Top 20 Episodes of Doctor Who #15: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances

So far, we’ve had a lot of fun reminiscing about the classics, but I think it’s high time we returned to New Who. This time, we’re looking at the Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston. As the first Doctor of the new series, the Ninth Doctor was the one who was given the task of introducing modern audiences to the character, a difficult task to be sure. Despite being an unusual sort by Doctor standards, particularly in how he wore a leather jacket as opposed to one of the more outlandish outfits of those who came before and after (something fan material would see other Doctor's refer to as a mid-life crisis), he still possessed a lot of the eccentricities and charisma that no Doctor should ever be without. While Eccleston’s time as the Doctor was short lived, it was nonetheless excellent and this episode is a great example of that.

The Doctor and his companion, Rose Tyler, played by Penny Dreadful's Billie Piper, land in London during World War II on the night of the blitz, but they quickly learn there’s more to fear than Nazi attack planes, namely, a small child in a gas mask asking “are you my mommy.” With the help of a dashing time agent from the 51st century, the Doctor and Rose need to get to the bottom of this horrifying mystery before all of London is turned into horrifying gas mask zombies.

This episode is brilliant and significant for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the atmosphere. This episode is absolutely terrifying. The idea of a kid in a gas mask may not seem particularly scary at first, but if you try whispering “Are you my Mummy” to any of your Whovian friends, you’ll see them visibly twitch out of fear. Second, this is the episode that introduces my favorite character in the entire series, Captain Jack Harkness, played by the endlessly talented John Barrowman, who many would know as Malcolm Merlyn from the CW's Arrow. Essentially, he’s Malcolm Reynolds with the libido of Pepe Le Pew and absolutely no sexual hangups in regards to race, gender or literally anything else… so in other words, he’s freaking awesome. Next, this episode is the writing debut of Stephen Moffat, the current head writer of the series, and love him or hate him for what he's done with the current series, Moffat can still write a good script when called upon. Finally, there’s Eccleston himself who is at his absolute best here. He balances the comedy and the drama expertly and he absolutely nails the now famous “Everybody Lives” scene. It’s episodes like this that make me wish we had had more of Chris Eccleston as the Doctor, but they also remind me that the episodes we got were nothing short of superb.

So, you've probably noticed that I've been cranking these out rather fast. Well, confession time, I kinda cheated. See, the last several articles were actually written two years ago and at the time, I planned on releasing the list in coincidence with Peter Capaldi's debut as The Doctor. However, due to real life and such getting in the way, that project had to be shelved. I mention this because I've reached the end of the pre-written Doctor Who articles, meaning that they'll be coming out much slower. Still, the list will continue, as next time, we meet The Doctor's wife.