There is currently another thread called "Moffat's Worst Episode", so I think it's only right that there should also be a "Moffat's Best Episode" thread.

My favourite Moffat episode is undoubtedly "Blink", which is sure to be many others' favourite too, but I think that most of what he's written has been excellent, while his only below par episodes have tended to be his Christmas specials.

Your comments please.

Eermm...

Probably a three way tie between The Eleventh Hour,The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang and The Empty Child/Doctor Dances.

Edit: B*gger it, I'll add A Christmas Carol and The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Giant Egg.

Blink was a good one, but my favourites are:

Silence in the Library
The Eleventh hour
The Christmas Carol
The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances

As much as I love love love Asylum of the Daleks, I am going to go for the 50th.

Day of the Doctor was just such a phenomenal episode of Who, loved it from start to finish and more with every single rewatch.

As said before, Girl In The Fireplace - and I'll probably be lynched for it but it's such a lovely bittersweet episode. Well, the parts with The Doctor and Reinette anyway. On rewatch Rose gets right on my nerves, but that doesn't affect my enjoyment of the ep as a whole.

The 50th was amazing and definitely gets a mention from me. Brilliant story and spared no expense. Loved it. Really wish I got to the cinema to see it.

The empty child/ the doctor dances
Silence in the library/ forest of the dead
Blink

Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead

But I also really enjoyed Listen, A Christmas Carol, Deep Breath, The Pandorica Opens and The Eleventh Hour, and Blink, obviously

I don't much like Girl in the Fireplace as it's mawkish and I don't like Eccleston (or kids) so The Empty Child isn't a favourite although I appreciate that it's a good story.

Most of his 'big' episodes from series 6 onwards, including his Christmas Specials, have been woeful.

For more discussion on his woeful episodes please see the other thread

Oh yeah and Listen. Can't forget Listen.

The Eleventh Hour and Listen.

Two very different episodes which could have gone in two very different ways.

Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead- the perfect mix of mind bending science fiction, fairy tale wonder, actual scares and human emotional moments. Its amazing he so often couldn't find that blend again since becoming show runner. So much smarter and braver than the majority of the simplistic drivel that cluttered up S4 it was a perfect example of why Doctor Who is best when it isn't afraid to be strange and brilliant and doesn't try and appeal to the mass audience. This was like Philip K Dick or Arthur C Clarke. Yes. Actually that good. But at the same time it wasn't alienating in being too hard science fiction and has moments of horror and beauty often at the same time (Miss Evangelista's ghosting skeleton is a classic scene. Not just of Doctor Who. Of science fiction). Perfect. And this was back in the day when River hadn't slipped into horrendous self parody.

Listen- probably my favorite episode of New Who already. Utterly perfect. Would only have ever worked with Twelve. Jenna puts in the best companion performance in the history of the show. Samuel Anderson is heartbreakingly doe eyed as both Danny and Orson. And the best thing is that having spent most of the episode providing some of the best and fearless proper scares we have seen since the show returns Moffat pulls the rug out from under everyone and reveals his true purpose. Because scaring people is easy. What Moffat does at the end of Listen is less so. In a world where our media tells us to live in fear and always be afraid- you're too fat/youre top thin/you can't dance/you can't sing/the immigrants are coming to get you!/someone's stealing your jobs/someone's stealing your liberty/the ice caps are melting/zombie lesbians on benefits are coming to get you/beware of Isis/fear your neighbour/beware of Ebola/BE AFRAID!!! AND BE AFRAID OF BEING AFRAID!- Listen takes you by the hand and says its ok. Don't worry. Don't let fear make you an bastard. You're never alone. In a good way. Its less a night terror and more a lullaby. Its a genuinely beautiful and humanistic piece of television. And for that alone Moffat is a genius and always will be.*


*still doesnt forgive The Wedding of River Song though*

*joke. I forgive

For purely personal reasons, because it was the first full story I ever watched, it's got to be Empty Child / Doctor Dances.

I guess I was viewing it with totally fresh eyes, but I loved the setting, the freaky children, the mystery, the plucky guest stars, and I found the resolution to just be incredibly clever. I'd never watched Who till that point - I grew up in the 'wilderness years' and all I'd seen of the revival was farting aliens, which seemed to play to type. But the Doctors "everyone lives" moment was just so joyous, it undercut my cynicism and plastered a massive grin on my face as I decided that this punchline of a sci-fi show could actually be a little bit brilliant.

I'd say either the Empty Child, or the Eleventh Hour. The first one really got me hooked on Doctor Who, but the second was a superb introductory episode for the new Doctor and Season.

I like nearly all of the bookend stuff he does- although I am expecting this forthcoming bookend over the next couple of weeks to be an exception. The life after death stuff sounds toe-curling already.

The Eleventh Hour/Pandorica Opens/Big Bang were all great. The best of the bookends.

But the Day of Doctor was probably my favourite of the lot, particularly given the scale of the task he had.

I completely agree with you about Listen, I think it's breathtakingly lovely. My favourite Moffat DW episode.

Other Moffat favourites: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, The Night of the Doctor, The Day of the Doctor, Deep Breath.

The Eleventh Hour and The Angels Take Manhattan (because it brings the story full circle) and Blink

Are you in the TARDIS or in my head ??

Exactly these episodes. River was an epic character when first introduced, self sacrifice, timey wimey character from the future, great. Listen -> absolutely bloody fantastic.

Holy crap, that's hard.

I would say its definitely between Name of the Doctor, Blink, Empty child, Eleventh Hour, Time of Angels, Silence in the Library, Let's Kill Hitler, Time of the Doctor, Asylum of the Daleks, A Christmas Carol, The Girl in the fireplace and Deep Breath! :P

Damn, I cna't choose, and since the title doesn't specify his best episode of which show let's jsut cheat and say it's A Scandal in Belgravia Or His Last Vow... or possibly A Study in Pink...


Re: Girl in the Fireplace being mawkish: irrelevant. We're talking about 'best', not 'favourite'. Your taste is irrelevant. That script is masterful. It's a fantastic concept (sure, swiped from 'The Time Traveller's Wife' ) and it's fully realized and followed through. There's no cop-out, or magic fix, unlike msot episodes of Doctor Who. And damn it, it's like clockwork: every line resonates and every plot detail makes sense. I rewatched it last week, and it's an episode I appreciate more every time I see it. The final shot with the reveal of the name of the spaceship never fails to excite me. There are no flaws in that script. Not a single one. I say this as someone who doesn't even consider it one of his favourite Moffat episodes.

Saladfingers: I also rewatched Silence in the Library and you're totally right: for being the less talked about of Moffat's pre-showrunner episodes it's staggeringly right in nearly every department. It gets the Doctor Who formula absolutely right and balances all those different attributes into one proper piece of actual science-fiction that also has all of the character drama and romance anyone could want. Holy shit.

The Day of The Doctor for me. Felt like it was written for me, loved every moment of it. So many pay offs, so many ideas that had been bouncing around in the show for a while tied together, and some special surprises.

Honourable mentions to The Eleventh Hour and The Girl in the Fireplace.

I generally like almost all of Moffat's eps. There's another thread where I name the exception

His first two. With Time of The Doctor and The Eleventh Hour vying for second place.

Blink is still my favourite, but is Doctor lite.

After that it's a tight one between Asylum and Name of The Doctor.

Though I'd still love to know if Captain Jack is a Moffat invention that RTD saw mileage in, or RTD gave Moffat the task of introducing the character.

I think it's pretty established that it was the latter, although I know of no source. No doubt it's been discussed in Davies' book and commentaries and the like.

I was surprised there wasn't more raves about Name of the Doctor when it was broadcast and there still doesn't seem to be now. Before that episode was broadcast I was beginning to think that Doctor Who could no longer thrill me. If I was in the Caves of Androzani episode 1 cliffhanger and I had a red cloth over my head and they demanded I 'shout out! Now!' the title of Steven Moffat's best episode of Doctor Who I think there's a good chance I would call out that one.

Obvious choice but Blink.
A wonderful self contained episode. Perfectly structured and a superb cast taking the reigns of the show for one episode. Not an easy thing to do with an established popular show.
The whole Easter egg scenes that are placed throughout play out superbly in its conclusion.
As with Girl in the Fireplace, whenever I revisit Blink I cant help but see everything Mr. Moffat has tried to rehash with his own era as showrunner during series 5-6, but for me it was executed, written and structured far far better in these two episodes. I have no desire or need to ever watch series 5-6 again because in Blink and GITF..its all there. Beauty and the geek, little girl and the Doctor returns when she has grown up, timey wimey, structure, believable characters and it is all done to perfection.

Imo of course.


I nearly picked 'Listen' another perfecly structured story and Moffat at his best RTD era days. But the placing of Clara in the Doctors established history, again, left a somewhat bitter taste at the end of a superb episode. But I wait to see how, if at all that plays out or relates to the finale..if it does at all.

The Girl in The Fireplace, Blink, The Eleventh Hour.

His RTD-era eps are all crackers. Tough to choose between them.

During his own era The Eleventh Hour stands out as the perfect introduction episode and The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang is my favourite finale. Hopefully Dark Water/Death In Heaven can top the lot.

The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon would be my other choice - such an ambitious series opener.

Girl in the Fireplace
Blink

They're my top 2.


Then perhaps 'The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances' and 'Asylum of the Daleks'.

He's done some other pretty decent stories too such as 'Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead', and 'The Day of the Doctor' and 'The Time of the Doctor'.

Although I get the feeling that it isn't widely liked on here, I thoroughly enjoyed 'A Christmas Carol', which is easily my favourite Christmas Special. But I get the sense that I may be in a minority here.

As the poster said the stories he wrote under RTD tended to be very strong.
I do enjoy his stories featuring The Weeping Angels. Even if they aren't the very best they always tend to stand above the average episode.

I do agree with CAMERA OBSCURA above that many of his subsequent stories after The Girl in the Fireplace and especially Blink are often heavily derivative of elements of those two stories. He also used 'catchphrases' in later episodes which were derivative of "Are you my mummy?" from 'The Empty Child'. That's one of the reasons I rate his earlier episodes highly, as well as them being beautifully crafted stories.