Favorite Doctor Who Story follow-up

My last post asked what some of your favorite Doctor Who adventues are.

Calyn replied:

My all time favorite story/episode of Doctor Who is Silence in the Library. I've only watched 9-11 but that's definitely my favorite. Despite it being incredibly creepy (which I love) it was super cool how that was the first we saw River and it was her death. Loved it.

That's one of my favorite Tenth Doctor adventures as well.

I don't think the nonlinear possibilities of time travelers was explored very much before River. At least not on screen. It's honestly just a fun thing to see.

One part of the episode that I like is how The Doctor refers to his future self in it. There's a scene between River's death and her upload into the Library that I'm thinking of specifically.

In reference to River's sonic, Ten says that "He" gave it to her. The Doctor looks at the thought process of the future Doctor in the third person, but near the end of his deduction, when he's discovering the purpose of the screwdriver, he switches to "I."

It's just a subtle inguistic choice to show how his regard for River is changing. Before that, she was someone he'd just met and didn't necessarily mean anything special, but the I shows that he's grown fond of her to some degree, though certainly not as far as he one day would. But the I is what placed River into his present, rather than his future.

Favorite Serial/Episode/Adventure?

In the course of 51 years, there have been a LOT of Doctor Who stories.

So, I figured it would be interesting to ask: What's your favorite Dr. Who story of any medium?

The Adventures of Dr. Who

No matter who your favorite Doctor is or what you thought of the writing they received overall, there's definitely stories for every Doctor that you can love.

So, for this post, I'm putting aside the idea of Favorite Doctor and trying to come up with Favorite Adventure per Doctor. I'll try to give some justification, but this does tend to be something that's less obvious and more emotional.

Of course, these are highly personal, so they certainly won't apply to everyone reading these. What are your favorites? Feel free to comment with them!

So, the numbers correspond to the Doctors:

1. For Hartnell, I'm going to go with The Daleks Invasion of Earth. The story featured the first return of the most iconic Doctor Who villain, The Daleks. Before that, they were just a one-off creation for the second serial, but this set the precedent for the continuing battle that still ensues. Ultimately, though, the real reason it stands out in my mind is because it has the first goodbye. Susan, the Doctor's Granddaughter, is forced to leave to go live her own life, as the Doctor knew was best for her. He leaves her with the famous line "One day I shall come back, yes I shall come back.. . ." Of course, he did go back, but not until his eighth life. But that's a tale for another day.
2. I can't help but pick The Mind Robber for Troughton. I'm just intrigued by the Land of Fiction. I've yet to listen to the Land of Fiction trilogy with Colin Baker, but I am eager to get to it in my listening to Big Finish.
3. I'll choose The Terror of the Autons primarily for the legacy that it's left behind. It was the first adventure with my second favorite Doctor Who villain, The Master.
4. With so much to choose from, it's difficult to pick a favorite Tom Baker story (The same problem exists with Paul McGann as well), but I think I'll go with The Deadly Assassin. I love to see the inner workings of Gallifrey.
5. Here's where the list takes a turn. From this point until Eight, the answers will be Audio Adventures. I'm going to choose Spare Parts for the Fifth Doctor. I haven't listened to the story in several years, though, so I can't really give specific reasons why, but I remember it being quite amazing. A second choice, which I have listened to recently, would be The Kingmaker. It's just a fun story.
6. I could choose from any of the many incredible adventures from (one of) my second favorite Doctor(s). But I'm a sucker for a musical, so my first choice has to be Doctor Who and the Pirates. I still can't get "I am the Very Model of a Gallifreyan Buccaneer" out of my head.
7. A Death in the Family is one of the greatest Doctor Who adventures I've ever experienced. The story is phenomenal and it's just all around fantastic.
   It's also a fitting end for Evelyn Smythe. As such, I shall use this portion of the list to express deep sorrow for the loss of Maggie Stables this past Friday. She will be sorely missed in the Dr. Who community.
8. The Eighth Doctor is the most difficult Doctor to pick a favorite for. He's amazing and he has so many brilliant adventures. Ultimately, though, I think I'll choose The Chimes of Midnight. It's a wonderful story for him early on with brilliant writing. Hopefully, Dark Eyes III this November will surpass it, though.
9. Without a doubt, The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances is the greatest story for Eccleston's Doctor. It's a fantastic story accompanied by great acting.
10. I think I'll go with The Last of the Time Lords trilogy from season 29. I love the Master and John Simm did fairly well in the role for these episodes. His return to the position was nicht so gut, but that doesn't change how well he was handled for these episodes.
11. Nightmare in Silver. I'm a sucker for a Neil Gaiman penned-episode and it felt like real Cybermen again, rather than the Cybus Industries Cybermen who were obsessed with saying "Delete" that came with Tennant's Doctor.
12. Is it fair to judge? He hasn't had a full season yet, but I feel I can give my favorite of his run so far.
    Listen is an episode which really blew me away. I loved the message that it sent and I really enjoyed the overall concept of the episode.

I skipped Nine. Not the Ninth Doctor, but their Ninth body. The War Doctor's only adventure that I've experienced was The Day of the Doctor. I intend on reading Engines of War, but I haven't had the chance yet.

So, what do you think? Which stories really let a Doctor shine for you?

Listen to your Fear

This past Saturday, the Doctor Who episode "Listen" aired and probably scared a significant number of people.

The central message of the episode was that Fear can make you ready to fight against whatever's scaring you. The adrenaline that comes with the emotion is such that it increases your strength and speed. Fear can help you fight the monsters that lurk in the shadows.

This message in itself appears to be a response to an aspect of Doctor Who that's been there since the beginning: Scary Episodes. As far back as The Daleks, the second serial of the series in 1963, children have watched from behind their sofas, fearing the creatures that the Doctor faced, but still being compelled to watch the show to see how the hero defeats the frightful robots and aliens. And this episode explicitly sent the message that the fear, the urge to jump behind the couch, is what gives them the power to fight off a Zygon or a Rutan for themselves. The episode changed the message from "Don't worry if you're afraid, the Doctor will save you" to "Don't worry if you're afraid, that's what helps you save yourself." Frankly, I love that concept.

Neil Gaiman, noted Young Adult/Children's Lit author and writer of several Doctor Who episodes, said as an epigraph in his book, Coraline, “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” (This is, of course, a misquoting of G.K. Chesterton, but I prefer Dragons to Bogeys, so I like to use the Gaiman variant.) Doctor Who is, in many ways, a Fairy Tale. This episode was about the monsters in the shadows and underneath your bed. Those are the monsters that children know are there and the adults lie to themselves about  not existing. They're the monsters that fairy tales provide the hope of defeating. This episode of Doctor Who explicitly tells the kids that they can be the White Knight and the Good Wizard and The Doctor and whatever other hero they would otherwise hope for simply by embracing the power that fear can grant them.

"I am definitely a Mad Man with a Box!"

Hello!

Welcome to this mandated blog for a class!

So, some introductory information to start:

• Name: Xander
• Age: 20
• Gender: Male
• School/ Year: West Chester University/ Junior
• Major: English B.A. Writings Track (I'm considering adding a Creative Writing Minor, but that depends on the waters that I'm currently testing.)

And now for the purpose of this blog, I suppose. As I understand it, we're supposed to fall into some sort of niche for our posts, so I kind of had to pick the only thing I talk about. That is Dr. Who. As such, some things you'll see on this blog are my thoughts on episodes after they've aired, my thoughts on audios after I listen to them, and/or my thoughts on the books/comics as the glacier of my progress extends across them. I'll probably let slip other aspects of Doctor Who as they relate to my life, though. I also might make the occasional post that is completely unrelated to Doctor Who, but shows who I am as a person (I assure you these will be tagged as such, if there's a Blogger version of Blacklisting).