BOOK OF LISTS - APPENDIX 2: TOP 6 EPISODES OF DOCTOR WHO

Time for another update. I will examine a recent episode that made a really good impression on me. 

A NEW FAVE EPISODE

My very first, and still most popular, end-of-year countdown was my Top Ten Who Stories list. To this day, people still seem interested in knowing what my all-time favorite stories are and the posts still get hits on a regular basis. Which is pretty impressive considering you have to go quite a ways into the backlog to find those entries! (I'll make it easier for you and start at Number Ten. You can go from there. https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-of-lists-top-ten-who-stories-10.html). 

Series Nine had recently wrapped up as I started that Countdown. I received several comments from readers that were to the nature of: "I hope Heaven Sent makes it onto the list." I had to explain that it, more-than-likely, wouldn't. This was a list of my favorite Doctor Who stories. Heaven Sent was a great piece of television, but it was a single episode of a three-parter. So the complete story had to be taken into consideration. I liked Face the Raven a lot and was even okay with Hell Bent (other fans tend to dislike this episode way more than I do), but I still felt that the full story didn't merit a place in this Top Ten. Even if Heaven Sent is so amazing. 

This prompted me to, eventually, compose a list of my Top Six Favorite Doctor Who Episodes. Here, of course, Heaven Sent received the glory it deserved. As did several other adventuress that, in their complete form, don't always measure up quite as well. But, when viewed as individual episodes, are really outstanding pieces of television. The episode that ranked Sixth Place in this list, for example, illustrates the idea very well. 

Fans who know their 60s Who will point out how The Space Museum is off to a great start but then quickly goes downhill as Part Two begins. Episodes Three and Four do nothing to improve the situation. But boy is that first part so good! 

I felt the same. I was particularly in love with how much Part One tries to recreate The Twilight Zone - another old black-and-white television program that I am madly in love with. The tribute that it does and the episode's ability to create so much creepiness with so little budget got it to rank in my Top Six. An Unearthly Child is another great example of this. Great first episode. But then the caveman politics are a bit less compelling. Neither of those full tales make it anywhere near my Top Ten Who Stories list. But these individual episodes deserve the heavy praise they get. 

In the years since I compiled my Top Ten Who Stories, nothing has come along that affects the rankings I've established. A few stories come close. But they still don't make it into the Top Ten. However, when we measure some of the show's output against my Top Six Episodes, there is a bit of movement that occurs. One episode that came out recently really caught my attention. Although it does constitute being a story in and of itself, competition in the Top Story category is just too fierce. However, when viewed against other single episodes, it gains enough ground to affect that ranking system. 

THE REVIEW

When I think of the many qualities of Fugitive of the Judoon, the one that first comes to mind is its effectiveness in springing its surprises. Keeping certain things a secret in Doctor Who had become a serious problem over the last few seasons. The huge surprise ending of Name of the Doctor gets leaked out by a premature Blu-Ray release. The first five scripts of Series Eight find their way on to the internet along with a rough cut of Deep Breath. The BBC takes it upon itself to reveal the return of John Simm as the Master in a trailer for Series Ten. It's like they needed to resurrect JNT and get him to use the same magic he wielded when he kept the return of the Cybermen a secret in Earthshock! 

Chibnal, however, does a great job of getting secrets to remain secrets during this amazing mid-season episode. His covertness is quite clever. He sends out some press releases letting us know that the Judoon will be returning in Series Twelve. We're all pretty cool with this. They're an interesting species that we found quite entertaining in their original story. The cameos they've made since Smith and Jones were also well-done. We all figure that, as long as it's written well, they definitely deserve a second full story. 

So we give Fugitive of the Judoon no further thought after Chibnall's announcement. We figure it will be a half-decent episode since it's featuring a good returning monster and start trying to piece together what the rest of the season will be about. 

What a great smokecreen this was! 

When Fugitive of the Judoon really is just about the Judoon, it's already telling a very good story. I especially like that, since we already have a good idea of what the Judoon are like, it doesn't waste much time re-establishing them. In a few hasty lines of dialogue, Thirteen explains to her companions what the species is about. A few quick shots of Judoon cataloguing humans reminds us of how they work. We don't need any more than that. And I'm glad the plot doesn't choose to focus too hard on such things. It gives us more of a sense that we have hit the ground running. Which is always good for a story's pace. Again, we are convinced that this will just be a nice little Judoon story and nothing more. 

But then, the first bomb gets dropped. 

Vague rumors, at best, had spread that Captain Jack might return this season. But, really, such gossip has occurred prior to many new seasons of Doctor Who. It's hard to take things like this too seriously. I do love that, on the day he was brought in to shoot his scenes, John Barrowman was escorted in and out of the studio with a cloth bag over his head (they did something similar with Peter Capaldi when they revealed him to be the new Doctor). It's extra little efforts of this nature that made his return all the more exciting. I even enjoy how we hear his voice first before he teleports in to pounce upon Graham. Barrowman's cadence is pretty distinctive. But there's still that magic moment where we're like: "Oh my God! Is it really him?!" The sense of mystery is short-lived, but it's still a great little device that works better than if he had just appeared in front of us.  

Once the whole surprise is over, however, Jack's scenes really are well-executed. This is the Captain Jack Harkness that we have always loved. Cheesy and roguish, but also deeply caring. The Doctor changed him in a major way back in Series One, and we see that his heart is still in the right place. Even if he does steal the odd spaceship now and again! 

And, of course, he does an excellent job of setting up a huge plot point that will come later in the season. "Beware the Lone Cybermen! Don't give him what he wants." resonates deeply with all of us. It also makes us all the more excited when the villain in question finally appears in The Haunting of Villa Diodati.  

As far as I'm concerned, the return of Captain Jack is Pure Who Gold. A great surprise that is then matched by some solid writing and direction. And much praise must be given to John Barrowman's performance. Within seconds, he has us falling in love with Jack all over again. That's a difficult thing to do with a character that's been brought back after a long period of absence. But Barrowman really delivers. His enthusiasm to be back on the show is genuinely contagious. 

So with Jack running off and the companions returning to Earth, we think that's it for surprises. We'll just go back to the Judoon plot and find out who the fugitive is meant to be. And we're fine with that since the whole plot thread is being handled quite well. Yes, the premise is quite similar to Smith and Jones, but it's also different enough to still be enjoyable. It seems that, in general, the Judoon hunt down fugitives. It's one of their jobs. It just so happens that another fugitive has hidden on 21st Century Earth and they have to retrieve them. 

It's made very clear early on that Lee is, somehow, involved in this situation. That he might even be the fugitive the Judoon are looking for. More and more, we suspect Ruth too. In her case, however, it seems that something has been done to her memory. 

And that's when the second, much bigger, bomb gets dropped on us.

Suddenly, the story seems to stop being about the Judoon for a bit. The whole tale takes a massive detour to go to an old lighthouse. This creates a very weird structure to the plot. But, again, we're okay with it. The whole thing works and is keeping us intrigued. Especially when we see what Lee's activation message means. Ruth is the fugitive. She's a Time Lord that has used a Chameleon Arch. Or, that's what we think, at first. Turns out she's much more than that. 

Thirteen digging up the roof of a police box and suddenly being confronted by someone that no one recognizes but is calling herself the Doctor is, pretty much, mind-blowing. Yup, there's been a hidden incarnation before. But, again, it's being handled in a very different way. We really have no clear idea where this incarnation is meant to come from. And we will all go insane with theories about it as we wait for the rest of the season to continue. This moment really got everyone talking. Fans and casual viewers alike. Even people who don't watch the show at all were intrigued by the whole thing as the media, in general, started discussing the event. As much as some people have complained about him, his detractors have to admit that Chibnall made one of the biggest impacts a Head Writer has ever made. His twist got everyone talking. And there weren't a whole lot of negative comments in the discussion. Everyone was really blown away but what he did. The whole reveal was handled magnificently. 

From there, we get some good 'ole fashioned multi-incarnation banter that, somehow, seems a bit surreal since we're not sure where one of the incarnations fits in the Doctor's actual timeline. We return to the Judoon plotline and things reach a very satisfactory resolution. None of the more serious questions that the story has created were actually answered. We don't know what the Lone Cybermen wants. We have no idea who this new version of the Doctor is. We only know that the Judoon did not get their fugitive (not yet, at least). But, somehow, that's enough. We're all aware that this is a mid-season episode and that its real purpose is to set up a bunch of stuff that's meant to happen later. And, in this sense, the story does an incredible job of this. We cannot wait to see where the show will take us next. 

But if Fugitive of the Judoon  had been nothing but a series of set-ups and surprises, it wouldn't have made it onto this list. Beyond all the thrills and spills is a genuinely well-put-together plot that uses a returning monster very effectively. There's a real foundation to the episode that just happens to have some awesome plot twists and establish some fascinating mysteries. This, to me, is what catapults the whole thing into greatness. Like so many other episodes and/or stories that I love in this show, it remembers to put story first. 

THE RANKING

As with my last entry, I don't expect you to go back through the original BOOK OF LISTS essays to find out how I ranked things (although, if you want to, here's the first one: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/11/book-of-lists-top-six-doctor-who.html. Just follow from there...). I'll produce the whole list, here. As usual, they are ranked from lowest to highest: 

The Space Museum - Part One 

Rose 

Blink 

An Unearthly Child 

Earthshock - Part One

Heaven Sent 

I'm going to fit Fugitive of the Judoon into the list in a slightly odd way. I still really like the first episode of The Space Museum and think it belongs where it is. I also think Rose should stay where it's at, too. So neither of these episodes will be affected by this new addition. 

Maybe it's a bit blasphemous to bump Blink out. It's considered a Classic and got all kinds of major awards and recognition. But, if given the choice between re-watching Blink or re-watching Fugitive of the Judoon, I would watch Fugitive first. Whereas, I would still want to re-watch An Unearthly Child before Fugitive. So I really do think the episode belongs in Third Place. But I also think Fourth and Fifth should remain where they're at. So, rather than alter the whole line-up, I'm just going to kick Blink right out. I guess, if it went anywhere, it became Seventh. Not sure if such a choice makes any real sense. But I'm not exactly renowned for my logical behaviour. I'm just going with my gut, here. And my gut says: "Make Fugitive Third but don't upset the rest of the list!". So that's how I'm doing things. 

Of course, the real big question is: why did I decide to list my six favorite episodes? Why six? It seems an odd number to choose. 

The answer: I don't even know!! 

That's another BOOK OF LISTS updated. More to come...