Doctor Who: Cold Vengeance

This is, in many ways, a fairly standard Doctor Who story but, for me, it does what it does very well, raising it above the merely average. It's set on an automated space station orbiting a colony world, where a group of Ice Warriors awake to encounter, not just the Doctor and Rose, but a couple of space pirates, the robot management... and the woman who's come to empty the bins.

It's a well-constructed story, just right for the length, and managing to feel like a part of the modern series while still having stylistic connections to the past (and nods to the Peladon stories). The ruthlessness of the Ice Lord is played up and there's some good interplay between the various characters. Rose gets to be heroic, and the bin lady attracts our sympathy as the ordinary person entirely out of their depth as their home planet is placed in peril by alien invaders. Even the robot is good, played differently than robots often are on the show.

What really makes it strong, though, is the ending. Aside from a cheeky reference to Star Trek, this manages to be dramatic while also delivering the sort of message that's more common in the modern show than the classic one, and doing so effectively. (And, for that matter, putting the Ice Lord's actions into context from his perspective). One rather gets the feeling of a grander setting here, with stories of its own to be told that don't fit within the one-hour format, which makes it all feel rather more real.