10 Dumb Doctor Who Moments You Can't Help But Love
The greatest silly moments in all of Doctor Who.
Transcript
00:00Doctor Who is full of cringy moments, and sometimes they're just that, cringy, and not in a good way.
00:06Other times, though, there are moments that are so silly and weird that you just have to respect
00:11them. And so, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhoCulture, here with 10 dumb Doctor Who moments
00:16you can't help but love. Number 10. Chocolate in The Vanquishers. And you're welcome for that
00:24lovely performance right there. Doctor Who Flux, the 13th series of the revival,
00:29got mixed reviews following its less-than-stellar final episode, The Vanquishers. The Doctor splits
00:34herself into three different copies, presumably to keep up with the utterly absurd number of
00:39side characters in this story. One version teams up with Dan and Yaz to take down the Sontarans,
00:44who have claimed Earth as their own. When confronting one of the Potato Men, the trio
00:48make a rather odd discovery about the species. They love a bit of chocolate. During an inspection
00:54of a corner shop, one Sontaran leader gorges himself on the sweet stuff until the good guys
00:58catch him. They offer to give them the recipe for chocolate in exchange for access to the Sontaran's
01:04psychic command centre. I mean, it's utterly absurd to see a member of the universe's mightiest
01:09warrior race so easily controlled by a snack. And it's also disgusting the way that Sontaran's
01:14tongue moves will haunt your nightmares forever. Still, you know what? It's actually kind of funny.
01:19Certainly one of the most memorable things about this episode, and that is saying quite a lot.
01:24Number 9. A one-shark-open sleigh in a Christmas Carol
01:28Doctor Who's 2010 holiday special saw the Doctor attempt to change the past of Kazran Sardik,
01:34a grumpy old man played by Michael Gambon. Sardik controls a cloud belt, presumably with the Elder
01:40Wand, that has ensnared a large space liner, so the Doctor has to go all Scrooge on him to make
01:45him see the error of his ways. Anyway, one Christmas Eve in Sardik's past, the Doctor
01:50decides to take him and their newfound friend Abigail for a sleigh ride. Not just any sleigh
01:55ride, though. One that is powered by a flying shark. A small boy, an opera singer, and a young
02:01Prince Philip flying through the air on a shark-pooled sleigh. It's silly as all hell,
02:05but it's the exact kind of silly that makes this show so endearing.
02:09Number 8. Sol Deed's speech in The Horns of Nymon
02:13Classic Doctor Who should come with a warning for vegetarians,
02:16because some of the acting is so hammy that they might not be allowed to watch it.
02:20The Absolute Ham Daddy is this brilliantly naff speech from the fourth Doctor serial,
02:25The Horns of Nymon. It's set on two planets and features a minotaur-like species of aliens
02:30called Nymons. It also features a character called Sol Deed, and oh boy, he's a real hoot.
02:35In his final speech to Romana, he speaks like William Shatner on meth, stretching every word
02:41out to the oddest extreme. If he were in a pantomime, the director would take him to one
02:45side and tell him to turn it down a bit. Graham Crowden, the actor who played Sol Deed,
02:49sadly passed away in 2010 at 87 years of age, and we should all take this moment
02:54to pay tribute to the man and thank him for gifting us this wonderfully awful scene.
03:00Number 7. Dinner Time in The End of Time Part 1
03:04While it can be very silly at times, Doctor Who does also need to be scary for it to work.
03:09Unfortunately, the line between silly and scary sometimes gets a little blurred,
03:13including this scene from the 10th Doctor's two-part finale, The End of Time.
03:18The Master is hiding out in a junkyard, recently returned to life by a group of his followers. He's
03:23hungry. Ravenous, in fact, and decides to chow down on a tasty-looking burger. However, he starts
03:28to enjoy the meal a little too much, which freaks out two bystanders. Oh, and he also eats the poor
03:34burger van lady because, well, he's a dick. This sequence concludes with John Simms
03:38screaming the gloriously cheesy line, DINNER TIME, before leaping into the air and pouncing
03:43on his next meal. This is Doctor Who melodrama at its very best. A ridiculous premise performed
03:49in a ridiculous manner, to the point where the threat of the Master is almost compromised.
03:54However, Simms had already built up such goodwill with this version of the character that the scene
03:58is also very easy to enjoy. Number 6. Bend It Like Eleven in The Lodger
04:04Not only is 11th Doctor Matt Smith annoyingly good at acting, he was also a skilled footballer
04:09in his youth. His grandfather used to play professionally, and Matt wanted to follow in
04:13his footsteps. He played for a number of prominent teams, including Nottingham Forest and Leicester
04:17City, until a back injury put an end to this dream. We'd feel sorrier for him if he wasn't
04:22so talented and handsome. Smith got the chance to put his footy chops to the test in Series 5's The
04:27Lodger, which features a ridiculous yet impossible to dislike scene all about the beautiful game.
04:33When finding out that a pub football team is down a player, the Doctor joins in, in an effort
04:36to appear more human. Turns out he's great at it, running rings around the other players and scoring
04:41goals that would make Grandpa Smith proud. It is an incredibly cringey sequence, and it takes up
04:46way too much time in the episode, but it's nice to see a window into what Smith's footballing
04:50career might have actually looked like. Number 5. The Candyman in The Happiness Patrol
04:56Whatever Doctor Whos writers were taking in the 80s should be available on the NHS,
05:00because they were clearly having the best time throwing wacky nonsense at the wall to see what
05:04stuck. One idea that somehow made it to air was this completely bonkers villain from the 7th Doctor
05:10serial The Happiness Patrol. Set on a planet where sadness is outlawed, The Happiness Patrol
05:15introduces us to maniacal ruler Helen A, yep that's her name, and her robot henchman The Candyman.
05:21He's a robot made of sweets, like Bertie Bassett meets the Terminator. Now there's an episode idea.
05:28To give the gassed up writers their dues, it's actually not an awful idea. The whole point of
05:32The Happiness Patrol is to show that forced joy is actually far deadlier than lament, so a killer
05:37machine made of tasty treats fits that idea perfectly. But to take that credit immediately
05:42away from them, the execution here is obviously naff. The costume, the voice, the fact that he's
05:47a robot made of sweets. However, we'd be lying if we said we didn't enjoy it. This is exactly the
05:52kind of so-bad-it's-good content Doctor Who is so brilliant at.
05:564. Angelica's Scent in Voyage of the Damned
06:00Doctor Who is as big a Christmas tradition for some as a turkey dinner. The Who Christmas special
06:05was one of TV's most anticipated episodes every single year, even if the writers did tend to take
06:10them a bit less seriously than usual. Take this moment from the 2007 Yuletide broadcast.
06:16After the starship Titanic is hit by an asteroid field and set on a collision course for Earth,
06:20the surviving passengers begin to lose hope as their efforts to escape fail spectacularly.
06:25There's only one solution, an action hero montage featuring the Doctor as John McClane.
06:30After doing his best cool-guys-don't-look-at-explosions walk through some flames,
06:34the Doctor summons two of the angel-like heavenly hosts. They take him by the arms
06:38and fly him straight upwards, crashing through the floor of the ship's control room.
06:42It is an unbelievably over-the-top sequence, looking like it came straight out of some
06:46sort of parody. But at the same time, it somehow manages to be incredibly badass,
06:51and it did give us the Alonzi-Alonzo moment, so we can't get too mad about it.
06:563. Kill a Christmas Tree in The Christmas Invasion
07:00At the other end of Tenant's Time with the TARDIS, the newly regenerated Tenth
07:04Doctor is unconscious in bed in Jackie Tyler's flat. Rose and Mickey arrive home to find a
07:08strange tree in their living room. The decoration only gets stranger when it starts to spin
07:12violently and slowly moves towards the terrified humans. Not wanting to get cut up into festive
07:17fleshy ribbons, they run for it. Look, it's a nice idea, but a murderous Christmas tree?
07:22How on earth are we meant to be scared of that? That's like having a monster that's a kitten
07:25with a laser gun, or a robot made out of sweets. Still, you can't say that a spinning Christmas
07:30tree of death isn't an iconic visual. Also, this was the first New Who Christmas special,
07:34so let's give RTD some leeway. He just got a little carried away.
07:38Although, based on the other festive entries on this list, the writers clearly didn't get
07:42all the silliness out of their systems with this perilous pine.
07:46Number 2. Venusian Aikido in various stories. The Doctor is supposedly against violence,
07:52but clearly John Pertwee's Third Doctor didn't get that memo.
07:55Whenever this incarnation found himself in a tight spot, his mantra was punch first,
07:59ask questions later. Using Venusian Aikido against his foes, this basically came down
08:04to making a loud hi-yah noise, and then chopping away like one of those Rock'em Sock'em robots.
08:12The sight of Pertwee beating up a sea devil or a Sontaran is bloody hilarious,
08:17but also kinda cool. Imagine Matt Smith deciding to batter the Minotaur from the God Complex,
08:22or Jodie Whittaker kicking the pating like a football. You'd have no idea what you were
08:26watching, but you know what? You'd have to respect it. Venusian Aikido also gave us these glorious
08:32behind-the-scenes clips of Peter Capaldi demonstrating some of Pertwee's moves,
08:36which will absolutely put a smile on your face.
08:391. Ra Ra Rasputin in The Power of the Doctor Jodie Whittaker's final regular episode as the
08:45Doctor will be remembered for two things. The appearance of David Tennant as the 14th Doctor,
08:49and Sasha Dewan's master giving the performance of a lifetime to the sounds of Boney M.
08:54After capturing the Doctor with a little help from the Daleks and the Cybermasters,
08:57the renegade Time Lord takes some time to celebrate his glorious achievement.
09:01Oh, and we should probably mention that he's been masquerading as Rasputin prior to this.
09:05While watching the episode for the first time, you could see where this was going.
09:09With the touch of a button, a sound system begins playing the hit song Rasputin as the
09:13Master does a little victory dance. There are some other things important to the plot going
09:17on while this happens, but who cares? Just look at this dancing. It's cringey as all hell, but
09:23you know what? It's so much fun. In a way, it's Doctor Who at its best. The Power of the Doctor
09:28didn't make much sense, but it was a big-hearted crowd-pleaser of an episode, with many moments,
09:34including this one, that Whovians will never, ever forget.
09:37And that concludes our list. If you think we missed any, then do let us know in the comments
09:41below, and while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe, and tap that notification
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09:49and I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
09:53I've been Ellie with WhoCulture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.