In the past 20 years Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, Jodie Whittaker and Ncuti Gatwa have all played the lead role of the Time Lord, enabling a new generation of fans to enjoy adventures in space and time.

So which have been the very best episodes across this new era run by Davies, Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall? Our TV critics have picked and ranked their highlights.

Jenna Coleman as Clara and Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor in Flatline

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20. Flatline (2014)

Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) must take up the mantle of protecting all of humanity against the threats of the universe in this companion-led episode that sees Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor trapped inside a shrunken Tardis in Bristol. But will Clara, assisted by a local graffiti artist, Rigsy (Joivan Wade), be able to work out what the Boneless extraterrestrials are up to in time?

19. The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone (2010)

A two-parter of note, the Moffat-penned episode stars Smith’s Eleventh Doctor alongside Karen Gillan, as the pair end up being summoned by the mysterious River Song (Alex Kingston) to the planet Alfava Metraxis, where the spaceship Byzantium has been found crashed. They’ll need all the help they can get from Father Octavian (Iain Glen) and his band of militarised clerics, because the Weeping Angels are involved — and that means scares and peril all around.

18. Midnight (2008)

A Tennant episode to please those who want the emphasis less on the special effects and more on an unseen menace. Things start off amusingly, with the Doctor and his companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) on a small intergalactic touring vehicle that’s landed on the planet Midnight. Then things go wrong; they’re trapped in the cabin and an ominous knocking on the walls begins, coming from something on the outside. A fellow passenger becomes possessed and we have the show at its psychological best.

Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams, Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond in Asylum of the Daleks

TODD ANTONY/BBC

17. Asylum of the Daleks (2012)

Amy and Rory Pond’s encounter with the Daleks is one of the most chilling and fascinating because the Doctor’s arch foes do something they have never done before — ask the Time Lord for help. Set in a Dalek asylum, which houses those that normal Daleks regard as too insane (how’s that for behind-the-sofa terror?), the Doctor (Smith) faces an impossible dilemma. The episode is also notable for our first sighting of Coleman’s Clara, one of the more engaging companions in the canon.

Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor in The Power of the Doctor

BBC

16. The Power of the Doctor (2022)

This was a special episode to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the BBC, and also the final chapter of both Chibnall’s tenure as showrunner and Whittaker’s as the Doctor. It was dominated by an epic battle of good and evil between the Thirteenth Doctor and one of her oldest foes, the Master. The show will be best remembered for the last few brilliant moments, when Whittaker’s Time Lord regenerates unexpectedly into the Fourteenth Doctor, played by the returning favourite Tennant, who would bridge the show through three specials into the Gatwa era.

15. The Eleventh Hour (2010)

Smith makes a striking debut as the Eleventh Doctor in his first full episode. After a chaotic regeneration, he crash-lands in the garden of young Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), and she offers him help. Years later, an alien fugitive, Prisoner Zero, escapes and threatens Earth, forcing the Doctor to spring into action. With only 20 minutes to avert an intergalactic invasion, he enlists the now-grown Pond’s support. This episode delivers heart, humour and high stakes as well as giant eyeballs, fish fingers, custard and a surprise cameo from Olivia Colman.

14. Wild Blue Yonder (2023)

Finally, a latter-day Doctor Who episode that is strange and unsettling, with neither cute creatures nor overblown rushing about to save cities. Instead (and ignoring the excruciating start involving Isaac Newton), the second of the Tennant-revival trilogy was just the Doctor and Donna stranded aboard a derelict spacecraft on the edge of the universe. But something isn’t quite right on this lonely ship … we find out what in what’s an eerie, properly disquieting reveal, before a climax that is, for once, genuinely tense. More like this, please!

Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor in Rose

BBC

13. Rose (2005)

This makes it simply for the thrilling sight of the Doctor’s return after so many years in the nether regions of space and time. He takes the form of Christopher Eccleston in a deliberately undandyish leather jacket and with cropped hair (to the horror of some Jon Pertwee fans). And yes, the story of Autons terrorising Earth is little more than serviceable. But it brought our man with the Sonic Screwdriver unmistakably back, and with Billie Piper’s eponymous Rose, one of the most magnetic and likeable companions in all of Doctor Who history. His first words? “Run!” And we did.

12. Boom (2024)

Trust Moffat to make things tricky for himself in his first Doctor Who episode for seven years. The returning showrunner opened with Gatwa stepping on a landmine in the middle of a battlefield in the distant galaxy Kastarion 3. “One wrong move and I go all food mixer,” he says. Inspired by a brief moment in Tom Baker-era Who when the Doctor stepped on a landmine (Genesis of the Daleks, 1975, incidentally), this is a hugely involving two-hander, with the companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), that used all of Disney’s budget to deliver a fantastically realised world and moving antiwar message.

Katherine Jenkins, Matt Smith and Michael Gambon in A Christmas Carol

BBC

11. A Christmas Carol (2010)

For my money the best Christmas special of the lot. Moffat pulls off the simple trick of adapting Charles Dickens’s classic, perfectly structured story into a space-age fable that features sharks swimming in the sky. The moral power of the original story is retained, aided by an astonishingly powerful performance from Michael Gambon as Kazran Sardick, a miserly soul who needs to mend his ways in order to save a doomed spaceship and his soul. Enter Smith’s Doctor, companions Amy and Rory and guest star Katherine Jenkins.

10. Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead (2008)

A double A-side, this story is noteworthy as the introduction of River Song, one of the most recognisable and well-loved companions of the modern era. The story, which stars Tennant’s Tenth Doctor, sees him and Donna arrive in a planet-sized library in the 51st century, where they meet River Song, and a mystery around the disappearance of people begins to unravel. This was the last episode penned by Moffat for the show before he became the showrunner in 2010.

Sophia Myles as Madame de Pompadour and David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor in The Girl in the Fireplace

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9. The Girl in the Fireplace (2006)

Inspired by Audrey Niffenegger’s novel The Time Traveler’s Wife, this well-loved fan favourite is set in 18th-century France. Written by Moffat and starring Tennant’s Tenth Doctor, the story follows the exploits of a group of 51st-century androids who are stalking Madame de Pompadour (Sophia Myles) and plan to use her brain as a component part to fix their spaceship.

Matt Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt in The Day of the Doctor

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8. The Day of the Doctor (2013)

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, Moffat penned a special 77-minute episode featuring several Doctors, including a fan-favourite performance from John Hurt as the War Doctor alongside Smith’s Eleventh and Tennant’s Tenth Doctors. There was even a glimpse of the forthcoming Twelfth Doctor, Capaldi, and a guest appearance from Tom Baker as the mysterious curator. A multilayered, joyous celebration of the show, it was a fitting tribute to this giant of science fiction on TV.

7. Dalek (2005)

Bruno Langley (aka Coronation Street’s Todd Grimshaw) makes his debut as the Time Lord’s companion in this 2005 episode. It also, rather more pertinently, marks the first appearance of the Daleks in the revival. The Doctor (Eccleston) and Rose meet Adam (Langley) in an underground bunker in Utah, which is home to a wealthy man’s collection of alien artefacts. The bunker’s only living exhibit is a Dalek — the Doctor’s sworn enemy and a species he thought he had destroyed. What unfolds is an inspired two-hander between the Doctor and the Dalek, revealing the true danger of these shrill metal pepperpots that can’t get up stairs (or can they?).

Karen Gillan as Amy Pond, Matt Smith as the Doctor and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams in The Angels Take Manhattan

TODD ANTONY/BBC

6. The Angels Take Manhattan (2012)

Gillan and Arthur Darvill had become firm favourites with the audience as Amy and Rory Pond, the travelling companions of Smith’s Eleventh Doctor, before they said goodbye in this emotionally charged, US-set episode. It features the return of the most scary monsters of the post-2005 era, the Weeping Angels. Rory is sent back to 1938 by the Angels, but River Song is unable to help the Doctor fix the mess.

5. Utopia (2007)

This is the first of three episodes in the Tennant era that formed a linked narrative and reintroduced the Master, last seen in the 1996 TV movie Doctor Who. The classic villain is played by Derek Jacobi and, after regenerating as the Saxon Master in the final moments, John Simm (the first time this transformation was witnessed on screen). It is also notable for John Barrowman’s character, the fan favourite Captain Jack Harkness, storming back into the Doctor’s life as the Tardis is thrown to the end of the universe. There, underneath the dying stars, the last remnants of the human race are struggling to reach Utopia, a planet believed to be one of the last remaining habitable worlds in the universe.

4. Army of Ghosts/ Doomsday (2006)

Who knew Canary Wharf could be so enthralling? The series two final episode delivered an unforgettable epic, pitting the Daleks against the Cybermen in a showdown for the ages. But this two-parter is more than just an action spectacle — it has real emotional weight, culminating in the heartbreaking farewell to Piper’s beloved Rose. It also features a fun cameo from Barbara Windsor as her EastEnders character. What more could you ask for?

Peter Capaldi in Heaven Sent

BBC

3. Heaven Sent (2015)

This extraordinary episode is the penultimate of Capaldi’s second series of the show. It is noteworthy for the near hour-long masterclass from Capaldi, as the Doctor is trapped in a waterlocked castle by his people, the Time Lords. Written by Moffat and directed by Rachel Talalay, the brilliantly claustrophobic story is recognised as one of the highlights of the Twelfth Doctor’s tenure.

2. Vincent and the Doctor (2010)

Arguably the most moving episode of the franchise, this emotional gem, penned by Richard Curtis, follows Amy Pond and Vincent van Gogh as they face an invisible monster that only the artist can see. Beyond its sci-fi elements, the episode offers an astute exploration of mental illness, culminating in a deeply moving finale in which Van Gogh glimpses the future reverence for his work. In classic Curtis fashion there’s even a charming cameo from Bill Nighy.

Carey Mulligan as Sally Sparrow in Blink

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1. Blink (2007)

Though it was part of Davies’s first tenure at the helm of the show, this masterclass in horror storytelling is actually penned by Moffat. David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor is trapped in 1969 alongside his companion Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), leaving Carey Mulligan’s Sally Sparrow centre stage to fight off the Weeping Angels in their first appearance on the show. This is 45 minutes of gripping television, and New Who at the top of its game. A clever and intriguing plot employs just the right amount of scary to earn its place at the top of this list.

But what are your favourite episodes of the past 20 years? Let us know in the comments below