There's an odd responsibility that comes when building a site like this - knowing that Buffy fans are going to be visiting these pages, pouring over every comment, star rating and blog post, which means if you're going to do something like this, do it right.

So with that in mind, we're casting our votes for the top five ever episodes of Buffy. It's a near impossible task, with over 140 episodes to chose from. Beyond that, there's countless top five and top ten lists online already too, but we've ignored any other such posts, and just focused on the episodes that mean the most to us. If you agree - great. If not, let us know -we'd love to hear your feedback. So, without any further ado, here's our guide to our top five episodes of Buffy. Enjoy.

Hush - Season 4 Episode 10

In Short:

After Buffy has a nightmarish premonition about a fairytale group of demons called the Gentlemen, the residents of Sunnydale wake up completely mute. Remembering a creepy nursery rhyme she heard in her dream, Buffy realises that after stealing the voices of everyone in town, the demonic Gentlemen are now on a mission to take seven beating heartsEUR¦

Why it's so good:

Hush is a rare and wonderful example of Buffy at its bravest. You'd struggle to find another instance of prime time TV that would donate around 25 minutes of precious airtime to what was essentially a silent movie (and remember, this was long before The Artist scooped a few academy awards to make silent movies chic again). To be frank, you'd probably also struggle to find another audience of a popular TV show who would stick with the silent nature of the story too - but this post is about the awesome nature of the episode. We'll hold off on talking about the greatness of Buffy fans until another time.

Going back to Hush was a wonderful experience, because time has actually faded my memory of just how creepy, sinister, dark and - if I'm honest - how English the Gentlemen are. It's the way the float around. It's the way they politely offer one another the scalpel to extract human hearts from silenced - but very much awake - victims. It's the gentile and silent applause they offer one another upon finding another donor - like a polite golf clap, but infinitely more sinister. It's the almost balletic nature of their movements, juxtaposed with the wild, flailing nature of their straight-jacketed henchmen. It's all of those thingsEUR¦ but mostly it's the frankly terrifying little girl chanting the following nursery rhyme in Buffy's dream. "Can't even shout, can't even cry. The Gentlemen are coming by. Looking in windows, knocking on doors, They need to take seven and they might take yours. Can't call to mom, can't say a word, You're gonna die screaming but you won't be heard." I mean, come on. OK, you could argue that the sing-song nursery rhyme that introduces the Gentlemen is a little "one, two, Freddy's coming for youEUR¦" and indeed the fact that this premonition comes to Buffy in a dream doesn't do much to distance these nightmarish creatures from one particular demon you'd find on Elm Street. But with all of these elements coming together, and the cast showing their acting credentials without having the support of witty dialogue, Hush stands out proudly as a great example of Buffy the Vampire Slayer at its absolute finest. Love, love, love it.

Once More With Feeling - Season 6 Episode 7

In short:

A music loving demon called Sweet is summoned to Sunnydale, and transforms the town into a real-life stage for a musical. The residents of Sunnydale sing about everything from the success of their local drycleaner getting mustard stains out, to flirting with a traffic officer to get out of a parking ticket. But things take a sinister turn when performers start bursting into flames.

Why it's so good:

Talk about risk versus reward. Taking a popular cult show like Buffy and sprinkling it with classic Hollywood musical flair could have gone one of two ways: an unmitigated disaster, or a work of absolute genius. Thankfully, it's the latter - Once More With Feeling shines as one of the best episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer ever. It's as simple as that. When I first heard about the concept, I was worried that the gimmick would be more important than the story, and the development of the characters and their lives would be put on hold for an episode, until business resumes one ep down the line. I couldn't have been more wrong. In fact, the songs the Scooby Gang perform provide some of the biggest leaps in character development and the most crucial turning points in storylines you can find in the entire seven seasons.

When Xander and Anya sing about their worries about marriage, it's as believable as if they were sitting down and having a heart-to-heart about it. When Giles bares his soul about standing in the way of Buffy's development as a Slayer, his pain is palpable. Even Spike shows a more (dare we say it?) human side singing his non-beating heart out about wishing he didn't love Buffy. Yet it's the Slayer who gets the most touching songs of the episode, confessing that her recent resurrection didn't pull her from Hell as the Scooby's imagined, but rather plucked her out of Heaven instead. The look on Willow's face is perfect. It's just beautifully done.

Coming a year before the big-screen version of Chicago hit cinema screens and brought musicals to a new audience, Once More With Feeling probably had as large an impact on exposing even more people to the all-singing, all-dancing nature of musicals. Sure, lots of writers have put Once More With Feeling in their top five or ten Buffy episodes list - but it deserves to be.

The Gift - Season 5 Episode 22

In short:

In the closing episode of season five, Buffy faces off against Glory in a battle that threatens to bring about the end of the world. Glory prepares to use Buffy's sister Dawn to break down the walls between the dimensions and unleash all Hell on Earth.

Why it's so good:

When you're writing a season finale, the pressure must really be on to deliver. When that finale also happens to be the 100th episode of that series, the strain gets cranked up a little more. Just to add even more spice to it, it's the spiritual climax of five seasons worth of story arcs, and also marked Buffy's departure from US network WB. So no pressure then.

Thankfully, The Gift delivers in style. Its equal parts inspiring, heartbreaking, tragic and triumphant. Characters develop massively, find strengths they never knew they had, but also suffer their most tragic and crushing defeats at the same time. The slowly growing realisation that at least one of the Scooby Gang might not be coming back from this epic battle shows on every one of the character's faces. In fact, the looming inevitability of a tragic conclusion just gets more intense at the episode unfolds, with countless heavy hints dropped along the way that any number of the Gang might be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice.

There's an undeniable air of finality throughout this episode. Xander and Anya's commitment to marry (if the world doesn't end) feels like two lovers trying to grab a moment of normality before going to war. Buffy's attempt to convince Willow she has more power than she knows ("I need you, Wil. You're my big gun") and Willow's sudden leap in power is both surprising and worrying, foreshadowing the eventual descent into darkness that would almost take her soul. Spike's amazingly raw conversation with Buffy ("I know you'll never love me. I know that I'm a monster. But you treat me like a manEUR¦") is one of the best examples of sadly resigned unrequited love you'll ever see. Indeed, his breakdown in the final moments of this episode shows the most human side of the Brit vampire yet.

The climax of the episode felt like the end of the entire series, not just the season. OK, Buffy would return for two more season-long runs, but the fact that The Gift could have provided a