Thirty Days of Doctor Who: Day Three

[andraste]

Day 03 - Your Favourite New Series Episode

While The Empty Child/The Doctor Dance was a huge hit in 2005, I get the impression that fandom has moved on a little in the years since - there are other episodes that seem to come higher in the polls, like The Girl in the Fire Place, Blink and Human Nature. All of those are great and all, but for me there has been no better Doctor Who than this made since before I learned to tie my shoes. (And very little of it even then. It's my third-favourite of all time after City of Death and The Caves of Androzani. Maybe I'll tell you why I love that so much on one of the free-form days of this meme.) Despite the fact that I prefer the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors to the Ninth, it's this story that's closet to perfect for me. (My favourite Tenth Doctor outing, btw, is Midnight. With Eleven it is clearly too soon to tell.)

It's not just great because it's funny and scary and clever, and because the Doctor dances and TODAY EVERYBODY LIVES. It's because, this, for me, is the moment when the new series climbs out of its chrysalis, shakes its wings, and sores up into the sky.

It's as though Steven Moffat had a list of all the things Doctor Who writers could never, ever have got away with on TV before now and was working his way down it. Budget for scene where companion hangs off barrage balloon in middle of London Blitz while wearing a Union Jack t-shirt? Check. Day saved by homeless single teenage mother reuniting with her son in crowning moment of heartwarming? Check. The Doctor's sexuality repeatedly alluded to with dance-related metaphor? Check. Sympathetic gay soldier and completely random man having affair with local butcher? Check. Omni-sexual time traveller companion who spends début episodes hitting on the existing female companion, the Doctor and anyone else that happens to be going past? Check, check and double-check!

And it's great because you think it's all about sex and then it turns out that it's really all about family. (And sex.) Things like The Empty Child are the reason it's worth making Doctor Who in the 21st century at all.



Day 01 - Your Favourite Quote
Day 02 – Your Favourite Classic Series Episode
Day 03 – Your Favourite New Series Episode
Day 04 – Your Favourite Doctor
Day 05 – Your Favourite Companion
Day 06 – Whatever Tickles Your Fancy
Day 07 – Your Favourite Piece of Music
Day 08 – A Who-Related Photo That Makes You Happy
Day 09 – A Who-Related Photo That Makes You Angry/Sad
Day 10 – A Who-Related Photo That You Took
Day 11 – Your Favourite Season (Classic or New)
Day 12 – Whatever Tickles Your Fancy
Day 13 – Your Favourite Villain
Day 14 – The Villain Who Scared You the Most
Day 15 – Favourite Who-Related Tumblr
Day 16 – Your Favourite Who-Related FanFic
Day 17 – A Piece of Who-Related FanArt
Day 18 – Whatever Tickles Your Fancy
Day 19 – The Scene That Made Your Cry the Most
Day 20 – The Character Who Is Most Like You
Day 21 – Your Doctor Who OTP
Day 22 – A Who-Related Fan-Site
Day 23 – A Who-Related YouTube Video
Day 24 – Whatever Tickles Your Fancy
Day 25 – Favourite Who Actor
Day 26 – Favourite Who Actress
Day 27 – An Episode You Wish Hadn’t Been Made
Day 28 – An Episode Idea You Created Yourself
Day 29 – Who You Think Should Be the Next Doctor
Day 30 – Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

Comments

[lilacsigil]

This two-parter is absolutely my favourite of New Who, without a doubt. It's beautiful, smart, horrific and unexpected - and the Ninth Doctor immediately jumped to my equal favourite with the Seventh Doctor.

[hammerxsword]

So much yes to this! It takes a lot to make me cry, but the tears really spilled with "I'm your mummy." *now will need to seek out tissue again*

[st_aurafina]

Oh, oh, yes. I absolutely agree. It's one of the episodes that makes me wish we'd had just a little more time to get to know Nine.