Doctor Who: EVERY Series Opener Ranked Worst To Best

Matt Smith’s second series was the first to open with a two parter – an ambitious adventure that takes Doctor Who back to its '60s Space Age roots, complete with trips to Apollo 11 and Area 51, and the show’s own Roswell-style aliens.

It’s a story that builds on what has gone before, cementing the Doctor, Amy, Rory, and River as a quartet and finally introducing us to the Silence, while giving us lots of new mysteries to mull over, from the identity of the little girl to the odd nature of Amy’s pregnancy.

There’s a truly epic feel throughout – not least because of the stunning US location filming and the game-changing gambit of killing off the Doctor in the first ten minutes, which is the greatest hook that any of the modern series have started with. We also get some of the best Moffat quips and dialogue ever, along with two all-timer cliffhangers, including a rare non-Doctor/Master regeneration!

There's very little to fault here, though perhaps the rehashing of the Doctor/Amy/Rory love triangle did feel a bit tired at this point.

For the most part, The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon is an absolute triumph. Whatever your thoughts on the rest of Series 6 are, there’s no denying that it gets off to a brilliant start.