11 Best 11th Doctor Episodes

The 11 best episodes from one of the best Doctor Who eras of all time!

Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith Doctor Who Series 5
BBC Studios

For many whovians out there, the best Doctor Who era is without question the 11th, starring Matt Smith as the adventuring Time Lord. And it isn't hard to see why, since it's the one many fans most likely started with.

Sure, you could argue that the fandom for the Doctor Who reboot had been steadily building ever since David Tennant took over, but the 11th era coincided with the advent of social media - particularly the "fandom" culture of sites like Tumblr and Reddit - making for a perfect storm of word of mouth spread that resulted in the hype train moving at turbo speeds and never really stopping.

If you ever watched Sherlock or the new Dracula and wondered why Steven Moffat gets so much slack, this era of Britain's most famous sci-fi show is why. But what episodes solidified that? Sure, this Doctor Who era focused quite a bit on long running narratives and mysteries, but it always remembered to have great standalone episodes in between all that. And we're gonna be looking at the best of the bunch. A lot of great episodes had to be left out to make room, leaving none but these as the definitive 11 episodes of one of the best Doctor Who eras of all time.

11. The Lodger

Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith Doctor Who Series 5
BBC Studios

"The Doctor in a lodger sitcom", the jokes just write themselves.

When the TARDIS gets stuck in a mysterious time loop, sending it hurtling through the time vortex and taking Amy with it, The Doctor has to investigate alone. But he needs a place to stay in the meantime, so he decides to hole up in a rent-a-room held by a man named Craig, played hilariously by James Corden.

The Doctor then proceeds to be the weirdest and yet most helpful roommate in the history of roommates, while also figuring out what's going on with Craig's flat. Leading to some hilarious shenanigans such as The Doctor trying to save Craig in nothing but a towel and armed with a toothbrush (to be fair he would still have probably pulled it off) and of course, The Doctor DOMINATING at football because Matt Smith is a pro football player of course that's how it goes.

It's not the most intelligent episode out there, but it IS a lot of fun and really funny, and frankly that's all you need from a Doctor Who episode sometimes.

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John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?