Following on my Star Trek: TNG guide, here’s the best of the 2005-era Doctor Who.
- 1×02 – The End of the World
- 1×06 – Dalek
- 1×07 – The Long Game
- 1×09-10 – The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
- 1×12-13 – Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways
- 2×04 – The Girl in the Fireplace
- 2×08-09 – The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit
- 3×01 – Smith and Jones
- 3×03 – Gridlock
- 3×04-05 – Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks
- 3×08-09 – Human Nature/Family of Blood
- 3×10 – Blink
- 3×11-13 – Utopia/Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords
- 4×06 – The Doctor’s Daughter
- 4×9-10 – Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
- 4×08 – Midnight
- 4×17-18 – End of Time
Starting here, the season arcs became more important. Episodes that are arc-essential but not as good are italicized.
- 5×01 – The Eleventh Hour
- 5x04–05 – The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone
- 5×07 – Amy’s Choice
- 5×10 – Vincent and the Doctor
- 5×11 – The Lodger
- 5×12-13 – The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
- 6×01-02 – The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon
- 6×04 – The Doctor’s Wife
- 6x05–06 – The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People
- 6×07 – A Good Man Goes to War
- 6×08 – Let’s Kill Hitler
- 6×09 – The Girl Who Waited
- 6×11 – The God Complex
- 6×12 – Closing Time
- 6×13 – The Wedding of River Song
- 7×01 – Asylum of the Daleks
- 7×03 – A Town Called Mercy
- 7×05 – The Angels Take Manhattan