is the first part of that and all of the set up is here. I'll sort of repeat myself here and repraise the stuff I've already praised. It was at this point in my Who fandom that I learned that Who can be scary. I knew that it had tried before in The Unquiet Dead (a pretty good episode that deals with themes I talked about before regarding the Ninth Doctor and his guilt), but this was the first episode that chilled me.

The scary episodes of Doctor Who never make me look around the room, wanting to make sure my doors and windows are locked, but it's the ideas and the way they convey them that send shivers down my spine. Take for instance The Empty Child. The concept is simple, you have a being that resembles a child, in a gas mask walking around war torn 1941's London terrorizing the neighborhood. Right there, I'm hooked! The execution of the story (and the eventual resolution) just works so well though.

Again, I'm pretty spoiler free, so coming into this episode, while I'd heard of the series Torchwood before, I had no idea who Captain Jack Harkness was and what his eventual relationship to Torchwood would become and he, brought to life by the fantastic John Barrowman, was such a great addition to a series that I was already completely hooked on. I love the mystery behind the character here and I love the chemistry between not only him and Billie Piper, but between him and Christopher Eccleston as well. Just so I don't leave her out, Florence Hoath as Nancy is amazing. I was watching this my on my second viewing with Britt and she guessed the plot twist, but I don't think guessing the plot twist takes anything away from the story. This is just an amazing story though, both parts combined that brings out some of the best aspects of who. It's beautifully acted by all involved and wonderfully written by Steven Moffat.

3. The Parting of the Ways (2005)

I've just recently learned that this episode, as wrap-up of the Bad Wolf storyline, is disliked by other Who fans. I'm not going to lie, that completely baffles me. So here I was in my Who fandom, I had liked some episodes, hated others and loved a few here and there. I was frustrated with another show about some people on an island at the time for how it chose to wrap up it's series (though it went out with a bang) all the while loving a single performance and really liking a couple of others. I had sat through farting alien babies and I was ready to see how this wrapped up. At this point, I was aware that the second season of Doctor Who had a different star, with no thanks to the cover art on Netflix.

How did it resolve itself for me? Which leads me back to being flabbergasted at why people don't like the resolution of everything that Series One of Doctor Who had built. The frustration and animosity The Doctor had built toward the Dalek's, Rose's journey, the mystery of Captain Jack all led to this episode and I was amazed at how well everything tied into a bow. I think maybe people anticipated that Bad Wolf was something else, maybe something having to do with another part of the canon of Doctor Who, something like Utopia for instance. For me, Series One was always about The Doctor and Rose and their relationship. So I bought into it completely.

As I said earlier, I loved the Ninth Doctor and Christopher Eccleston's performance so much, that when this episode was over, I didn't know if I wanted to watch any more Doctor Who. Thankfully, I decided to, I did have that moment though, where I had lost my Doctor, that moment that all fans have, where I just didn't know if I wanted to bother with the series any more. The scene where the Ninth Doctor says good-bye to Rose? Amazing. I think I can pretty much leave it here, but I'll always look back fondly on this Series and the resolution of the Ninth Doctor and how, through Rose, he found the redemption he had been searching for.

2. Blink (2007)

Which leads me to Blink. Surprise! Another Steven Moffat story! As I just said, after series one, I almost had myself convinced I was done with Doctor Who. So I cheated a bit here. I went online, trying very carefully not to be spoiled, but wanting to look for an episode to prove one thing to me. That thing is, what can Doctor Who be, without Christopher Eccleston in the role. I wasn't quite ready to jump into the history of the show and check out some of the Fourth Doctor's adventures (though now I'm so giddy with anticipation to get there), but most of the signs pointed to Blink. So I jumped from Series One (after re-watching it with Britt) to Blink.

I don't know how Moffat does it, but I love it so much. Blink is a self contained, almost Doctor-less story about a girl called Sally Sparrow and something called The Weeping Angels. That's all I really want to talk about the plot, as I don't want to spoil anything. This episode is so incredible though and knowing that this is what Doctor Who could be, is what made me become a fan of Doctor Who. He's not there often, but every moment The Doctor is on screen is incredible and Tennant just knocks it out of the park. The real stars of this story though are Carey Mulligan, seen above, as the aforementioned Sally Sparrow and Steven Moffat's incredible, mind bending writing. Let's tackle the first of those.

As I said, I love when actor's provide amazing performances, completely inhabiting a role and that's exactly what Carey Mulligan does here. Of everything Who that I've seen, this is my second favorite performance. I would watch a Sally Sparrow show, even if it was just about her and Larry Nightingale selling DVDs. The character is so rich and Carey Mulligan brings such a nuanced performance to it, that it's such a shame that this was a one-off story. She's completely amazing, right from the opening scene.

Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey, indeed Mr. Moffat. As we would later see when he became show runner, Moffat is such a genius at weaving his stories together. There's not a single wasted moment in this script. Everything you learn means something or has a payoff. I didn't want to just throw adjectives on this list for these episodes, but I have to here. It's scary, funny, confusing, amazing, incredible, heart-breaking all at once. So Blink was that proof of concept to me. Here, we have an episode that is self contained. If you're not a fan of Doctor Who and you haven't seen Blink yet, this is the one episode I would hand to people and suggest they watch. If you don't love Blink, you won't love Doctor Who.

1. Dalek (2005)

It had to be this. Seriously. I love Blink to death and it's one of the most amazing hours of television that I've ever seen. Without this episode though, I wouldn't be sitting here writing this. I liked The End of the World and The Unquiet Dead. Not enough to continue watching the show after The Aliens of London/World War Three though. Those are episodes are so bad, so boring, that this was the last shot for Doctor Who for me when I sat down to watch it. Believe it or not, I was so ignorant of Doctor Who at this point, I had no idea what a Dalek was. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

To get the actual episode out of the way and it's an amazing episode to be sure, it taught me how much history Doctor Who has and made me curious about the relationship between the Doctor and the Dalek's. The stuff with the Dalek and Rose is great, blah de blah de blah. Whatever. This episode is all about Christopher Eccleston. That depth he put into the Ninth Doctor I was talking about earlier? This is where it's at. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but I have to talk about the scene where The Doctor meets the Dalek. I get shivers and the hair on the back of my neck stands up just thinking about it. It's one of the single greatest performances I've ever seen.

The amount of emotion that Christopher Eccleston puts into that encounter, the rage, the pain is what makes it so sad, though I'm sure it's part of why, he's not going to do the role any longer, even in a guest-spot-Five-Doctors kind of way. I really believe he's done with the role, but this performance is award worthy and the fact that I hadn't heard of this, until I sat down to watch it, makes me sad in that this performance is not better known and yet happy I did all at the same time. It's such a nuanced performance though, it's not showy like it easily could be. You can tell that Eccleston put himself through the ringer for this one. I thank him so, so much for it, like I said, without this performance in this episode, I wouldn't be sitting here writing this list. It's that good.

2011-04-23T19:28:00.001-07:00

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2011-04-17T22:06:00.003-07:00

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2011-04-17T22:06:00.001-07:00

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My Ten Favorite Episodes of Doctor Who

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