Best Of Who Awards: Top 5 Best Historical Stories

Travel back to the past, as we check out the Top 5 Best Historical Stories in Doctor Who's fifty-year history...
Four Weeks To Go! Yes, you read right, we've got just 33 days remaining now until Doctor Who returns to our screens for its anniversary season of blockbuster adventures on BBC1. As we get closer to the sci-fi drama's return to the channel, we'll be summing up the best episodes of the 2005-2012 run, with lots more classic era content to look at when the awards feature returns in late May. Before that, though, we're looking at the three different 'eras' of Doctor Who: historical, present day and futuristic. This week, it's our Top 5 Best Historical Stories in the 50 years of Who that we're looking at- so let's step back into the TARDIS, and voyage once more to days gone by...
5. THE TIME WARRIOR (1973)- The introductory story for both the late Elizabeth Sladen's companion character Sarah-Jane Smith and indeed the menacing Sontarans, Time Warrior also provided an intriguing glimpse back into medieval society. Seeing knights and servants react to the appearance of an alien being amongst their rankings was a thrilling prospect for fans in the 1970s, and its relevance still makes this an enticing viewing for post-2004 fans in 2013 too.
4. THE VAMPIRES OF VENICE (2010)- A brilliant blockbuster adventure if ever there was one, Vampires took place in Rennaisance era Italy with vampires (or rather disguised fish) on the loose in the canals of Venice. Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor boasted a brilliant chemistry with the period characters of the time, and this episode was by far the antithesis to slow-paced romps like The Unicorn And The Wasp, proving that it was possible to make a historical adventure just as engaging as a present day one!
3. THE WAR GAMES (1969)- This ten-part story was perhaps the most ambitious outing in the entirety of the 1960s era of Doctor Who. As well as forming the finale for Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor, this adventure was set to the backdrop of the First World War, where the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe were almost put to a firing squad among other typical features of the Great War setting. As per usual, a stunning example of how pure science-fiction elements such as the newly introduced Time Lords could be blended with history elements of Who.
2. HUMAN NATURE/THE FAMILY OF BLOOD (2007)- Just as The War Games was a brilliant example of blending sci-fi and history, so too did another Great War tale, Human Nature/The Family Of Blood shine in the same manner. Paul Cornell adapted his Seventh Doctor Virgin New Adventures novel Human Nature with ease, providing the perfect depiction of the days leading into First World War and indeed of a Doctor who could fall in love and learn to live with the worried humans in Britain of the time.
1. VINCENT AND THE DOCTOR (2010)- Another stunning historical adventure through Matt Smith's first season, Season Five. Famed comic author Richard Curtis penned this stunning and complex episode, casting Tony Curran as a true masterclass actor in the role of the depressed and suicidal Vincent Van Gogh. Not only was there pure beauty in Van Gogh's art, the juxtaposition of his life in contemporary France and the museum of art in 2010 was incredibly done, Bill Nighy's curator solidifying this contrast in a heartwarming expression of Vincent's talents that touched a nation and a world.