Lai

I’m giving Freema Agyeman the top billing here, because wow.  God bless Paul Cornell for being the one and only writer of the series to properly engage with the issue of race, and actually, to properly engage with the character of Martha Jones as a human being.  Freema takes that rare opportunity and she soars, proving herself to have acting chops in the same league as the most recent Doctor Who greats, Jenna Coleman and Pearl Mackie.  Though she’s brilliant through the whole second half, it’s actually the first half that I noticed most this time – until the second act, the script leaves it down to Freema, and Freema alone, to show that Martha hasn’t lost her memory, that she is the mysterious visitor from the future in this story.  So much of what makes the character work here is beyond the spoken word.

David Tennant, for playing a character who isn’t the Doctor, and then coming back to play the Doctor in one of his most spine-tingling sequences ever.  And again, bless Paul Cornell for being the one writer to engage with the flaws of this Doctor and not his strengths.  The Tenth Doctor works best in stories like this, where you see him for the unpleasant bastard he is.  The Doctor is elevated to a mythic, biblical (literally, considering the John Smith analogy) level here, but that all changes when Joan interrogates him and you realise, actually, that he’s just a very powerful coward.

Jessica Hynes, for being magnificent throughout, and for making me cry in that last shot of her.

The older actor to play Timothy, who is uncredited on Wikipedia, for making me cry again without even saying anything, godammit.

Harry Lloyd, for creeping the shit out of me, constantly.

Thomas Sangster, who is not of this world, for proving that when the Doctor goes back to being a white male – which hopefully won’t be too soon – he should be the one playing him.

And everyone else.  This is one of those episodes, like Heaven Sent and The Doctor Falls, in which everybody involved is doing their damned best to make an award-worthy episode of television.  No wonder they brought James Strong back, since this is one of the best-directed pre-Hurran Doctor Who stories.  And though most of the soundtrack sadly went unreleased, it still has a very special place in my heart – sometimes Murray Gold just pulls these sorts of scores out of nowhere, and every time they blow me away.

no fake friends, just real friends (the only ones who’ll come out to your godforsaken lighthouse to hang)

lots of stairs so u dont need a gym membership

when u look out the window and sigh mournfully it’s Cinematic Depression not just regular depression

minimum requirements: 1 large dog, 17 cable-knit sweaters, 1 mysterious but tragic past, 2 pair fingerless wool gloves

increased likelihood of mermaid encounters

effortless windswept look, complemented by soft lantern glow