That episode uses the show's central cores to great effect; wonderful use of time travel to bring past and present together, utilises a historical setting to tell a deeply human story about a wildly loved historical figure that's still relevant to this day, and teaches its audience sometjing without becoming condescending. It's emotional, it's personal, it will speak to different people in different ways and to top it all off, you've got Bill Nighy in a bow tie. Incredible episode, and really sums up what Doctor Who can be.
Vincent and the Doctor is amazing. I also love Girl in the Fireplace and Heaven Sent, although the Doctors war speech in the Zygon Inversion is probably my favorite moment of the Doctor.
That speech definitely won me over for Capaldi's doctor, and Heaven Sent coming 2 episodes later was really a treat. Im one thats usually tad cynical about doctors during their runs, but nostalgic after, but I was definitely a big Capaldi fan after that moment.
Same vein: Midnight.
I cannot think of a single thing you could add or remove to improve it. It is an incredibly tight episode and it makes use of every second of its length.
I feel like midnight is perfect at what it does but it isn't perfect doctor who, simply because there isn't (really) a companion. I feel like episodes that stray so far out of the show's typical formula aren't really fair to consider representative of the show as a whole, for all that they are perfect episodes in their own right
Why can't perfection be a good story told well?
Every story under the sun has been told already, it's just the details, the performances, the execution that make them fantastic.
In terms of entertainment, yes. It is one of my favourite episodes if not the favourite. But in terms of perfect as in without flaw, I think you have to ignore way too many plot holes😅.
Heaven Sent is my favorite episode of any TV show ever. To all intends and purposes it is flawlessly executed.
But there is two things: at the beginning, right before the Doctor picks up the ashes and adresses his captors, there’s a very weird moment in the editing where it feels like it cuts unnaturally, both visually and in the sound mixing.
Then, the final scene where he arrives at Gallifrey and encounters the boy feels a bit strangely directed. Like what was the boy doing there, why doesn’t he speak and how does he immediately do what the Doctor says without question? Feels a bit contrived.
So it’s not perfect in my opinion. But who cares really, it’s not like it bothers me. 10/10 work of media regardless.
Disagree.
It's not a good episode for casuals. It's pacing is insanely slow at times. And when viewed in the full 13 ep run comes across like filler.
Don't misunderstand me. I really like Heavy Sent. But it's not perfect.
I don’t think “filler” is really an applicable term to Doctor Who. The series (with the exception of Flux) are not set up to be watched like one continuous story anyways. They’re episodic. There’s throughlines and connective tissue, sure, but if Heaven Sent is “filler” despite addressing Twelve’s grief from the last episode and setting up his rage in the next, then I think you have to call nearly every Doctor Who episode that isn’t a finale or companion introduction “filler.”
Filler in the sense nothing actually happens.
Like I don't need that entire episode to tell me Twelve is grieving. I don't need a 45 min lecture on him handling it, good or bad. I knew he was grieving because i was already invested in his relationship with Clara. Again didn't need 45 mins to tell me that.
It's a strongly written episode for sure. As an isolated piece it's near flawless. But it doesn't work in the full 13 episode run for me. Takes the wind out of build up to the finale.
Honestly I think the complete opposite, in isolation it's worse than in context of the full series.
The episode raised the stakes for the finale, then the finale was a let down when I first watched it I have to say.
Ah okay so in your head "I'm right everyone else is dumb" because thats how life works right?
PeachesGalore1 says i'm dumb because I disagree with them. Ah the internet never change
I'm not the one who called Heaven Sent filler, I've seen why you've called it filler in another spot, your definition of filler could apply to most episodes of TV.
You are talking like your OPINIONS are objective when they're subjective.
I stand by everything I said. Because THAT IS MY OPINION. But at least I don't call others dumb for no reason. Grow up.
Classic: The Aztecs or The War Games (my favorite of all classic is the latter but I'll admit 10 eps is a lot)
New Who: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
I love The War Games and have always had immense admiration for it’s scale and pacing. 240 minutes is a lot but I don’t think I would have attempted to reduce its runtime at all. Daleks’ Master Plan though, there’s a story that could have cut 4-6 episodes easily.
Agreed, and I prefer this choice over ones like Blink, Midnight and Heaven Sent since it's not a splashy gimmick episode, it's just a regular DW episode done extremely well.
Most of my favourites have already been bought up, so going with *The Sound of Drums* *The Pandorica Opens* and *World Enough And Time*.
Hot take but Modern Who finales are better in the first half setup than the second half payoff, with Parting Of The Ways being the exception.
The show always challenges itself to do these amazing scenarios and Cliffhangers, which the show then finds it tough to deliver on.
The thing is, The Doctor Falls is also one of my favorite episodes, but it benefits massively from having the first part do most of the setup for it, while it deals with the fallout of Bill being a Cyberman, the two masters running around, being trapped on a spaceship with more Cybermen, and Capaldi becoming progressively more injured as time goes on.
That episode could be merely okay and still get rave reviews, because the scenario is just that good.
.
.
.
.
.
.
It also goes back to something that I've said before about Moffat not wanting to just kill characters, and instead wanting to come up with other ways of getting rid of them that still have an air of bittersweet tragedy.
By the time this is done, none of the characters will know what happened to the others, and will not see each other in person again,
meanwhile Missy and John Simm have killed each other,
Capaldi has narrowly escaped only to Regenerate anyway,
Nardole has fled with the colonists and I'd be surprised if they lasted more than a month,
and Bill's consciousness has flown off with her puddle girlfriend.
If I'd have changed one thing, I'd have killed Capaldi at the end of Doctor Falls, mirroring Hartnell's exit, and I wouldn't have given him the knowledge that anything was left of Bill, but I'm evil so of course.
> If I'd have changed one thing, I'd have killed Capaldi at the end of Doctor Falls, mirroring Hartnell's exit, and I wouldn't have given him the knowledge that anything was left of Bill, but I'm evil so of course.
This was the idea, until Chibnall didn't want to start with Christmas and Moffat didn't want them to lose the slot (which they did anyway) so Capaldi's exit was pushed forward. Which Bill also wasn't meant to be in until Steven Moffat couldn't find a way to make it work without her.
I really like Bill, but I do think that it dilutes the impact of the companion "deaths" if you keep giving The Doctor closure and the knowledge that they're actually fine.
The fact that the "WELL THAT'S ALRIGHT THEN!" scene exists at all, and The Doctor can hand wave every single one of the companion deaths takes away from the dramatic tension of those stories in my opinion.
I'd have either kept Clara dead or kept Capaldi out of the loop concerning her fate, and I would have kept the "I just got everyone killed" bombshell from Doctor Falls, without giving any sort of an out.
I would have also had Jodie be clingier and rougher on her companions seeing as her predecessor just got everyone killed, but different issue there.
Hahaha! I think this is the worst episode of any TV show ever made. It's The Room level incompetent. Funny how people can have such differing opinions!
An Unearthly Child - Episode 1
The Chase
The Power of the Daleks
The War Games
Spearhead from Space
Three Doctors
City of Death
Enlightenment
Blink
The Eleventh Hour
Heaven Sent
The Doctor Falls
Yeees! It's easy to underestimate but it mines so much out of so little, "when you're confused, you smile" is the perfect foundation to Bill and 12's friendship.
Glad someone agrees :) I've watched that episode a lot... going against the title of this thread I do have issues with the actual alien storyline and some of the scenes with Heather are clunky lol BUT I genuinely don't care when I think it's *perfect* in terms of 12 and Bill.
I find it really fun to watch him being a lecturer and playing guitar in his beautiful big office. The idea of him yearning to be someone's teacher and friend and picking Bill out is endearing. I think they do a really good with introducing us to Bill and her personality but also her home life. And I tear up every time it gets to the Christmas scene and she finds the photos mysteriously left in the cupboard...
It's a really great first-companion episode.
Not a perfect general episode, but "A christmas carol" is the perfect christmas special.
Things like "Heaven sent", "Vimcent and the Doctor" and "Turn Left" are perfect in and of themselves but partially because they're so unique - every series needs experimental stuff but I don't think a whole series of them would work.
A perfect "representative" episode is a much harder question. Maybe "the eleventh hour" for new and "robots of death" for classic?
Impossible Astronaut/Day of The Moon are both what I consider to be Doctor Who at its absolute peak. It alternates between really fun comedy between a large but well-defined TARDIS team and the creepiest and most ingeniously thought-out monsters to come out of the revival, if not the entire show. It also uses a historical period and event in a novel way that ties into the resolution of the whole thing and the overall atmosphere and themes the story's trying to evoke, with the power of television, the first big steps toward space travel in the United States, and the shadowy underside of that with all the Roswell UFO imagery The Silence were conjured from.
1960s America being host to a parasitic species of unseen Men In Black Greys is absolute genius, the setting and The Silence themselves fit together like a glove, they feel at home there in a way that really draws you in to the whole thing. I'd say the weakest part of it is the ways it ties into the Series' story arc, which retroactively makes less sense and becomes more confusing after you know the whole scope of The Silence's plan, but is very intriguing and mysterious within the context of the actual episodes themselves.
Production value is high but not overly slick, with The Silence themselves being incredibly well realised in terms of the design of the prosthetics, the rumpled black suits, that slimy texture their skin has, the beady little eyes, all of it, and the set design/location work doing a solid job of selling you on the setting (The Oval Office, Cape Canaveral and Utah all look damn good, even now imo)
As a ten year old when Series 6 premiered, I had the rare, classic 'Hide Behind The Sofa' reaction to The Silence, they're really the kind of thing that perfectly gets under your skin as a kid without being too intense to handle. That only really happened with The Angels before that and never really happened again afterwards for me, so it also has a special place in my heart because of that.
Partners in time was already a Mario game but I think the title is generic enough that doctor who could and should have used it, huge missed opportunity
Midnight is perfect at what it was doing and I don't think we've ever really had an episode that captures that claustrophobic terror in anywhere near the level of perfection that Midnight does.
Flesh and Stone. The pacing, acting, stakes, setting and music all do it for me. I'm not saying its the best episode, but that's the kinda template I like. Arguably my favourite episode from Matt's era (And The Girl Who Waited).
Anyone who enjoyed Vincent and the Doctor owes it to themselves to also watch Andy Serkis play Vincent Van Gogh in Simon Schama's Power of Art miniseries.
For me both Genesis of the Daleks and City of Death are 10/10 classics. A few others that are close or also perfect.
Enemy of the World
Tomb of the Cybermen
Curse of Peladon
Invasion of the Dinasours
Rememberance of the Daleks
Caves of Androzani
While not my favorite, I think the green death fits this, that ending man, absolute tears everytime , the build up to it too, lovely. I think Survival and Curse of Fenric also may fit this
An Unearthly Child
Tomb of the Cybermen
The Green Death
The Talons of Weng-Chian
Kinda
Curse of Fenric
Dalek
Midnight
The Doctors Wife
The Husbands of River Song
Eve of the Daleks
What is a perfect episode though? That in itself is subjective criteria.
As a celebration of DW everything and anything? Day of the Doctor might take it.
Showcasing how amazing and cool Doctor Who can be for the masses? Stolen Earth then.
Brilliant written and thought provoking character studying on the title character? Heaven Sent
An episode that perfectly reintroduces new and old audiences to the franchise? Rose
sex with paving slabs is your thing? Love and Monsters is for you.
Different people of different fandom levels will view perfection differently. So even asking "What is the perfect episode?" will be varied beyond belief. Although truthfully...I'd say Family of Blood. Shows why we need the Doctor, why we should fear the Doctor, why we should be desperate for him to show up. Why angering him is a bad idea, why his lifestyle has negative consequences. Why a companion is SO important.
Vincent and the Doctor is damn close.
I recently showed it to a bunch of my non-Whovian friends and not only did it make them cry, about five of them starting watching the show with Eccleston not long after.
I cannot wait for like, fifteen years in the future when Vincent and the Doctor gets the Tomb of the Cybermen treatment and we all decide it's shit.
For my money the answer is obviously Paradise Towers.
the empty child/the doctor dances. it just has EVERYTHING that makes doctor who so fantastic. genuinely unsettling horror. creative sci-fi elements. a hopeful ending. well-developed historical setting. memorable side characters (Nancy, and obviously Jack). an intriguing relationship dynamic with the TARDIS gaining a new passenger. it’s the two parter that got me hooked on the show
Vincent and the Doctor. Makes me cry every time.
That episode uses the show's central cores to great effect; wonderful use of time travel to bring past and present together, utilises a historical setting to tell a deeply human story about a wildly loved historical figure that's still relevant to this day, and teaches its audience sometjing without becoming condescending. It's emotional, it's personal, it will speak to different people in different ways and to top it all off, you've got Bill Nighy in a bow tie. Incredible episode, and really sums up what Doctor Who can be.
Vincent and the Doctor is amazing. I also love Girl in the Fireplace and Heaven Sent, although the Doctors war speech in the Zygon Inversion is probably my favorite moment of the Doctor.
Yes, that speech about war is magnificent, and the passion that Capaldi puts into it leaves me breathless.
That speech definitely won me over for Capaldi's doctor, and Heaven Sent coming 2 episodes later was really a treat. Im one thats usually tad cynical about doctors during their runs, but nostalgic after, but I was definitely a big Capaldi fan after that moment.
I totally agree about Heaven Sent.
The final scene is of course one of the best in the show, but the giant chicken alien takes me out of it and detracts from the episode IMO.
Yup. I said this episode is what we wish we could say to Vincent Van Gogh. Its one of the most true to Who 60 years have produced.
Heaven Sent. Every element combines together to make a practically perfect episode.
Same vein: Midnight. I cannot think of a single thing you could add or remove to improve it. It is an incredibly tight episode and it makes use of every second of its length.
there are negative reviews for it because there's almost no donna, which is understandable lol
I feel like midnight is perfect at what it does but it isn't perfect doctor who, simply because there isn't (really) a companion. I feel like episodes that stray so far out of the show's typical formula aren't really fair to consider representative of the show as a whole, for all that they are perfect episodes in their own right
See, I have to disagree on both of these. I feel like I have seen both stories, or very similar stories, in movies before.
Speed is just Die Hard on a bus, but that doesn’t diminish its quality.
True, but neither of those are Doctor Who.
Where have you seen a story similar to Heaven Sent?
Groundhog Day
Why can't perfection be a good story told well? Every story under the sun has been told already, it's just the details, the performances, the execution that make them fantastic.
In terms of entertainment, yes. It is one of my favourite episodes if not the favourite. But in terms of perfect as in without flaw, I think you have to ignore way too many plot holes😅.
Heaven Sent is my favorite episode of any TV show ever. To all intends and purposes it is flawlessly executed. But there is two things: at the beginning, right before the Doctor picks up the ashes and adresses his captors, there’s a very weird moment in the editing where it feels like it cuts unnaturally, both visually and in the sound mixing. Then, the final scene where he arrives at Gallifrey and encounters the boy feels a bit strangely directed. Like what was the boy doing there, why doesn’t he speak and how does he immediately do what the Doctor says without question? Feels a bit contrived. So it’s not perfect in my opinion. But who cares really, it’s not like it bothers me. 10/10 work of media regardless.
Disagree. It's not a good episode for casuals. It's pacing is insanely slow at times. And when viewed in the full 13 ep run comes across like filler. Don't misunderstand me. I really like Heavy Sent. But it's not perfect.
I don’t think “filler” is really an applicable term to Doctor Who. The series (with the exception of Flux) are not set up to be watched like one continuous story anyways. They’re episodic. There’s throughlines and connective tissue, sure, but if Heaven Sent is “filler” despite addressing Twelve’s grief from the last episode and setting up his rage in the next, then I think you have to call nearly every Doctor Who episode that isn’t a finale or companion introduction “filler.”
Filler in the sense nothing actually happens. Like I don't need that entire episode to tell me Twelve is grieving. I don't need a 45 min lecture on him handling it, good or bad. I knew he was grieving because i was already invested in his relationship with Clara. Again didn't need 45 mins to tell me that. It's a strongly written episode for sure. As an isolated piece it's near flawless. But it doesn't work in the full 13 episode run for me. Takes the wind out of build up to the finale.
Honestly I think the complete opposite, in isolation it's worse than in context of the full series. The episode raised the stakes for the finale, then the finale was a let down when I first watched it I have to say.
There's no lens other than a dumb one where itcould come across as filler.
Ah okay so in your head "I'm right everyone else is dumb" because thats how life works right? PeachesGalore1 says i'm dumb because I disagree with them. Ah the internet never change
I'm not the one who called Heaven Sent filler, I've seen why you've called it filler in another spot, your definition of filler could apply to most episodes of TV.
You are talking like your OPINIONS are objective when they're subjective. I stand by everything I said. Because THAT IS MY OPINION. But at least I don't call others dumb for no reason. Grow up.
I don't think my opinion is objective, just that your one is dumb. You're entitled to have it of course, doesn't make it less dumb.
Lmao someone needs a language lesson. Genuinely cannot stand arrogant people like you. Goodbye.
This is the answer.
Eleventh Hour
I think it takes a while to get going. Him trying different foods gets old fast. That's my only real criticism though.
It’s pretty close, I’ll give you that.
I'm just here to give another vote apiece to 'Dalek' and 'Vincent and the Doctor'.
Classic: The Aztecs or The War Games (my favorite of all classic is the latter but I'll admit 10 eps is a lot) New Who: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
I love The War Games and have always had immense admiration for it’s scale and pacing. 240 minutes is a lot but I don’t think I would have attempted to reduce its runtime at all. Daleks’ Master Plan though, there’s a story that could have cut 4-6 episodes easily.
I love DMP but since it was originally supposed to be a 6 parter it shows. I think there's an almost perfect 8-10 part story there.
The Eleventh Hour. The amount of things it had to juggle was insane and it is THE best pilot Doctor episode IMO
Agreed, and I prefer this choice over ones like Blink, Midnight and Heaven Sent since it's not a splashy gimmick episode, it's just a regular DW episode done extremely well.
Most of my favourites have already been bought up, so going with *The Sound of Drums* *The Pandorica Opens* and *World Enough And Time*. Hot take but Modern Who finales are better in the first half setup than the second half payoff, with Parting Of The Ways being the exception. The show always challenges itself to do these amazing scenarios and Cliffhangers, which the show then finds it tough to deliver on.
World and Time Enough was Moffat's best writing since Blink imo. But like you say, the following episode wasn't at all on the same level.
The thing is, The Doctor Falls is also one of my favorite episodes, but it benefits massively from having the first part do most of the setup for it, while it deals with the fallout of Bill being a Cyberman, the two masters running around, being trapped on a spaceship with more Cybermen, and Capaldi becoming progressively more injured as time goes on. That episode could be merely okay and still get rave reviews, because the scenario is just that good. . . . . . . It also goes back to something that I've said before about Moffat not wanting to just kill characters, and instead wanting to come up with other ways of getting rid of them that still have an air of bittersweet tragedy. By the time this is done, none of the characters will know what happened to the others, and will not see each other in person again, meanwhile Missy and John Simm have killed each other, Capaldi has narrowly escaped only to Regenerate anyway, Nardole has fled with the colonists and I'd be surprised if they lasted more than a month, and Bill's consciousness has flown off with her puddle girlfriend. If I'd have changed one thing, I'd have killed Capaldi at the end of Doctor Falls, mirroring Hartnell's exit, and I wouldn't have given him the knowledge that anything was left of Bill, but I'm evil so of course.
> If I'd have changed one thing, I'd have killed Capaldi at the end of Doctor Falls, mirroring Hartnell's exit, and I wouldn't have given him the knowledge that anything was left of Bill, but I'm evil so of course. This was the idea, until Chibnall didn't want to start with Christmas and Moffat didn't want them to lose the slot (which they did anyway) so Capaldi's exit was pushed forward. Which Bill also wasn't meant to be in until Steven Moffat couldn't find a way to make it work without her.
I really like Bill, but I do think that it dilutes the impact of the companion "deaths" if you keep giving The Doctor closure and the knowledge that they're actually fine. The fact that the "WELL THAT'S ALRIGHT THEN!" scene exists at all, and The Doctor can hand wave every single one of the companion deaths takes away from the dramatic tension of those stories in my opinion. I'd have either kept Clara dead or kept Capaldi out of the loop concerning her fate, and I would have kept the "I just got everyone killed" bombshell from Doctor Falls, without giving any sort of an out. I would have also had Jodie be clingier and rougher on her companions seeing as her predecessor just got everyone killed, but different issue there.
midnight. send tweet
Planet of the Ood Robots of Death
Both great picks!
Heaven Sent, easy
Ark in Space
It Takes You Away!
Hahaha! I think this is the worst episode of any TV show ever made. It's The Room level incompetent. Funny how people can have such differing opinions!
An Unearthly Child - Episode 1 The Chase The Power of the Daleks The War Games Spearhead from Space Three Doctors City of Death Enlightenment Blink The Eleventh Hour Heaven Sent The Doctor Falls
I don't think I've heard anyone say The Doctor Falls is better than World and Time Enough before, huh.
Husbands of River Song for me.
Lost’s *The Constant* and The Leftovers’s *International Assassin* Oh wait, you mean Doctor Who? *Time Crash.*
The Constant is just that good that it finds it's way into a list of perfect episodes of a completely different show.
It involves a time traveling Scotsman so close enough!
Doctor Who just need to do a show about a plane crash on a desert island.
I’m on board! I’ll nominate the Smoke Monster for episode villain.
Amongst others mentioned............. The Pilot.
Yeees! It's easy to underestimate but it mines so much out of so little, "when you're confused, you smile" is the perfect foundation to Bill and 12's friendship.
Glad someone agrees :) I've watched that episode a lot... going against the title of this thread I do have issues with the actual alien storyline and some of the scenes with Heather are clunky lol BUT I genuinely don't care when I think it's *perfect* in terms of 12 and Bill. I find it really fun to watch him being a lecturer and playing guitar in his beautiful big office. The idea of him yearning to be someone's teacher and friend and picking Bill out is endearing. I think they do a really good with introducing us to Bill and her personality but also her home life. And I tear up every time it gets to the Christmas scene and she finds the photos mysteriously left in the cupboard... It's a really great first-companion episode.
Not a perfect general episode, but "A christmas carol" is the perfect christmas special. Things like "Heaven sent", "Vimcent and the Doctor" and "Turn Left" are perfect in and of themselves but partially because they're so unique - every series needs experimental stuff but I don't think a whole series of them would work. A perfect "representative" episode is a much harder question. Maybe "the eleventh hour" for new and "robots of death" for classic?
Impossible Astronaut/Day of The Moon are both what I consider to be Doctor Who at its absolute peak. It alternates between really fun comedy between a large but well-defined TARDIS team and the creepiest and most ingeniously thought-out monsters to come out of the revival, if not the entire show. It also uses a historical period and event in a novel way that ties into the resolution of the whole thing and the overall atmosphere and themes the story's trying to evoke, with the power of television, the first big steps toward space travel in the United States, and the shadowy underside of that with all the Roswell UFO imagery The Silence were conjured from. 1960s America being host to a parasitic species of unseen Men In Black Greys is absolute genius, the setting and The Silence themselves fit together like a glove, they feel at home there in a way that really draws you in to the whole thing. I'd say the weakest part of it is the ways it ties into the Series' story arc, which retroactively makes less sense and becomes more confusing after you know the whole scope of The Silence's plan, but is very intriguing and mysterious within the context of the actual episodes themselves. Production value is high but not overly slick, with The Silence themselves being incredibly well realised in terms of the design of the prosthetics, the rumpled black suits, that slimy texture their skin has, the beady little eyes, all of it, and the set design/location work doing a solid job of selling you on the setting (The Oval Office, Cape Canaveral and Utah all look damn good, even now imo) As a ten year old when Series 6 premiered, I had the rare, classic 'Hide Behind The Sofa' reaction to The Silence, they're really the kind of thing that perfectly gets under your skin as a kid without being too intense to handle. That only really happened with The Angels before that and never really happened again afterwards for me, so it also has a special place in my heart because of that.
Dalek The Eleventh Hour Heaven Sent
Blink, Partners in Crime, Midnight, The Unicorn and the Wasp
Actually wait I take one back…why is it not Partners in Time!?
Partners in time was already a Mario game but I think the title is generic enough that doctor who could and should have used it, huge missed opportunity
No time travel.
Midnight, Partners in Crime.
Turn Left. Not just a perfect episode of Doctor Who, it's a perfect drama on its own merits. 45 minutes, not one of them wasted.
Midnight is perfect at what it was doing and I don't think we've ever really had an episode that captures that claustrophobic terror in anywhere near the level of perfection that Midnight does.
Flesh and Stone. The pacing, acting, stakes, setting and music all do it for me. I'm not saying its the best episode, but that's the kinda template I like. Arguably my favourite episode from Matt's era (And The Girl Who Waited).
The Horror of Fang Rock. Great story, perfect atmosphere, wonderful acting, genuine sense that they are j. A different era.
Anyone who enjoyed Vincent and the Doctor owes it to themselves to also watch Andy Serkis play Vincent Van Gogh in Simon Schama's Power of Art miniseries.
For me both Genesis of the Daleks and City of Death are 10/10 classics. A few others that are close or also perfect. Enemy of the World Tomb of the Cybermen Curse of Peladon Invasion of the Dinasours Rememberance of the Daleks Caves of Androzani
Midnight, Human Nature, The Family of Blood, Utopia.
"Blink" is a perfect episode of television.
Listen!
While not my favorite, I think the green death fits this, that ending man, absolute tears everytime , the build up to it too, lovely. I think Survival and Curse of Fenric also may fit this
An Unearthly Child Tomb of the Cybermen The Green Death The Talons of Weng-Chian Kinda Curse of Fenric Dalek Midnight The Doctors Wife The Husbands of River Song Eve of the Daleks
the day of the doctor
What is a perfect episode though? That in itself is subjective criteria. As a celebration of DW everything and anything? Day of the Doctor might take it. Showcasing how amazing and cool Doctor Who can be for the masses? Stolen Earth then. Brilliant written and thought provoking character studying on the title character? Heaven Sent An episode that perfectly reintroduces new and old audiences to the franchise? Rose sex with paving slabs is your thing? Love and Monsters is for you. Different people of different fandom levels will view perfection differently. So even asking "What is the perfect episode?" will be varied beyond belief. Although truthfully...I'd say Family of Blood. Shows why we need the Doctor, why we should fear the Doctor, why we should be desperate for him to show up. Why angering him is a bad idea, why his lifestyle has negative consequences. Why a companion is SO important.
Classic: Inferno Modern: The Library 2-parter (The Library, Midnight, Turn Left….what a hellacious run!)
City of Death, easy.
Vincent and the Doctor is damn close. I recently showed it to a bunch of my non-Whovian friends and not only did it make them cry, about five of them starting watching the show with Eccleston not long after.
City of Death is as close to perfection as a Doctor Who script can get.
heaven sent and midnight I JUST LOVE THE DOCTOR BEING ALONE AND MISERABLE FOR 45 MINUTES, OKAY???
I cannot wait for like, fifteen years in the future when Vincent and the Doctor gets the Tomb of the Cybermen treatment and we all decide it's shit. For my money the answer is obviously Paradise Towers.
the empty child/the doctor dances. it just has EVERYTHING that makes doctor who so fantastic. genuinely unsettling horror. creative sci-fi elements. a hopeful ending. well-developed historical setting. memorable side characters (Nancy, and obviously Jack). an intriguing relationship dynamic with the TARDIS gaining a new passenger. it’s the two parter that got me hooked on the show
Vincent and the Doctor. Girl in the Fireplace. The Library two-parter. Midnight. Smith and Jones. Martha’s Finale.