The Tuesday Top Ten: Doctor Who Episodes

In honor of the fact that I just attended my very first Gallifrey One, the Los Angeles Doctor Who convention, this past weekend, I decided to make a Doctor Who themed Tuesday Ten this week.

I swear, a blog post telling you alllll about my seriously awesome times at the con will be coming very soon. I’m hoping tomorrow but let’s not get too optimistic, shall we? I do have some exams this week.

Moving on though, because of Gallifrey One, I’m on a Doctor Who high right now.

Can I just say that it was really hard to narrow this down? And now I really want to go back and start watching some of the old school Doctor Who episodes, especially that of the 7th Doctor, because Sylvester McCoy was the funniest little British man alive. Hilarious.

Anyway, here are my top ten favorite Doctor Who episodes. Enjoy!

10. Vincent and the Doctor by Richard Curtis

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If you didn’t shed a tear while watching this episode, you are a heartless person. I ADORE this episode. One, I really like the period episodes. I like the ones where the Doctor goes back and time and meets someone famous like Charles Dickens or Shakespeare or Winston Churchill or Van Gogh. I love the history episodes. They are so much fun. Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists, though don’t hate me for being so cliche. (Renoir is my favorite, if you care haha). I think it was really cool to see Van Gogh as a person, a real person, and a person fighting a monster with the Doctor. You see some of his most celebrated paintings, almost as a casual thing, instead of behind some glass at a museum. Even though its fiction, it makes these people feel so real. And everyone had to have shed a tear when the Doctor and Amy show Vincent how much he means to the world nowadays and he just sobs. Its beautiful. Damn you, Richard Curtis. It’s not even fair…

9. Fires of Pompeii by James Moran and Russell T. Davies

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This is one of the earliest episodes of Donna Noble and its one of my favorites because it convinces you of her worth as a companion long before she’s convinced of it herself. I think Donna spends most of her series thinking how unimportant she is, how insignificant she is, but I never bought into that. I felt she was more important than she knew and it came from this episode. The Doctor is ready to book it out of Pompeii, letting the events unfold as they were meant to, and Donna is so determined to save everyone. She is so determined to make a difference, even if only a little bit. She’s strong in her own determination and she convinces the Doctor to save at least one familiy, and there aren’t a lot of people who can change the Doctor’s mind. Donna is my favorite companion and this episode really brings in the love for her. 

8. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances by Steven Moffat

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Okay this episode is one of my favorites because it is so damn creepy. I don’t like creepy little kids. I could do without them. Poltergeist is one of those movies that freaked the hell out of me because of that stupid creepy little girl. Anyway, I liked this episode because it kind of gave me the heeby jeebies and they kept sort of creeping up on me as more and more people grew these gas masks out of their faces. Let’s also add to this fact that its the first episode that we get to see the super charming, super awesome and extremely sexy Captain Jack Harkness. He is also one of my favorite Who characters and he comes swooping into the episode, dancing with Rose on top of an aerial in the sky next to Ben Ben. And I liked the resolution of this episode, that the little boy just wanted his mummy, that he was tearing apart the world just to find his mummy. So adorable…even after being fantasically creepy.

7. Doomsday by Russell T. Davies 

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Another absolutely heartbreaking moment in the Doctor Who world. Damn you, Russell T. Davies, damn you. We’ve spent the entire second series of the newer Doctor Who, rooting the Doctor and Rose on, just wanting them to be together, forever, traveling in the Tardis and just when you think its possible, that despite all the odds, they’re going to be together forever, they aren’t. They are ripped away from each other, sent to two completely different dimensions, two different worlds and they will never see each other again…as far as anyone knows. They get one last moment, on a bay in Norway, where they get to say their final goodbyes, which are just tear-inducing. Rose worships the Doctor, loves him, her entire existence had been wrapped around him, and now she has to say goodbye forever. And we finally get to see her tell him that she loves him and just seconds before you just KNOW he’s going to say it back…he fades and thats it. I was crying like crazy watching this episode…and then of course, a few minutes later, Donna Noble randomly appears in the Tardis and reminds us that the adventure is never really over.

6. Rose by Russell T. Davies

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I’m going to be completely honest right now: this is not one of the best Doctor Who episodes of all time. In fact, sometimes, when I go back and watch this, I find myself giggling a bit. Its just so bizarre and hilarious, this living plastic idea. The mobile mannequins just make me laugh; its so silly. But its one of my personal favorite episodes because its the first ever episode that we get to see of the new series and its the first ever episode I have seen of Doctor Who. Whether it is one of the best or not, it was good enough to keep me watching. It was enough that I continued to watch and finished six seasons in a matter of weeks. Its the episode that introduced me to a fandom that I never, ever want to leave. Its the episode where I first fell in love with the Doctor, where I first fell in love with Rose, and where I saw the Tardis for the first time. It was the first time and you know what they say…”you never forget your first Doctor”. Christopher Eccleston was my first Doctor and I will never ever forget :D

5. The Girl in the Fireplace by Steven Moffat 

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Again with the period pieces. I love the historical pieces and its probably because I am a history nerd. I think this an episode where we really get to see the human aspect of the Doctor. He watches the Madame de Pompadour grow up, her entire life, while it only takes him hours. She holds a very special place in his heart so fast, he wants to take her way in the Tardis, show her the universe and she dies before he can come back and do that. You can see the heartbreak on his face and its very human of him. He does feel, of course, but I think he forces himself to continue to move on, no matter what happens: when he regenerates, when he loses a companion. He is sad but he moves on. I think you can see his humanity in his quick attachment to Madame de Pompadour and his loss of her in this one episode. Plus its just a fun episode, the quick time travel through the portals, the history in the episode, the Doctor bursting through the portal on a horse. I love this episode.

4. The Eleventh Hour by Steven Moffat 

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This is one of my favorite episodes because there was so much lying on this episode. There isn’t just a new companion in this episode; there is a new Doctor, and TWO new companions. Its been awhile since David Tennant and Catherine Tate were in the Tardis, having adventures, as Journey’s End premiered in July of 2008 and Matt Smith’s first episode as the 11th Doctor hit the television in April of 2010. Plus David Tennant was such an amazing Doctor. It was huge shoes to fill..and for me, I moved on right away. I was on a David Tennant high. But this episode really was great, and completely sold me on Matt Smith as the Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams. It was a bit of new, showing the change since David Tennant and Russell T. Davies left, but it also remained that classic Who awesomeness, especially with the montage of all 11 Doctors. And they’re such an attractive trio :P

3. The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End by Russell T. Davies

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The biggest part of why this is one of my favorite episodes is because of everyone that comes together in this episode: The Doctor, Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Captain Jack Harkness, Donna Noble, Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith, Sarah Jane Smith…they’re all there and its beautiful. They all work together to save the day, to save the Earth and to bring it home. They all work together to defeat the Daleks. Its all of the favorite people in one place. But its also Rose reuniting with the Doctor and getting her happily ever after, even though its not quite the way anyone expected. Its the awesome moment where you see how many people love the Doctor, how many of them band together to help save the world, to help him. But its also a very sad moment when Donna becomes the most important woman in the universe, saves the day when no one else can and then she has to forget everything. She can’t remember all the amazing adventures she’s had and the amazing thing she’s done. And its one of the last episodes that David Tennant has as the Doctor and it holds a very special place in my heart.

2. The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang by Steven Moffat

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I think I have a love affair with Steven Moffat, because his episodes keep appearing…and I love this double episode because of everything that sort of happens in this. I love that all these episodes of this series sort of culminate into one. Some of the seasons just have these standalone episodes and end in a different story and some don’t, like in series two with Bad Wolf or Donna with her importance, her coincidences and all that. I like that the end of series 5 ends with all the events of the season coming together in one important story. Things are happening because of this points of time all over time, and I just love how it all comes together. I love that this is the moment when we see the Doctor with his fez, a very iconic moment in the Who moments, I love that we finally see Amy and Rory married. And it holds one of my favorite moments ever, when Amy is at her wedding and she is remembering the Doctor, and by remembering the Doctor, she brings him back…and as the Tardis is appearing, she says the old wedding saying “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” and its an absolutely perfect way to describe the Tardis.

1. Blink by Steven Moffat

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Damn you, Steven Moffat, again, but this time not for the heartbreak but for creating one of the scariest monsters of all time. So simple, this angel statues, but still one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen in a movie or a tv show. I  think Carey Mulligan is absolutely adorable as Sally Sparrow in this episode; I almost wished she could’ve been a permanent companion in some aspect. I say they bring her back. Its a fun episode, even though the Doctor is only in the episode in the form of easter eggs on DVDs but the story is great and the Angels are super scary and they introduce a fan favorite villian that appears several more times. The Weeping Angels are my favorite bad guy of the series and so this makes this episode my favorite because Steven Moffat does a great, great job of introducing them so that every time that you see them again, you know to be afraid.

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What are some of your favorite Doctor Who episodes? Let me know below!

2 thoughts on “The Tuesday Top Ten: Doctor Who Episodes

  1. Kimberly says:

    Oh my goodness. I agree 100% with your choices! I’m practically in tears reading your summaries and reasons they are your favorites. I’d add Tooth and Claw, School Reunion, Shakespeare Code, Human Nature/Family of Blood, Partners in Crime (if anything for that pantomimed reunion between the Doctor and Donna!), Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, Turn Left, The Lodger, A Christmas Carol, Impossible Astronaut (part of my love for those episodes come from the fact they were filmed here in Utah) The Doctor’s Wife, Let’s Kill Hitler, Closing Time. As well as basically every episode from season 7.

    Oh heavens. That’s a lot of episodes. But I just love them so much!

    Oh, and can I just say I’m an incredibly envious you got to go to Gallifrey One?? I tried for Comic Con tickets this year and their stupid server crashed and I didn’t get tickets. :/

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