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

The best post-regeneration episode - of the NuWho era at least - by some distance. Matt Smith stamps his unique mark as our favourite time travelling hero immediately: clambering out of his crashed TARDIS, wide-eyed and soaking wet from the swimming pool in the library, and asking a young and inquisitive Amelia Pond "Could I have an apple? All I can think about. Apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving? That's new. Never had cravings before."

That moment is brilliantly bizarre, refreshingly random and, most importantly for a series opener to a new era of Doctor Who, it gave us an instantaneous connection to Smith's incarnation. His memorable "Hello. I'm the Doctor" near the end is the icing on the cake to an episode packed full of other standout moments thanks to a bouncy, bustling and witty script from Moffat, his first as showrunner.

He, too, stamps his personal mark immediately: in an interview before The Eleventh Hour first broadcast he said that "For me, Doctor Who literally is a fairy tale." It's that theme which musically plays out in "Little Amy" by Murray Gold, together with the tonally perfect sweeping shot of Amelia's overgrown yet enchanting back garden with a pinwheel whirling away and a creaking swing swaying in the gentle breeze.

Smith quickly and successfully banished away any qualms about him taking on the titular hero, in much the same vein as Daniel Craig did as James Bond in Casino Royale. For both accomplished actors, the rest is history.