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ifeelbetterSo somehow all this Harry Potter nostalgia business lead to me re-watching Doctor Who episodes and now I'm making a list. I like lists. I'm the opposite of organized in most ways but I really do like a good list.
This is my Top Ten Episodes of DW (since the reboot in 2005)
10. Christmas Special: The Runaway Bride
Guys. My love of Donna...it is not a laughing matter. I have FEELINGS about Donna. And this is so totally the best of the Christmas specials. It has the perfect mix of the things that make DW fun--the humor, the repartee, the kitsch--and the things that make DW GREAT--and that will always be the darkness that somehow happens so subtly just below the surface most of the time. This has always been a show about loneliness and cowardice, especially at its best. And this episode really speaks to that--the Doctor, for all the his is great and all powerful, needs company.
9. Series 3: Human Nature/ The Family of Blood
Like I said, it's when the show gets dark that it really gets good. It's probably because of the fact that this is a show that revels in its consumerism--it's so very comfortable being the show that families want to watch on Christmas and that people will talk about over the water cooler tomorrow. But that's also the point--that sort of mundane life isn't bad (and so many shows want their viewers to feel guilty for being television viewers) but the show does want you to ask yourself whether or not you're happy. And that was why Martha--naysayers gonna hate--was so wonderful as a character. She kept having to face the fact that she wasn't happy, that there's a certain brand of happy that we're taught to expect from life that she just wasn't getting. And, in this two-parter, the doctor feels a little of that too.
That and scarecrows are so mad creepy. And it was chockablock with wonderful guest stars.
8. Series 2: The Girl in the Fireplace
For all that this episode is complex--it spans so much time and the time travel part of the plot wraps back in on itself many times--it is also completely simple. There's also some great humor in this episode because David Tennant is, by nature and by practice, a comedian...but there's still fundamentally the simple fact that the doctor is a lonely, frightened figure. He's wise but he's alone; he's fast but he's always running; he's a chameleon but he's always the same.
7. Series 1: The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances
This is a first in many ways. First Steven Moffat episode (the man who brings out the best in the show), first Jack episode (the man who brings out the fanishness in the show), and first really terrifying catchphrase. "Are you my mummy?" still creeps me out a bit, I'm not gonna lie.
6. Specials: The Waters of Mars
Lindsay Duncan hit this one out of the park. There have been a lot of episodes where there's a twist in the last couple of minutes, where something dark changes the way you think about everything that's gone before it and it happens in the blink of an eye. But this episode...the ending really does stand out.
5. Series 4: Midnight
A Donna-lite episode that I still loved despite my Epic Love of Donna. (I, for serious, would wear a WWDD? T-shirt with PRIDE.) And this is one of the scariest episodes to date from the show. And what's so immensely clever is how simple the setup is. It's one of those tried-and-true plot devices that, when executed well, always wins. And it shows that CGI does not good scary make.
4. Silence in the Library/ Forest of the Dead
River Song: best new character to hit television since...sliced bread. That simile got away from me there. But she was fascinating in this episode, despite the stupid death. And this episode also showed us something about Donna's marital drive--a parallel to the Doctor's perpetual loneliness, don't you think? And possibly why she remains the best friend he can't have anymore, the person he builds little fortresses around to protect from a distance?
Also. I'm a lit PhD. Are we surprised that the episode about a man-eating library makes my Top Ten list?
3. Series 5: Amy's Choice
Amy and Rory. They make my heart swell to ten times its normal size, no lie. I've never been so invested in a pair of companions before, let alone the tag-along male the show seems to think is necessary for every female companion. But Rory and Amy work differently, especially when compared to the silliness that was Mickey/Rose. Because Mickey was obviously a red herring, romantically speaking. This pair--Amy and Rory--have got that Moffat touch that just makes them both worthwhile and interesting.
That, and this episode blows my mind in terms of Doctor character development.
2. Series 3: Gridlock
I almost made this one number 1. I love it that much. The Martha-haters out there in the interwebs forget how great that series was. There was SUCH great storytelling that year, it was mindblowing. And, no, we didn't get to watch Billie Piper's mascara clump anymore (I mean, really, could they not afford proper makeup people for the first two series??) and that's sad--I found it super sad too. But Martha brought us Girdlock. An episode that also takes a completely prosaic premise--being stuck in traffic--and makes it into a story about how cities are so isolating and so communal at the same time. It's a love song to the non-specific metropolis masquerading as a horror story. And I'm a city-girl through the marrow of my bones.
1. Series 3: Blink
And HOW, pray tell, do the Martha-haters deal with the fact that this moment of television GENIUS came on her watch? I was so stunned by this episode, I don't even have words to describe it. I care a LOT about television shows--MUCH more than I do about, say, my prelims or, you know, eating--and I was completely floored by this episode. I think it might actually be perfect. Like...Plato's cave kind of perfect. Like...all other shows should pause before they air an episode and ask themselves how it measures up to this episode.
Now that I've gotten that out of my system....I want to make more lists. I love lists. Can anyone think of other things I can make lists of? Top Fives? Anything?
This is my Top Ten Episodes of DW (since the reboot in 2005)
10. Christmas Special: The Runaway Bride
Guys. My love of Donna...it is not a laughing matter. I have FEELINGS about Donna. And this is so totally the best of the Christmas specials. It has the perfect mix of the things that make DW fun--the humor, the repartee, the kitsch--and the things that make DW GREAT--and that will always be the darkness that somehow happens so subtly just below the surface most of the time. This has always been a show about loneliness and cowardice, especially at its best. And this episode really speaks to that--the Doctor, for all the his is great and all powerful, needs company.
9. Series 3: Human Nature/ The Family of Blood
Like I said, it's when the show gets dark that it really gets good. It's probably because of the fact that this is a show that revels in its consumerism--it's so very comfortable being the show that families want to watch on Christmas and that people will talk about over the water cooler tomorrow. But that's also the point--that sort of mundane life isn't bad (and so many shows want their viewers to feel guilty for being television viewers) but the show does want you to ask yourself whether or not you're happy. And that was why Martha--naysayers gonna hate--was so wonderful as a character. She kept having to face the fact that she wasn't happy, that there's a certain brand of happy that we're taught to expect from life that she just wasn't getting. And, in this two-parter, the doctor feels a little of that too.
That and scarecrows are so mad creepy. And it was chockablock with wonderful guest stars.
8. Series 2: The Girl in the Fireplace
For all that this episode is complex--it spans so much time and the time travel part of the plot wraps back in on itself many times--it is also completely simple. There's also some great humor in this episode because David Tennant is, by nature and by practice, a comedian...but there's still fundamentally the simple fact that the doctor is a lonely, frightened figure. He's wise but he's alone; he's fast but he's always running; he's a chameleon but he's always the same.
7. Series 1: The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances
This is a first in many ways. First Steven Moffat episode (the man who brings out the best in the show), first Jack episode (the man who brings out the fanishness in the show), and first really terrifying catchphrase. "Are you my mummy?" still creeps me out a bit, I'm not gonna lie.
6. Specials: The Waters of Mars
Lindsay Duncan hit this one out of the park. There have been a lot of episodes where there's a twist in the last couple of minutes, where something dark changes the way you think about everything that's gone before it and it happens in the blink of an eye. But this episode...the ending really does stand out.
5. Series 4: Midnight
A Donna-lite episode that I still loved despite my Epic Love of Donna. (I, for serious, would wear a WWDD? T-shirt with PRIDE.) And this is one of the scariest episodes to date from the show. And what's so immensely clever is how simple the setup is. It's one of those tried-and-true plot devices that, when executed well, always wins. And it shows that CGI does not good scary make.
4. Silence in the Library/ Forest of the Dead
River Song: best new character to hit television since...sliced bread. That simile got away from me there. But she was fascinating in this episode, despite the stupid death. And this episode also showed us something about Donna's marital drive--a parallel to the Doctor's perpetual loneliness, don't you think? And possibly why she remains the best friend he can't have anymore, the person he builds little fortresses around to protect from a distance?
Also. I'm a lit PhD. Are we surprised that the episode about a man-eating library makes my Top Ten list?
3. Series 5: Amy's Choice
Amy and Rory. They make my heart swell to ten times its normal size, no lie. I've never been so invested in a pair of companions before, let alone the tag-along male the show seems to think is necessary for every female companion. But Rory and Amy work differently, especially when compared to the silliness that was Mickey/Rose. Because Mickey was obviously a red herring, romantically speaking. This pair--Amy and Rory--have got that Moffat touch that just makes them both worthwhile and interesting.
That, and this episode blows my mind in terms of Doctor character development.
2. Series 3: Gridlock
I almost made this one number 1. I love it that much. The Martha-haters out there in the interwebs forget how great that series was. There was SUCH great storytelling that year, it was mindblowing. And, no, we didn't get to watch Billie Piper's mascara clump anymore (I mean, really, could they not afford proper makeup people for the first two series??) and that's sad--I found it super sad too. But Martha brought us Girdlock. An episode that also takes a completely prosaic premise--being stuck in traffic--and makes it into a story about how cities are so isolating and so communal at the same time. It's a love song to the non-specific metropolis masquerading as a horror story. And I'm a city-girl through the marrow of my bones.
1. Series 3: Blink
And HOW, pray tell, do the Martha-haters deal with the fact that this moment of television GENIUS came on her watch? I was so stunned by this episode, I don't even have words to describe it. I care a LOT about television shows--MUCH more than I do about, say, my prelims or, you know, eating--and I was completely floored by this episode. I think it might actually be perfect. Like...Plato's cave kind of perfect. Like...all other shows should pause before they air an episode and ask themselves how it measures up to this episode.
Now that I've gotten that out of my system....I want to make more lists. I love lists. Can anyone think of other things I can make lists of? Top Fives? Anything?
