Doctor Who: All 40 Steven Moffat Episodes Ranked From Worst To Best

A lovely tribute to Elisabeth Sladen introduces the start of this fiendishly ingenious two-parter, which neatly symbolises the swagger of Moffat's showrunning tenure that enabled the show to become the worldwide phenomenon it is nowadays.

If seeing the Doctor begin to regenerate left us stunned, then watching him blasted mid-regeneration by an Apollo astronaut made our jaws drop to Genie levels. Moreover, this two-parter may even leave casual viewers punch-drunk by the end; it's mainly for the 10 per cent that tune in every week, as Russell T Davies cited, and even they may wish to take up the Doctor's offer to "just go off and have some adventures".

However, watching this again with all the retrospective knowledge on future events, it makes clear, unambiguous sense when pregnant/not pregnant Amy shoots her young astronaut suit-wearing daughter (yes, that same daughter with whom she's pregnant/not pregnant with), whilst River (yes, the same now grown-up daughter) joins the investigation of said child (yes, it's still the same daughter. Come on, keep up).

The Silence are a very close second to Moffat's other psychological monsters, the Weeping Angels. When these The Scream-in-sharp-suits aliens are discovered in a network of underground tunnels by River and Rory, it recreates a similar trepidation from Aliens as the marines enter the LV-426 colony; the drip dropping of water, the bleeping of River's scanner and the low hum of eerie incidental music.

The sudden appearance of the Apollo astronaut in the lake leaves you similarly startled and intrigued as that towards the sole returning astronaut in The Quatermass Experiment.