Who says Doctor Who is just a light and fluffy family show?
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00There are often things written in the media or on forums about whether Doctor Who is too
00:05scary for children, and there have been lots of moments over the years that have certainly
00:09pushed that fear factor to its limits, even for the adults too.
00:13I'm Ellie with WhoCulture, here with the 10 Darkest Doctor Who Moments.
00:1810.
00:19The Boneless' Murals – Flatline The Boneless were belligerent beings from
00:24a two-dimensional universe, who caused the Twelfth Doctor all sorts of problems by shrinking
00:29the TARDIS exterior while he was still inside it.
00:32They eventually converted into surreal-looking 3D monsters that could have come straight
00:36out of a Salvador Dali painting.
00:38Ooh, now there's a killer episode concept.
00:41Terrifying though they were, emerging from the ground and giving chase in a suitably
00:45dark tunnel, the Boneless were at their most sinister in 2D.
00:49The pre-credits sequence shows a frightened man on the phone to the police saying,
00:53I can't speak up, they might hear me, they are everywhere, before being snatched from
00:57underneath and ending up on the wall as a screaming mural.
01:00Later, PC Forrest is also muralised as she searches a missing person's room.
01:04The Boneless slither towards her, then brutally pull her into the floor.
01:08Barely a second goes by when Clara and Riggsie burst into the room after hearing PC Forrest's
01:13screams, only to discover her nervous system graphically displayed on the wall like a twisted
01:17art piece.
01:18The episode's writer believed that Doctor Who should be, and I quote,
01:22Utterly terrifying and filled with body horror.
01:25Stringing up people's innards was certainly one way to make that statement, demonstrating
01:29that the Boneless were savage creatures who could not be bargained with.
01:33Does anyone else just think of Cassandra when they hear of the Boneless?
01:36I know that's not what she is, but that's where my mind goes.
01:39Number 9, Using Humans for Parts, The Girl in the Fireplace
01:43The fourth TARDISode, remember those, depicts the SS Madame de Pompadour sustaining severe
01:49damage in an ion storm.
01:51In the aftermath, it shows a member of the injured crew relieved to see something mechanical
01:55sounding approaching her, but in an instant, that relief turns to terror as she is killed
02:00off camera.
02:01We're all familiar with the story of the Doctor going back and forth through the 18th
02:04century French fireplace to see slash snog Renette, aka Madame de Pompadour, while Rose
02:09and Mickey search the 51st century ship equipped with ice guns.
02:13They come across something truly disturbing, though, even for 51st century standards.
02:18A human eye and a beating human heart, both wired into the machinery of the ship itself.
02:24It turns out that the clockwork's droids were programmed to repair the ship by any
02:28means necessary, including harvesting the parts from the 50 strong crew and believing
02:33that Renette's brain could be compatible to replace the ship's broken command circuit.
02:37We get an idea of the grisly ordeal the crew went through when Rose and Mickey are tied
02:41down and threatened by a droid's mini circular saw.
02:44Presumably the entire crew was butchered alive.
02:47A show for kids, you say?
02:49Really?
02:508.
02:51Daleks Murdering a Family, The Stolen Earth
02:53The Daleks really embodied Terry Nation's alien fascist creation during Russell T. Davis's
02:58first showrunning era.
03:00We had a single Dalek exterminating its way through Henry Van Saturn's bunker, the reality
03:04bomb test on a group of unlucky people, and one other, which we'll get to later on.
03:08Apart from the excellent Asylum of the Daleks and the Dalek reconnaissance scout in Resolution,
03:13they haven't reached that consistent level of fear since those 9th and 10th Doctor days.
03:18The Stolen Earth and Journey's End sees the Daleks at the height of their devastating
03:22power, invading the Earth and subjugating humanity.
03:25One man makes a fatal mistake by telling his family to get back inside their house, before
03:30throwing a brick at a Dalek and yelling, get back in the sky, get back where you came from
03:35and leave us alone.
03:36In that moment, you know exactly what's going to happen next.
03:39Three Daleks immediately move into an attack formation at the front of the house, and the
03:43music builds as if to serve as a warning of the horror that's about to unfold.
03:47Maximum, explosive extermination of a husband, a wife, and their young son.
03:51Don't cross the Daleks.
03:537.
03:54Donna Helps Miss Evangelista Silence in the Library
03:58Technology can be a wonderful thing in Doctor Who, such as River Song's sonic screwdriver
04:02being fitted with equipment that allowed the Doctor to save her.
04:05It can also be a freakish thing, as we saw with Miss Evangelista.
04:09The sight of her remarkably clean skeleton.
04:11I mean, you've got to hand it to the Vashda Narada.
04:14They're very efficient.
04:15Waste not, want not.
04:16Sorry, that in itself is a very dark moment, but it's what happens next that gets this
04:21moment a slot on this list.
04:23With everyone gathered round Miss Evangelista's remains, they suddenly hear her voice politely
04:27asking, sorry, where am I?
04:29River explains to a distressed Donna that it's a data ghost.
04:32The communicator on Miss Evangelista's spacesuit held an impression of her living consciousness
04:37for a short period after she died.
04:39The Doctor tries to comfort Donna by putting it poetically that the data ghost is a footprint
04:43on the beach and the tides coming in.
04:45Miss Evangelista asks for the nice woman, our very own brilliant Donna, who acted kindly
04:50towards her previously.
04:52And Donna comforts Evangelista as she slowly fades away.
04:55It's a really haunting sequence, the sort of thing that stays with you long after it's
04:59over.
05:00And also every child that watched that, you cannot deny, spent the next few days walking
05:04around going, ice cream, ice cream, ice cream, ice cream.
05:10Number 6, creation of the Peg Dolls, Night Terrors.
05:14Why do we need to remind Ellie of this moment?
05:17This was creepy as hell!
05:19The eerie, eyeless, sing-song wooden Peg Dolls were brought to life as part of 8-year-old
05:24George's pantophobia, a crippling fear of absolutely everything.
05:28Anything he found scary was sealed in his bedroom cupboard.
05:31A doll's house, the sound of the lift, and even his kindly old neighbour, Mrs Rossiter.
05:35Not merely content with chasing Amy and Rory around the doll's house while emitting the
05:39sound of creepy childish laughter, the Peg Dolls also possess the ability to transform
05:44people into more of their kind, a fate suffered by Amy and the landlord herself.
05:49These transformations are the stuff of nightmares, literally, and were horrifyingly realised
05:53on screen.
05:54I mean, the sounds are a mixture of wood creaking and bone cracking and the CGI of the hair
06:00emerging from the top of her head, oh my god, it's so creepy and still quite impressive
06:04today actually.
06:05Maybe you're just better off getting the Barbie dream house instead.
06:08Arguably no other episode in the modern era has conveyed a sense of childlike horror better
06:14than Night Terrors did, and these Peg Dolls scenes will no doubt freak out the adults
06:18just as much.
06:19Tick tock, goes the clock, he cradled and he rocked her.
06:27Tick tock, goes the clock, even for the doctor.
06:34Hey, if I've gotta be terrified, you've gotta be terrified too.
06:37You're welcome!
06:38Number 5, Floor Zero Massacre, The Parting of the Ways.
06:42Captain Jack was right not to promise the rest of the people on Floor Zero that they'd
06:46be safe, but hey, no doubt fuelled by his win on the weakest link, at least Roderick
06:50was extremely confident that the Daleks no longer existed.
06:53However, as soon as they blow up the android on Floor 495, the Daleks descend the elevator
06:59shaft, much to Linda's horror, who's observing events on a monitor.
07:03A lot of people die in Doctor Who, but it's usually people involved in the story directly.
07:07It's rarely a massive group of innocent people, and it's rarely as chilling as this.
07:11The slow, processional manner in which the Daleks move provides a devastating contrast
07:16to the mass panic of the helplessly huddled humans, all of which comes to a conclusion
07:20in a cacophony of exterminate, screaming, Dalek gunfire, and Linda's reaction to what
07:26she's just witnessed.
07:27Still think the Daleks don't exist, Roderick, or would you like to review your answer?
07:31Number 4, Breaking the Emotional Inhibitor, The Age of Steel.
07:35While the Daleks started New Who as the more menacing monsters, the Cybermen have stomped
07:40back strongly with some terrifying turns in Series 10 and in Series 12.
07:45Notwithstanding the gruesome scene where we see people being upgraded in a whirl of saws
07:49and scissors, John Lumic's Cyberman design was too robotic.
07:53You sometimes forget that these machines were once living, breathing people.
07:57Then again, perhaps that was the point.
07:59To make scenes like this one all the more affecting.
08:02After the Doctor and Mrs. Moore successfully navigate their way through the cooling tunnels
08:06underneath the Cyber Conversion Factory, Moore takes out a Cyberman with an electromagnetic
08:11bomb.
08:12The Doctor begins examining it by removing the front plate to reveal its inner workings,
08:16but in doing so, he realises that its emotional inhibitor is broken.
08:19The Cyberman reacts by saying, Why am I cold?
08:23And goes on to explain that her name is Sally, and that she was going to get married to Gareth
08:28the following day.
08:29Even with a cyber voice, you can hear the anguish, the pain.
08:32It's one of those rare moments that brings humanity to the Cybermen, and truly makes
08:36you realise how horrifying it is that there's a lost, terrified soul somewhere inside that
08:41cold metal shell.
08:433.
08:44Gas Mask Transformation, The Empty Child
08:47Ooh, I knew this one was coming.
08:49Look, it might not be the darkest moment on this list, but it's undoubtedly the most
08:54iconic and traumatised a whole generation of children.
08:57The entire scene, with Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor and Richard Wilson's Dr. Constantine,
09:02is crafted with incredible intrigue and tension, thanks to Steven Moffat's writing and Murray
09:07Gold's unsettling score.
09:09Constantine's coughing and spluttering makes you sense something bad is about to happen,
09:13and as the Doctor's examination of the gas mask-wearing patients draws the same impossible
09:18conclusion, they've all got the same injuries, right down to the scarring on the back of
09:22their hands.
09:23And then the camera cuts to Constantine's own hand, which bears the exact same mark.
09:28His coughing intensifies, and before long, he utters those four famous words,
09:33Are.
09:34You.
09:35My.
09:36Mum.
09:37Me?
09:39The Doctor can only look on, helpless to intervene, as Constantine's face morphs into a gas mask.
09:45I don't want to watch it again, please don't make me see it again.
09:49We all needed our mummies after witnessing that, let's be honest, I think I need my
09:52mummy right now.
09:53Now, this scene was originally even darker, with producer Phil Collinson noting that the
09:58sound of Constantine's skull cracking was edited from the final broadcast.
10:02Um, that was probably the right decision.
10:04It's not like we needed it to be any more scary than it already was.
10:09Please, no more.
10:11Number 2.
10:12Don't cremate me, Darkwater.
10:15Following Danny Pink's shock death, the Doctor and Clara end up at the 3W Institute
10:19in an effort to track him down.
10:21Inside, both are welcomed, the Doctor in particular, by Missy, who calls Doctor Chang.
10:26Chang asks the Doctor and Clara, is there a particular dead person you want to talk
10:29to?
10:30The BBC received over 100 complaints for the scene that follows.
10:34It's not visually vicious, like many others on this list, but it's quite possibly the
10:38most psychologically traumatising.
10:40In Chang's office, the Doctor and Clara ask what 3W means.
10:44Chang replies, the three words, and braces them for a shocking revelation.
10:48He tells them that the 3W's founder, Doctor Scarossa, played white noise through a translation
10:53machine and recorded a babble of voices, which he believed were from the recently deceased.
10:58Scarossa managed to isolate some of the voices, and Chang warns of the bone-chilling words
11:02they're about to hear.
11:04Don't cremate me.
11:06Don't cremate me.
11:07In other words, the dead are still conscious and are aware of what's happening to their
11:11bodies.
11:12Feeling cold?
11:13Well, you're probably still in a mortuary fridge.
11:14Screaming in agony?
11:16Probably shouldn't have chosen Burn Baby Burn for your committal song.
11:18The BBC defended this plotline, reminding everyone that the Doctor dismisses it as a
11:22con and a racket.
11:24Which it is.
11:25Still, remember that a lot of people's minds were uploaded to the nethersphere, and most
11:29would have been put down as a burner by default.
11:331.
11:34Scooty's devilish demise, The Impossible Planet
11:36Whose clever idea was it to go through all these terrifying moments?
11:39Because I'm not going to sleep tonight.
11:41Russell T. Davis mentions in The Writer's Tale how much he loves The Impossible Planet
11:46and the Satan Pit, and we agree, it's one of the best stories in modern Doctor Who,
11:50and the best of Series 2 to boot.
11:52This is mainly down to how scarily the beast is portrayed, via Will Thorpe's possessed
11:58Toby Zed, terrifying, Gabriel Wolfe's demonic vocals, and an impressive looking CGI beast.
12:06There are also plenty of hide-behind-the-sofa moments that will give the grown-ups a few
12:10nightmares, never mind the children.
12:11But the one that tops them all is Scooty's death scene in The Impossible Planet.
12:16After hearing from the base's computer that someone has gone out onto the planet's inhospitable
12:20surface without a spacesuit, Scooty wanders over to a window and watches in disbelief
12:24as Toby bathes in the black sun.
12:27Toby turns around, an evil grin on his face, and tries to tempt her to join him, before
12:32slowly breaking the glass protecting Scooty from the endless depths of space.
12:36From the unsettling red eyes and ancient text plastered across Toby's face, which is terrifying,
12:42to Scooty pleading for her life as she realises what's happening, it's really disturbing,
12:46as is the sight of her corpse floating towards the black hole a few minutes later.
12:50So yeah, a TV show that is well and truly appropriate for kids.
12:53Is that true?
12:54Well, we'll let you decide.
12:56Now that's the darkest moments that we talk about, but why not check out 10 Dark Doctor
13:00Who Facts That Are Never Spoken About to just prove my point even more that this show is
13:05certainly not always appropriate for kids?
13:07In the meantime, I've been Ellie with WhoCulture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye
13:11sweeties.