Doctor Who: 10 Best Episodes Of Nu Who

8. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances

The-Empty-Child (1) Doctor Who lives and breathes on the strength of their inventive, scary creatures, and this episode features one of the best. It's pretty unique for the series, because it's not even a villain -- in fact, you could argue that it's just trying to help. But it creates one of the creepiest things that has ever existed on Doctor Who: the gas mask kid. Moffat tends to overuse his catchphrases, but it's pretty fair in this case. Can you imagine a little kid with a gas mask coming up to you and asking if you're his mummy? This episode is filled with brilliant little moments. I love that they built an entire nightclub set just so they could do a "Seen anything dropping from the sky lately?" joke. I love the strength of Nancy's character, even before we get her big reveal, when she squares off against the rich man they'd been taking food from. I love the utter ridiculousness of the banter between Captain Jack and the Doctor when they're in the hospital running from the little boy. I love that at the end of the episode, one of the hospital patients regrows a leg. This is a great episode, with great one-off characters, great writing, and a fantastic backdrop of London during the Blitz. It's pretty much a perfect Doctor Who story, and I can't think of a single thing I would change about it.
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Audrey Fox is an ex-film student, which means that she prefers to spend her days in the dark, watching movies and pondering the director's use of diegetic sound. She currently works as an entertainment writer, joyfully rambling about all things film and television related. Add her on Twitter at @audonamission and check out her film blog at 1001moviesandbeyond.com.