The best way to prepare for the upcoming 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who is to expect nothing, it’s better that way if you want to truly experience the utter shock one feels from whatever surprises are in store. Doctor Who is always full of twists and turns, especially since Russell T. Davies brought it back in 2005, and we expect nothing less with The Day of the Doctor.
To celebrate the show’s recent milestone, we decided to take a look back and rank some of the most surprising moments of Doctor Who, as there have been quite a few spread throughout its history. Whether it was the death of Adric in Earthshock, the truth about the Valeyard revealed in The Trial of a Time Lord, or the general return of villains and monsters when you least expected it, surprises have been a key ingredient of the show since the beginning.
Having not lived through the Classic Who era, it is difficult to realize what moments surprised the audiences of that time. Moreover, the story-arc heavy nature of the show since its return has given it more room to create such moments. For these reasons, it was decided to focus just on the new series of Doctor Who.
So what exactly was the criteria to rank these moments? Well, these are the shocks that come at you with no warning, and leave you in a state of excitement. The moments that make you sit up straight with widened eyes, screaming “What?” in your head over and over trying to figure out what just happened, while frantically trying to contain and express your feelings simultaneously.
Sometimes these moments simply leave you in a calmed state, and it’s only later that you realize what a real shock it was. All this is assuming of course that you did not get spoiled beforehand through the internet and such, and were able to experience the moment live as it transpired on screen.
So, with all that in mind, we present to you the 8 most surprising moments in Doctor Who. Allons-y!
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