If Amy was The Girl Who Waited, then Whovians are definitely The Fans Who Waited.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Doctor Who is a show all about time travel, so the Doctor can experience events in very
00:04complicated ways, and their timeline might not always give them the quickest way to a resolution.
00:09Look at River Song. The Doctor met her at the end of her life, when she knew him very well.
00:13They dropped in and out of each other's lives for years, and it was, to put it simply, complicated.
00:18There's such a rich history in Doctor Who, which allows current writers to look back and make as
00:23many connections as they want to the past. For example, in 1983's The Five Doctors,
00:27the Doctor steals the seal of the High Council from the Master. It wouldn't be until 2013's
00:32Time of the Doctor that he would actually use it, and remind us that I knitted off the Master
00:37in the Death Zone. With a new series on the way, and David Tennant, Catherine Tate, Bernard Cribbins,
00:42and the rest of Donna's family all confirmed to return, it looks like we might finally be
00:46getting a payoff to the story where Donna couldn't remember the Doctor without potentially dying,
00:51a story that was set up 14 years ago. So, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Who Culture,
00:56here with 10 Longest Payoffs in Doctor Who History.
00:5910. RTD ARCs
01:02In Season 1, we keep seeing the words Bad Wolf. In Season 2, we had Torchwood. In Season 3,
01:08we spotted Vote Saxon posters, and in Season 4, we kept being told that planets and bees were
01:13disappearing. Each of these mysteries was developed over their respective seasons,
01:17with information slowly being gradually drip-fed as we progressed through the story.
01:21The ARCs would all last for an entire season, and then hit us hard at the end.
01:25The best of these ARCs was in Season 4. Multiple threads ran through the episodes,
01:29the disappearing planets and bees, the return of Rose Tyler, mentions of the Doctor Donna,
01:34the Medusa cascade, and there's something on your back. All of these things would return
01:38towards the end of the season to bite us on the backside when it all came together.
01:42Season 4 was an absolute masterclass in storytelling from Russell T Davies and
01:46his team, and these ARCs are something we're really excited to see when RTD returns. We
01:50can only wonder what he's got up his sleeve, but we know it's going to be good.
01:559. He Will Knock Four Times
01:58When the Master appeared in Season 3, it seemed he was defeated by the end,
02:01but we knew he'd be back after the mysterious woman retrieved his ring from the ashes.
02:06She would, of course, go on to revive the Master for the 2009 special The End of Time,
02:10which aired two and a half years after the Master's last appearance. During the course
02:14of the specials leading up to this story, the Doctor learns of the prophecy that claims he
02:18will knock four times. Fans instantly connected this to the Master. However,
02:22when the moment came, it was actually Wilf who knocked four times after being trapped in a glass
02:26case that's going to fill with radiation, leaving Ten in a moral predicament. He thought he had
02:31cheated death and was suddenly confronted with the fact that he had to die to save his friend.
02:36This twist of fate had been a long time coming. He met Donna in 2006 and came across Wilf in 2007.
02:42He found Donna again and travelled with her again in 2008, then dropped back into Wilf's
02:47life in 2009. Fate was pulling him towards this for a very long time.
02:52Even more surprising is it looks like they're being pulled back together now, 14 years later.
02:588. Rose Gets Her Doctor
03:00Ten and Rose had a romantic connection that sadly ended before they could fully confess
03:05their feelings. The tragic events of Doomsday, which led to Rose being sucked into an alternate
03:09dimension and Ten burning up a sun to say goodbye, emotionally ruined us all and left us devastated
03:15that neither of them got their happy ending. A couple of years later, in season four,
03:19Rose made a surprise return from her alternate dimension as the walls between realities began
03:24to break down. She spends the entire series reaching out to the Doctor, and when they're
03:28finally reunited, the Doctor is exterminated by a Dalek, only to regenerate back into himself.
03:34This unconventional regeneration scene leaves the Doctor with a Metacrisis clone.
03:38At the end of the arc, once everything is worked out, the Doctor leaves his Metacrisis clone with
03:43Rose. This version of the Doctor is the same as ours, but will age and live as close to a human
03:48life as is possible. Seeing Ten leave Rose with the hymn that he could never be is absolutely
03:52heartbreaking, but it's a payoff that was unexpected, and even addressed the Doctor's
03:56final words to Rose which were cut short. Still, he doesn't get to say outright that he loves her.
04:017. Clara Goes Too Far
04:04Clara's arc saw her build herself up to believe she's on the same level as the Doctor,
04:08and acts like she's invincible. It was an interesting study of what can happen when
04:12people get too close to the Doctor if he builds them up as he did with Clara.
04:16Of course, she also had the Impossible Girl story to back her up too. She had been the most
04:20important person in the Doctor's life, with fragments of her scattered through space and
04:24time that were designed to die to keep the Doctor safe. Clara is often criticised as a prime example
04:29of being a Mary Sue character, but under the surface there's a lot of psychological damage to
04:34her. This led her to make so many brave yet rash decisions, and eventually sent her to her death.
04:39It's genuinely harrowing how her character develops so drastically, and makes us view
04:44the Doctor who encouraged her in an entirely different way. Clara's death wasn't the end,
04:48though. During the events of Hellbent, it was made clear that her Mary Sue-style storyline
04:53even managed to help her escape death and fly off in her own TARDIS. Maybe it is a fitting
04:58full circle ending for the companion who became too much like the Doctor.
05:026. Yaz's Love for Thirteen
05:04Some say that Yaz's love for the Thirteenth Doctor has come from nowhere, and has been
05:08shoehorned in too little, too late. However, lots of fans spotted it way back in the early
05:13days of her run in Season 11. It began with Yaz's reaction when her mum asked if her and
05:18the Doctor were together. Throughout their adventures, the way Yaz looked at the Doctor
05:22said everything. It becomes very obvious when you add in moments like in Can You Hear Me,
05:26where Yaz ran away from home after suffering from a mental health breakdown, and her ability to call
05:31out the Doctor when she needs to. Her behaviour when the Doctor returns in Revolution of the
05:35Daleks, where she gets mad and pushes her, always felt extreme for just a friend.
05:39And the way she keeps replaying and reacting to the hologram in Flux is rooted in a deeper love.
05:44These are just a handful of examples, but guaranteed on a rewatch it'll be very obvious
05:48that Yaz was always in love. It's a shame it took until Eve of the Daleks, almost four years
05:53after her debut, for her to admit it, but it's nice to see some LGBTQ representation being handled
05:59sensitively and sweetly. It was even more exciting, but equally heartbreaking, to see the Doctor
06:04handle the situation the way that she did. Number 5, Silence Will Fall
06:09Eleven's era began in 2010, and was haunted by the sinister phrase,
06:13Silence Will Fall. The arc incorporated the cracks in space and time, the terrifying
06:18silence monsters, and the fields of Trenzalore, where the Doctor's tomb resides.
06:22In the Season 7 finale, The Name of the Doctor, the Doctor must speak his name to enter his tomb,
06:27but refuses to speak. Instead, River Song, who is a ghost, says his name and opens the
06:31tomb without us hearing it. Later on in 2013's Christmas special, The Time of the Doctor,
06:36it was revealed that the Time Lords were on the other side of the crack,
06:39and they wanted the Doctor to confirm his name and help them to return.
06:43Still, the Doctor refused to answer because the Time Lords' return would trigger another time war.
06:47At this time, we see the Kavarian sect split from the church, a moment that triggered the
06:52Silence Will Fall arc that we've already lived through. It's a confusing arc, but one that
06:56lasted an entire Doctor's era. All of this chaos is dedicated to prevent the Doctor from
07:01revealing his name and continue the mystery of Doctor Who.
07:05Number 4, River Song at the Singing Towers
07:08When the Doctor first meets River in the library in 2008's Silence in the Library,
07:12she sacrifices herself to save the day. River is heartbroken that this Doctor doesn't know her,
07:17and promises that she knows him very well, even hinting that they are married.
07:22In her dying moments, she name-drops certain adventures and talks about their last meeting,
07:26when the Doctor turned up with a haircut, a new suit, and took her away for a romantic
07:31getaway at the Singing Towers of Darillium. River returned multiple times over the next
07:35few years, appearing in the adventures that she had mentioned in her final moments,
07:39like the Crash of the Byzantium. Her time with Eleven saw their relationship blossom
07:44through their adventures and lead up to their marriage. After the Eleventh Doctor regenerated,
07:48the Twelfth Doctor wasn't lucky enough to meet River until after Clara's death.
07:52It was 2015's Christmas episode, The Husbands of River Song, that took her to Darillium.
07:58The episode's closing scene shocked viewers by appearing from nowhere and showing the
08:02heartbreaking scene which had been mentioned almost eight years ago.
08:05Needless to say, the emotional scenes in this unexpected payoff ruined everyone's Christmas.
08:11Number 3, The Time War Genocide
08:13The Doctor returned in the first series of New Who, having been through hell.
08:17We learn about the Time War, which wiped out the Time Lords and left the Doctor as the last
08:21of their kind. As the series progressed, we discover more when Ten talks more about the
08:26Time War and their home planet being decimated, and we learn even more so from Eleven.
08:30For seven seasons, we see a character shaped by the pain of the horrors they endured and choices
08:35they made in this war, most notably in moments seen in Gridlock and The Rings of Akhaten.
08:40It took until the 50th anniversary episode in 2013, a whole eight years after the revival began,
08:47to finally get to see a real glimpse of the Time War.
08:50We even learn about a secret incarnation that we had never known about. In the day of the Doctor,
08:54we see Ten and Eleven meet the forgotten War Doctor and help him come to terms with what he
08:59has to do. They stand by his side and comfort him as he prepares to destroy all of the Time
09:04Lords to win the Time War, but thankfully they realise they don't need to commit genocide
09:09and can instead save Gallifrey with the help of every Doctor.
09:12It was a surprising payoff at the end of a long, tragic arc,
09:15and finally allowed the Doctor a reason to celebrate.
09:182. Twice Upon a Time In Capaldi's last outing as the 12th Doctor,
09:24he met up with his first incarnation at the end of his life. With both Doctors refusing to
09:28regenerate, the story follows the pair as they eventually help each other accept their impending
09:33regenerations. While this didn't directly mirror events from the 10th planet, it was a beautifully
09:38thought-out tie-in that made a strong, poignant finale to the 12th Doctor's reign, which had been
09:43built on the foundation of being the Doctor who saves people. The themes of death weren't just
09:47limited to the Doctors. It also involved a couple of soldiers from the First World War,
09:51frozen in a moment, struggling with being able to kill each other.
09:55They're eventually saved when the Christmas Day miracle begins and all soldiers famously
09:59put down their weapons and come together. Seeing the good influenced by Twelve,
10:03the First Doctor decides he's ready to move on and goes back to his TARDIS.
10:07In this moment, the episode cuts back to the original footage of the regeneration,
10:11bringing us full circle to the moment that had taken place 50 years previously.
10:151. The Morbius Doctors
10:18The Morbius Doctors appeared way back in 1976's serial The Brain of Morbius.
10:23Their inclusion was said to hint at the potential of multiple lives before Hartnell's Doctor,
10:27but for years it was completely overlooked or dismissed. Some fans were convinced it meant
10:32something, though, and theories about the forgotten lives have caused controversy for years.
10:36After the Timeless Child twist in 2020, the Morbius Doctors were no longer possible to ignore.
10:41The modern twist proved that the Doctor had lived many lives before becoming what we knew
10:45as the First Doctor, and the Timeless Child story has become a major source of division between fans.
10:50Whether we love it or not, the Timeless Child is a part of Doctor Who now,
10:54and it does manage to make sense of the Morbius Doctors by giving us a payoff that
10:57goes beyond the show's beginnings in 1963. This takes us way back beyond the life of the First
11:02Doctor, and into a distant past that we were completely unaware of.
11:06The earlier mention of keeping the mystery of Doctor Who has really been emphasised with this
11:10development, which keeps us guessing and wondering how much we'll be able to learn about this
11:14mysterious past. This is definitely a payoff that's still paying off, and will continue to
11:19for a very long time. And that concludes our list. If you can think of anything we missed,
11:23then do let us know in the comments below, and while you're there, don't forget to like and
11:26subscribe and tap that notification bell. Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there at
11:31WhoCulture, and I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
11:36I've been Ellie with WhoCulture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.