The Day of the Doctor: Gallifrey Falls No More
Three Doctors, a weapon with a conscience, and an anniversary special that reaches back into the show’s darkest decision and quietly undoes it.
Three Doctors, a weapon with a conscience, and an anniversary special that reaches back into the show’s darkest decision and quietly undoes it.
Journey’s End ends Series 4 with a reality bomb, a second Doctor, a return to Bad Wolf Bay, and the cruellest fate the show has ever handed a companion.
The Stolen Earth takes the planet out of the sky, brings every companion back at once, reveals Davros, and ends on the show’s cruellest cliffhanger.
Turn Left changes one small decision in Donna’s life and watches Britain collapse without the Doctor, in the bleakest hour Doctor Who has ever produced.
Partners in Crime brings Donna Noble back as a full companion, with a diet pill that turns fat into waddling aliens and a shock cameo nobody saw coming.
Doomsday sets Daleks against Cybermen over London, then ends on a cold Norwegian beach. My take on the Doctor Who finale and that goodbye.
Army of Ghosts turns a planet’s grief into a Cyberman invasion, opens up Torchwood Tower, and ends on a Dalek cliffhanger I never saw coming.
Fear Her sends the Doctor and Rose to the 2012 London Olympics, where a lonely girl’s drawings are making children vanish. A gentle, uneven episode.
Doctor Who’s naffest monster, the Abzorbaloff, can’t quite sink a surprisingly moving episode about fandom, found family, and Jackie Tyler’s loneliness.
The Satan Pit sends the Doctor into the abyss to face the Beast itself, in a Doctor Who two-parter finale about faith, reason, and believing in Rose.
The Impossible Planet strands the Doctor and Rose on a base by a black hole, where the Ood turn deadly and something ancient stirs in the dark.
The Idiot’s Lantern sends the Doctor and Rose into 1953 Coronation London, where the Wire feeds on TV viewers by stealing their faces.
The Age of Steel reveals the Cybermen’s true horror and gives Mickey Smith his hero moment in an emotionally sharp Doctor Who finale.
Rise of the Cybermen strands the Doctor on a parallel Earth where Rose’s dad is alive and John Lumic is building an army of steel men from the living.
The Girl in the Fireplace sends the Tenth Doctor through time windows into 18th-century France, clockwork monsters and a love story that breaks your heart.
Sarah Jane Smith walks back into the Doctor’s life in School Reunion, and it’s the most emotional hour Doctor Who has given me since it came back.
Tooth and Claw drops the Tenth Doctor and Rose into 1879 Scotland with a werewolf, Queen Victoria, and the birth of a very familiar institute.
New Earth kicks off Series 2 with cat-nuns, a plague farm, and the return of Cassandra as the Tenth Doctor and Rose take their first real trip together.
David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor sleeps through most of his own debut in The Christmas Invasion, while the Sycorax menace Earth and a satsuma decides its fate.
My own Season 1 celebration: Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor, the Slitheen, Dalek, and a finale I was not ready for.
The Ninth Doctor refuses to fire the delta wave, Rose becomes the Bad Wolf, and Doctor Who says goodbye to Eccleston in The Parting of the Ways.