Television shows by their very nature are long-sighted affairs. Even if they run only a season or less, the intention is that they’ll run longer, and accordingly, the stories and characters are built over a long period of time, rather than the relatively short period of time that belongs to movies. Though some shows are more given to long story arcs and others focus more on discreet standalone episodes (and everything in between), it still holds true that most shows are judged, loved, or hated as a whole rather than by each episode.

However, sometimes specific episodes leap out from the dozens or hundreds episodes of a given show and bowl you over with their individual power, apart from their places in the show’s arc or among the other, more average episodes. Sometimes a great episode emerges from a mediocre show, or sometimes an episode of an outstanding show turns out to be even better than those surrounding it. I thought it would be fun to highlight some of these episodes in what I hope will be an ongoing series. First off, an episode I recently saw for the first time and practically wouldn’t let me go without writing about it.

We’re all geeky enough here not to laugh and write me off immediately when I say an episode of the BBC’s rebooted Doctor Who is one of the best things I’ve seen on TV in a long time, right? Well, even if we’re not, rest assured that episode 3×10: “Blink” is tighter, stronger, and scarier than anything else I’ve seen on the series (I’ve only watched through Season 3), and contains hardly a trace of the series’ lovable cheese. It also works very well completely on its own, so it’s a perfect entry-point for a new viewer. Just be aware that the show as a whole (which I love, by the way), is a lot more given to dubious special effects and over-the-top plot-lines than this episode is.

A little background on Doctor Who for those unfamiliar. The original version of the show ran from 1963-1989 in the UK, then was successfully rebooted in 2005, and is now about to start its season of the current iteration. The Doctor is a Time Lord, a species from another planet which was mostly wiped out by a devastating war. The Doctor is the only surviving member, and he travels through space and time in his time machine the Tardis to protect the universe from another all-out war. He takes a female human companion with him all the time, providing him a link to humanity. (Don’t read more into “companion” than necessary – sometimes it’s a romantic relationship, but more often not.)

In “Blink,” however, the Doctor and his companion Martha are not the central characters. That’s Sally Sparrow, played by Carey Mulligan, who’s currently poised to take over the indie film world with An Education. Her innate acting ability, charisma, and groundedness give “Blink” an extra dose of reality that most of Doctor Who doesn’t have.

Sally is exploring a deserted house near her home when she notices writing on a wall behind the peeling wallpaper. When she pulls off the wallpaper, she reveals a message saying “Beware the weeping angels, Sally Sparrow. Love, the Doctor (1962).” Bewildered by being addressed specifically by a message that seems to have been written decades earlier and noting some innocuous looking angel statues in the garden, she brings her friend Kathy back to investigate further…only to discover that some of the statues seem to have moved, and indeed, seem to move closer every time she looks back at them.

Other strange things happen – Kathy disappears, a boy claiming to be Kathy’s grandson brings Sally a mysterious letter, and a set of DVDs turn out to have an easter egg of a man who seems to be carrying on a one-sided conversation. The man is the Doctor, who has been stranded in the 1960s without the Tardis. His escape depends on Sally rightly interpreting all the clues he’s left her through time, avoiding the touch of the statues (who are really shape-shifters), and releasing the Tardis from where it’s been trapped.

I won’t reveal more of the plot than that, though in reality, the thing that makes this episode so great isn’t so much the bare plot, but the way the episode is paced and cut. The statues can only move when they’re unseen – as long as someone is looking at them, they remain frozen in stone. Hence the Doctor’s warnings not to blink. The statues’ ever-more-dangerous movement is used throughout the episode to build tension, eventually escalating to a terrifying chase sequence where every flicker of light brings a fresh view of horror. The fact that the entire sequence is built of individual shots of an immobile statue (because they’re only able to move in the dark, when Sally can’t see them) makes its intensity even more impressive.

Focusing on Sally and her attempts to figure out what the Doctor is trying to tell her, who the Doctor is and why she should help him, and how to do what he needs, is a brilliant choice as well – it brings a fresh perspective on the show and makes for a great standalone episode that is easily one of the best of the series, and one of the most memorable episodes from any series that I’ve ever seen. It’s quite simply brilliant from start to finish.

For Netflix subscribers, all of Doctor Who S1-3, including “Blink,” are available on Netflix Instant Watch.