55. Victory of the Daleks - Rage Against the Daleks
It can be said that every Doctors baptism of fire comes when they face off against the Daleks. The Eleventh Doctor is no exception showing a rage only matched by the Ninth Doctor in 2005. The Daleks refusing to admit what they are and taunting the Doctor with their deviousness drives the Doctor to breaking point. When they try to offer him the umpteenth time a cup of tea, the Doctor snaps and picks up a giant spanner trying to beat a confession out of the Daleks, while reminding them what he is to them. He puts it in black and white, I am the Doctor and you are the Daleks!. An admission the Daleks wanted all along. Having got what they wanted they show their true colours as you can expect before they leave crying Victory!. Strangely they didnt take the opportunity to kill the Doctor having obtained their objective. The Doctor was slipped up by his own blind hatred.
54. Midnight - Stealing the Doctor's Voice
If the scene from '42' wasnt enough, David Tennant had to go one better. In 'Midnight', a tremendously tense and atmospheric episode, the Doctor faces a force that can steal his voice. First by repeating every spoken word in the room, then singling out the Doctor, the being catches up to the point where it and the Doctor speak simultaneously and finally takes over the Doctor. The twisted psyche and paranoia of the fellow passengers aboard the shuttle bus leads to them to believing its a good idea to throw the Doctor out of the bus into the lethal xtonic sunlight. David Tennants performance is a work of genius as he struggles to regain control. Its not often we see the Doctor scared, but here he is utterly gripped with fear. Hes only saved by his own catchphrases, which is a very clever solution. Coming out of the mouth of the creature that took his voice, its clear where the evil lies. When it is destroyed, the Doctors relief is felt by all.
53. Time Crash Time Crash
All of it! Yes, all of it is superb. Every second is a joy to behold. Its 7 minutes of probably the most successful multi Doctor story ever. It has fun while actually dealing with an issue that Im sure has been on many fans minds. Why doesnt the Doctors past selves remember what happens in a multi Doctor story. In this one he does, the Tenth Doctor bides his time, thoroughly enjoying himself, while the Fifth Doctor is infuriated by this fellow claiming to be his future self wont take the gravity of the situation seriously as the temporal collision could cause a black hole the exact size of Belgium. Peter Davison appears to be remarkably at home playing the Fifth Doctor again, while David Tennant is visibly having the time of his life, its hard to tell if hes in character or not. To top it off, its a script by Steven Moffat, who as I have already mentioned uses the timey wimey aspects to his advantage and actually does a pretty decent job of explaining it. If this had been a full episode, it wouldnt have worked nearly as well, but we have 7 minutes of gold instead.
52. Lets Kill Hitler - Is the Doctor Worth Saving?
'Lets Kill Hitler' is a weird one, because one of the Doctors best friends turns out to be a custom made assassin before she met him. Watch all of Series 6 and youll know what I mean. River Songs first meeting with the Doctor from her point of view isnt as harmonious as one might expect as she poisons him and the Doctor spends the entire episode dying. But that doesnt stop him showing her mercy as he persuades the Teselecta not to torture her as punishment for the crimes she has yet to commit. In addition, he tries to use his last ounces of energy to try and save Amy and Rory from the Anti bodies inside the Teselecta. As he takes his last breath, River realises that she cannot let the man who can show mercy to his own killer die and surrenders her regenerative powers to save him in a glorious and beautiful scene. The only question she has to ask, is Is he worth saving?. He must have been seeing as she ended up marrying him.
51. School Reunion - Sarah Finds the TARDIS
'School Reunion' pretty much cemented the classic series with new. It was expected that Sarah Jane Smith being reunited with the Doctor would be all smiles and hugs, but its actually quite haunting. We see that Sarah Jane has successfully rebuilt her life as a journalist, which must have taken years of work, however, after a bit of amateur sleuthing and picking up that something isnt right, she sees possibly the last thing she ever wanted to see. When she hides in the gym cupboard, she comes face to face with the eerily lit TARDIS. In this scene, the ship looks like something from a nightmare. Sarah Jane is petrified and drops her crowbar, refusing to admit what shes just seen because she knows what follows. Having got on with her life, having the Doctor stride in just isnt fair. Its an unexpected twist on the relationship rather than all being nostalgic, there is a dark side to the effect the Doctor has.