The Angels Take Manhattan is a weeping angel story which already makes me like it but it’s also emotional and very time-wimey.
Asylum Of The Daleks is just good for me because the way it portrays the Daleks and that twist where it’s revealed that Oswin is a Dalek is well played.
I personally think the ending of the Power Of Three is terrible but I like the bits where it goes between months without the Doctor and we get to see the Ponds without the Doctor.
A Town Called Mercy is just a bit boring for me.
Dinosaurs On Spaceship doesn’t even deserve to be on this list.
Finally someone else that thinks Asylum of the Daleks is great. I love the episode and the twist is amazing. Oswin is amazing. The only criticism I have about it is the Amy and Rory subplot. It appeared out of the blue.
I don’t even think it comes out of nowhere. They went through a lot in the previous season and never really processed it, and time had passed between the seasons, time in which those things came to a head in their relationship.
People built an image of the Ponds as a perfect couple as time passsed and it just… isn’t true. Both Amy and Rory are extremely flawed, specially in season 5. Even more so as a couple. I really don’t get who think their divorce is ooc.
I used to be in that camp, but when Kyle and Erik on The Writers’ Room podcast talked in detail about it, it really started to come together and make sense. I need a rewatch.
I think that’s something Steven Moffat often does. He trusts the audience to think about how things could have gone for characters during the off-season, and will continue them with development based on that. I’ll see him get criticized for doing character development off-screen, but honestly I think he just assumes the audience is intelligent enough to put some of the pieces together themselves, which I think is cool.
I don’t think it’s out of character, but I do think it’s out of nowhere if that makes sense
I think there could easily have been some more build up in the series to it, you get the sense their relationship could go that way, but not that it is going that way, and I think it comes up and is resolved way too quickly
I can agree with resolved too quickly. You wouldn’t expect one conversation that the Doctor orchestrated to fix it. But again, there’s time between Asylum and Dinosaurs, and between all of the episodes, during which they presumably figured it out. Actually, the way time seems to be just running away and their lives going at such a fast pace seems an intentional choice, building up to their eventual departure.
I agree that they’ve been through a lot but there’s no real build up to it. To me they are just acting like they usually would and suddenly they’re breaking up.
I really liked how there was a big off-screen gap with the Ponds, and how they were aging and their friends were noticing because of all the TARDIS travel, leading to them eventually wanting to leave, but then having to be forced out, then coming back…
I thought it was all really natural and interesting!
I feel like having them ageing was a really good idea and it did make them feel more like real people but I do feel as if the divorce came out of nowhere and then vanished back into thin air.
I agree with @shauny that the way the Ponds were treated was very novel and interesting. It felt like something worth exploring but I feel like Angels The Manhattan didn’t really deliver with it much.
Honourable Mention 