Doctor Who Top 20 (v. ariich's Top 30 starts page 3 - NEW UPDATES AGAIN)

[ariich]

And here we are as promised!


16. Father's Day (Series 1, 2005, Paul Cornell)


Here we have my second favourite ninth Doctor story; a very emotionally driven story that is surprisingly impactful (despite the questionable CGI).

The monsters in general aren’t the most convincing part of the story, really. I really like the basic premise though, changing something that should be a fixed point in space and time, and causing hugely dire consequences. It’s an idea that has been explored a few times in Doctor Who, but this is one of the best in terms of execution.

The main selling point, though, is the character development, and the emotional strength of the story. It may be surprising that I place it quite so high, but I really do love the way Rose and her father interact. And the way that he realises what is needed, and how he sacrifices himself, I find to be quite beautiful and powerful. The story shows some interesting sides to the ninth Doctor’s personality, and is also an important point in Rose’s development – learning the difference between what she wants to do with a time machine and what she can actually do. There are a number of different elements to this story, and it’s the way that they all come together than makes it such a favourite of mine!


15. The Deadly Assassin, parts 1-4 (Season 14, 1976, Robert Holmes)


Another fourth Doctor episode here, and another very popular and hugely iconic one among fans and critics. It’s an unusual episode in that there is no companion – it fell in a strange mid-season point where one companion departed, the next had not been met yet, and the writers told a story about the Doctor travelling alone to Gallifrey.

This is the first time Doctor Who really explores the Time Lords in any detail. It’s a great episode in showing Time Lord society, and begins to show that the Time Lords are not as great and honourable as they would like to think. More recently this was taken all the way by RTD in his descriptions of the Time War, and what we saw of them in The End of Time, but in the classic series they weren’t so all-out-evil. But over the years we gradually saw more and more of the less desirable facets of their race, and this was a pivotal story in that. A lot of the history and canon of the Time Lords was established in this story.

The fact that the Doctor is companion-free also allowed the writers to do something a bit different with the Doctor. No longer does he have a companion there to explain everything to – this is a bit more like traditional drama in places, and there’s a great political thriller element to it as well. The story moves along at a decent pace for Classic Who, and builds some really great tension in places. All in all it’s a really fun, exciting episode with some nifty dialogue.

And, of course, it involves the Doctor being made President of the Time Lords, which is pretty hilarious but does come up a few times later on in Classic Who.

[ariich]

Woohoo, I finally have some free time again, so let's get this show back on the road. I should be able to get through the rest of my list reasonably quickly now!


14. Hide (Series 7, 2013, Neil Cross)


Hide was a very popular episode here when it aired, and for good reason as there’s a lot to love about it. It’s a fantastic example of Doctor Who’s knack for fusing together genres and styles into something that is somehow coherent and engaging.

Ostensibly, it’s a classic ghost story. Haunted house, ghost chasers, creepy visions, it’s all there. This side of the story is done really nicely, particularly in the way the episode is directed. The use of lighting, in particular, in this episode is very moody and effective. There are also some great touches with the ghost itself – some of the images of it on the wall are genuinely creepy and gave me chills the first time I saw it.

Intertwined with the ghost story is the sci-fi story we expect from Doctor Who, and this is great too. There are some nice twists, and some lovely character stuff between the Doctor, Clara and the TARDIS (yes, I’m including the TARDIS as a character, shut up). I think this is the episode where we see a really nice side to Clara and the sass starts to shift away a bit and we someone more vulnerable.

And then, of course, there’s the love story. This could have been a bit overly cheesy, but it’s well written and, crucially, superbly acted. I find both characters just adorable and their feelings for each other completely convincing. For me this really makes the story that bit more relatable and, as result, absolutely gorgeous.


13. The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang (Series 5, 2010, Steven Moffat)


I’ve mentioned in earlier entries how much I love series 5. When I talked about the Eleventh Hour, I focussed on the fairytale feeling that the whole series has, and how that episode kicked it off. Well, this closing two-parter is where it all comes together in superb fashion.

I remember when this aired (The Big Bang in particular), some people weren’t so keen on the timey-wimey stuff as an explanation for how the Doctor gets out of his predicament. Not me. I love that stuff! I’ve always been someone who, when watching a film or TV show about time travel, simply accepts paradoxes about causation and history. That’s sort of the point really, it allows you to have fun with these sorts of ideas, and Moffat is simply the master when it comes to that.

Moffat’s humour and sense of fun are on absolutely cracking form throughout these episodes. The eleventh Doctor’s fez has, since, become an iconic image of the show because of the way it entertained so many people, and much of the dialogue is fantastic.

But really, the wonderful thing about this story is the fairytale story of Amy, Rory and the Doctor.  The scenes at the end are wonderful and heart-warming. Under Russell T Davies, the previous few series had ended in ways that were a bit bleak or depressing (Rose unreachable, Martha’s family go through horrifying experiences, Donna has to lose all memory of her time with the Doctor) so the fact that series ended in such a happy way really was a nice change, and I think signalled a more upbeat era (on the whole) for Doctor Who.

[masterthes]

Definitely agree that Series 5 is overall the most upbeat of the nuWho era, which is why it's my favorite

[Heretic]

Awesome picks! Is the 50th anniversary going to shake the top ten up at all? Because it did for me.

[ariich]

Awesome picks! Is the 50th anniversary going to shake the top ten up at all? Because it did for me.

I did consider that dilemma, but it's too recent to really be able to judge where it should go. So I think I'm going to have to treat this list as a top 30 as at the point that I started it!

[ariich]

12. The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances (Series 1, 2005, Steven Moffat)


And now for some more Moffat. This time, I’ve picked his first story, assuming we don’t count his Comic Relief sketch Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death (absolutely hilarious, check it out if you haven’t already).

I remember when this first aired, even though I wasn’t a fan at the time, and wouldn’t be until the end of Tennant’s era. But this episode created such a buzz. I was vaguely aware that Doctor Who was back on TV, but this was the episode that I remember a lot of press coverage and general hype for, and when I did eventually get round to watching through from series 1, I totally understood why.

This was probably the darkest and creepiest Doctor Who had ever been up to that point. So much of the story borrows ideas from horror movies. A faceless, expressionless enemy, and a child at that; one that appears to be completely relentless and unstoppable. There are lots of other little touches that I remember finding very spooky, like the Doctor answering the phone on the outside of the TARDIS and hearing the first ever spoken words on a telephone. And, of course, that incredible moment in the child’s bedroom when the tape runs out.

Really, this episode has a bit of everything that we have since come to love about Moffat. There’s a lovely personal story between the child and his sister, with a great heart-felt resolution at the end. And Moffat’s humour was evident right from the start, such as in the way he introduced Captain Jack. This story is just fantastic all round.


11. The Pirate Planet, parts 1-4 (Season 16, 1978, Douglas Adams)


And here we have my final entry from Classic Who (that’s right, none in the top 10 I’m afraid). I imagine this is probably a surprising entry as it’s not a particularly famous one, but I just loved it when I saw it.

A lot of fans of New Who probably aren’t aware that Douglas Adams (author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) was script editor on Doctor Who for a couple of seasons, and wrote a couple of serials himself. The best of these and the best Classic Who story, in my opinion, was The Pirate Planet. It’s pretty typical Adams fare really, so it doesn’t have the depth or profundity that some stories have, but it’s just so much fun, and a great story with some neat ideas. He actually wrote it alongside the original Hitchhiker’s radio play, and you can sort of tell!

It contains a lot of the elements that were prominent in Doctor Who at the time – simple proletariat masses, religious beliefs, an exploitative elite, and a small number of people who choose go to against the norm. But in this case, it’s actually made incredibly fun. There is some fantastically witty dialogue, some great characterisation (even if some of the acting is a little over the top), and a genuinely clever and exciting story. Tom Baker is on sparkling form, as ever, and for me this story is just so perfectly suited to his style.