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Top ten New Who episodes.
inspector drake
Posts: 910 Forum Member
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Hi all.
I have just finished rewatching the whole of New Who (as well as some of the later classics), and I want to know what everyone thinks are the top 10 episodes of the revived series. I will add mine later on.
I have just finished rewatching the whole of New Who (as well as some of the later classics), and I want to know what everyone thinks are the top 10 episodes of the revived series. I will add mine later on.
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This is my list. It's not in any particular order:
•Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways
•The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit
•Midnight
•Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
•The Impossible Astranaut/Day of the Moon
•The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
•Army of Ghosts/Doomsday
•The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone
•Aliens of London/World War Three
•Daleks in Manhattan/Eveloution of the Daleks
- Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways
- The Girl in the Fireplace
- Army of Ghosts/Doomsday
- Blink
- Midnight
- The Stolen Earth/Journey's End
- The Eleventh Hour
- The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone
- The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
- The Day of the Doctor
I can justify my choices if anyone likes
9)Dalek
8)Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
7)The Name of the Doctor
6)Human Nature/The Family of Blood
5)Midnight
4)Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways
3)The Day of the Doctor
2)Blink
1)The Time of the Doctor
ROSE: Because it was the very first Doctor Who episode since that film!
DALEK: The return of the evil aliens - and they can "Elevate" !!
THE EMPTY CHILD: Spooky...oooer - and we got Captain Jack!
BOOM TOWN: Nice to see them all chilling out...and along comes 'Blon...'
SCHOOL REUNION: Ahh Sarah Jane! Says it all really! Never liked K9!!
RISE OF THE CYBERMEN: The return of my favourite monsters. Bit clunky, but good.
DOOMSDAY: Tissues at hand - but it was also the first conflict between the Daleks and Cybermen! Weren't the Cybermen quite wimpy??? Shoot them with a pop-gun and they would go down!!
HUMAN NATURE: Dr John Smith at his best, and those creepy Scarecrows. Lovely story from start to finish!
BLINK: Brilliant time-travel aspect to this! Cleverly done!
ANYTHING WITH CATHERINE TATE: Sorry - couldn't choose the last one! She was great in them all!!:):):)
1 - Human Nature/The Family of Blood
2 - Army of Ghosts/Doomsday
3 - Blink
4 - Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways
5 - The Girl in the Fireplace
6 - The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
7 - Asylum of the Daleks
8 - The Girl Who Waited
9 - The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
10 - Silence in the Library/The Forest of the Dead
Ask me tomorrow or the next day likely to be a bit different, I am always finding new things to love about new who stories
Rose
Fathers Day
Bad Wolf/Parting Of The Ways
School Reunion
Army Of Ghosts/Doomsday
Utopia (Prob my fav)
Fires Of Pompeii
Turn Left
End Of Time
Vincent & The Doctor
Hard to do only ten!
For the sake of context...
11 - The Unquiet Dead (S1), 12 - The Crimson Horror (S7), 13 - Tooth and Claw (S2), 14 - Planet of the Ood (S4), 15 - Gridlock (S3), 16 - The Girl Who Waited (S6), 17 - A Town Called Mercy (S7), 18 - Vincent and the Doctor (S5), 19 - Father's Day (S1), 20 - Let's Kill Hitler (2013 S)
10 - Dalek (Series 1)
This was my introduction to the Daleks, unless you count that KitKat advert from many years back! It was a brilliant story and a clever way of introducing the Daleks to a whole new generation.
09 - The Beast Below (Series 5)
Many would say I've gone mad for including this one, but for some reason I absolutely love it! This is despite loathing it the first time I saw it - I think it was the unusual feel to the episode as we settled into the Moffat era, whilst The Eleventh Hour had carefully retained many elements of the RTD era. I just really like the story here, and the only shame is that we haven't had a further adventure on Starship UK. I love the concept, and Liz 10 is brilliant too!
08 - The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit (Series 2)
This was really innovative stuff in my opinion, and is quite underrated - or at least largely forgotten. Part of the power of the story lies in the thought-provoking villain, who even by the end doesn't get wholly explained - but as a creative decision, not because the story was too crammed already (ahem, Silence, Big Bang). I think some more interaction with The Beast would have made this a classic, as the teases of psychological insight we get to the characters is second-to-none, even by Doctor Who's standards. It's the closest we've come to having a proper mind game story I feel... and no, I'm not including the abysmal Nightmare in Silver from Series 7 - that has nothing on this!
07 - The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances (Series 1)
That image of a spaceship tethered to Big Ben in the middle of the Blitz... one of the most striking in Doctor Who history. It's very much the feel of the story as a whole with its creepy gas-mask child, it's authentic war setting and array of brilliant characters. Moffat always delivered the plot whilst overseer-RTD delivered the heart. Never was that more evident than here in a fantastic story that has such a happy ending, it'll likely be revered as the highlight of the Eccleston era, and quite rightly so.
06 - Midnight (Series 4)
The fourth series was so strong, and I loved Catherine Tate as Donna to pieces. A shame she's not in this one as it means she has such a small presence in my top ten despite being my favourite companion. I guess that in itself is a testament to the quality of Midnight, which I actually prefer to the previous annual-creepfest-entry that was Blink. Whilst the angels were an interesting concept and good at making you jump, it's not quite so much fun when you know where the jumps are. Midnight isn't at all about jumps, but in its own way its big on scares. It's eerie, it's character-driven, and it's claustrophobic. Everyone involved gives a sublime performance and there is so much going on between all the characters it's definitely worth a rewatch!
05 - Asylum of the Daleks (Series 7)
In Nu-Who the Daleks were always arguably at their best in Series 1. Whilst by Series 7 their simple chill-factor had been diminished, AotD offered up some new ideas for them that will hopefully be exploited more in future. From little details such as how the New Paradigm Daleks have become integrated into the background of the Dalek 'community' (they'd better not just phase them out!) to the shock revelations that Oswin is actually a Dalek, and is actually dead, and is actually the girl we'll come to know as Clara... this was just a load of fun. It had a fair few problems along the way (the Amy infertility plot was so typically Moffat - I really don't care, because you write it in and are done with it in less than five minutes. It develops your also-stupid divorce plot, rather than actually developing your characters!) but it was Daleks, opening a series, on Skaro! It felt a real treat, and a highlight of the very uneven Series 7.
04 - A Christmas Carol (Series 6)
The only Christmas special I feel is worthy to be on this list, there is something simply brilliant about it! A Christmas Carol has always been part of my annual Christmas line-up whether it be with Muppets, Mickey, Jim Carrey or Patrick Stewart. It's so nice to see Doctor Who get one, sort of. Michael Gambon delivered a sterling performance here, and Katherine Jenkins delivered a beautiful acting and singing performance. Matt Smith was perfect here though - not yet being overly written as a caricature like he was later on and not as uneven as earlier on either. If there was ever a Doctor who was more at home in a world of Christmas, it's the Eleventh...as this weird but wonderful story proved!
03 - The Doctor's Wife (Series 6)
One of the few stories that really sounds like it'd be awful fanfiction on the tin, but it was done with a lot of heart - something you won't hear me say particularly often about the Moffat era. If Blink was the novelty special of the RTD era I suspect this might be the equivelent in the Moffat era. Suranne Jones was brilliantly cast...as the TARDIS no less! That sentence alone absolutely sums up why this episode deserves such a high position.
02 - The Stolen Earth/Journey's End (Series 4)
It is the first part of this story that carries and deserves the victory of holding 2nd place. Journey's End was plagued with a lot of issues that probably actually make it one of the most disappointing conclusions in a lot of ways. What didn't help was the immense strength of the first part. We had en masse Daleks attacking contemporary Earth, which not only gave us the first formiddable Daleks since the first series but also teased a new direction for the series that was ultimately never explored. The real strength though was the assembling of the Children of Time...the coming together of all of the companions might read like something out of a fanfiction, but here it was. In the moment it was simply superb, and on rewatches the sense of adrenaline the episode gives has not been bested yet. The Stolen Earth was the ultimate testament to the terrific characters that Russell T Davies wrote, whilst Journey's End was the ultimate testament to the frustration you felt when the story itself wasn't up to scratch. If Tennant had legitimately regenerated here I have no doubt that this would have been the most successful and talked about story in Doctor Who history.
01 - Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways (Series 1)
Admittedly the first half is let down a bit by some now-dated gameshow elements - unlike the Powell Estate scenes they have no longevity because it's 21st Century games in a 201st Century setting mostly! Aside from that though we got a regeneration story, with Daleks! It was the most dignified and natural-feeling regeneration of NuWho so far. The Daleks themselves were a formidable and relentless foe, whilst the Emperor Dalek with his God complex is severely underrated as one of the best big bad's that NuWho has produced. The Bad Wolf reveal was dangled until the very last, with the revelation that the Emperor Dalek not knowing either being suitable chilling in a way the show wouldn't match until the eerie 'Silence Will Fall' voice went unexplained in Series 5. The base-under-siege finale was powerful stuff that gave Eccleston a fine departure, gave Rose plenty to do in one of her best ever episodes, and Captain Jack all the building blocks for Torchwood. The episode was unforgiving and spared no characters, and spanning two time periods whilst exploring the effects the Doctor has had across a century on Earth without even being there are a much more innovative and interesting way of exploring time travel than a lot of the timey-wimey content we get now.
2: Human Nature/Family of Blood
3: Bad Wolf/Parting of The Ways
4: Gridlock
5: Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Timelords
6: The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit
7: Turn Left
8: The Lodger
9: Fathers Day
10: The Waters Of Mars.
The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit
Army of Ghosts/Doomsday
Human Nature/Family of Blood
Blink
Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords (The Utopia Trilogy)
Turn Left
The Stolen Earth/Journey's End
Vincent and the Doctor
The Day of the Doctor
2. The Unicorn and The Wasp
3. Fires Of Pompeii
4. The Stolen Earth/Journey's End
5. Day Of The Doctor
6. Blink
7. The Doctors Wife
8. Partners In Crime
9. Midnight
10. Gridlock
Empty Child/Doctor Dances
Girl in the Fireplace
Human Nature/Family of Blood
Blink
Utopia (definitely not the other 2 parts)
Silence in the library/Forest of the Dead
Eleventh Hour
Vincent and the Doctor
The Doctors Wife
Day of the Doctor
Girl in the Fireplace
School Reunion
Blink
I never thought the Angels were used as effectively again after Blink
army of ghosts/doomsday
sound of drums last of the timelords
the stolen earth/journeys end
(RTD could seriously write those series finales with panache
Human nature/family of blood
the doctors wife
the empty child/doctor dances
day of the doctor
turn left
the girl in the fireplace
it really is difficult to say just 10, I think if I were writing this on a different day some would be slightly different but my top 20 or so are all the same, just going up or down in my estimation against each other depending on the day or my mood
Empty Child/Doctor Dances
Girl in the Fireplace
Human Nature/Family of Blood
Blink
Vincent and the Doctor
Turn Left
Day of the Doctor
School Reunion
Name of the Doctor
The Snowmen
2)Stolen Earth/Journey's End
3)Bad Wolf/Parting Of The Ways
4)Human Nature/Family Of Blood
5)Blink
6)Midnight
7)Turn Left
8)School Reunion
9)Father's Day
10)Dalek
Dalek
The Doctor Dances/The Empty Child
Bad Wolf/Parting Of The Ways
The Girl In The Fireplace
Blink
Midnight
Silence In The Library/Forest Of The Dead
The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
Day Of The Doctor
Time Of The Doctor
Empty Child/Doctor Dances
Gridlock
Human Nature/Family of Blood
Fires of Pompeii
The Eleventh Hour
The Lodger
Pandorica Opens/Big Bang
The Doctor's Wife
The Girl Who Waited
Day of the Doctor
2) Blink
3) Dalek
4) Day of the Doctor
5) Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
6) Stolen Earth/Journeys End
7) Human Nature/Family of Blood
8) Army of Ghosts/Doomsday
9) Time of the Doctor
10) Fathers Day
2. Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
3. Human Nature/Family of Blood
4. The Unquiet Dead
5. A Good Man Goes to War
6. The Waters of Mars
7. The Shakespeare Code
8. Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel
9. Army of Ghosts/Doomsday
10. The Snowmen
Very memorable and extremely underrated episode. I never understood why people hate this episode so much. They usually complain about singing and leaf... But, WHAT'S WRONG with singing and WHAT'S WRONG with a leaf??!!! Singing gave recognizability to the episode and leaf (defeating enemy with emotions) is a very creative and immaginative solution - much better than 'kicking badass'. It is also very emotional and artistic episode. Also, Matt Smith's speech is wonderful.
9. THE GOD COMPLEX
Abandoned hotel full of human fears - could it be better? Sounds like something from a a dream. And that is exactly what Doctor Who should be - DREAMY and CREEPY sci-fi concepts. Also, the story was good and very interesting.
8. THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR
What can I say? The 50th anniversary episode which met expectations. It was great to see Tennant and Smith together. Also, very good solution to the Time War arc and cleverly used the last scene of Shakespeare Code. The only complaint is the lack of RTD companions (I'd like to see Martha and Donna back - it would be a good way to connect RTD era and Moffat era).
7. THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR
Great finale, very creepy. Very good solution to the Impossible Girl arc.
6. AMY' S CHOICE
Definitely one of the most clever episodes. The idea of choosing between two dreams is just perfect. I'd like to see more episodes about dreams. Dream Lord is GREAT and I want him back! Also, it is a very good romantic story.
5. BLINK
OK, I think that any explanation unnecessary. The smartest used time travel. Very complicated - but completely clear - MASTERPIECE!
4. HIDE
When I heard that they will make a ghost story, I was delighted. I just love ghost stories. Hide is also very emotional and, again, time travel is very cleverly used.
3. THE SNOWMEN
Extremely underrated episode. A beautiful Christmas story, just beautiful. Victorian era is one of my favorites periods of history. TARDIS on a cloud is something that gave the Christmas spirit to this episode. And those ladders are just wonderful. Like a beautiful fairy tale. This is exactly what a Christmas special should be like. It is also very emotional, funny (thanks to Paternoster Gang) and a very clever arc-heavy episode.
2. PANDORICA OPENS / THE BIG BANG
The Big Bang is probably the most cleverly written episode. I just LOVE single-episode timey-wimeys like in Blink and Big Bang. The Doctor comes from the future, releases himself from the past and later we see how did it happen. I LOVE it! This is just a perfect finale - epic, mystery-oriented and memorable. Also loved scenes in the museum - reminds me of Night at the Museum.
1. HUMAN NATURE / THE FAMILY OF BLOOD
I daresay that this is the only episode where Martha Jones is well used. Martha is my favorite companion and she is very underrated and did not get a chance to show how good companion she is - except in this episode. The idea of turning to the Doctor into a human is very clever. Cameleon arch should be used more often (cough cough Capaldi in Pompeii cough cough). The villains were perfect - the family of blood look like phantoms from nightmare who are persecuting you - GREAT. And finally, the idea of daughter-of-mine and a mirror is just BRILLIANT!
The Name Of The Doctor
Human Nature/The Family Of Blood
The God Complex
The Eleventh Hour
The Snowmen
Turn Left
The Stolen Earth/Journey's End
Army Of Ghosts/Doomsday
Bad Wolf/The Parting Of The Ways
The End of the World
It's just such a bold move - 1 episode into a series which has been off air nearly 20 years, let's blow up the Earth! It's crazy and has moments of insane campness with the aliens. But it's ultimately a cementing of the Doctor for a new audience (of which I was one having never watched an episode before 'Rose'). You see him being this man who will sacrifice himself if necessary, and you see aliens, and it has a moral to it, and they have chips at the end of it. It wins out over 'Rose' for me because of the annoying Auton Mickey.
The Sound of Drums
Quite a leap from 'The End of the World' to here, and it's not because I don't enjoy the other 2 series - far from it. I just adore 'The Sound of Drums' as it is, as a standalone episode. I like the Doctor vs the Master (as I adore Tennant and Simm). And I like the fugitive element as they become 'ghosts' using the perception filters. I love the exchanges between Jack and Martha. What I most adore, however, is the music. There's this absolutely beautifully heart-wrenching oboe solo as the Doctor, Martha and Jack walk through London in the shadows, which I'm not sure of the name of, but it's just GORGEOUS.
Midnight
It's small but mighty. This is just about the writing and the acting, and I love that. It's sort of like 'Blink' in that it's not about special effects and massive monsters. At the risk of sounding like a complete obsessive, David Tennant's face just breaks my heart in this episode, as he conveys everything in just a few flickers of the eye. The ending is something new as well - the Doctor clearly afraid of something, in a way which hasn't really cropped up since the end of 'The Satan Pit'. It's different and it celebrates the wonderful thing about Who, which is that you never quite know what to expect next.
Turn Left
A really clever concept imo, right down to the plotting that I'd completely overlook if I was writing it: that the Master would never have come to Earth if the Doctor had died at Christmas. I just love how dark this episode gets. The actual alien thing is a bit dubious, but Catherine Tate is fab in this episode, and the cliffhanger at the end is one of those tingle down the spine moments.
Journey’s End
It's a total cop-out of an episode, I know, but I love it. It's pacy and ridiculous and there's that amazing scene of everybody in the TARDIS, like some kind of insane fanfiction. There's endings for everybody, even hideous ones like Donna's (still the worst ending for a companion), and Rose gets her guy which, for a Rose-Doctor shipper is just great - I could watch the Bad Wolf Bay scene over and over. And then there's that very end shot, of the Doctor all alone in his TARDIS, and the sheer devastation in his eyes... God, it's horrific.
The Beast Below
This doesn't seem to be popular, but I really like it (I also quite liked 'The Rings of Akhatan'). The city itself is an engaging concept, and it acts much like 'The End of the World' as a bedding in of new Doctor and new companion. I loved Amy Pond from this episode onwards. I like that she finds a new way for the Doctor.
Vincent and the Doctor
Just gorgeous, but then I liked the latest Richard Curtis film! The alien is a secondary concept for me. The whole Vincent, Amy, Doctor relationship is just beautiful and I get choked up every time.
The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
These have to go together, whereas I split some of the other 2 parters. They just work so well. I like the build up in 'TPO' to the big evil which turns out to be the Doctor, and then I love the time-hopping in 'TBB'. I love the Doctor's monologues in 'TBB' and the bizarre eerie music as Amy remembers him at her wedding. I just think it's incredibly epic, and if it doesn't all make sense, I don't care because it's so in your face. It also wins out massively for one reason for me: it ends so happily! If you think back over Series 1-4, we always lost a companion or a Doctor, and I would say from 'Doomsday' onwards, the Doctor was just so sad and broken - losing Rose, losing Martha, losing Donna, everything that happened in the specials. God, it was so TIRING watching him be so very very sad. But here we have the Doctor, in his TARDIS, with his friends, and it's FUN.
(This is also why I think 11's run had come to an end at Christmas - he was just so so sad. Whenever the Doctor gets that sad, I think he should regenerate.)
The Girl who Waited
Such a good concept and alarmingly futuristic in look. It gives Rory a chance to shine, and plays with expectations. I actually really enjoyed this and 'The God Complex', but David Walliams annoys me in the latter.
The Day of the Doctor
Again, another jump, because I've not seen any of series 7 (bar The Name of the Doctor) since it first aired so I can barely remember any of them! This is a complete cliche of a choice, and it absolutely has its issues (the alien-human summit is inconclusive and Joanna Paige is terribly cast as Elizabeth I). But GOD, it's fun and the performances of Smith, Tennant, Hurt and Piper are just AMAZING (not knocking Jenna, just don't think she's ever been given a decent enough role to play - hoping that will change). It just gives and gives and gives.
Yes, it's all very emotional, I know. I don't apologise for it at all. I like stories and films and TV shows which speak to me and rip me to bits (hence why I like 'In Time', the latest Richard Curtis film - I just sobbed for half an hour of it). I'd watch these episodes forever.