Face the Raven is an easy first pick for me - the beginning of the end for my all-time favourite Doctor/Companion duo, with a final ten minutes that are utterly spellbinding. The conversation between the Doctor and Clara before her death is a serious contender for the most well-acted and emotional scene in the entire programme, IMO.
The second pick is a bit harder, because this is such a great field of episodes - I went for Blink, because it’s such an incredibly cleverly structured episode, with the single greatest monster in New Who, full-stop.
The Doctor Dances, even taken on its own, is an all-timer for me.
As for my other pick, as much as I love most of these episodes… I can’t not pick Vincent And The Doctor. The single greatest inducer of heartache of the entire bloody franchise, and it contains a very specific metaphor for depression and mental health issues in general that I refer to quite often in my own life. Not even kidding, as soon as I saw it listed in the poll, I got a bit misty-eyed just from remembering what happened in it.
I know Love & Monsters gets a lot of hate but I think it’s a beautiful episode about the power of community. And Elton Pope is, in my opinion, one of the sweetest and most believable characters in Doctor Who.
(But there are a lot of good episodes here… If I had more choices, I would definitely pick Eaters of Light as well!)
Agreed, I think Love and Monsters gets far more hate than it deserves - I’ve always found it to be a really enjoyable and sweet episode, even if certain aspects are, err, unusual
Vincent and the Doctor was an easy pick but I was so conflicted choosing another because there are so many good episodes here, ending up going with Midnight.
There plenty of great ones here, wow! I really like Eaters of Light and same goes for face the raven. Love & Monsters is an infamous classic by now! The Doctor Dances and Blink are brilliant. The Girl who waited is superb, but sadly I am too basic so the Choice today is Midnight & Vincent..
Most of these are just so good! I went with ‘Blink’ and ‘Midnight,’ with the third in my Group of Three going to ‘Face the Raven,’ and my second Go3 including ‘Vincent and the Doctor,’ ‘The Girl Who Waited,’ and ‘The Doctor Dances.’