9 Best 9th Doctor Episodes
1. Dalek
We'd gotten hints up until this episode about The Doctor's past, even explicit details like how he's the last Time Lord left. But Dalek is the episode that would forever define how being the last Time Lord has actually affected The Doctor. It's the most influential episode of the era, damn near the most influential of the entire franchise!
Henry Van Statten owns the last remaining Dalek soldier in existence, and he's been trying everything to make it talk. However, The Doctor would really rather just kill it. When the Dalek takes advantage of Rose's pity for its tortured state in order to trick her into setting it free, it then takes its revenge on the people who imprisoned him.
This is where we see Davies brilliantly reimagine the Daleks and their firepower. Every comment fans and non-fans have made about how "easy" it would be to take down an actual Dalek is addressed and laughed at. This episode showed just how deadly a single Dalek can be. The Doctor then faces the worst emotional turmoil he's dealt with yet. His PTSD from the Time War flaring up big time, to the point where the Dalek congratulates him on being the superior Dalek between them. In order to save Rose, The Doctor must confront the darkness of his past, and mark it has left on his soul.
The Doctor would have to deal with the emotional turmoil from this episode for multiple eras (pain like his doesn't just go away in an episode after all) but he does walk away with some positive lessons. All in all, Dalek is a masterpiece of a Doctor Who story, a horrifying tale of loss, trauma, PTSD, and the need to move on and carry the pain of our past, no matter how heavy the weight.
Simply fantastic.