The hit sci-fi series Doctor Who has a rich history with tons of episodes that have been released over the course of decades. There are episodes of the show that breach into just about every genre in fiction. The expansive canon even reaches into comic books, audio dramas, and across other mediums.

Despite the intricate canon that spans decades of television, however, the best episodes of Doctor Who are the ones that stand on their own and tell one-off stories. It’s not to say that exploring the history of Gallifrey or revisiting the neverending battle against the Master or the Daleks is bad by any means. In fact, it’s all still incredibly fun and intriguing. It’s just that when thinking about some of the best episodes of the show, the standalone stories are what immediately comes to mind the most.

For instance, ‘Blink’ is heavily to be considered some of the best writing in the show’s many years on TV. It’s beloved by both fans and critics, and is usually considered the scariest episode Doctor Who has to offer. ‘73 Yards’ was a standout episode for the fifteenth Doctor, with many fans taking to social media to examine its intricacies. ‘The Empty Child’ from the 9th Doctor’s run is still heavily quoted twenty years later.

It’s hard not to notice that when the writers (probably because there have been so many in the last sixty years with varying opinions on where the story should go) decide to further the canon or introduce new rules or change old rules, things often get a bit messy. Gallifrey was gone, then came back, but was actually gone the whole time, but came back to be destroyed. If someone travels through time and sees themselves from the past or future, it can have dire consequences, except that it doesn’t when that situation occurs later on. The Master grows as a character and becomes the Doctor’s best friend, but is still their greatest nemesis afterward. Despite these stories still being entertaining, there’s no shortage of plot holes and confusion when episodes dive into the greater canon.

It is exciting to see how everything progresses and expands, but it’s always much easier to return to and rewatch the likes of ‘Vincent and the Doctor’ or ‘Midnight’. These one-off stories feel like they capture the essence of ‘Doctor Who’ and are exactly what’s worth loving about it. There’s a story somewhere within the series’ long history that just about anyone can connect to.

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