Continuity Errors is Steven Moffat's first official contribution to the world of Doctor Who, and incidentally, it's one of his best. Moffat tends to occupy himself with a few recurring themes: the Doctor as a godlike and heroic figure; the power of memory; the consequences of changing time. You know the drill. This particular story features the Seventh Doctor and Benny, but they're not the viewpoint character here; no, the viewpoint character here is the little-known Andrea Tallwinning, a librarian.

We meet Andrea when the Doctor comes to take a book out of the Great Library, accompanied by Benny. Andrea takes an instant disliking to Benny and the Doctor, insulting both of their fashion senses. This narrative is interspersed with one Professor Candy's lecture notes, which describe the Doctor as a CSTE who kidnaps young women (told you Moffat occupies himself with a few recurring themes). Andrea's attitude towards the Doctor, who is trying to access a restricted book, becomes kinder and kinder over the course of the story; it soon becomes clear that Andrea's past is being manipulated by the Doctor to make her into a kinder, more forgiving person. Andrea calls the Doctor out on this, and he promises to step down. The story ends with the Doctor taking Professor Candy's place at a lecture in Andrea's youth, and the title of the book being changed from concerning a massacre to concerning a heroic victory.

Exposition over. Continuity Errors is really standard Moffat fare, but it's standard Moffat fare at its best. Continuity Errors is a fascinating character study, not of Andrea, but of the Doctor. It's meta. It's sceptical. It's an incredibly compelling deconstruction of the Doctor's morality. But at the end of the day, it reaffirms the Doctor's status as a morally complex but fundamentally heroic character.

How it explores the Doctor's god complex (much like that brilliant episode... The God Complex) is almost more interesting than the conclusions it reaches: it goes back and forth between the past and present, slowly unveiling itself as a horror story about one woman's past being manipulated beyond belief so that the Doctor can save a whole world. When we first meet her, Andrea is an embittered widow, at peace with who she is but a deeply caustic personality. By the end, she's a cheerful wife and mother, and she resents the Doctor for it.

Is the Doctor a hero? Unclear. Is Continuity Errors one of the best short stories, nay, one of the best stories to ever grace Doctor Who? Absolutely.