Top Five Stories: The Eleventh Doctor

Expect these installments to show up periodically between now and the start of series 8.  It may have made more sense to start with One and move forward to the celebrated arrival of Twelve, but going backwards gives me a bit more time to fill in the holes in One and Two’s repertoires. 

 

“Vincent and the Doctor” (Series 5, Episode 10) 

Is it schmaltzy?  Maybe.  Is it emotionally manipulative?  Well, yeah.  I don’t care – this episode is gorgeous.  I always like the Doctor Who:  Celebrity Edition stories, and Vincent van Gogh is a great pick.  It’s outside the norm, since he’s not famous when Amy and the Doctor meet him and believes he never will be.  His running gag of using paintings as coasters and blithely painting over masterpieces is fun, and he makes a strong emotional connection.  The museum sequence at the end makes me tear up, and the scene of Vincent describing the night sky is utterly beautiful.

 

“The Doctor’s Wife” (Series 6, Episode 4) 

I’m a sucker for the Doctor/TARDIS relationship, and this episode is everything I could have wanted it to be.  I love that the TARDIS is given a voice here, I love that she perceives everything nonlinearly – tenses are difficult – and I love that she stole the Doctor all those years ago.  Companions come and go, but she’s his one constant through it all.  Throw in a creepy villain menacing Amy and Rory and a DIY TARDIS-building session, and it’s just about perfect.

“The Girl Who Waited” (Series 6, Episode 10) 

The above criticisms about “Vincent and the Doctor” apply here as well, but once again, it’s too effective to be a concern.  The conceit – that Amy is caught in a faster-moving time stream than the Doctor and Rory – is a good one, and Karen Gillan does a bang-up job playing both versions of Amy.  It’s interesting to see the Doctor stuck maddeningly outside the action while Rory is the one sent into the fray.  The first time I saw this episode, the big climax left me a wreck.

 

“The Lodger” (Series 5, Episode 11) 

I’m a big fan of both “Craig” episodes, but I really have to applaud the original.  Eleven is just so alien, and while “The Lodger” was first written as a Tenth Doctor comic story, it’s even funnier to see him trying to pretend he’s human.  Without Amy as a buffer, his craziness is in full force, and he and regular-guy Craig make a terrific Odd Couple.  There’s a lot of genuine sweetness, and the offbeat wish-fulfillment aspect of having the Doctor as your flatmate is irresistible.

 

“The God Complex” (Series 6, Episode 11) 

Sorry, Clara!  Though I considered “The Rings of Akhaten,” I couldn’t leave out this fine story.  I love sci-fi/fantasy stories that play on the characters’ worst nightmares, and in that sense, I’m disappointed that we only see into one of the trio’s “rooms,” but it’s still top-notch.  There’s an excellent, eclectic supporting cast, including the fabulously companion-esque Rita, the Minotaur is a scary, intriguing villain, and the story has a real emotional impact for the Doctor.  A winner!