My top 3 Doctor Who episodes

Let me start by saying that it was really hard to rank these 3 episodes.

3) Vincent and the Doctor
Episode 10, Season 5
Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
Companion: Amy Pond (Karen Gillam)
Plot: While visiting the Musee D'Orsay to see the painting of Vincent Van Gogh, the Doctor notices a weird creature in the window of a church in one of Van Gogh's paintings. Amy and the Doctor then travel to Arles in Van Gogh's time to determine the origins of the possible alien creature and interact with Van Gogh.
Why I Love this episode: I don't think that the could have picked an artist that appeals to me more than Vincent Van Gogh. I think he is probably the first artist I learned to identify, his style is pretty obvious even to a young child. So for me, the episode is doubly great because if features not only a lot of Van Gogh paintings, but the vistas that inspired the paintings. There is this amazing scene with Amy, the Doctor, and Van Gogh in a field staring up at the sky and as Van Gogh describes his view of the world, the sky becomes "Starry Night". Amy and Van Gogh has some great interactions including a scene were Amy (a redhead) says that if she and Van Gogh every had a child, it would be the ultimate ging. But I think hands down, my favorite scene is an art historian (played by Bill Nighy) says that Van Gogh was not only one of the greatest painters of all time but one the greatest men who every lived because he could turn his inner turmoil into beautiful paintings. I have never enjoyed a Bill Nighy scene so much (and I'm crying a little bit just thinking about it). This episode was written by Benjamen Curtis (who I love), who also wrote Blackadder, Mr. Bean, and The Vicar of Dibley.

2) The Unicorn and the Wasp
Episode 7, Season 4
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Donna Noble
Plot: The Doctor and Donna land in 1926 England to attend a party in a country house, which kind of sounds like a set up to a Agatha Cristie mystery. And it should because Agatha Cristie is a guest of the party, as the hostess is a fan of her work. Soon people are murdered by some alien force and the Doctor, Agatha, and Donna must unravel the mystery. A further mystery is that this house party occurs a few days before Agatha Cristie's real-life 10 days disappearance.
Why I love this Episode: Agatha Cristie and Doctor Who prove to be two great tastes that taste great together. If I wasn't sure a huge Agatha Cristie fan, I probably won't have enjoyed this episode so much, or at least appreciate the excellent way it pays homage to Agatha Cristie. The set-up and unraveling of the mystery is classic Cristie. And then, the script is chalk full of references to the titles of Cristie novels like Nemesis, N or M, Endless Night, They Do It With Mirror, Cards on the Table, A Cat Among Pigeons, Crooked House, The Moving Finger, and Murder on the Orient Express. And again, Donna proves to be the prefect foil for the Doctor (she might be my favorite companion although Amy is really good too). I think this might have been the first episode of the reboot that I made my mom watch as a way to entice her to watch the rest of the series. If you like Agatha Cristie, you should watch this episode, even if you don't watch any other episode of Doctor Who. And this episode was written by Gareth Roberts, who wrote "The Lodger". Gareth Roberts is a self-admitted fan of Agatha Cristie and it is really obvious in this episode.

1) Blink
Episode 10, Season 3
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman)
Plot: In modern-day London (2007), a woman named Sally Sparrow (a pre-An Education Carey Mulligan) enter a rundown house looking for photography subjects but instead find angel statues, one holding a Yale key (that she takes) and a message from "the Doctor" behind peeling wall paper warning her to avoid the Weeping Angels. She returns with her friend Kathy to explore the house further. Kathy disappears and at the same time a man claiming to be Kathy's grandson arrives at the house with a letter for Sally from Kathy. Kathy writes that moments after entering the house, Kathy suddenly found herself in the 1920s Hull. She married and had a peaceful life but want Sally to take a letter from her (Kathy) to Larry, her brother, telling him about Kathy's disappearance. When Sally visits Larry at a DVD store, he shows her a hidden message from a man named the Doctor on 17 seemingly unrelated DVDs. Sally then goes to a police station and meets DI Billy Shipton, who tells her that there are have been several disappearances near the rundown house and shows her a police box that was near the house. However, the police box seems to be a fake because it is not the right and it is locked. Sally leaves but then remembers the key she found and return to the police box but Billy has disappeared. She then receives a call from a much older Billy asking her to visit him in the hospital. Billy explains that saw the Weeping Angels trying to get into the police box and then suddenly found himself in 1969 and met the Doctor. He was convinced to start a DVD business that allowed the Doctor to record the hidden message in the 17 DVD. Billy urges Sally to watch the message and then dies. Sally then realizes the connection of the 17 DVDs, she owns a copy of each of them. Sally rejoins Larry at the DVD store to watch the message from the Doctor. In the message, the Doctor tells them that the Weeping Angels sent the Doctor and Martha into the past and now have the TARDIS in hopes of feeding off the huge energy that the TARDIS contains. The Weeping Angels with only move when no one is looking at them, but they move to quickly, that even in the blink of an eye, they can take you. Sally and Larry are the only ones that can help the Doctor recover the TARDIS, as long as they don't blink.
Why I love this episode: This might be the most tense and excellently paced 45 minutes that I have every seen. The fact that you can't close your eyes for any amount of time is so scary and so that aspect is so effectively terrifying (the BBC ran a warning before the episode saying that this was a very scary episode and that if children watch it, they should watch it with the lights on). So much of the episode depends on the acting skill of Carey Mulligan and she does a really fantastic job. And I love the last names of Sally and Larry, Sparrow and Nightingale. This episode was written by Stephen Moffat who really understands how to pace an episode and ratchet up the tension with out going overboard.

So those are my top 3 favorite episodes. All three are actually a good episode to get introduced to Doctor Who because for most part they are stand alone episodes (with maybe the exception of Vincent and Doctor, where there is any scene with Amy that is the fallout of an incident from the previous episode, but it isn't too confusing). All these episodes are more a fusion of science fiction and a mystery/thriller and or dramatic genre. I hope if you haven't seen an episode of Doctor Who yet, these posts have whetted your appetite and encourage you to explore the world of Doctor Who.