fajrdrako | Doctor Who: the Ten Best Moments...

Because I am excited about the upcoming airing of Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead, I thought I'd celebrate by listing my ten favourite moments in Doctor Who, and the reasons for them.

One of the interesting things about this list is that is doesn't specifically focus on my favourite episodes, my favourite characters, or even my favourite Doctors. I love Martha, and there are actually no Martha moments here; series three, much as I love it, isn't represented. Perhaps at some point I'll list the ten best moments of series three... I love Jack, I love Donna, and this doesn't reflect them, either. My number one moment is from an episode I don't even otherwise like much.

My ten favourite moments in Doctor Who:

10. The Doctor has dinner with Margaret the Slitheen in "Boom Town".

This scene represents so much to me of what Doctor Who is all about. It's dangerous and wacky; eating together doesn't even mean a temporary truce with these two, but each knows what the other is all about, neither is going to let their guard down, and both are thoroughly enjoying themselves. It's My Dinnner With Andre recast with two determined aliens; a bit of grade-B sci-fi turns into a drawing room comedy. Or vice versa.

9. The Doctor explains who he is in "Voyage of the Damned".

Another visceral thrill: I don't even know why I love this so much, except that I love it when the Doctor acts tough and pulls authority.

8. The Doctor tricks Rose into entering the TARDIS in "The Parting of the Ways".

I love this because, on first viewing, the Doctor fooled me, too.

I love this because Rose is so trusting, and the Doctor so determined, and in such pain to send her away.

I love it because he wants her to have a good life, and I love it because, in the end, she foils him.

7. The Doctor, dancing with Rose, invites Captain Jack onto the TARDIS in "The Doctor Dances" by telling him to shut the door before his ship blows up.

I had to have a Captain Jack moment, and this is my favourite. It's a moment of joy for Jack because he thought he was at the point of death, and finds himself saved by the people he most admires; and because at last he has become a hero rather than the coward and shyster he thought he was.

It's a moment of joy for the Doctor because he is letting himself dance. Everybody lives. He's happy with Rose, with the universe, with Jack for redeeming himself the way the Doctor guessed and hoped he might, but mostly he is happy, for the moment, with himself. A rare thing.

6. The Doctor decrees the fate of the Daleks in "The Parting of the Ways".

Of the many things I loved about series 1, one of the greatest was the implication of the Time War. The Doctor had destroyed the Daleks, with whatever that left on his conscience; and in doing that, he had lost everything. A scarring Pyrrhic victory. This scene took this and gave the Doctor a chance to try again: and again, to lose everything that mattered to him.

Or did he regain his self-respect?

Aside from the effect on the Doctor's psyche, I love it that there's no easy moral answer. Is it better to kill the Daleks at the expense of an infinite number of lives, or is it better to back off, let them do their harm, unwilling to act?

I think I would argue that the Doctor did the best thing both times, though I'm not sure I can justify that.

5. The Doctor meets Sarah Jane again in "School Reunion".

When I saw this episode, I have never seen Sarah Jane Smith, and I was barely familiar with the show - I hadn't seen series 1 at that point. But I loved so much about it: that he could and did meet a Companion from the past, that he had such a profound effect on her life, and remembered her so fondly.

4. The Doctor gets his face slapped by Jackie Tyler in "Aliens of London".

There's so much there: the Doctor has never had his face slapped by anyone's mother before, he says, and his indignation is as much at the fact Jackie didn't believe him as that she accused him of molesting her daughter in the first place. There's a delightful humanism to this: the Doctor may believe himself to be 'above all that' but there are consequences to picking up pretty young humans.

3. The Doctor puts his hand to the wall of the devastated Torchwood to detect Rose across the void in "Doomsday".

Rose is hysterical. The Doctor is beyond that; he knows what's happened, he knows what he has lost.

There is an ambiguity here that I particularly love. Can he sense her, across the Void? Can the Doctor's telepathy by touch reach Rose through the wall that infinitely divides them? I love it either way; that he turns away, knowing she is there, or that he turns away, knowing she is so far parted he can never reach her again.

...And of course they do meet again, several times, but that doesn't lessen the impact of this moment.

2. The Doctor holds a gun to General Cobb's head after he shoots Jenny in "The Doctor's Daughter".

One of my favourite thing about Doctor Who is that the Doctor doesn't use weapons, doesn't like weapons, substitutes bananas for blasters, and has a scorn of those who are willing to use weapons. And yes, I love the implication voiced by Davros in "Journey's End": that he uses his friends as weapons, he uses his friends (and even his doppelganger) to do the violent deeds which he will not. And further, he sometimes does kill: not individual murders, but widespread slaughter - the Racnoss young, the Daleks in the Time War. It isn't a simplistic morality, it's a hard-fought one with devastating psychological implications.

So: when the Doctor sees a military man - a fanatic in a pointless war - shoot Jenny, whom he has just accepted as his daughter, and he picks up his gun, murder in his eye - well. I didn't for a moment think he was going to shoot Cobb. But at the same time, I think I held my breath.

Violence is so much scarier when considered by the non-violent.

1. The Doctor snaps his fingers to open the TARDIS doors in "The Forest of the Dead".

Simply magical.

It's one of those things I don't like to analyze, because, like explaining the punchline of a joke, it's more fun as a experience than as an idea. It's playful, it's new, it's a surprise to the Doctor, and it underscores his rapport with the TARDIS.

With thanks to _jems_ and to http://doctorwho.time-and-space.co.uk/coppermine/index.php for screencaps to work with. Cross-posted to my lj and doctorwho.