3. The Doctor Dances
"Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once everybody lives!"
The Doctor Dances was the second half of a two part episode which started with The Empty Child. The plot sees a plague hitting London during the middle of World War Two and the introduction of Captain Jack Harkness. While Jack steps to the fore in the first episode, The Doctor Dances sees Eccleston's Doctor move into the primary position. This two parter featured the gas-mask wearing zombies that were one of the creepiest baddies of the Eccleston era, although they were not technically aliens. Steven Moffat wrote The Doctor Dances, and won a Hugo Award for his efforts. It is mainly the scene towards the end of the episode that moves The Doctor Dances into the top five of Eccleston's performances as the Doctor. It is there that he expresses pure unbridled joy as the character who had seen so much death Eccleston's Doctor is ecstatic at the thought that there would be no death this once. Whilst it might be said that he was referring to the death seen during the Second World War, I think it is clear that the character is actually referring to the death he saw during combat in the Last Great Time War. Other episodes showed the darkness in this version of the Doctor. But the very end of this episode where the Doctor literally dances, showing that the older versions of the Doctor were still present. It rounded out the character and allowed fans to be reassured that although this was a new series, that the old whimsy-like characterisation hadn't been completely forgotten.