The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special is a scant nine days away now, and I figured what better day for me to drop the last installment of my special countdown series than on the day after the premiere of the special prequel minisode, "Night of the Doctor," right? So far, this series has seen me countdown my five favorite stand-alone episodes, my five favorite two-parters, and my three favorite specials. This final installment is all about the feels; any Whovian knows ours is a show full of feels, some of them happy but most of them almost devastatingly sad. This, then is a look at the five moments in NuWho history that have given me the most feels. And yes, there will be spoilers.
5. Eleven and Amy Take Vincent Van Gogh Into the Future to See His Legacy (Vincent and the Doctor, Series 5)
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| The Doctor, left, and Van Gogh, right |
After befriending him in an adventure involving an invisible monster, The Eleventh Doctor and his companion Amy Pond take Van Gogh to a modern day retrospective of his art where the painter learns just how great his place in history is. It's a particularly touching moment to me as Van Gogh is easily my favorite painter, and it's a beautiful scene. It's also the only happy moment on my list, so i thought I'd start you off easy. Enjoy this moment, because here comes the rough stuff.
4. Ten Says Goodbye to Rose (Doomsday, Series 2)
I could describe what happens in this episode and tell you about the Daleks and the Cybermen and alternate dimensions and all that. Or I could tell you about how the end of it all sees the Doctor saying goodbye to the woman he's loved... or I could just let a picture say what a thousand words couldn't.
3. He Will Knock Four Times (The End of Time Part 2, 2010 New Year's Special)
Sometime during the course of the fourth season, the Tenth Doctor receives a prophecy of his death, that "he will knock four times" and that whoever this mysterious "he" is, his knocks will precede the Doctor's demise. Immediately after that prophecy, every knock is suspect. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Christmas 2009/New Year's 2010 two-part finale of David Tennant's run, where the return of the Master heralds the four drumbeats he always hears. Are those the four knocks? Or are the four knocks the beating of Rassilon's staff as the Time Lords return? No, they are not. The Doctor triumphs over everything and believes he has survived, until...
...Wilf knocks from the chamber he's locked in, a chamber he can only be released from by the Doctor's final sacrifice. Every time I watch this episode, even knowing what's going to happen, Ten's face hits me in the gut. This moment, which includes his farewell tour to all his loved ones, would be even higher on the list if not for the weakass final line they give him: "I don't want to go." You deserved better than that, Ten.
2. Goodbye, Sweetie (The Name of the Doctor, Series 7)
The Doctor and River Song. A love story told across two timelines travelling in different directions. It was a moment we always knew would come: River was always heading towards her death in her first appearance, but the sudden knowledge that between her last appearance in "The Angels Take Manhattan" and this episode, River passed away hits like a sucker punch to the nuts. But it gets worse! She's only in this episode because the Doctor has refused to say goodbye to her so her consciousness is lingering like a ghost until he says goodbye. Which he does with a final kiss, and even though River tells him they'll meet again, we know it will be from earlier in her timeline and for the Doctor, his wife is dead. River's final words to him are the mirror image of the greeting she's so famous for... goodbye, sweetie.
1. Raggedy Man, Goodbye! (The Angels Take Manhattan, Series 7)
You know what? I can barely even think about this episode and what I could possibly write about it without getting misty. So I'm not going to write about it. You can just watch. And for once, I'm not going to follow up with words, either. Because I can't. Oh, the feels.
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