Apollo's Rebellion

To add to the celebrations of the Fiftieth Anniversary year, I have decided to post my favourite stories from Doctor Who since its revival in 2005. Every Saturday I will post a list of my favourite stories from each series leading up to the week before the Fiftieth Anniversary. Feel free to also share your thoughts in the comments below.

5. Stolen Earth/Journey's End by Russell T Davies
This gets a place on my list for the soul reason that it was able to bring back ever companion introduced in New Who. We got to catch a glimpse of Captain Jack and his Torchwood team, Sarah-Jane's life without the Doctor again, Martha Jones still doing good and Rose finding a way back to him. Everything about this episode was one big nostalgia trip from the Doctor seeing Rose again to the Daleks returning with Davros. The only let to this was how the solution was resolved namely by Donna pushing a few buttons and the Dalek's just losing control of themselves. And I think that's where RTD loses a point a bit because his resolutions to problems are either really unbelievable or just not canon. Which is a shame because he is such a great writer and you can see that in the really heartfelt scenes and you can see it in the characters, but he has a terrible knack for going big and not being able to pull it off to the end.
Highlight(s) of the episodes: The TARDIS finally being flown by the right amount of people and Rose finally getting a Doctor that she can grow old with.

4. The Doctor's Daughter by Stephen Greenhorn
This episode brought up a subject that the Doctor has been hiding and that's that he was a father. The introduction of Jenny a generated anomaly from the Doctor's stem cells. Throughout the episode he denies the fact that she is his daughter and calls her an "echo" of Timelord. But
deep down he knows that she is true. The end is heartbreaking and completely terrifying when the Doctor holds a gun to general Cobb's head. It shows you just how much he eventually accepted her into his heart and what he would do for her because she is his child. The storyline of the humans and the Hath also parallel with the Doctor and Jenny's as it is also about acceptance and realising that what is true is right in front of you. The Doctor had to accept that Jenny was his daughter and the humans and Haths had to accept that they will have to live together in harmony.
Highlight(s) of the episode: The Doctor's "I never would speech" and the Source bringing Jenny back to life allowing for future stories.
And on a completely related side note, David ended up marrying the woman who played Jenny, Georgia Moffet, who is the daughter of Peter Davison who played the Fifth Doctor. David also starred alongside Peter Davison when they did the Children in Need special for Doctor Who. But you probably knew that already.

3. Planet of the Ood by Keith Temple
What I loved most about this episode is that is shows just how much people don't see and can't understand. We are a likely to become a race that either retaliate against a species or take them as slaves, not realising that they were happy doing other stuff before. This episode was deeply moving and brought up the topic of the treatment of workers. The Ood were used as servants, reprogrammed to talk the way their "owner" wanted them to, but they were still able to communicate with the hive mind. The songs that they sing as communication were just magically beautiful and I also have to give props to Murray Gold for that.
Highlight(s) of the episode: The bit right at the end where they manage to break the circle and the Ood song can be heard by everyone.

2. Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead by Steven Moffat
Oh, River Song, who knew that name would be so important down the line. This was a true Moffat classic and what would pave the way for more
Moffat madness. The idea of having the Doctor meet a future companion on the day she dies is only something that an evil genius could conjure up. Even though we only see River for two episodes and our initial thoughts on her were "Why the hell is she calling him sweetie?" By the time she sacrifices herself and the Doctor saves her, we're (or at least I was) crying. It was utterly beautiful to see the Doctor actually doing something to save someone even when he thought that all hope was lost. And, of course, it would be a Moffat episode without the scary bits and that was greatly provided by the Vashta Nerada. The clever concept of people being "saved" into the computer's hard drive was also a wonderful plot twist. All in all, it was a Moffatsode. It was fulled with horror, heartbreak and intrigue. It's no wonder he was chosen to be the lead show runner after Russell left.
Highlight(s) of the episodes: The Library. Being a bookworm myself I could imagine getting lost on that planet dedicated to books. It would have loved to go there before the Vashta Nerada starting attacking.

1. Midnight by Russell T Davies
Big applause for Russell T Davies who managed to make the scariest episode of Doctor Who without ever showing the monster. Although, one could argue that we did see quite a few monsters in the episode itself. The thing I loved most about this episode was that it was real. These are the things people would do and say if they were pushed to the levels these people were pushed. But it really did shown how much the human race would do to survive. This is, after all, a race that goes to war with themselves. This episode was so thought-provoking and made me question what I would do in a situation like this. Just don't make the mistake of watching it at midnight because you think it would be fun like I did the first time I watched it.
Highlight(s) of the episode: The entire episode. That's it the entire episode was a highlight for me.

Episodes of note: Partners in Crime, the Unicorn and the Wasp and Turn Left
Partners in Crime was a great way to bring back Donna, it was full of good humour and really showed the progression of Donna after her chance encounter with the Doctor.
The Unicorn and the Wasp just missed list because of the odd resolution to it all. I've added it here because I always love a great detective story and the Doctor and Donna meeting Agatha Christie is why this episode is worth watching.
Turn Left deserves a mention because it shows just how much the world actually relies on the Doctor and how much Donna needed him and vice versa.