28. Name Of The Doctor 7.14
Noteworthy at the moment for being the most recent Doctor Who series story, I think anyone would wager Name of the Doctor will remain a topic worthy of discussion for some time. This story is responsible for introducing the concept of the Time Lord grave planet Trenzalore, and it is the start of the as-of-now shrouded in mystery Time War Doctor. The course of the plot of Name of the Doctor resolves the relatively long-standing mystery surrounding companion Clara Oswald. It is also important as far as this list is concerned to be the only story on it to feature the Paternoster Gang, the collective companions Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax. Lastly, it also features a companion departure sequence complete with an actual goodbye.
27. The Unquiet Dead 1.3
This the first of an important tradition for the modern era of Doctor Who. While the beginning of Classic Who offered numerous stories of travelling back into the past "to give the Doctor a chance to give a little history lesson" as Russell T. Davies once put it, Modern Who tends to reserve trips to the past to peak in on the life of a single noted historical figure. The first of these was the Ninth Doctor's encounter with Charles Dickens. Two important precedents were set here for all such stories that follow this historical figure-centred format first the alien happening is somehow always explainable within the context of that person's original life, perhaps borrowing this idea from the Classic Who episode Timelash. Second, the Doctor is, so far anyway, particularly impressed with the person they have dropped in on, as much or perhaps more so than his companions. This Doctor's almost fanboy delight at meeting Dickens was especially nice to see given his generally brooding and more sombre nature.