The Season 11 premiere of Doctor Who is a few short days away, and the Whovians on Pop Break are absolutely amped with anticipation. We’ve got our sonic screwdrivers ready, and a fresh plate of fish fingers and custard waiting for the big day. It’s a brand new group of companions, a brand new showrunner, and most importantly, a brand new and the first-ever female Doctor — we can’t contain our excitement!
In the interim, we got together to discuss our favorite Doctor Who episodes of all-time. No, please note these Who episodes take place in the “modern” era of Doctor Who, starting with the Russell T. Davies run reboot. For all you fans of Whovian history you can check out all our reviews, features, and interviews here, and here.
Episode: The Eleventh Hour
Chosen by: Staci Altomari – Staff Photographer & Writer
Episode Aired in: 2010
The Doctor: Matt Smith
Companions: Amy (Karen Gillian) & Rory (Arthur Darvill)
There are, admittedly, *better* episodes of Doctor Who than the Eleventh Hour. The Silence in the Library, The Day of the Doctor, Angels Take Manhattan, and Blink are brilliant bits of TV gold. However The Eleventh Hour stands as my favorite episode and is the one I return to most frequently. It’s slightly-longer-than-average 64 minute run-time packs everything you could want from a Who episode: a complex villain, the Doctor developing a crafty plan to save the Earth, foreshadowing to future plot arcs, humor, and a few quotable quotes (bowties ARE cool).
This may be Matt Smith’s introduction episode but he slides effortlessly into his new role and makes the Doctor his own from the first scene. The TARDIS crashes in the small English village of Leadworth into the backyard of Amelia Pond, a young Scottish girl unafraid of the raggedy man who appeared just as she was praying for someone to come repair crack in her bedroom wall. It is fitting that the eleventh Doctor’s first conversation is with a child, as Matt Smith brings more wonder, lightness, and physicality to the role than his predecessors.
His amazement at the TARDIS, his sonic screwdriver, and all things big and small is a reminder to the audience to approach the show (and life) with the same childlike fascination. Near the end of the episode, the Doctor asks his new companion, “All of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will… Where do you want to start?” That line delivers everything you need to know about traveling with the Doctor and seals this episode’s place as a must-watch.
Episode: Vincent and the Doctor
Chosen by: Brian McNamara – Contributor
Episode Aired In: 2010
The Doctor: Matt Smith
Companions: Amy & Rory
Special Guests: Bill Nighy, Tony Curran
Years later, the emotional weight of “Vincent and the Doctor” draws me back time and again. While the Doctor fights a mysterious alien terrorizing the Dutch countryside, he and Amy Pond are really helping to Vincent Van Gogh deal with depression. It’s a simple story, but aren’t simple stories usually the best?
The episode allows The Doctor and Amy to explore their characters a little bit, presenting the audience with their strongest performances of the season. Amy’s headstrong desire to fix Vincent’s problems, her flirtation with Vincent, her reaction to there being no additional paintings. In just one episode, the character seems to grow and it sets the stage for her ultimate journey. Smith’s Doctor throughout has the strained feeling of a man who knows too well that his help can do only so much good. The quips and comedy of his young face contrasted to the drooping shoulders and quivering lip when Amy realizes they haven’t changed time.
Tony Curran’s turn as Van Gogh is memorable, most so for the haunting overlay of his eyes to a Van Gogh self-portrait. He very literally embodies the pain of the painter. Just a few minutes later, Curran’s ability to capture confusion, joy and sorrow as Bill Nighy passionately describes the life of Van Gogh is devastating. The performances are so spectacular that the alien plot line – and the over-arching arc – feel so minor that they’re forgotten.
The episode is noteworthy for being one of the times the Doctor can’t win. He goes in knowing that nothing he and Amy do will have a significant impact on facts of Van Gogh’s death, but they can have an impact on life of Van Gogh. And this gives rise to most memorable part of the episode, the Doctor’s “pile of good things, pile of bad things” speech. A pitch perfect reminder to Amy – and the audience – that kindness can have a greater effect then any other force. It’s my favorite outing for Smith and Gillan in their roles and an episode I return to over and over again.
Episode: Dalek
Chosen by: Lucas P. Jones – Staff Writer, Podcast Engineer
Episode Aired In: 2005
The Doctor: Christopher Eccleston
Companions: Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) & Bruno Langley (Adam Mitchell)
‘Dalek’ is one of those episodes that is as good as it is because of where it sits in the series. Right in the middle of the first series of the revival of the show, it serves as a both a link to the previous body of work, and as a vision of what a modern Doctor Who can be.
First, as a link, it features some great visuals from the original series, not the least of which is the head of an old school Cyberman. The episode also has a very serious tone, which is a nice change of pace from was, up until this point, your normal romp through space and time. This episode showed that Doctor Who could be for kids and for adults who grew up on the show.
The real treasure of this episode is the first encounter between the Doctor and the Dalek. It is a very genuine exchange between a Doctor still bitter and angry after the Time War, who openly mocks and degrades the helpless Dalek, before realizing that perhaps, he is no better than the creatures he destroyed.
Sure, throughout the original series we’d seen darkness, but we had really never seen the Doctor act so…human. The range of Eccleston is on full display. I know we are all biased towards our first Doctor, but even ignoring that, this remains my favorite Who episode.
The Girl in the Fireplace
Chosen by: Matt Gilbert – Staff Writer
Episode Aired In: 2006
The Doctor: David Tennant
The Companions: Rose Tyler, & Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke)
Guest Star: Sophia Myles
I know Blink is the fan favorite episode that everyone likes to point to as the quotable, meme-able one a prospective new Whovian should watch to determine if they will like the show. But I always felt that The Girl in the Fireplace does more to earn that status than Steven Moffat’s Weeping Angels ever did.
I have such a weakness for this episode. It’s original, funny, action-packed, creative and devastating. It’s full of mystery and adventure and contains both futuristic science fiction and historical period drama. It has some of David Tennant’s best work of his entire run as the Doctor doing all of the above. In short, it is a perfectly isolated slice of everything that makes Doctor Who great. It is one of the few episodes that actually have Rose and Mickey on screen together after Mickey was allowed to finally be a character.
Madame De Pompadour is such a breath of fresh air and Sophia Myles is instantly lovable. Her relationship with the Doctor separated in intermittent chapters of her life is a reflection of the relationships between the Doctor and all of his companions. We see how they are wary of him, charmed by him, fall in love with him, call for him in times of danger and become the best versions of themselves to prove themselves worthy of his compassion.
We recognize every phase of Reinette’s infatuation with David Tennant because we have seen every one of them on Rose. Which is what makes the final ten minutes, in which the Doctor tells Reinette to pick a star she’d like to travel to but she dies waiting for him before he can return, such a gut punch. She does not blame him for leaving her and is happy to have seen the few wonders of the universe that she did. But the Doctor feels every loss he has ever had as a personal failure, and because of how much we liked Reinette in such a short time, we feel it too.
The episode wraps so cleanly without needing to set up a return for the organ-harvesting androids or an easter egg for the Torchwood season arc, making it one of the Doctor’s most fiercely rewatchable and emotionally affecting stories.
Heaven Sent
Chosen by: Bill Bodkin – Editor-in-Chief
Episode Aired In: 2015
The Doctor: Peter Capaldi
The Companions: Clara (Jenna Coleman)
Peter Capaldi’s Doctor always seems to get forgotten when we discuss “best” episodes. And that’s kinda what happens when you’re the actor to replace the uber-popular Matt Smith, and your first season features messy plotlines, and your Doctor is written to be the saltiest, most unlikeable man imaginable.
I digress.
One of the greatest episode not just in Capaldi’s run, but possibly any run in the ‘modern’ Who era is ‘Heaven Sent.’ The episode comes off the heels of Clara’s death, and finds the Doctor trapped in a castle in the middle of nowhere. Every time he tries to find his way out, the castle resets and he’s forced to restart. That is until he’s confronted by a massive, “unbreakable wall.” He tries to punch his way through, but a mysterious creature called The Veil captures him, kills him, and The Doctor is placed back to where he started at the beginning of the episode.
This episode is absolutely masterful in every aspect. Capaldi’s performance is masterful, and it sets the tone for his finale season, which was just pure brilliance. The writing by Steven Moffat might have been some of his finest since taking over the showrunner reigns. The production, cinematography, and score were straight of the best Hitchock film you can imagine. It’s wonderful.
