Top 20 Episodes of Doctor Who Introduction: The Crimson Horror

As I teased at the end of the final entry in our Deep Space 9 countdown, our next series of Top 20 episodes will be covering another one of my favorite shows, Doctor Who. As always, for those unfamiliar with the work that we happen to be covering, here’s a rundown on what you need to know.

Doctor Who is a British science fiction series that ran from 1963 from 1989 and was later revived in 2005 and continues to this day. The premise of the series revolves around an eccentric alien known only as the Doctor who travels through time and space with various companions (usually humans) in his TARDIS, a spaceship/time machine that resembles a blue police box that’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. The brilliant thing about the show is, because the doctor is able to travel anywhere in time and space, there is no limit to the storytelling possibilities. You want to have an episode about pirates, no problem. How about an episode on an undersea military base in the future, also no problem. There is simply no limit to the possibilities. Another ingenious thing about the show is how they’ve been able to keep it going all these years. You see, when the first Doctor, William Hartnell had to leave the show due to health issues, the idea that the Doctor’s species, the Timelords, are able to regenerate themselves at the moment of their death, causing their appearances and certain aspects of their personalities to change but still allowing them to retain the memories of their previous incarnations. This way, when an actor grows tired of the role, wishes to pursue other projects or must leave the show for personal reasons, there’s already a plot device in place to allow them to pass the torch to their successor. Before we move on, here’s a few disclaimers to get out of the way. I have chosen to include both classic and new series in this countdown and will try to be fair to both sides because I know that the whole classic vs. new thing can be a divisive topic. Though it was not by design, when I took a look at the final list, I found that half were from Classic Who and half were from New Who. On that note, there are unfortunately two Doctors who will not have an episode of theirs appearing on this list, first Doctor William Hartnell and Eighth Doctor Paul McGann. McGann’s only onscreen appearances as the Doctor were in a made for TV movie and an eight minute special, so he’s unfortunately out, and with many of Hartnell’s episodes lost, it’s just simply an era I’m largely unfamiliar with. However, rest assured that every Doctor will be represented on this list in one form or another Also, in some cases, talking about why the episode makes the list will require giving away certain plot points. I’ll try to keep this to a minimum, but be warned for those who are not as familiar with the show, there will be…

We’ll be getting to the countdown proper in due time, but since Doctor Who is such a huge phenomenon, I’d like to cover it in all of it’s aspects with some honorable mentions, be they audio dramas, comic books, fan-made specials and in the case of today’s subject, other episodes that scarcely missed the cut for the final list. Without any further delay, I give you our first honorable mention, The Crimson Horror.

I really wanted this episode to make the final list, but sadly, it barely missed the final cut. But, I didn’t want to let such a great episode go unnoticed so here it is in the honorable mentions section.

In Victorian Yorkshire, Vastra, a katana wielding lesbian lizard woman detective and Jenny, her sexy ninja chambermaid wife, are investigating a mysterious cause of death that leaves the victims skin bright red with the help of their alien sidekick who’s as lovable as he is bloodhungry, Strax. The investigation leads them to Sweetville, a mysterious new compound run by the evil Mrs. Gilliflower, played by Dame Diana Rigg who also plays Lady Olenna Tyrell on Game of Thrones, who along with her mysterious associate, Mr. Sweet, plan to poison the entire world, leaving only those she deems to be part of her “perfect race” to survive. With the Doctor and Clara trapped within the bowels of Sweetville, its up to Jenny to set them free so the Doctor can save the day.

This episode is just a delight. The story is completely ridiculous, but that’s part of the charm of it all. Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith is great as always. Jenna Coleman gets a few good lines (this was before her character became completely insufferable). Mrs. Gilliflower is a delightfully over the top villainess, very reminiscent of a villain from the classic series and her blind daughter (played by the Rigg’s real life daughter) gives an incredible performance. However, this episode belongs to team Vastra. Since their debut in the series 6 episode, A Good Man Goes to War, I’ve been dying to see them get a spinoff, and this episode is the closest we ever got to that. Hopefully we’ll see more of Vastra, Jenny and Strax in the future.

As I said, we’ll be getting to the countdown soon enough, but next time, we continue the honorable mentions by discussing our first of several audio dramas.