11 Best 11th Doctor Episodes

Opening episodes for Doctors have always been and will likely always be a tricky thing to figure out. You have to both be an entertaining standalone episode, establish the tone, companions, and supporting cast, and get people on board with a new Doctor. Which, for Moffat and crew, was a particularly herculean effort.

They were being tasked to follow up one of the all time best Doctor Who runs, and convince people to keep watching with just one episode. They didn't even have the advantage of an actor everyone wanted to see as The Doctor, like David Tennant or Peter Capaldi after this. NO ONE outside of hardcore football fans knew who Matt Smith was, and given that he's the youngest Doctor so far, it was one hell of an uphill battle.

Do I even need to say how successful they were?

The Eleventh Hour isn't just a fun episode, it is a masterpiece of proper pacing, story and character establishment, laying the ground work for the season ahead. In just 45 minutes, the 11th Doctor wins you over with his whimsical charm, recruits new companion Amy Pond, gets a new screwdriver and TARDIS. He establishes that he's a total badass by scaring off an entire army and then calling them back to scare them some MORE just because he felt like it, and finds a new thread to chase with the mysterious cracks in the universe.

Not once does it feel like as much of a mess as it sounds when you lay it all out like that. It was the perfect gateway to a universe of fun.