My Subjective Top of 8 Best Doctor Who Episodes You Should Revisit After S2 With Ncuti Gatwa
The 15th Doctor is still searching for his own voice in the second series, resulting in uneven episode quality. So here are older episodes that are so good, you can watch them over and over again.
Doctor Who Season 2 starring Ncuti Gatwa is in full swing – a rather controversial chapter in the show's history, but one that also had its gems, like the second episode called Lux.
If you were disappointed by the second series, these eight carefully selected episodes will help to heal that wound.
1. The Doctor's Wife – Season 6 Episode 4
The Doctor and his companions Amy and Rory receive a distress signal from a Time Lord from another universe, and the search leads them to a junkyard planet. It turns out that they were deliberately lured there.
Now Amy and Rory are trapped in the TARDIS while the soul of the time machine moves into the body of the mad Idris.
The writers have found a way to tell the story of the Time Lord's greatest love – his TARDIS. To allow them to finally communicate, the time machine was turned into a woman who speaks strangely and confuses the past and the future.
2. Heaven Sent – Season 9 Episode 11
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After Clara's death, the Doctor finds himself in a huge castle, where the creature called The Veil follows him. It drives the Time Lord into dangerous situations and forces him to reveal the most unpleasant truth he was unwilling to admit, even to himself.
Heaven Sent is one of those episodes where the Doctor appears without a companion and is more focused on his past and experiences.
It is in this episode that you can best appreciate Peter Capaldi's acting talent: his character not only tries to understand where he has ended up and how to get out, but also suffers from the loss of Clara and other dark events.
3. Human Nature – Season 3 Episode 8
Great Britain, 1913. Teacher John Smith falls in love with his colleague, but his happiness is spoiled by a mysterious dream – the man sees a blue phone booth and aliens.
Smith begins to lose touch with reality. He has no idea that his identity is just a disguise the Doctor has adopted to hide from dangerous enemies.
Human Nature shows viewers what the Doctor would do if he became an ordinary person. The show has always lacked ordinary human stories, so an episode with a minimum of sci-fi elements was just right: it makes the show more down-to-earth and sentimental.
4. Silence in the Library – Season 4 Episode 8
The Doctor and Donna travel to the 51st century to the largest library in the universe, where all the books ever written are kept.
They find it completely empty. Soon, a group of archaeologists arrives, including Professor River Song. She acts as if she has known the Doctor for a long time.
In this episode, the Doctor meets his true love – River. After that, their destinies intertwine in a most unusual way. They live in opposite timelines, so the Time Lord's first meeting is River's last.
5. The Empty Child – Season 1 Episode 9
The Doctor and his companion Rose find themselves in London during the Second World War. There are bombings all around, and while the inhabitants hide in shelters, homeless children steal food.
But they are all afraid of a boy wearing a gas mask. The main danger is that when other people come in contact with him, they turn into the same creatures.
The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances duology are the best episodes with the Ninth Doctor. They combine a dark story about war and the humanity of the Time Lord.
6. The Pandorica Opens – Season 5 Episode 12
World War II, an unknown painting by Vincent Van Gogh suddenly appears in London – the artist depicted an exploding TARDIS. A concerned Winston Churchill contacts the Doctor through River.
Amy and the Doctor realize that the roots of the problem go back to ancient Britain – in the ruins of Stonehenge, the Pandorica is about to open, a mysterious box containing the most terrifying monster in human history.
This episode features not only familiar faces, but also chilling suspense: the writers cleverly twist the intrigue, forcing the viewers to guess who is hiding inside the Pandorica until the very end.
7. The Girl Who Waited – Season 6 Episode 10
Amy ends up in a mysterious quarantine facility while Rory and the Doctor try to pull her out of another time stream. Little do they know that they are 36 years too late. When Rory finally meets Amy, she has become a different person.
The solution is simple – erase the old version of Amy and bring back the young one. But there is a problem: the old Amy does not want to erase her memories. She has spent 36 years struggling to survive and will not forget the path she has taken.
The Girl Who Waited is a perfect episode of Doctor Who. Short but intense, it presents the Time Lord and Rory with a moral dilemma that cannot be resolved without compromise.
8. Turn Left – Season 4 Episode 11
The Doctor and Donna are enjoying themselves at a carnival. A fortune teller offers to tell the woman her future, but when she leaves the tent, she finds herself in an alternate reality where the Doctor has died after a terrible flood.
With the death of humanity's protector, the world is threatened with terrible cataclysms. To save the Time Lord, Donna must enlist Rose's help.
The Tenth Doctor barely appears on screen, but the series works well without the main character. Donna finally shines, proving that companions can save the world on their own.
