Top 10 (Non-finale) NuWho Episodes

After some extremely difficult deliberation, these are my ten favorite episodes of NuWho. I decided to exclude season finales because they are usually so on another level that they would hog most of the list. Also, I am still catching up, having yet to see any post-season 9 episodes. But, currently, here are my top favorites (in no particular order).

1. “Dalek”
   
2. “Father’s Day”
   
3. “Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel”
   
4. “Human Nature/Family of Blood”
   
5. “Blink”
   
6. "Midnight"
   
7. “Vincent and the Doctor”
   
8. “The Doctor’s Wife”
   
9. “The Girl Who Waited”
   
10. “Asylum of the Daleks"
    

Can anybody come up with theirs?

also in no particular order...in order of airdates...

Dalek
Father's Day
Empty Child/Doctor Dances
School Reunion
Girl in the Fireplace
Blink
Turn Left
Vincent and the Doctor
Mummy on the Orient Express
Under the Lake/Before the Flood
Heaven Sent

Yeah...I know its 11.

SeaDevil wrote:

also in no particular order...in order of airdates...

Dalek
Father's Day
Empty Child/Doctor Dances
School Reunion
Girl in the Fireplace
Blink
Turn Left
Vincent and the Doctor
Mummy on the Orient Express
Under the Lake/Before the Flood
Heaven Sent

Yeah...I know its 11.

You and I must think alike, friend. When I assembled a top 20 list to narrow down to a top 10, pretty much all of these were on it!

The only reason "Heaven Sent" didn't make my list is because I personally feel like it's part of the multi-episode season finale, although that's definitely up to interpretation. The sad thing is that left no Capaldi episodes on the list, despite my love of his Doctor.

Ah well. Maybe by the time I've finished his least season one will break through and I'll adjust my list accordingly.

I felt like "Heaven Sent" was enough of its OWN story, so that's why I included it.  Besides, Capaldi's tour-de-force performance deserves to be singled out.  

He was AMAZING.

SeaDevil wrote:

I felt like "Heaven Sent" was enough of its OWN story, so that's why I included it.  Besides, Capaldi's tour-de-force performance deserves to be singled out.  

He was AMAZING.

Can't argue with you there. Capaldi's performance was absolutely breathtaking, and if there is any justice in the universe, Heaven Sent will go down in history with the likes of Pyramids of Mars, Caves of Androzani, Blink, and Vincent and the Doctor.
(Or whatever other episodes one would put among the most iconic and best ever, lol.)

Am a Classic Who fan at heart and took me a long time to get myself to watch the NuWho but will say I became thoroughly impressed with the production, stories, acting of the new series. I felt it still captures Classic Who while forging its own direction becoming a force of its own. I powered through catching up and watching all of the episodes. There is only one that I have watched multiple times and that is Girl in the Fireplace. So that is easily at the top of my list.

Bisk1tSnGraV wrote:

Am a Classic Who fan at heart and took me a long time to get myself to watch the NuWho but will say I became thoroughly impressed with the production, stories, acting of the new series.  I felt it still captures Classic Who while forging its own direction becoming a force of its own.  I powered through catching up and watching all of the episodes.  There is only one that I have watched multiple times and that is Girl in the Fireplace. So that is easily at the top of my list.

That is indeed a good one. Romance, creepy monsters, heroics, timey-wimey shenanigans, period settings... great stuff.
Glad the new series was able to appeal to you!

But why no series finales in these lists?

These are all good stories and the best of the bunch from the New Series. But what does everyone think of those series finales? For the most part they're two-parters and normally part 1 is great. But then I find that part 2, the actual finale, ends up in trouble trying to meet expectations and all gets a bit silly. I always get nervous about the thrilling cliffhanger at the penultimate episode know that the writers will bugger it up next week. They got me again this year with Series 12. I think its some kind of curse with the multi-episode endings.

But I'm sure that there are exceptions. I think Series 1 with Eccleston's departure actually had a great final episode. Series 2 wasn't quite so great and I felt a little let down by the conclusion. After that the conclusions started to just felt like cheats not really concluding the premise set up in part 1. Series 5 did a good job but I didn't care for the final episodes of Series 9 or 11 and found both a bit of nonsense with characters just making crazy bad decisions and behaving oddly.

So how do the series finales rank? Is there a favorite? Or are they just a different animal where they wrap up the year rather than trying to tell a good 45 minute story?

squishy wrote:

But why no series finales in these lists?  

I think you answered your own question.

Only "The Parting of the Ways" and "Doomsday" were worth a darn. The rest were muddled up messes.

...so...no need to include them in this list, because none of them (aside from maybe those two) would make it anyway.

squishy wrote:

Or are they just a different animal where they wrap up the year rather than trying to tell a good 45 minute story?

This is the mainly why I didn't include finales in my list. The other main reason is kind of the opposite of SeaDevil, I must confess I tend to love the finales so much that they would dominate most of the list, lol.

Ill go with:

Dalek
Empty Child/Doctor Dances
Fathers Day
School Reunion
Girl in the Fireplace
Blink
Midnight
Turn Left
Listen
Twice Upon a Time

Honorable Mentions/ Barely Missing the Cut:

Unquiet Dead
Impossible Planet/ Satan Pit
Unicorn and the Wasp
Pandorica Opens
Doctors Wife
God Complex

Cruel Angel wrote:

Ill go with:

Dalek
Empty Child/Doctor Dances
Fathers Day
School Reunion
Girl in the Fireplace
Blink
Midnight
Turn Left
Listen
Twice Upon a Time

Honorable Mentions/ Barely Missing the Cut:

Unquiet Dead
Impossible Planet/ Satan Pit
Unicorn and the Wasp
Pandorica Opens
Doctors Wife
God Complex

All great choices. Tbh I was actually surprised that there didn't end up being many Moffat ones on mine.

1) Definitely MIDNIGHT (the whole thing from beginning to end was a master class on how to build unbearable tension in a story.  EVERY actor was outstanding but especially Tennant and Leslie Sharpe. AND the best display of Time Lord Testosterone during his confrontations with Biff!)
2) Human Nature/Family of Blood (Tennant again proves how versatile he can be. John Smith is a totally different man in every way from the character of the Doctor.)
3) Waters of Mars (Time Lord Victorious! Powerful performances!)
4) The Girl in the Fireplace
5) Impossible Planet/Satan Pit
6) Heaven Sent (AMAZING! But if everything resets then why not the dents in the wall?)
7) Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (love the speech that Ten gives the Vasta Nerada saying "You just killed someone I like and that is not a safe place to stand.")
Vincent (even though I think the epi only really shines at the end)
9) Christmas Invasion (for the last 10 minutes or so.)
10)World Enough And Time

BringMeKnitting wrote:

1) Definitely MIDNIGHT (the whole thing from beginning to end was a master class on how to build unbearable tension in a story.  EVERY actor was outstanding but especially Tennant and Leslie Sharpe. AND the best display of Time Lord Testosterone during his confrontations with Biff!)
2) Human Nature/Family of Blood (Tennant again proves how versatile he can be. John Smith is a totally different man in every way from the character of the Doctor.)
3) Waters of Mars (Time Lord Victorious! Powerful performances!)
4) The Girl in the Fireplace
5) Impossible Planet/Satan Pit
6) Heaven Sent (AMAZING! But if everything resets then why not the dents in the wall?)
7) Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (love the speech that Ten gives the Vasta Nerada saying "You just killed someone I like and that is not a safe place to stand.")
Vincent (even though I think the epi only really shines at the end)
9) Christmas Invasion (for the last 10 minutes or so.)
10)World Enough And Time

I agree with all of it.

BringMeKnitting wrote:

6) Heaven Sent (AMAZING! But if everything resets then why not the dents in the wall?)

I'd say this is the best of the 12th Doc's episodes.  Much better than heck Bent.    (oh, you funny little computer censor)

But in Heaven Sent there is nothing that is technically "reset".

How I think it works.:

I've actually only seen it on transmission so my details could be a bit hazy, but it seemed a pretty clever way to get around resetting things.  

Although if it really lasted 100 billion years or whatever, conservation of energy would mean that all that running around expended some energy.  Not sure if there would still be enough at the end to completely reset the loop.

After 100 billion years the pile of skulls may have started to fill up as well.  The steps would wear down and any wood would disintegrate.  If the cycle had taken 100 or even 1000 years that would have been enough.  Not sure why Moffat wanted to make it take so long.  But that's how I thought things were working and it explains why the chips and cracks were additive.

Also, there were no "dry clothes" for the first cycle when he pulls himself out of the water.  Presumably the first time around Doc 13 finished the episode in his "birthday suit" and left his outfit on the chair for the 2nd Copy to put on.