Doctor Who: A Historical Moment

In a few days, we will properly have a new Doctor! This is deeply strange but quite wonderful. (I will miss David Tennant, but I am still looking forward to new new new Doctor.) I've been avoiding spoilers for the content of the series beyond the most basic things, so I know a few monsters and guest stars that will be turning up but not the details of where the Doctor will be going and what he'll be doing. But I got The Masque of Mandragora on DVD the other day, and was reflecting while watching it that I don't mind so much how many alien planets we get as long as there's plenty of visits to Earth's past, preferably complete with tights and sword fighting.

Many of my favourite Doctor Who stories are historicals or what the fan community calls pseudohistoricals (that is, science fiction stories with aliens etc. in a historical setting.) So in honour of the new adventures just around the corner, I've made a top ten list.

I've defined my terms here as only stories where the Doctor and his companion(s) go to some era in Earth history and stay there for the duration of the adventure. This leaves out some gems like The Girl in the Fireplace and even Pyramids of Mars, but I think those stories have a subtly different feel caused by the presence of space ships and side trips to other planets. It also only includes TV serials, although there are some great historical stories in the books and on audio.

( The finest efforts of the BBC costume and props department are below the cut. )