The Blogtor Who writing team, along with some special guests, have to got together to compile the “best of” the Matt Smith era. I asked everyone for their Top 5 and totaled the responses to give you the results below.
Just missing out on the Top 10 were:
A Good Man Goes To War, The Snowmen, Asylum of the Daleks, The Power of Three, The Name of the Doctor and Hide.

=11. The Girl Who Waited (2011)
=11. The Time of the Doctor (2013)
=11. A Christmas Carol (2010)
=11. The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone (2010)
Not much to separate this lot! This collection of episodes, all each equaling 2.6% of the vote, contain some of Matt Smith’s early moments and his very last. And all featuring Amy Pond! (To varying degrees)

=9. The Angels Take Manhattan (2012)

=9. The Lodger (2010)
These two very different, and brilliant, stories neatly display just how varied Matt Smith’s Doctor Who era was. Moffat’s goodbye to the Ponds engaged the emotions and disturbed the nerves whereas Gareth Roberts’ delightful episode showed a very different kind of love, between Corden and Smith. Both stories achieved 3% of the vote each. You can read Blogtor’s contemporaneous review of The Lodger HERE.

=7. The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon (2011)
=7. Let’s Kill Hitler (2011) 

Two bonkers series openers, of a kind, from Steven Moffat gained 3.5% of the love from the Blogtor Who gang. And both contained regenerations! You can read Blogtor’s own review of the Series 6 two~parter HERE and HERE and Let’s Kill Hitler HERE.

=5. Closing Time (2011)
=5. The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang (2010)
Another story from someone other than SteeMo! Gareth Roberts comes up trumps again following up The Lodger (see No. 9) with a sequel – James Corden was back and the love was strong. Review HERE. Equaling that was Matt’s first series finale, which came to an end with a bang, a big one. [Oh dear, very poor – Ed.] And, as we now know, the effects of that explosion have just been resolved. Probably. Both received 5.7% of the vote.

4. The Day of the Doctor (2013)

The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary was celebrated worldwide by millions simultaneously and broke all sorts of records. Sadly, it didn’t manage to top this particular chart (maybe in a few years time, who knows?) but it came mightily close amassing 11.7% of the Blogtor Who vote.


3. The Doctor’s Wife (2011)
Only the third (of four) writers other SteeMo to be featured here, Neil Gaiman’s first Doctor Who outing proved to be an instant classic (and said as much in my review HERE) and is also Blogtor’s personal third favourite Matt Smith era episode – it won 12.2%.

2. Vincent and the Doctor (2010)
So close for one-off Who writer Richard Curtis, so very close! The Four Weddings & a Funeral author came along and blasted us all in the feels with his superbly moving tale about the doomed painter, Van Gogh. It gathered 13% of the vote and, for me, this is the very best of Matt’s era and found a place in my Top 10 Doctor Who stories ever – check it out HERE.


1. The Eleventh Hour (2010)
Matt Smith’s debut is still regarded as his finest hour by the gang here and was the most metioned story in everyone’s Top 5s submitted. It also won the most No. 1s from the Blogtor Who team, so rightly stands atop a wonderful collection of stories. Steven Moffat’s Eleventh Doctor opener won the chart with 18.2% of the vote. Check out where it landed in the Top 50 (of all time!) HERE.

Any episodes not mentioned above received zero votes. Stats fans may want to know that Series 5 episodes received 42.6% of the vote, Series 6 got 29.6%, Series 7 got 9.1% whilst Matt’s Specials (all the Christmas eps and the 50th) won 18.7% .

THE READERS’ VOTE

Now it’s YOUR turn to vote! Let us know what your Top 3 stories (two-parters count as one story) of the Matt Smith era are (and in order, please). Feel free to include any “prequels” or “minisodes”. You can leave your Top 3 in the comments section below, on Twitter HERE or on Facebook HERE. Poll closes Jan 1, 10pm [GMT].


My huge thanks to regular contributors (you can follow them on Twitter, click on their names):
Sarah Talbot
And also thanks to my very special guests:
Chris Chapman (Doctor Who DVD documentary maker and BAFTA nominated director)
Richard Starkings (former DWM comic strip editor and Elephantmen creator)
Tommy Donbavand (Doctor Who, Shroud of Sorrow author – review HERE)
Niel Bushnell (The Ice Warriors DVD animation producer and Sorrowline author)
Richard Unwin (Journalist)

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Cameron K. McEwan
Cameron K McEwan was the first owner and site editor of Blogtor Who since its creation in May 2008 until Dec 2015. A lifelong Doctor Who fan, Cameron has also written two books, The Who’s Who of Doctor Who and Doctor Who: The Big Book of Lists, and directed a film all about Doctor Who fans throughout the years, Who’s Changing - An Adventure In Time With Fans. Cameron also contributes TV and film news and reviews to BBC Radio London, Metro, Digital Spy, New York Observer and Den of Geek. He lives in London with his one trousers.

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49 COMMENTS

  2. OK looks like I'm first. Don't disagree much with Blogtor.
    1. Vincent and the Doctor.
    2. Day of the Doctor.
    3. The Eleventh Hour

    But loved the The Lodger, The Girl Who Waited and The Doctor's Wife too.

  3. Good list there. Mine would have to be:

    1. A Christmas Carol
    2. The Doctor's Wife
    3. The Eleventh Hour

    The Lodger, The Name/Day/Time of the Doctor and The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang would all be very close behind (as well as many, many others!).

  4. I'm surprised to see Closing Time so close to the top of the list. Here are my top three stories:
    1. A Christmas Carol
    2. The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
    3. The Lodger

  9. Tough one. I'm going with:

    1) Pandorica Opens/Big Bang
    2) The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon
    3) Amy's Choice (a seriously underrated episode)

    Close behind is A Good Man Goes to War.

  16. Great idea,and although I'm not the biggest fan of Time of the Doctior, there was a lot to enjoy from 11s run!

    1) A Good Man Goes To War
    2) the Big Bang/ The Pandorica Opens
    3) The Power of Three ( I know, controversial choice, but I stand by it!)

  18. Sorry, I thought the Vincent one was a goopy, syrupy, sentimental mess.

    1. Amy's Choice (by a mile)
    2. The Doctor's Wife
    3. The Day of the Doctor

    It pains me to leave out any episode featuring River Song. She needs a spin-off series.

  25. Top three…

    1. The Day of the Doctor
    2. The Eleventh Hour
    3. The Girl Who Waited

    There we go! I didn't think anything was ever going to beat The Eleventh Hour, but Day was everything I didn't dare hope. As brilliant an episode as will ever be released.

    Funnily, my favourite David Tennant is the Waters of Mars. Something about those November pre-regeneration specials!

  27. My top 3 are:

    The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon
    The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
    The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone

    All two parters, I know. But I don't care! 🙂

  33. 1) The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon
    2) The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang
    3) The Eleventh Hor

  34. #1 Vincent and the Doctor. Possibly one of the best DW eps of all time.

    #2 The Doctor's Wife

    #3 probably A Christmas Carol, though I loved Rings of Akhaten, it doesn't really hold up storywise.

  35. I suspect my list would have looked a little different yesterday (afflicted by a hangover). My top 3 – for today anyway:-

    (1) The Day of the Doctor
    (2) Asylum of the Daleks
    (3) The Girl Who Waited

    But the list will be different tomorrow!

  39. 1. Day of the Doctor
    2. Vincent and the Doctor

    Difficult to choose between Snowmen and Time of Angels for no. 3.

  40. My top three:

    1. A Christmas Carol
    2. The Girl Who Waited
    3. Cold War

    and to round out my top eleven:

    4. Amy's Choice
    5. Doctor, Widow, Wardrobe
    6. Nightmare in Silver
    7. Vincent and the Doctor
    8. The Eleventh Hour
    9. Angels take Manhattan
    10. The Snowmen
    11. The God Complex

  41. Mine are:

    1. The Lodger
    2. The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
    3. The Crimson Horror

    I think I'm the only one who picked The Crimson Horror but I just loved how silly it was.

  44. My top 3 would be:

    1. The Eleventh Hour
    2. The Doctor's Wife
    3. Vincent and the Doctor

    And to be a bit different, bottom 3 😉

    1. The Doctor, the Widow & the Wardrobe
    2. Let's Kill Hitler
    3. The Time of the Doctor

  46. 1. The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
    2. A Christmas Carol
    3. The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon

    Man was it hard not to include any of the last three episodes (Name/Day/Time) or The Eleventh Hour, but these have got to be my faves. And all Moffat's…not by design, he just always seems to be responsible for my favorite episodes.

  47. So, I think for me it would have to be:
    1. The Eleventh Hour
    2. Vincent and the Doctor
    3. The Doctors Wife/The Lodger (I love them both equally)

  48. 1. Vincent and the Doctor
    2. The Girl Who Waited
    3. Let's Kill Hitler/A Good Man Goes to War (LKH if the "two parter" doesn't count)

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