Russell T Davies’ Best Doctor Who Episodes

#11 – Gridlock (Season 3, Episode 3)

Speaking of Martha Jones, here is one of the simplest yet coolest premises for a Doctor Who episode. It’s just a traffic jam. But in space/on another planet. Brilliant.

This is the kind of story in which Davies shines as a writer. The simplicity of the plot allows for an intriguing mystery to unfold while we get hit every now and then with an emotional gut punch out of nowhere.

The reason we all love this era so much is because of the emotional connection to the characters. Moffat’s era is defined by the over-complex-but-brilliant series arcs, but Davies – while also having series arcs – spent a lot more time on the emotional stuff.

In the end, the “monsters” of the story – the Macra – were a confusing let-down. I didn’t even understand what they were for many years. But I suppose that’s not really the point of the episode.

#10 – Utopia / The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords (Season 3, Episodes 11, 12 & 13)

Sometimes, I will watch Utopia, The Sound of Drums, and then Last of the Time Lords all in one, like I’m devouring a feature film in my home. The trilogy fails to provide a great conclusion, but this really is one of those moments where it’s all about the journey, not the destination.

It’s like that with a lot of Davies’ stories, so get over it – it’s like that with Stephen King too!

Utopia is such a special episode all on its own, with Captain Jack reunited with the Doctor at the end of the universe. It ends with an epic reveal that the Doctor is not the last Time Lord left, and the one other alive is the Master.

John Simm’s Master is a classic now, and I always find it so hard to rank the actors who have taken on this role, because they have all been so good! But Simm was my first, and when I think of the Master, I will always remember his time in the role.

#9 – Army of Ghosts / Doomsday (Season 2, Episodes 12 & 13)

This is where we learned what heartbreak felt like.

This two-parter is EPIC! Daleks, Cybermen, travel to and from a parallel world, Torchwood… it is the perfect recipe for an epic finale, and Davies delivered.

The excitement and satisfying links to the previous two seasons of Doctor Who are slightly overshadowed in memory by the gut wrenching final scenes of Rose being ripped away from the Tenth Doctor.

Hilarious (“THIS IS NOT WAR, THIS IS PEST CONTROL!”), thrilling, and heart-breaking – what a finale!

#8 – Partners in Crime (Season 4, Episode 1)

The best companion of the Russell T Davies era was Donna Noble. No, don’t argue. I’m not listening.

After a rough breakup with her fiance in The Runaway Bride, Donna Noble stumbles into the Tenth Doctor once again. He has since travelled with Martha Jones, and is a bit lost.

He needs to mate.

No, wait… that’s not right.

He needs A mate.

That’s better.

Partners in Crime is the beginning of Donna’s real adventures with the Doctor, and the tiny Adipose fat things with legs are very cute, obviously. The plot is standard Doctor Who cheesiness, and it’s perfect.

What we care the most about is how well Donna and Ten get on and work as a team straight away. These guys were meant to travel together.

#7 – The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End (Season 4, Episodes 12 & 13)

Why Russell insists on breaking our hearts like this, I will never know.

The Tenth Doctor’s era is coming to a close, and so is Russell T Davies’ days as showrunner (until he returns!). The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End is the two-parter finale where Davies decides to bring back absolutely every character he can.

Sarah Jane Smith, K9, Mickey, Captain Jack Harkness, Jackie Tyler, even Rose! – they all come back to face off against Davros.

I remember watching this as it aired and being blown away! I had to wait a whole week between the episodes and I was bursting with antici————pation.

The heart-breaking stuff comes in the second part, when the Doctor has to say goodbye to everyone, including Rose (again), but worst of all, Donna. She realised her fate and became the “DoctorDonna” and if he didn’t wipe her memory, she would die.

This gets retconned in a weird way in the 60th Anniversary episodes, but I feel like we can skip over that because those episodes had such a feel-good ending that Ten’s face deserved.

#6 – The Giggle (60th Anniversary Specials, Episode 3)

Speaking of which…

The Giggle brings back an ancient foe of the Doctor’s – The Toymaker. Not since his first incarnation has he faced The Toymaker, and he’s scared.

But he’s got Donna, and he’s working with UNIT again (they have a fancy new Avengers-like tower now), so what could possibly go wrong?

When the Toymaker kills the Doctor, it was a little controversial that he bi-generated – so then we had both 14 and 15 ready to kick some godly butt. And they did. With a game of catch!

Wait. That sounds rubbish.

It was, but shhhhh!

Sure, the defeat of the villain wasn’t great – it rarely is when the villain is so stupidly overpowered. What was fantastic was everything else in the episode leading up to the game of catch, and after it.

The incredibly moving ending of 14 retiring, living a life with Donna and her family – his family – so he could heal from all the trauma he had spent so many incarnations running away from…. It was enough to make me cry.

#5 – 73 Yards (Season 14, Episode 4)

Did you expect to see this one? Probably.

73 Yards is a Doctor-lite episode, which means the Doctor is not really in it, like Blink. These have failed pretty badly in the past, but you get some gems… like Blink.

In Season 14 (Season 1, for those who want to start from scratch, again), Gatwa was busy on jobs that weren’t Doctor Who, but this was a blessing in disguise. Because of his ambition to do other projects, Davies was forced to come up with some INCREDIBLE episodes of Doctor Who.

73 Yards follows Ruby Sunday after the Doctor disappears on a hillside in Wales after he breaks a fairy circle. It’s all folklore, superstition, and the plot follows Ruby for decades.

She is followed by a strange figure, always 73 yards away, who scares the crap out of anyone who comes into contact with it, and the people then never speak to Ruby again. This happens with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Ruby’s Mum, and more.

This story was creepy and magical and exactly the kind of experimentation the show needs.

#4 – The Waters of Mars (Season 4 Specials, Episode 3)

What happens if the Doctor goes bad?

In The Waters of Mars we get pretty close to seeing the Tenth Doctor snap. He’s lost so much, yet has so much power – the temptation to misuse that power must overwhelm him at some point.

And it does.

Honestly, the reason I love this episode so much is because it is terrifying! It’s proper Doctor Who horror and that’s a genre this show does so well. Everything from the set and prosthetics design, to the score hits the nail on the head.

But, of course, we can’t ignore the emotional beats of the episode. The Doctor goes too far, and he knows it.

#3 – Dot and Bubble (Season 14, Episode 5)

If you loved Dot and Bubble, you’re probably a Black Mirror fan. I certainly am.

This is another Doctor-lite episode from Gatwa’s era, and it’s absolutely brilliant! The best parts of this episode were the wobbly, goofy aliens eating people, and the main character’s escape from them to safety.

Of course, she doesn’t stay safe after the end of the episode, but that’s her own fault.

Okay, let’s talk about the ending. There’s a twist that all these people are white and super racist. It did catch me off guard, and really made me think about not noticing that there was no diversity in the episode. It was a little jolt to the system I’m not going to forget in a hurry.

But Gatwa’s performance in the few seconds he’s on screen, is incredible. He might not have had the same passion for the role as previous actors, but he is certainly talented.

#2 – Wild Blue Yonder (60th Anniversary Specials, Episode 2)

After years of mediocre-at-best Doctor Who, this episode felt like a return to form. It took anything complicated away, shoved the Doctor and his companion in a strange place, and got them to work out how to escape to safety.

Horror. Horror is the best thing any Doctor Who writer can take inspiration from. Imagine watching Wild Blue Yonder as a 10-year-old! You’d have nightmares for years, like I did with those creepy clockwork men in The Girl in the Fireplace. This is why Wild Blue Yonder is one of Russell T Davies’ best Doctor Who episodes.

With all three of the 60th Anniversary specials, David Tennant and Catherine Tate slid back into their roles perfectly. It was like they’d never left. In Wild Blue Yonder, it’s just the two of them and we get lots of time for the more emotional beats of the story as they talk during the quieter moments.

The enemy in this episode feels overwhelming and unstoppable, but not in the god-like sense we get with someone like The Toymaker. The entities are creepy and ruthless, and defeating them takes a lot of thought – it’s a very brains-not-brawn story – and that’s what the Doctor does best.

#1 – Midnight (Season 4, Episode 10)

For Russell T Davies’ best Doctor Who episode of all time, we have to look at Midnight. This escape room episode is a fan favourite for good reason.

Here, the Doctor leaves Donna to have her spar day while he goes on a sightseeing tour. He and the other passengers on the tour get trapped in the vehicle with a strange entity that has possessed one of the passengers.

Midnight has no fancy CGI, or monster costumes, or massive sets… nothing. It’s one room, the Doctor, a group of scared civilians, and an unknown, malevolent, invisible enemy. It is perfect.

Watching the Doctor try to solve a puzzle while trying to keep the other passengers calm is entertaining, until you realise he’s not going to work this one out. He can’t. And then he gets possessed and is almost thrown out of the vehicle into the deadly atmosphere by the other passengers.

But there is still hope if the Doctor is incapacitated. The tour guide sees through the entity’s ruse and (supposedly) kills it by grabbing the possessed woman and jumping out of the vehicle. She sacrificed herself so an innocent man would live. If that doesn’t give you hope, I don’t know what will.If you ever need an example of why Doctor Who doesn’t need the big budget, look no further than Midnight. On a shoe-strong budget they created one of the best episodes of the show’s 60-year history.