10 Best Doctor Who Episodes Ever

Jodie Whittaker’s tenure on Doctor Who will not be seen as one of the show’s dark periods, even though it was not her fault. There were very few memorable episodes in Doctor Who seasons 11, 12, and Flux, which was exacerbated by the very contentious Timeless Child narrative and an excessive number of unimpressive scripts. There were some noteworthy exceptions, too, and “Fugitive of the Judoon” from 2020 deserves a spot among Doctor Who’s greatest episodes after defeating rivals including “Rosa,” “Spyfall,” and “War of the Sontarans.”

Fundamentally, “Fugitive of the Judoon” was a suspenseful thriller in which the Doctor found himself in the way of a Judoon platoon and its target on, surprise!, modern-day Earth, making for one of the best Doctor Who episodes.

Whittaker’s time struggled so much to make room for the Thirteenth Doctor and her three full-time companions, but “Fugitive of the Judoon” separated the group and brought forth some of Whittaker’s best work—online pandemic videos notwithstanding. With the help of an intriguing cameo from Captain Jack Harkness that hinted at a threat to the Doctor in the future, Yaz, Graham, and Ryan also became more radiant. Just those components alone could have produced a compelling Doctor Who episode.

However, a crazy climactic scene sent “Fugitive of the Judoon” into overdrive, resurrecting the chameleon arch to startlingly introduce a new Doctor played by Jo Martin and adding an indisputable new layer to Whittaker’s time period, making for one of the best Doctor Who episodes.

Really unexpected twists are becoming harder to find in the social media arena, and unexpected twists that receive universal praise are even harder to find. Martin’s Fugitive Doctor was astounding; her acting duels with Whittaker were exquisite, and the performance was impeccably timed. Of course, everything would come crashing down in “The Timeless Children,” but the build-up and promise that “Fugitive of the Judoon” left behind was a unique experience.

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One could scarcely argue that Doctor Who spent the whole reign of the First Doctor self-discovering. Doctor Who first started to resemble the show that fans know and love today after Terrance Dicks and William Hartnell joined the cast as Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell underwent regeneration, starring in some of the best Doctor Who episodes.

That, however, would not have been feasible without “The Daleks.” It is nearly impossible to fully comprehend the significance of this legendary serial from a contemporary standpoint. “The Daleks” may appear more archaic than dinner at Za’s house by contemporary standards, but it was a daring move toward discovering Doctor Who’s soul in its most unadulterated form, and a significant shift from “An Unearthly Child” and its caveman-based shenanigans.

Although “The Daleks” directors Christopher Barry and Richard Martin accomplished amazing things with a very evidently little budget, Terry Nation’s creative vision and world-building were what really made the film move. When viewed through a modern lens, “The Daleks” featured some of the best examples of the sci-fi morality and horror imagery that Doctor Who would eventually come to embrace on a weekly basis, making for some of the best Doctor Who episodes.

Although the serial ran for two episodes longer than necessary, the cultural impact it left behind is evidence of the caliber of Nation’s concept. Granted, some things do age like milk, but the original appearance of the most deadly pepper pots on television deserves recognition as the cornerstone of what Doctor Who became in the end.

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Steven Moffat faced immense pressure to live up to the expectations surrounding Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary, which marked not only the show’s greatest historical achievement up to that time but also the first significant anniversary of the show’s modern era, making for one of the best Doctor Who episodes. As the title implies, “The Day of the Doctor” was the ultimate coming together of all that is Doctor Who, seemingly blending the past, present, and future together more effortlessly than it should have. Particularly at the last multi-TARDIS combo-strike and Tom Baker’s appearance as the mysterious Curator, there was an abundance of nostalgia.

But “The Day of the Doctor” steered clear of “The Five Doctors'” self-indulgence by concentrating on the Time War and the ineluctably excellent chemistry between David Tennant and Matt Smith. By incorporating John Hurt’s War Doctor and a fleeting appearance from Peter Capaldi’s eyebrows, Moffat made it clear that Doctor Who was far from out of ideas and still ready to deliver some of the best Doctor Who episodes. The very straightforward plot of “The Day of the Doctor” highlighted the real theme of the Doctor Who series, which is hope. Oddly, this script cannot be ranked among the most complex or ambitious Doctor Who scripts.

The 50th anniversary show ended on a note of unabashed delight. Doctors from all across the time vortex came together to save their home planet, in perhaps the most inspiring moment in Doctor Who history, thanks to Moffat’s unwavering refusal to give in to the corny get-togethers his predecessor was so fond of. This episode served as the perfect example of the principles and ideals that are important to Doctor Who and one of the best Doctor Who episodes.

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Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor was notoriously one of the less emotionally transparent regenerations, using Clara’s cue cards to get by in social situations throughout the majority of his life. It’s odd, then, that the start of Twelve’s finale turned out to be one of the most profoundly moving tales that Doctor Who has ever written and one of the best Doctor Who episodes.

Rejecting the multi-Doctor cliche in favor of a multi-Master narrative, John Simm and Michelle Gomez’s pairing naturally worked wonders. Things could have become complicated by introducing Cybermen into the story, but as “World Enough & Time/The Doctor Falls” clearly functions as the beginning of Mondas’ greatest work, the pairing of Masters and metal made logical.

More than any Doctor Who character in history, Capaldi portrayed a solitary warrior who was mentally and physically tormented. Pearl Mackie’s Bill Potts, who was so frequently disregarded as a companion, was the source of that melancholy and the focal point of what may have been the worst Doctor Who moment in the entire six decades when she was genuinely and permanently transformed into a Cyberman.

The audience could feel every bit of suffering carved into Capaldi’s dejected expression. “World Enough & Time/The Doctor Falls” is still the closest that Doctor Who has gone toward an overt sci-fi war story even after the Time War, and the retro 1960s aesthetic—which in 2017 might have seemed ridiculous—made a significant contribution to this incredibly unsettling tale of sacrifice and loss, making for one of the best Doctor Who episodes.

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The relaunch of Doctor Who in 2005 by Russell T. Davies was not a sure thing. Episodes like “Dalek” and “Rose” gave the modern series a great start, but the two-part “The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances” was what really solidified Doctor Who’s status as a must-watch series after the year 2000, still delivering some of the best Doctor Who episodes.

The World War II period work also demonstrated how frightening, exhilarating, and captivating RTD’s novel viewpoint was. The image of a kid wearing a gas mask and asking, “Are you my mummy?” reinvented the cliché of someone watching Doctor Who from beneath a sofa cushion out of pure horror, but the message of love during a time of war made sure there was more than just surface scariness.

Captain Jack Harkness turned out to be a brilliant decision, as the endearing outlaw added color to Doctor Who’s otherwise monochromatic moral palette. Meanwhile, Jack’s constant flirting further undermined the idea that Doctor Who is a stuffy, antiquated, sexless throwback from the past, making for one of the best Doctor Who episodes. This was the first demonstration of the power that RTD and Steven Moffat, two self-described ardent Doctor Who fans, could wield. It shaped the subsequent ten years of Time Lord exploration, expertly fusing elements that everyone already adored with fresh ideas that would never have passed muster with previous script editors.

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Another instance of Doctor Who taking a bold risk and succeeding, “Human Nature/The Family of Blood” owed much of its popularity to Paul Cornell, whose idea envisioned the Doctor as a regular person from the 20th century.

A wealth of moral quandaries were raised by that quietly brilliant notion, ranging from the Doctor’s sinister side showing itself when punishing the Family of Blood to John Smith’s almost infantile reluctance to go back to traveling through time and space. “Human Nature/Family of Blood” became one of the most important stories that Doctor Who has ever told, especially when you consider the tragedy of war that is about to break out on Earth, making for one of the best Doctor Who episodes.

Cornell’s writing is impressive because, despite the many problems mentioned above, the darkness of the notion never overshadowed this Doctor Who two-parter. Enough hearty warmth emanated from The Doctor’s love tale and his charming teacher-student interactions to counterbalance the tonal volumes. But if “Human Nature/The Family of Blood” weren’t so consistently eerie, it wouldn’t have the same impact. The swaying scarecrows were scary enough, but it’s hard to understand how Harry Lloyd captured Son of Mine’s insane glare without using any visual effects.

Cornell’s introduction of the chameleon arch cemented its place in Doctor Who history and offered numerous doors for his fellow writers, including Chris Chibnall’s premiere of Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor and RTD’s Master-ful surprise, making for one of the best Doctor Who episodes. The Gallifreyan (plot) device is the one that never quits.

The one significant negative aspect of “Human Nature/The Family of Blood” was how poorly it illustrated Martha’s limits as a Doctor Who companion. Worsely underusing Freema Agyeman, Season 3 at times struggled to portray Martha as anything more than a Tenth Doctor fanatic. Nothing demonstrated this more than Martha’s pouting and resentment at having to witness her Doctor fall in love with a different person.

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The Doctor has always had a hint of Sherlock Holmes in him, albeit some regenerations are more like the well-known detective created by Arthur Conan Doyle than others. Tom Baker enthusiastically embraced the parallel, and “The Talons of Weng-Chiang” ultimately let go of pretense with a story that Doyle himself could have written as one of the best Doctor Who episodes. Although “The Talons of Weng-Chiang” has not aged well in some areas, it is nevertheless a noteworthy serial in the Doctor Who canon and cannot be disregarded, even though this inevitably taints the story’s reputation.

Written by Robert Holmes (there he is again), “The Talons of Weng-Chiang” was one of precious few classic Doctor Who serials that maintained momentum through each episode. Even the best Doctor Who stories flagged in the middle thanks to the multipart release format, but the Fourth Doctor’s jaunt through Victorian London had enough clever plotting, well-timed suspense, and excellent dialogue to avert the usual episode 3 slump, making for one of the best Doctor Who episodes.

“The Talons of Weng-Chiang” owed much of its success to the one-off supporting cast, which included Christopher Benjamin as Jago and Trevor Baxtor as Litefoot. Without crossing any Holmesian bounds, the unusual duo played for laughs and ended up becoming the much-needed stabilizing factor that Leela’s companion was never meant to be. The Talons of Weng-Chiang, like “The Daemons” before it, profited from stepping closer to the horror genre, but it gains the upper hand thanks to a telling inclusion of a strategically positioned deerstalker.

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Steven Moffat established himself as the current revival’s creative MVP before assuming the role of showrunner for Doctor Who with episodes such as “The Girl in the Fireplace” from season 2. “The Girl in the Fireplace” was essentially a time travel romance in the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife, a novel that Moffat himself would eventually adapt for television, making for one of the best Doctor Who episodes. The story was so moving that it forced viewers to fully embrace and immerse themselves in the peculiar bond between David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor and Sophia Myles’ Madame de Pompadour.

The script’s sensitive side is expertly counterbalanced by another of Moffat’s signature spooky inventions: mechanical androids clad in 18th-century clothing who are searching for body parts for their malfunctioning spaceship, which is now parked in a different century. Perhaps the only environment in which a Bridgerton-Terminator-Repo Man hybrid could truly flourish is a Steven Moffat Doctor Who screenplay, and flourish it did, exploring the core of the Doctor’s motivations and emotions in a way that even contemporary Doctor Who seldom does as one of the best Doctor Who episodes.

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For many years, Terry Nation’s “Genesis of the Daleks,” considered the best Doctor Who serial ever, was the unchallenged champion of the classic era. Even if “Genesis of the Daleks” was overshadowed by Doctor Who’s 2005 rebirth, it’s still a strong, gritty, cinematic six-part adventure that showcases one of those infrequent occasions when everything comes together flawlessly as one of the best Doctor Who episodes. At the height of their powers, Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen brought the famous Daleks back to life with an origin story, which restored their fearsome qualities after overexposure and mediocre scripts blunted their plungers.

Davros’s arrival ultimately provided the Daleks with a human face and a reason other than annihilation—the two things the villains were lacking in order to continue to be considered the most enduring monsters in Doctor Who history, making for one of the best Doctor Who episodes. The moral conundrum the Doctor faces in “Genesis of the Daleks” is on whether or not to eliminate the Daleks before their campaign of hatred and destruction spreads over the entire cosmos. It is fitting that Doctor Who’s famous picture of Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor questioning his authority to execute genocide and the show’s solid philosophical foundation will live on in the show’s memory forever.

Similar to several exceptional Doctor Who episodes, “Genesis of the Daleks” possesses such a robust narrative and fundamental ideas that it can be well appreciated even by those who have no prior familiarity with the series. However, “Genesis of the Daleks” can only be seen as a transcendental rite of passage for what Doctor Who always could have been, when viewed in the context of Doctor Who’s past and future.

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Give Peter Capaldi the freedom to do what he does, and he will deliver. Not even the shock of Matt Smith’s unveiling could have prepared anyone for the 2013 announcement that the longtime admirer of Doctor Who will finally play the part he has dreamed of for decades. Despite not being as well-known as his three predecessors, Capaldi’s Doctor was a quietly wonderful character for the whole of his tenure, making for one of the best Doctor Who episodes. When it came to the casting, “Heaven Sent” from Doctor Who season 9 was a real winner.

Director Rachel Talalay and writer Steven Moffat, along as Modern Doctor Who’s formidable striking team, gave actor Peter Capaldi an entire hour to fully embody his character. Once more, Moffat skillfully blended science fiction and emotion in The Twelfth Doctor, as he struggled to break free from the mental and temporal confines that befell him as he grieved for Clara Oswald’s passing while trapped in a Gallifreyan time loop.

“Heaven Sent” might have been overly dull if a different performer had portrayed the lead role. With its bow tie weirdness and constant pacing, the presentation was a far cry from the typical Saturday night thrills and spills of Doctor Who.

“Heaven Sent” is not a classic Doctor Who story, in contrast to a lot of other tales that are some of the best Doctor Who episodes. In actuality, it’s the complete opposite—a breathtaking divergence that demonstrated that, nearly 60 years after the character’s creation, there were still facets of the Doctor to reveal. If “Genesis of the Daleks” characterized the Doctor of the classic era, “Heaven Sent” revealed to viewers the true nature of Doctor Who’s titular character after 2005.

Though “Blink” appears to be a Tenth Doctor episode, it would be more accurate to characterize it as a short Steven Moffat horror film set inside the Doctor Who universe. By casting Carey Mulligan, who will eventually win an Oscar, in the lead part of Sally Sparrow—the friend who never was—Moffat once again employed the narrative device that worked so effectively for him in “The Girl in the Fireplace.”

Rather than sitting down to write a “good Doctor Who story,” he used Doctor Who to write a good story, making for one of the best Doctor Who episodes. As a result, this is one of the scariest, most suspenseful, and most unforgettable stories in Doctor Who history.

As soon as the Weeping Angels were placed alongside the Cybermen and Daleks among the most formidable monsters in Doctor Who history, they became well-known, as did the Tenth Doctor’s eyeball-testing directive to “don’t blink.” Though the true genius of “Blink” always lay in the original concept, the film was quickly labeled a modern classic, and no discussion of Doctor Who’s best episodes would be complete without it, making for one of the best Doctor Who episodes. Director Hettie MacDonald captured every bit of terror from the UK’s gothic architecture, and then-unknown Mulligan gave the kind of performance no guest star has ever given on the show.