What are the most amazing moments this new golden era of television gave us? We’ve rounded up the very best bits from a whole year of TV watching — and some of the very worst.
Check out our list of the greatest and most horrendous scenes from science fiction and fantasy television. Plus our video collection of clips so terrible (and wonderful) they’ll make you make you cry-wank, American Horror Story style.
Best:
Doctor Who “A Good Man Goes To War” – We’d thought our days of swooning over Rory Williams had come to an end after the heroic Pandorica epic (after all, he is the boy who waited). But then someone kidnaps his wife, and Rory gets pissed! What a glorious moment for all “The Nose” fans everywhere. Want more Rory (of course you do) here’s a video compilation of the Greatest Moments of Rory Williams.
https://gizmodo.com/all-of-the-greatest-rory-williams-moments-from-doctor-w-5834950
Game Of Thrones, “The Kingsroad” – The Joffrey slap heard ’round the world.
Psych, “This Episode Sucks” – Our favorite detectives go undercover in a vampire bar.
The Walking Dead, “What Lies Ahead” – Reintroducing Daryl as the greatest part of this series.
Community, “Dungeons and Dragons” This entire episode is one great moment. All. Of. It.
https://gizmodo.com/did-community-just-make-d-d-cool-5752137
Futurama, “Reincarnation” – Futurama goes Anime, 8-Bit and Black and White.
https://gizmodo.com/watch-all-three-of-futuramas-amazing-reincarnations-5838636
True Blood, “And When I Die” – “Precious fairy vagina.”
https://gizmodo.com/true-bloods-season-finale-kills-off-all-the-right-peopl-5839445
Supernatural, “Death’s Door”” – Bobby remembers murdering his father.
https://gizmodo.com/the-first-monster-is-always-the-hardest-on-supernatura-5864805
Adventure Time, “Fionna and Cake” – Neil Patrick Harris sings a song for Fionna as Prince Gumball.
https://gizmodo.com/first-clip-of-neil-patrick-harris-as-a-singing-prince-g-5835902
Grimm, “Pilot”– Pilates Wolf gives himself a nickname.
https://gizmodo.com/grimm-makes-fairy-tale-creatures-the-new-homeland-terro-5854805
Falling Skies, “Prisoner of War” – Tom teaches us how to catch a Skitter.
https://gizmodo.com/just-one-clip-will-leave-you-with-no-doubt-that-noah-wy-5816056
True Blood, “Soul of Fire” – Vampire Eric is back and drinking hearts for juice boxes. Also, see ya Roy.
https://gizmodo.com/true-blood-serves-up-a-steaming-pile-of-true-death-5837390
Looney Tunes, “Sunday Night Slice” – Daffy Duck does Heavy Metal, and he does it well.
https://gizmodo.com/daffy-duck-goes-heavy-metal-complete-with-scantily-cla-5844258
Once Upon A Time, “The Thing You Love Most” – Two witches fight each other while a tiny brown unicorn watches. No, seriously — this is a show that adults make!
https://gizmodo.com/last-night-on-once-upon-a-time-the-evil-queen-tried-to-5855072
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, “The Return of Harmony” My Little Pony recreates the throneroom scene from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, shot for shot.
https://gizmodo.com/my-little-pony-recreates-the-ending-of-star-wars-5843577
American Horror Story, “Halloween Part 1” – A brutal bit of dialog showcasing who the powerhouse characters on this show really were: Addie and Constance.
https://gizmodo.com/zachary-quinto-just-saved-american-horror-story-5853888
Game of Thrones, “Fire and Blood” – The dragons! Blood of my blood indeed!
Doctor Who, “The Impossible Astronaut” – A classic example of the many wonderful Matt Smith Doctor-isms we were treated to this year.
Castle, “Heroes and Villains” – Real life superheroes invade Castle for just one episode, allowing Nathan Fillion to geek out all over the precinct.
https://gizmodo.com/the-best-moment-from-nathan-fillions-superhero-themed-e-5844382
Eureka, “Do You See What I See” – The Sheriff’s car comes to life, and he’s pissed.
https://gizmodo.com/check-out-the-best-moments-from-eurekas-amazing-animate-5866103
Stargate Universe, “Twin Destinies” – Even though it took Stargate Universe it’s entire series TV span to finally find its stride, it did find it. But we don’t remember the golden deck of Dr. Rush’s tantrums hardly as fondly as we remember Brody and Volker. The flotsam and jetsam comedy duo of the big black. We loved them even more than McKay’s cameo (which was also wonderful). [EDIT: Added SGU to the final list a little later due to forgetfulness]
https://gizmodo.com/the-funniest-moments-from-stargate-history-5801016
https://gizmodo.com/stargate-universe-comes-of-age-with-a-bittersweet-final-5800569
https://gizmodo.com/the-great-and-powerful-rodney-mckay-shows-sgu-how-its-d-5789278
Person of Interest, “Judgment” – Have you ever seen two cats in a bag? Wait, what? LOL, OK, sexy Jesus.
https://gizmodo.com/on-person-of-interest-its-time-to-store-polish-gangste-5852308
Community, “Remedial Chaos Theory” – Community creates parallel worlds, yes we cut out Inspector Spacetime for this, but this episode deserved your attention. Well done.
https://gizmodo.com/must-watch-communitys-dead-brilliant-parodies-of-docto-5843192
Worst:
American Horror Story, “Pilot.” The great cry wank that rocketed this show into WTF infamy.
https://gizmodo.com/american-horror-story-invites-you-into-the-house-that-m-5847439
True Blood, “If You Love Me, Why Am I Dyin’?” – How many sex panthers does it take to screw a Jason Stackhouse. The answer? You’re all going to hell.
https://gizmodo.com/how-many-sex-panthers-does-it-take-to-screw-a-jason-sta-5820138
The Walking Dead, “Secrets” – HONK HONK.
https://gizmodo.com/on-the-walking-dead-nobody-can-mind-their-own-damn-bus-5861229
Smallville, “Finale” – Even though we knew we’d never really see Clark Kent in the full super-suit, the ending made the whole series feel like one giant superhero tease.
https://gizmodo.com/the-confessions-of-a-smallville-apologist-5801851
Teen Wolf, “Wolf Moon” – Who are all these people at a lacrosse practice? Isn’t this kid kind of a nobody, why does he have an entire cheering section? WHY ISN’T HE PLAYING WEREWOLF BASKETBALL?
https://gizmodo.com/mtvs-teen-wolf-swaps-basketball-for-pouty-puppy-stares-5809013
Terra Nova, “Now You See Me” – The Shannon family sets their pet dinosaur free — and it does not immediately get trampled or eaten.
True Blood, “If You Love Me, Why Am I Dyin’?” – Two moments from the same True Blood episode? Yes, it was that bad. This particular moment heralded the great defanging of sexy, dangerous Vampire Eric. Sure it’s no Dance Like No One’s Watching force field twist, but instead of a sexy, angry and very dangerous fetish fodder vamp we get a giant Baby Huey who cries all the time. The worst.
Doctor Who, “The Wedding of River Song” – The most melodramatic Doctor Who moment we’ve seen since Russell T. Davies, but with way less real emotion behind it. So Much Cheese, and not in the fun timey wimey way.
https://gizmodo.com/doctor-whos-season-finale-it-all-comes-together-5843704
Person of Interest, “Cura Te Ipsum” – Sexy Jesus sits a rapist down and talks, and talks, and talks, and talks.
Once Upon A Time, “That Still Small Voice” – Impromptu party on top of the abandoned and terribly dangerous mine. Why does everyone in this town have flasks?
https://gizmodo.com/once-upon-a-time-uses-cg-crickets-and-lost-easter-eggs-5863217
The Cape, “Dice” – With so many moments to pick from The Cape it was hard to choose just one, until we remembered how much of a dick this kid was to his mom.
https://gizmodo.com/the-cape-is-one-of-the-all-time-greatest-bad-tv-shows-5748546
The Walking Dead, “Cherokee Rose” – Sure the entire, tired “Lost Sophia” plot line was boring and quite silly, and you can get into the whole debate in this post on whether or not it was one giant waste of the audience’s time (or a lovely slow burn with a shocking end twist). But the most infuriating moment of the whole series for us was the damned zombie-in-a-well bit. Was anyone seriously going to drink from a well that a walker had been splashing around in for weeks?
https://gizmodo.com/the-entire-infuriating-walking-dead-lost-sophia-saga-5863372
