10 Best Doctor Who Episodes According To YOU

Rating: 9.2/10

The Girl in the Fireplace is a very interesting episode to look back on with the Moffat era under our belts. At the time, it was rather unique in its premise, and was incredibly well-received – so well-received in fact that Moffat would recycle the ideas in this plot throughout his reign as showrunner.

Little girl meets strange man who saves her from the monsters and grows up with him as an imaginary friend. He turns up again when she’s older and saves her once more, but this time she’s into him. He then accidentally abandons her a second time. Sound familiar?

There’s plenty to love elsewhere – the setting of pre-revolution France is beautifully realised, the clockwork droids make for striking villains, and David Tennant’s chemistry with Sophia Myles rather awkwardly blows what he has with Billie Piper out of the window.

It's an interesting microcosm of Moffat that tells you all you need to know about him as a writer in 45 minutes, despite predating Matt Smith by a whole four years. It's actually seventh on the full IMDb list – which is higher than you'd expect it to be – but there's no doubt it's a special episode.