1) The Day Of The Doctor
The 50th anniversary special had a lot to live up to. Broadcast in cinemas and in 94 countries simultaneously, the world was literally watching to see how Doctor Who could top everything that had come before to celebrate reaching this major milestone. Thankfully, Steven Moffat had had a lot of practice with multi-Doctor stories by this point and he totally nailed it.
What makes “The Day of the Doctor” so successful is that it doesn’t just get by on the excitement of seeing multiple Doctors together – though that would have been enough – it also tells the tale of the most tragic day of the Doctor’s lives: the day he had to wipe out his own people, the Time Lords, to end the Time War with the Daleks. But who was the Doctor responsible for this atrocity? The face the Doctor’s been trying to keep hidden – John Hurt’s War Doctor.
Fans might have gone nuts over this huge retcon, but Hurt brings his usual gravitas to the part and breaks your heart as a hero driven to desperate measures. Meanwhile, Tennant and Smith bring the humor as their two Doctors get on like a house on fire and the actors bounce perfectly off each other. If that wasn’t enough, the grand climax sees every single Doctor included – along with the eyebrows of the newly-announced Peter Capaldi. And to top it all off, Tom Baker shows up at the end as a possible future version of the Doctor.
“The Day of the Doctor” exceeded all of our expectations in every way and is simply one of the greatest Doctor Who stories of them all. It’ll certainly be tough to top when Doctor Who‘s 60th anniversary rolls around.