We have a brand new Doctor among us, Whovians. Beginning this Christmas, Peter Capaldi will be stepping into the TARDIS, and while it is a bit disappointing to see him selected over the most deserving option, Tilda Swinton’s hairstyle, I’m still excited. It’s time for a contrarian Doctor, and he seems ripe for the task.

The birth of this new era presents an ideal opportunity for reflection. It’s a moment to look back with a critical, aggressively fanboyish eye on the last seven installments of our favorite daft old man in a box, officially designating the five most triumphant episodes and the one gnawing pet peeve that combine to make Doctor Who almost perfect.

Top 5 

5. A Good Man Goes to War – Series 6

Frances Barber as Madame Kovarian

At the risk of turning into a total Stefon, this episode has everything:

That list alone would be worthy of a place in the top five, but the Doctor’s quasi-war with Madame Kovarian is memorable mostly for its check on the Doctor’s infallibility. When he finds that his dearest companion has been secretly made of goop (we’ve all been there), the Doctor makes a rare poor decision and momentarily sheds his trademark mercy to become the master of explodey-wodey vengeance. His anger is uncomfortable and slightly amazing, and the show’s ultimate rejection of his aggressive choices, behavior that would be praised in any other fantasy/sci-fi fare, reinforces the Doctor Who identity, as Craig Ferguson so rightly put it: “The triumph of intelligence and romance over brute force and cynicism.”

4. The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang – Series 5

The “cracks in the universe” story, the show’s first and most successful foray into the series-long mystery format, concludes in this two-parter in appropriately epic fashion as the Doctor must travel back to the invasion of the hot Italians, escape an impossible prison, save Amy, save the universe, and save himself. You know, Time Lord stuff.

The episode is fundamentally grand. It’s about scope, drama, and having a lot of feelings, especially feelings about people sort of dying and then coming back to life through the power of memory. “Nothing is ever forgotten, not completely, and if something can be remembered, it can come back.” The Doctor’s journey through his past, culminating in a heartbreaking goodbye to young Amelia, is the shining moment of Matt Smith’s tenure, and Amy’s wedding monologue where she finds the Doctor with words walks the proper side of the sentimentality line, just adorable enough to melt our cold hearts without becoming too “we saved the universe with hugs. Weeeee!”

3. Human Nature/The Family of Blood – Series 3

Oh, were you saying something? I couldn’t hear you over the sound of David Tennant acting the pants off of everyone. With his true identity concealed in a watch, the Doctor must become human teacher John Smith in order to protect the universe. Problem: John Smith doesn’t know he’s the Doctor and kind of likes being a human.

Tennant creates the ideal un-Doctor in John Smith: frustrating, sort of blundering, but no less wonderful and never completely divorced from his dual identity as the Doctor. Through his temporary humanity and his desire for something simple, safe, and happy, the un-Doctor becomes a rare character in the Doctor Who universe: one who isn’t impressed by the Doctor and has no desire to run with him. John Smith sees the pain, destruction, and loss of the Time Lord with a clarity that no one but the Doctor himself could ever possess. He’s a complex one, this Doctor, and we love it.

2. The Girl in the Fireplace – Series 2

The Doctor Who trinity is as follows: imaginative time premise, cool villain, and obsession-worthy new character. “The Girl in the Fireplace” gets an A+ in all three categories as the Doctor, Rose, and that walking snore Mickey arrive on a spaceship where organ-harvesting clockwork androids have opened up time portals to pre-revolutionary Versailles, forcing the Doctor to jump between the two periods. Spaceships and evil clockwork and corsets and intersecting time streams. Have you been reading my diary again, Moffat?

As delightful as the premise is on its own, this episode belongs to Sophia Myles’ Madame de Pompadour, the first character we meet truly worthy of matching the Doctor and even taking charge of him. She sees into his mind, sees his loneliness, and teaches him to dance. It’s a performance so confident and uncompromisingly tragic that to this day people still clamor for her to return as the next companion. Plus, she gets to say, “Oh this is my lover, the king of France.” Once, just once, I would like to be able to say that. Is that too much to ask? Not really.

1. Blink – Series 3

It may be a cliché to name “Blink” as the best Doctor Who episode, but that’s only because it categorically is the best. Carey Mulligan’s empathetic and unpretentiously inquisitive performance as Sally Sparrow seamlessly carries a Doctor-light episode without ever allowing it to seem incomplete, and we are treated to our first encounter with the Weeping Angels in all their statues-that-send-people-back-in-time-when-no-one-is-looking glory.

It’s no surprise that the Weeping Angels have become the iconic villain of the modern series because they rely not on the straightforward, stale monster hijinks of the 1960s (EXTERMINATE!) but on an unsettling conceptual presence, even creepier when they’re out of shot. The Weeping Angels also provide the show’s best exploration of time by shunting us from the present day to 1920 to 1969 and allowing for letters from beyond the grave and half conversations hidden on DVDs until the other half of the conversation can occur (as one does). The climax of the episode, where Sally completes her part of the conversation and the Doctor gives her the “Don’t blink” instructions, is the most exquisitely crafted, complex, and legitimately suspenseful moment in the whole series. I defy anyone to see this episode and ever forget it.

Bottom 1

The Nostalgia Episodes

There is no good without bad, no Doctor without monsters, and the burden of 50 years of stories wears on Doctor Who at times in its attempts to balance the creation of the new with the celebration of the old. Occasionally, it falls into the trap of nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia.

Episodes featuring the original series’ iconic villains, usually the Daleks or the Cybermen, appeal to viewers who enjoyed the first run as children, but too often the entire point of bringing these villains back seems to be “Remember them, you guys? REMEMBER?”

This wears off fairly quickly, and they become a remnant of a different time, trading on what they used to mean to people, out of place on a show that travels to Stonehenge and Monument Valley and no longer has to throw a cardboard box off a ladder and call it an alien invasion. While the Daleks may add color to some stories in small doses, when featured they become the group of septuagenarian rock stars still going on tour and trotting out the old hits. They’ll still sell tickets and get people excited, but only as a memory.

The sole argument for continuing to dust off these villains seems to be “What would the Doctor be without the Daleks?” but seven series full of brilliant new stories prove that the answer to that question is “Um, a whole lot.”

Now you go. Which BESTEST EPISODE can you NOT BELIEVE I left out? (None because I’m awesome.) Are you some kind of Dalek apologist?