Dalek
This was the episode that convinced me that new Who really knew what it was doing.

It's a lovely episode. The Dalek is actually given some real menace. After all the years of being defeated by the Doctor, I must admit that I don't find the Daleks that scary anymore as a rule. But this episode does a great job at demonstrating the threat of one lone dalek. Statton, too, is a great middle-level threat, and he's played with just the right injection of believability amid the meglomania.

The climax with Rose is beautifully orchestrated, and the episode manages to both do something different with the daleks' psyches and also avoid schmaltz by justifying it logically. I've seen the ending three times now, and it still made me cry. *sniff*! So it's either really good or really bad :-)

Seriously though, the final scene is beatifully written and played.

I'll leave the final summation to Jen, who says:

"I loved that dalek! I would have been its friend."