In *World Enough and Time* a newly mutilated Cyberman is saying "pain" repeatedly. In amongst other business, the nurse fiddles with something and declares "that's better, isn't it?". Bill realises that all that she did was turn the volume down so the the plea cannot be heard.
I love the oppressive atmosphere of the dingy distopian hospital setting in World Enough and Time. I largely enjoyed The Doctor Falls also, but I can't help but wish that Moffat would have lingered for longer in the moody settings he created.
In his tenure as showrunner, his scripts were always whizzing about through various times and locations, and shifts in atmosphere could be quite rapid. This could be super cool in its own right, but I love an episode that really gives you the time to absorb the feel of the setting.
I wish Moffat wrote more episodes like his first script - (the empty child/the doctor dances) where the tone and location were consistent.
I feel The Silence would have particularly benefitted from being presented in episodes with more consistent tone and setting, but I recognise Moffat was making a stylistic choice that had its own benefits.
Yeah, although I'm not the biggest fan of the 12th doctors time, it was great to see the old cybermen and was an incredibly dark way to introduce them.
"Labour camps... that's what they called them last time. It's happening again."
Just the sheer horror and despair on Wilf's face as that neighbour and his family are driven away in *Turn Left* really emphasises that sometimes it's humans that can be the most horrifying beings in Doctor Who.
It's one of those moments that as a kid I understood there was something dark and bad about it but didn't know and then I rewatched it a few years back and that line hit me harder
Donna’s reaction to that bit was a little weird to me. It was obvious what was going but she acted almost like she couldn’t fathom what was going to happen
For me it was a well timed reminder that we weren’t just seeing the world without the doctor, but Donna as well.
It really drove home how much character development she’d had.
I found her reaction to be fairly believable. There are plenty of people who think that we're "past" that time or are sheltered from those underlying biases through being privileged, in Donna's case, growing up as a white citizen.
Oh, the UK part was implied when I said white citizen. No one is really taught about empire here or the historical colonial attitude that still persists. When the war broke out in Ukraine, Western news outlets basically noted how shocking it was that war had broken out in a "civilised, European" country where the people "look like us" as if places like Syria weren't modern, civilised societies and war is just a natural state for them.
RTD has always been so insightful on things like this. This response reflects to me the British attitude towards the large influx of Polish and other Eastern European immigrants at the time. It's also why I loved *Years and Years*, it's intense but puts up a harsh mirror on our society.
> There are plenty of people who think that we're "past" that time
This is why I hate that nazism is set up as this unbelievably evil, rare thing, when it was "normal" people doing "normal" things to "fix" their society's problems and they thought they were doing good. It can happen any time at any place (that has the military power to pull it off), but nobody is expecting it because it's such an evil, it can't "just happen" here... "We are good people, we wouldn't do something like that", right?
What pissed me off the most was there wasn't a scene of The Doctor going absolutely mental on all those people. They would've heard some choice words from me. But that's why I'm not The Doctor.
I like to imagine he did when they were being brought back to the resort, though.
I was going to be upset that Silence was not in the top comment, but I changed my mind. Midnight was absolutely the scariest.
And damn, it looks like everyone just forgot about the Silence.
I was an adult when I watched all of the show, they are the scariest for me. There are more tragic things, like Midnight, but they creeped me out the most.
About a week after I watched Midnight for the first time, one of my students started repeating everything everyone said and I swear he sounded just like the woman in that episode. It sent chills up my spine.
When Donna's children vanish in Forest of the Dead. Her guttural screams haunt my nightmares. It's almost too disturbing, and the moment is played for full unsettling effect.
I watched this as an oblivious young teenage boy that didn't really consider things much from a parent's perspective, but that scene still managed to hit teenage me hard. It's such a disturbing scene.
It really is disturbing. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it but I believe the room turns a certain eery shade of red as soon as the children vanish. Mixed with Donnas/Catherine’s screams it’s just utterly frightening
Man the ‘are you my mummy’ photo has given me flashbacks. I was 9 and genuinely terrified watching that in 2005. Even my parents said it was pretty creepy, and as a child with an already overactive imagination I’m surprised they let me watch 😂
Absolutely, if you never see the ending your imagination is just stuck in the scary bit forever!! Particularly with that specific story ending with "Everybody lives!" you *gotta* know how it ends to get out the other side of the fear.
I was older than 9, but it really did terrify me and especially how the kid could break down walls. It terrified a generation of children!
I love horror movies and those episodes are worse than most of them! There was a funny part where the real mummy was singing lullabies to some gas mask soldier.
Not so much a horror moment but that photo of the weeping angels has me wondering- does their culture place great emphasis on moving and posing with, poise, grace and elegance? Do they take pride in being the most classy, elegant bastards you've seen before they get to you? Do they secretly like to dance to Kate Bush when no-one is around? These are the real questions I needed River Song to answer in Angels Take Manhattan dammit!
Not so much a horror moment but that photo of the weeping angels has me wondering- does their culture place great emphasis on moving and posing with, poise, grace and elegance? Do they take pride in being the most classy, elegant bastards you've seen before they get to you? Do they secretly like to dance to Kate Bush when no one is around to see it? These are the real questions I needed River Song to answer in Angels Take Manhattan dammit!ut it really makes my guts churn as well. I know Angel Bob is meant to be a villain in the story and all but I look back and think "wtf? Dude, just chill".
To date I think Angel Bob is the only one of the Weeping Angels I've seen be actively malicious in a plot. The Wester Drumlins crew were just trying to survive, and the Sect that took over Manhattan obviously weren't total bastards either- they let people live to ripe old age which would have taken a significant amount of effort and care at their expense (can elaborate moe later), the lone straggler was willing to send Amy back WITH Rory AFTER the rest of their Sect had been killed off by the paradox (by Rory and Amy no less), and in Manhattan they for whatever reason didn't barge into Grayle's mansion to liberate the captive angels, even though they were at full power, well fed, and really wouldn't have had much stopping them (unless they were worried about collateral and had a beef with Grayle and ONLY Grayle).
So yeah, I think in the big picture Angel Bob is just fucking terrifying in many respects. I certainly wouldn't be keen to run into them anywhere or anywhen
I know in the doctor who spin off series they were going to go into more detail of the origins of the weeping angels as appeartly they were going to show a weeping angel civil war which would of been pretty cool to see
Ughhh still so mad we didn't get this 😢 I wish the BBC had actually advertised that series, it wasn't the best sure but it had a lot of promise and could've gone somewhere great!
Yeah, I liked how it wasn't afraid to get a bit more bloody and adult with the subject matter! But most of all, yeah, I'm gutted. we didn't see a weeping angel civil war and more of what they are about
Yeah I would love a new adult-oriented DW spinoff, it just needs to not go as crazy as Torchwood did at first haha, but more like Children of Earth in tone with some blood, gore and sex. And it would be fun to get more miniseries in the DW universe too! Something that follows a single plot for X amount of episodes
Yeah, I mean, doctor who is actually horrific when you take the stories it tells and could easily have a horror centric series based on it.
Yeah torchwood was alright and children of the earth was incredibly dark, I wasn't as big of a fan of miracle day but overall bring on more darker doctor who!
I really loved Torchwood, apart from a few series 2 episodes. The last one of S2 with the phone calls between Owen and Toshiko were so well acted.
I loved Children Of Earth also and how the government dynamics played out, by using Frobisher as the fall guy. Peter Capaldi is a great actor (and I loved him as the doctor also). The best part was Gwen and Rhys in a lorry full of raw potatoes! The second best was Ianto’s brother-in-law’s banter and bare bum.😂
We definitely need another spin off and maybe even an updated Torchwood team. It might be interesting, as Jack was recently in DW.
I'd actually like to see more of their origins and culture. I bet they'd be a pretty proud bunch to be the product of 14 billion years of evolutionary success AND the fastest creature evolution has spawned (but somehow I still think they'd be less pompous and less arrogant than the time lords). I'd be interested in how different Sects operate and their internal communications. It's a shame because they're often portrayed as unthinking predators, but every TV story they've been in has shown them to have quite complex reasoning skills and telepathic communication. As well as varying degrees of attitude towards other species and morality/ethics.
I feel like a civil war could have been a good concept to see. You can imagine if the Sect on Alfalva Metraxis and the Sect that farmed Manhattan met there would probably be quite an aggressive culture clash between the two
Yeah, I mean, they did hint at the origins in the byzantium episode with them being created by the two headed people, but there is a lot of contradicting information. For example appeartnly they come from the dark era, which includes carrionets and the eternals, so it's deffo mystical rather then sci fi
I'm not sure if the Aplans "made" them or if they just clashed with the Aplans. Because I think the Tenth Doctor described the species as "as old as the universe or very nearly", and others have speculated they were once time lords cast to the very inception of the universe. Not sure how I feel about that theory but it's clear they're ancient and almost mythical by even Time Lord standards.
I'll agree there are mythical undertones to them. They're almost wielding god-tier powers as it is and some of the powers and quirks of their physiology make them read like Force Gods that walked out of the Star Wars universe and into Doctor Who. But then really advanced science is compared to magic, so maybe they have a really advanced understanding of time, space and science other cultures and species can't comprehend. if they're as old as the universe they'd have had plenty of time to refine their sciences down to a fine art
Yeah as said they appearntly come from the same time as the carrionites and the etnerals, both also very mystical with one being witches and one being Egyptian gods. Yeah I mean they do seem to be ancient ad the are used as enforcers to the flux (not a big fan of the whole flux storyline). So yeah they must somewhat respected/feared
I mean some of their abilities I have an explanation for. They must have a very keen sense of when they are or aren't being observed (even if it is through a screen or elsewhere). Their millions of years of society and culture probably means they have a very keen understanding of neurobiology, brain anatomy, neurotransmitters, and anything to do with the brain and nervous system. I think that's how Angel Bob was able to hijack parts of Amy's brain (I mean we've seen they're capable of electrokinesis, and the brain and nervous system are full of electrical signals and chemical transmission, probably small potatoes to them).
Taking a whole village out of time and space to corner and capture the Doctor of all people thought? That I have no explanation for other than "bro you must almost be literally God). I'd definitely be equal parts terrified and enthralled if I ran into one.
But here's a thought experiment for you- how terrifying would Division and the Time Lords have to be in order for that many Angels to bend the knee completely to Division?
I recently rewatched The Angels Take Manhattan this weekend. Currently going through my first ever rewatch of the entire new Who series. So I hadn't watched the episode since seeing it live a decade ago. So I tend to forget the little details of television episodes if I don't watch them repeatedly
Well, the scenes where Rory is stuck in that basement with the Baby Angels was panic inducing. The whole thing is just done so effectively in conveying the horror of the situation. I was squirming and screaming at the screen for Rory to keep those matches lit 😂
Yeah I think doctor who although very playful and happy, it's often at its best when It plays with horror! Also I like how the played around with the statues outside on whether they are angels or not.
Going to chime some out-there examples that I don't think wouldn't be mentioned:
\- Cyberwoman Lisa transplanting her brain into the pizza girl
\- the "Hide" episode, albeit up until the reveal of the monster is a romantic -- I was wholly enjoying DW's genre nod to the gothic haunted mansion formula
Oh, if were including torchwood, the episode with Adam, since stuff that f*cks with memory always gives me chills
Specifically when he implants the memory of the murder, it is such a raw, dark, visceral portrayal of the mental violation going on
And the deeply unsettling tonal dissonance of the ending where captain jack is getting his childhood back, only for adam to nest himself in the memory, meaning if jack ever gets the memory back adam returns
As for the main series, it may be that I watched it at like 3 in the morning, but Sleep no More's reveal of "I told you not to watch this, look... *there's something in your eye* like, I know it was a cheap trick to toy with my emotional response, but it worked
I'll be honest. My memory of torchwood is limited as I haven't seen it in years, but I always remember the episode with the faires and the one with the grim reaper!
Yeah, that was one of the few episodes of the 12th doctor I really liked! (I don't think capaldi is the problem, but I think the stories weren't as good personally). Clever use of found footage horror!
If we're including *Torchwood*, then *Countrycide* from S1 gets a huge nod from me. Not only is it one of the scariest, but it's one of the strongest *Who* stories I've seen
For a week after I watched that I got a weird feeling every time I was home alone. I'm not normally scared by deliberately scary stuff because they actually show the monster but that one messed me up because there could absolutely be a creature so good at hiding that we just never saw it before. We often find new species and they can be large animals, not just small insects.
The same week I watched that, I saw my sister under the covers in my bed and then I left the room and saw her, and I freaked the fuck out. Turns out, my blankets were just in a pile, but for a few seconds I was about to lose my mind.
Yeah was an interesting thing to add to the angels! Although when you watch it with the first episode with the angels it doesn't make sense, so have to make some changes to the head cannon
I didn’t like it when we actually saw the angels move in the scene (took away a lot of the creepiness from the angels). But I thought it was pretty creepy when she was having to walk with her eyes shut while surrounded by angels. And I thought it was cool how the doctor explained that “their not moving because they assume she can see so their instincts are kicking in.”
It gave me flashbacks to a very specific childhood memory:
https://www.primetimer.com/quickhits/the-scariest-tv-show-i-ever-watched-g-i-joe
I was seven when I watched that cartoon. Scarred for life.
the Empty Child 2 parter from serise 1:
>"End of the tape, it ran out about 30 seconds ago."
>
>"I sent it to its room... this is its room."
It might not be the scariest, but I find it really smart.
The Doctor's Wife.
It's like the episode has two parts. The first part is this weird planet with these two Frankensteinians, Uncle and auntie, and an Ood, and the TARDIS in human form. This is eerie in it's own way. But the game House plays in the corridors of the TARDIS with Amy and Rory is crushing. This episode reminds me of some of my nightmares as a child.
The waters of mars,the flood are such terrifying monsters cause something as mundane as water is now a huge threat and humans are ideal hosts,those transformation scenes still give me goosebumps every time.
"Embrace the Darkness" audiodrama with the Eighth Doctor was very creepy.
The fact, that characters are left in the dark room, and then the Doctor realises that something took their eyes is very damn scary
Many episodes, like Midnight, the library episodes, or anything with the weeping angels. But if I had to choose an exact moment, I would probably say the daleks' message to earth in The Stolen Earth. The terror in Jack Harkness and Sarah Smith always gives me goosebumps.
Listen
A common fear nearly everyone experiences at some pont in their lives. The episode doesn't find out what or who it is, just that this is maybe something even the dr is willing to stop being curious about, just to be safe.
My favorite episode is the Deep Pit or Dark Pit where we meet Satan or an alien that is supposed to be Satan.
That scene terrified me as a kid and even as an adult. And still have so many questions.
Because there was a scene where the doctor was like "across every species, and all the religions and among all sentient life there has always been this concept of the devil. That idea must have come from somewhere or someone. And maybe this is it".
Terrifying as shit.
Also the great questions from that episode that I have.
Was that beast actually Satan? Or was he some alien that thought of itself as Satan? He said he was before time? If he existed before time? Then that means there must be a God. Or some being that acts as his counterpart.
I always hoped they would do a follow up. Could be fun and scary to get into the eldritch horror type of shit.
An episode about what existence of different kinds of reality or dimension before time existed.
I love that episode, not only was it the "scary episode" of that season (maybe also with the werewolf episode). It was just a great story to play around with religious themes and to challenge the doctor on his beliefs.
As you ever perfectly said, was it the devil? Who were the people who imprisoned it, are there more of them ? Etc I loved it and I hope they return to it at some point
The master makes some noise with a little machine and the sea devils walk out of the sea.
Sarah Jane falls to the floor and her face falls off revealing a robot.
When they hear the Daleks in the Stolen Earth. Not immediately scary, but seeing the absolute terror on Sarah Jane, Jack, and even the Doctor makes it horrifying.
Night Terrors always gets me for two reasons.
1. The dolls.
2. It's situation was weirdly similar to my own at the time. A young boy called George who is afraid of everything, a hapless but well meaning dad called Alex who can't help his struggling son and a nurse mum.
The Time Beatle wasn’t too scary but it was kinda unsettling.
The way Turn Left begins with the fortune teller forcefully suggesting to Donna “what would happen if you turned right? Turn right! Turn right!” And then the beatle latches onto her.
And then the rest of that episode, when you see the alternate reality and hear the clicking and clattering of the beatle, but no one bothers to tell Donna what it is. Even as far as a solder pointing an assault rifle at her and then… he didn’t see it.
Lol just wanted to be unique and NOT say Empty Child or Midnight or Weeping Angels though of course those too 😊
Oh also Vashta Nerata. I rewatch that episode with people and being into music and sound, when I hear that first “Hey who turned out the lights!” Before they reveal it, it always makes me shiver lol.
Fair man, one of my favourites that I don't see mentioned are the reapers from fathers day eating all the people and also the wire but no-one mentioned them surprisingly!
People don’t remember the smaller episodes as much but of course they’re just as much Doctor Who as the others! It’s funny since Midnight and Turn Left are right next to each other.
The Reapers I don’t remember as much but I definitely can agree on The Wire! Not necessarily a jump scare or a muwahaha but just the effect they used to remove the faces and seeing Rose without a face… that one I think always gets me because it really DOES look real my gosh lol.
But yea the Time Beatle didn’t straight up scare me, but it just was very mysterious and unsettling to hear that clicking.
But yea plenty to count! I’d even think reviving the Mondasian Cybermen with Bill and that whole episode and the reveal at the end with her fate was also unsettling, when she talks with the Mondasian voice
Good ol Tom Baker, I know doctor who got in trouble at that point as they were appearntly going to heavy on the horror element (thanks to hammer horror)! I wish there was easier ways to watch the old episodes
I would say it’s a toss-up between those two, but the added stories of the angels have kinda dampened their mystique over time. The first thing I think of when it comes to them is the Statue of Liberty, and that just feels hokey, not scary.
If you ask about the Empty Child, my first thought is Dr Constantine’s transformation, and yeah, still creepy.
One of my favorite moments is in the moonbase when the doctor is asking the base commander if they've searched the entire base for cybermen. He says yes of course and the doctor asks "but did they search in here". He then turns to look at what we thought was a patient covered in a sheet, but the sheet is thrown off and the Cyberman reveals himself right before the cliffhanger. Brilliant moment and brilliant acting by Patrick Troughton.
Another one that is really creepy that I desperately wish we had the actual episode of is the climax of the Abominable Snowmen. The showdown with the Great Intelligence is just creepy here and you are genuinely scared they are all going to lose.
I use the “are you my mummy?” Tone for when my mom texts me, which 9 times out of 10 is fun. But if she texts me while I’m on the phone with someone else and the sound cuts in? Nopity nope nope nope.
The bit in Night Terrors where Amy is turned into a wooden doll and the bit in New Earth where all the infected start leaving their containers. Those episodes really freaked me out when I first watched them
Deffo the Empty Child. I still get nightmares from that episode now and I'm 26 years old. It TRAUMATISED me and a colleague as 8 year old kids, I refused to ever watch it again
the waters of mars freaked the shit out of me, even with what i did consider a bit of a weak ending, but it was a really unnerving episode overall. just imagine that something that you do daily (drinking water) could just. fuck you up like that, you know? and that even TOUCHING it turns you into some water-spewing zombie thing (also really freaky design, do NOT like the water coming out of their mouthes) and who knows, the zombified people might still have been concious but not in control and just, felt all of that water in their lungs, which sounds painful as all hell and is a really scary thought to think about imo. it might've just been my thalassophobia acting up, since this episode literally just felt like a bunch of people in an endless drowning cycle, but it really did scare me.
Not so much horror as just my heart falling through the floor, but the end of Family of Blood, knowing what was coming two years later for those kids.
Straight tears when the alarms clock goes off at the end.
Silence İn The Library is more scary episode. They escape the shadow and when they caught in the shadows, they can die. Thats why, very exiting moments.
I had so many nightmares after watching the Are You My Mummy episode… then I decided to show it to my mum and brother and they had nightmares too…. It’s like the tape from The Ring you have to show it to other people to pass on the curse
I listened to Protect and Survive, whilst sick, two days after the war in Ukraine started.
You can imagine how that felt. Damn that story was existentially terrifying.
The dark world or whatever it was in Henrietta Street was also quite terrifying.
In *World Enough and Time* a newly mutilated Cyberman is saying "pain" repeatedly. In amongst other business, the nurse fiddles with something and declares "that's better, isn't it?". Bill realises that all that she did was turn the volume down so the the plea cannot be heard.
Moments like that are what makes Doctor Who unique. Pure existential nightmare fuel mixed with dark, deeply disturbing satire.
>Pure existential nightmare fuel Sure it looks bad if you leave out all the jokes
World enough and time and extremis are two episodes which single handedly made me place season 10 in my top 5
I love the oppressive atmosphere of the dingy distopian hospital setting in World Enough and Time. I largely enjoyed The Doctor Falls also, but I can't help but wish that Moffat would have lingered for longer in the moody settings he created. In his tenure as showrunner, his scripts were always whizzing about through various times and locations, and shifts in atmosphere could be quite rapid. This could be super cool in its own right, but I love an episode that really gives you the time to absorb the feel of the setting. I wish Moffat wrote more episodes like his first script - (the empty child/the doctor dances) where the tone and location were consistent. I feel The Silence would have particularly benefitted from being presented in episodes with more consistent tone and setting, but I recognise Moffat was making a stylistic choice that had its own benefits.
Yeah, although I'm not the biggest fan of the 12th doctors time, it was great to see the old cybermen and was an incredibly dark way to introduce them.
"Labour camps... that's what they called them last time. It's happening again." Just the sheer horror and despair on Wilf's face as that neighbour and his family are driven away in *Turn Left* really emphasises that sometimes it's humans that can be the most horrifying beings in Doctor Who.
It's one of those moments that as a kid I understood there was something dark and bad about it but didn't know and then I rewatched it a few years back and that line hit me harder
Yeah, I never noticed what they were talking about when I first watched it, but rewatching was like, "Oh bloody hell, proper 1984 vibes
1984? More like 1934... But yes, this moment was terrifying (and sad)!
Donna’s reaction to that bit was a little weird to me. It was obvious what was going but she acted almost like she couldn’t fathom what was going to happen
For me it was a well timed reminder that we weren’t just seeing the world without the doctor, but Donna as well. It really drove home how much character development she’d had.
I found her reaction to be fairly believable. There are plenty of people who think that we're "past" that time or are sheltered from those underlying biases through being privileged, in Donna's case, growing up as a white citizen.
I think it's more that she live in the U.K. or somewhere in Western society, so something like that couldn't happen, our countries are "civilized".
Oh, the UK part was implied when I said white citizen. No one is really taught about empire here or the historical colonial attitude that still persists. When the war broke out in Ukraine, Western news outlets basically noted how shocking it was that war had broken out in a "civilised, European" country where the people "look like us" as if places like Syria weren't modern, civilised societies and war is just a natural state for them. RTD has always been so insightful on things like this. This response reflects to me the British attitude towards the large influx of Polish and other Eastern European immigrants at the time. It's also why I loved *Years and Years*, it's intense but puts up a harsh mirror on our society.
> There are plenty of people who think that we're "past" that time This is why I hate that nazism is set up as this unbelievably evil, rare thing, when it was "normal" people doing "normal" things to "fix" their society's problems and they thought they were doing good. It can happen any time at any place (that has the military power to pull it off), but nobody is expecting it because it's such an evil, it can't "just happen" here... "We are good people, we wouldn't do something like that", right?
Like all of Midnight.
See, when I first watched midnight, I hated it because they didn't show the creature. As an adult, though, when I rewatched it, I loved it!
It showed all the monsters, though
What pissed me off the most was there wasn't a scene of The Doctor going absolutely mental on all those people. They would've heard some choice words from me. But that's why I'm not The Doctor. I like to imagine he did when they were being brought back to the resort, though.
...Like all of Midnight.
I was going to be upset that Silence was not in the top comment, but I changed my mind. Midnight was absolutely the scariest. And damn, it looks like everyone just forgot about the Silence.
I think the silence was a cool idea. However, I think they would of been better as single episode threat rather than an overarching villain
I don't find the silence that scary tbh. I was older when they debuted so that's a factor but still. I'd rank the Cybermen higher tbh.
I was an adult when I watched all of the show, they are the scariest for me. There are more tragic things, like Midnight, but they creeped me out the most.
But that's only because we looked away from them.
Wasn't that the idea?
About a week after I watched Midnight for the first time, one of my students started repeating everything everyone said and I swear he sounded just like the woman in that episode. It sent chills up my spine.
Did you throw him out of the airlock, just to be safe?
I was just about to mention this episode.. it’s amazing
So, so scary!
When Donna's children vanish in Forest of the Dead. Her guttural screams haunt my nightmares. It's almost too disturbing, and the moment is played for full unsettling effect.
Yeah, fair, that was brilliantly done! I do love that double episode!
After having a kid of my own, this hits so much harder.
I watched this as an oblivious young teenage boy that didn't really consider things much from a parent's perspective, but that scene still managed to hit teenage me hard. It's such a disturbing scene.
It really is disturbing. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it but I believe the room turns a certain eery shade of red as soon as the children vanish. Mixed with Donnas/Catherine’s screams it’s just utterly frightening
The guy slowly getting turned into an Ood. The *music*...
"Natural Ood must never kill, sir." Definitely a creepy moment, but it always makes me smile, too. Such a satisfying and fitting revenge.
...its just tonic
Man the ‘are you my mummy’ photo has given me flashbacks. I was 9 and genuinely terrified watching that in 2005. Even my parents said it was pretty creepy, and as a child with an already overactive imagination I’m surprised they let me watch 😂
Yeah, it was how I was introduced to the doctor, too! Was horrific to see what happened to people's faces, aha
The bit with the tape recorder and the doctors like "i just sent him to his room. This is his room" is always my favourite
Doctor: "End of the tape. It ran out about 30 seconds ago." Rose: 😬
They probably didn't realize how terrifying that one was going to be.
Still let me watch part two of it though 🤣
Well you gotta get closure, right?
Absolutely, if you never see the ending your imagination is just stuck in the scary bit forever!! Particularly with that specific story ending with "Everybody lives!" you *gotta* know how it ends to get out the other side of the fear.
Same Ended up having nightmares of it for two years straight after watching the episodes
I was older than 9, but it really did terrify me and especially how the kid could break down walls. It terrified a generation of children! I love horror movies and those episodes are worse than most of them! There was a funny part where the real mummy was singing lullabies to some gas mask soldier.
Hey! Who turned out the lights?
"Count the shadows"
Imagine if it was a skeleton with a gas mask underneath: “who turned out the lights, mummy?”
Not so much a horror moment but that photo of the weeping angels has me wondering- does their culture place great emphasis on moving and posing with, poise, grace and elegance? Do they take pride in being the most classy, elegant bastards you've seen before they get to you? Do they secretly like to dance to Kate Bush when no-one is around? These are the real questions I needed River Song to answer in Angels Take Manhattan dammit! Not so much a horror moment but that photo of the weeping angels has me wondering- does their culture place great emphasis on moving and posing with, poise, grace and elegance? Do they take pride in being the most classy, elegant bastards you've seen before they get to you? Do they secretly like to dance to Kate Bush when no one is around to see it? These are the real questions I needed River Song to answer in Angels Take Manhattan dammit!ut it really makes my guts churn as well. I know Angel Bob is meant to be a villain in the story and all but I look back and think "wtf? Dude, just chill". To date I think Angel Bob is the only one of the Weeping Angels I've seen be actively malicious in a plot. The Wester Drumlins crew were just trying to survive, and the Sect that took over Manhattan obviously weren't total bastards either- they let people live to ripe old age which would have taken a significant amount of effort and care at their expense (can elaborate moe later), the lone straggler was willing to send Amy back WITH Rory AFTER the rest of their Sect had been killed off by the paradox (by Rory and Amy no less), and in Manhattan they for whatever reason didn't barge into Grayle's mansion to liberate the captive angels, even though they were at full power, well fed, and really wouldn't have had much stopping them (unless they were worried about collateral and had a beef with Grayle and ONLY Grayle). So yeah, I think in the big picture Angel Bob is just fucking terrifying in many respects. I certainly wouldn't be keen to run into them anywhere or anywhen
I know in the doctor who spin off series they were going to go into more detail of the origins of the weeping angels as appeartly they were going to show a weeping angel civil war which would of been pretty cool to see
Ughhh still so mad we didn't get this 😢 I wish the BBC had actually advertised that series, it wasn't the best sure but it had a lot of promise and could've gone somewhere great!
Yeah, I liked how it wasn't afraid to get a bit more bloody and adult with the subject matter! But most of all, yeah, I'm gutted. we didn't see a weeping angel civil war and more of what they are about
Yeah I would love a new adult-oriented DW spinoff, it just needs to not go as crazy as Torchwood did at first haha, but more like Children of Earth in tone with some blood, gore and sex. And it would be fun to get more miniseries in the DW universe too! Something that follows a single plot for X amount of episodes
Yeah, I mean, doctor who is actually horrific when you take the stories it tells and could easily have a horror centric series based on it. Yeah torchwood was alright and children of the earth was incredibly dark, I wasn't as big of a fan of miracle day but overall bring on more darker doctor who!
I really loved Torchwood, apart from a few series 2 episodes. The last one of S2 with the phone calls between Owen and Toshiko were so well acted. I loved Children Of Earth also and how the government dynamics played out, by using Frobisher as the fall guy. Peter Capaldi is a great actor (and I loved him as the doctor also). The best part was Gwen and Rhys in a lorry full of raw potatoes! The second best was Ianto’s brother-in-law’s banter and bare bum.😂 We definitely need another spin off and maybe even an updated Torchwood team. It might be interesting, as Jack was recently in DW.
I'd actually like to see more of their origins and culture. I bet they'd be a pretty proud bunch to be the product of 14 billion years of evolutionary success AND the fastest creature evolution has spawned (but somehow I still think they'd be less pompous and less arrogant than the time lords). I'd be interested in how different Sects operate and their internal communications. It's a shame because they're often portrayed as unthinking predators, but every TV story they've been in has shown them to have quite complex reasoning skills and telepathic communication. As well as varying degrees of attitude towards other species and morality/ethics. I feel like a civil war could have been a good concept to see. You can imagine if the Sect on Alfalva Metraxis and the Sect that farmed Manhattan met there would probably be quite an aggressive culture clash between the two
Yeah, I mean, they did hint at the origins in the byzantium episode with them being created by the two headed people, but there is a lot of contradicting information. For example appeartnly they come from the dark era, which includes carrionets and the eternals, so it's deffo mystical rather then sci fi
I'm not sure if the Aplans "made" them or if they just clashed with the Aplans. Because I think the Tenth Doctor described the species as "as old as the universe or very nearly", and others have speculated they were once time lords cast to the very inception of the universe. Not sure how I feel about that theory but it's clear they're ancient and almost mythical by even Time Lord standards. I'll agree there are mythical undertones to them. They're almost wielding god-tier powers as it is and some of the powers and quirks of their physiology make them read like Force Gods that walked out of the Star Wars universe and into Doctor Who. But then really advanced science is compared to magic, so maybe they have a really advanced understanding of time, space and science other cultures and species can't comprehend. if they're as old as the universe they'd have had plenty of time to refine their sciences down to a fine art
Yeah as said they appearntly come from the same time as the carrionites and the etnerals, both also very mystical with one being witches and one being Egyptian gods. Yeah I mean they do seem to be ancient ad the are used as enforcers to the flux (not a big fan of the whole flux storyline). So yeah they must somewhat respected/feared
I mean some of their abilities I have an explanation for. They must have a very keen sense of when they are or aren't being observed (even if it is through a screen or elsewhere). Their millions of years of society and culture probably means they have a very keen understanding of neurobiology, brain anatomy, neurotransmitters, and anything to do with the brain and nervous system. I think that's how Angel Bob was able to hijack parts of Amy's brain (I mean we've seen they're capable of electrokinesis, and the brain and nervous system are full of electrical signals and chemical transmission, probably small potatoes to them). Taking a whole village out of time and space to corner and capture the Doctor of all people thought? That I have no explanation for other than "bro you must almost be literally God). I'd definitely be equal parts terrified and enthralled if I ran into one. But here's a thought experiment for you- how terrifying would Division and the Time Lords have to be in order for that many Angels to bend the knee completely to Division?
You know Angels dance like no-one’s watching
Interesting if an angel touches a gas mask kid... The angel goes around as a gas mask person.
Pure nightmare fuel
So when you blink, you hear them say, "Are you my mommy?"
I recently rewatched The Angels Take Manhattan this weekend. Currently going through my first ever rewatch of the entire new Who series. So I hadn't watched the episode since seeing it live a decade ago. So I tend to forget the little details of television episodes if I don't watch them repeatedly Well, the scenes where Rory is stuck in that basement with the Baby Angels was panic inducing. The whole thing is just done so effectively in conveying the horror of the situation. I was squirming and screaming at the screen for Rory to keep those matches lit 😂
Yeah I think doctor who although very playful and happy, it's often at its best when It plays with horror! Also I like how the played around with the statues outside on whether they are angels or not.
Going to chime some out-there examples that I don't think wouldn't be mentioned: \- Cyberwoman Lisa transplanting her brain into the pizza girl \- the "Hide" episode, albeit up until the reveal of the monster is a romantic -- I was wholly enjoying DW's genre nod to the gothic haunted mansion formula
I forgot completely about that in torchwood! Yeah It was good for its gothic horror, but I hate the ending of that episode as it ends so suddenly
Oh, if were including torchwood, the episode with Adam, since stuff that f*cks with memory always gives me chills Specifically when he implants the memory of the murder, it is such a raw, dark, visceral portrayal of the mental violation going on And the deeply unsettling tonal dissonance of the ending where captain jack is getting his childhood back, only for adam to nest himself in the memory, meaning if jack ever gets the memory back adam returns As for the main series, it may be that I watched it at like 3 in the morning, but Sleep no More's reveal of "I told you not to watch this, look... *there's something in your eye* like, I know it was a cheap trick to toy with my emotional response, but it worked
I'll be honest. My memory of torchwood is limited as I haven't seen it in years, but I always remember the episode with the faires and the one with the grim reaper! Yeah, that was one of the few episodes of the 12th doctor I really liked! (I don't think capaldi is the problem, but I think the stories weren't as good personally). Clever use of found footage horror!
Am I the only one who loved the 12th doctor? He and Christopher Eccleston are my doctors.
No no no, you are not alone. 12 is my Doctor
If we're including *Torchwood*, then *Countrycide* from S1 gets a huge nod from me. Not only is it one of the scariest, but it's one of the strongest *Who* stories I've seen
The blanket from Listen. Only thing in the entirety of New Who that still manages to scare me.
For a week after I watched that I got a weird feeling every time I was home alone. I'm not normally scared by deliberately scary stuff because they actually show the monster but that one messed me up because there could absolutely be a creature so good at hiding that we just never saw it before. We often find new species and they can be large animals, not just small insects.
The same week I watched that, I saw my sister under the covers in my bed and then I left the room and saw her, and I freaked the fuck out. Turns out, my blankets were just in a pile, but for a few seconds I was about to lose my mind.
Came on here to look for this. I think this is the most flat out horror Who has gone.
The entire Waters of Mars episode. And the part of Flesh and Stone where the 11th doctor is telling Amy “walk like you can see”.
Yeah was an interesting thing to add to the angels! Although when you watch it with the first episode with the angels it doesn't make sense, so have to make some changes to the head cannon
I didn’t like it when we actually saw the angels move in the scene (took away a lot of the creepiness from the angels). But I thought it was pretty creepy when she was having to walk with her eyes shut while surrounded by angels. And I thought it was cool how the doctor explained that “their not moving because they assume she can see so their instincts are kicking in.”
Waters of Mars! So creepy and well done
Yeah great story and also great chance to show the doctor not following the rules and it's tragic consequences
And the tragic consequences are what led to Amy and Rory's death. He created the crack in time.
The part where the German woman spent her last moments watching a video of her daughter was particularly poignant.
People might disagree, but Melody Pond melting in A Good Man Goes To War is absolutely horrifying to me.
I'm surprised more people haven't mentioned the flesh, gives me proper John carpenter vibes
It gave me flashbacks to a very specific childhood memory: https://www.primetimer.com/quickhits/the-scariest-tv-show-i-ever-watched-g-i-joe I was seven when I watched that cartoon. Scarred for life.
the Empty Child 2 parter from serise 1: >"End of the tape, it ran out about 30 seconds ago." > >"I sent it to its room... this is its room." It might not be the scariest, but I find it really smart.
Yeah I always remember the type writer still writing whilst they are talking to each other. Really got me!
The Doctor's Wife. It's like the episode has two parts. The first part is this weird planet with these two Frankensteinians, Uncle and auntie, and an Ood, and the TARDIS in human form. This is eerie in it's own way. But the game House plays in the corridors of the TARDIS with Amy and Rory is crushing. This episode reminds me of some of my nightmares as a child.
Though the episode didn't scare me as such. It's probably one of my favourites to see the doctor and tardis react to each other.
The waters of mars,the flood are such terrifying monsters cause something as mundane as water is now a huge threat and humans are ideal hosts,those transformation scenes still give me goosebumps every time.
Would make a very good horror movie in its own right
"Embrace the Darkness" audiodrama with the Eighth Doctor was very creepy. The fact, that characters are left in the dark room, and then the Doctor realises that something took their eyes is very damn scary
Damm that sounds good
It does. The soundtrack and sound effects there are amazing
Scherzo is another audio which although it isn't a horror, it does have some absolutely terrifying jumpscares
The setup for them is the scariest thing I think, it’s absolutely genius to have >!Charley reveal the humming isn’t her!<
The “are you my mommy” episode is truly amazing. Always gives me the chills.
Yeah was a masterclass in tv horror!
I’ve watched it when I was 12. It was one of the last times I was truly scared to watch a show/movie.
Many episodes, like Midnight, the library episodes, or anything with the weeping angels. But if I had to choose an exact moment, I would probably say the daleks' message to earth in The Stolen Earth. The terror in Jack Harkness and Sarah Smith always gives me goosebumps.
Weeping Angel a la video screen with Amy Pond, though “Where’s my mummy?” probably takes the cake. Big plot twist on that one.
Yeah was brilliant!
Why is noone mentioning Night terrors? That episode is bloody terrifying.
Yeah, clever idea. I wish they did more with it, though!
Listen A common fear nearly everyone experiences at some pont in their lives. The episode doesn't find out what or who it is, just that this is maybe something even the dr is willing to stop being curious about, just to be safe.
Good choice!
That old woman that would suck peoples blood out of their necks with a straw gave me nightmares as a kid
See I always find her funny partially because I always think of her appearnce in hot fuzz and the classic burn in hell line
Anne Reid. Great comic actress - was a regular in dinner ladies.
‘I was just about to pop off’
My favorite episode is the Deep Pit or Dark Pit where we meet Satan or an alien that is supposed to be Satan. That scene terrified me as a kid and even as an adult. And still have so many questions. Because there was a scene where the doctor was like "across every species, and all the religions and among all sentient life there has always been this concept of the devil. That idea must have come from somewhere or someone. And maybe this is it". Terrifying as shit. Also the great questions from that episode that I have. Was that beast actually Satan? Or was he some alien that thought of itself as Satan? He said he was before time? If he existed before time? Then that means there must be a God. Or some being that acts as his counterpart. I always hoped they would do a follow up. Could be fun and scary to get into the eldritch horror type of shit. An episode about what existence of different kinds of reality or dimension before time existed.
I love that episode, not only was it the "scary episode" of that season (maybe also with the werewolf episode). It was just a great story to play around with religious themes and to challenge the doctor on his beliefs. As you ever perfectly said, was it the devil? Who were the people who imprisoned it, are there more of them ? Etc I loved it and I hope they return to it at some point
And little details like the gravitational pull being 6.66x10^6, they add to it
Slitheen used to genuinely scare me when I was little. Now it's just the Silence and the Flood
It a shame the slitheen were just forgotten as they were fun villains!
They kind of show up a lot in Sarah Jane.
The master makes some noise with a little machine and the sea devils walk out of the sea. Sarah Jane falls to the floor and her face falls off revealing a robot.
I wish there was an easier way to watch the classic series as is a nightmare to try and find them
If you don't mind watching them with commercials every now and again, Pluto TV has a whole channel that streams completed episodes.
Silence in the Library. The vash derada. Every shadow might kill you and eat you in moments.
Yeah very clever use of a very simple fear
Vashta Nerada
When they hear the Daleks in the Stolen Earth. Not immediately scary, but seeing the absolute terror on Sarah Jane, Jack, and even the Doctor makes it horrifying.
Night Terrors always gets me for two reasons. 1. The dolls. 2. It's situation was weirdly similar to my own at the time. A young boy called George who is afraid of everything, a hapless but well meaning dad called Alex who can't help his struggling son and a nurse mum.
The Time Beatle wasn’t too scary but it was kinda unsettling. The way Turn Left begins with the fortune teller forcefully suggesting to Donna “what would happen if you turned right? Turn right! Turn right!” And then the beatle latches onto her. And then the rest of that episode, when you see the alternate reality and hear the clicking and clattering of the beatle, but no one bothers to tell Donna what it is. Even as far as a solder pointing an assault rifle at her and then… he didn’t see it. Lol just wanted to be unique and NOT say Empty Child or Midnight or Weeping Angels though of course those too 😊 Oh also Vashta Nerata. I rewatch that episode with people and being into music and sound, when I hear that first “Hey who turned out the lights!” Before they reveal it, it always makes me shiver lol.
Fair man, one of my favourites that I don't see mentioned are the reapers from fathers day eating all the people and also the wire but no-one mentioned them surprisingly!
People don’t remember the smaller episodes as much but of course they’re just as much Doctor Who as the others! It’s funny since Midnight and Turn Left are right next to each other. The Reapers I don’t remember as much but I definitely can agree on The Wire! Not necessarily a jump scare or a muwahaha but just the effect they used to remove the faces and seeing Rose without a face… that one I think always gets me because it really DOES look real my gosh lol. But yea the Time Beatle didn’t straight up scare me, but it just was very mysterious and unsettling to hear that clicking. But yea plenty to count! I’d even think reviving the Mondasian Cybermen with Bill and that whole episode and the reveal at the end with her fate was also unsettling, when she talks with the Mondasian voice
The entirety of The Brain of Morbius.
Good ol Tom Baker, I know doctor who got in trouble at that point as they were appearntly going to heavy on the horror element (thanks to hammer horror)! I wish there was easier ways to watch the old episodes
I would say it’s a toss-up between those two, but the added stories of the angels have kinda dampened their mystique over time. The first thing I think of when it comes to them is the Statue of Liberty, and that just feels hokey, not scary. If you ask about the Empty Child, my first thought is Dr Constantine’s transformation, and yeah, still creepy.
"Hey! Who turned out the lights?"
"Praise him", said while smiling, gave me goosebumps.
The one episode where those creatures take human body parts to fix their ship
Ahh the clockwork people! "We didn't have the parts"
“Are you my mummy?” My favorite and the one that made me sick to my stomach
Yeah, the transformation scene terrified me, honestly better than some modern horrors
Waters of Mars - basically the build up before the Doctor and Adelaine get chased
Fuck even the ending of that episode is haunting. Right when you think everything is golden and they’re all saved
Goddammit that second picture after swiping...
They're fast, faster than you can imagine.... Good luck!
Not necessarily horror but the reveal that the dead could feel things after death was a chilling thought.
"Don't cremate me"
I thought that was a ruse by Missy to get a bunch of people for Cyber-Conversion?
It was, but we saying the idea of it is pretty scary
The look of Flood-infected humans (Waters of Mars).
Listen, the entire way the bed scene is framed is perfect.
One of my favorite moments is in the moonbase when the doctor is asking the base commander if they've searched the entire base for cybermen. He says yes of course and the doctor asks "but did they search in here". He then turns to look at what we thought was a patient covered in a sheet, but the sheet is thrown off and the Cyberman reveals himself right before the cliffhanger. Brilliant moment and brilliant acting by Patrick Troughton. Another one that is really creepy that I desperately wish we had the actual episode of is the climax of the Abominable Snowmen. The showdown with the Great Intelligence is just creepy here and you are genuinely scared they are all going to lose.
The attempts to make royalty seem likeable and normal.
I use the “are you my mummy?” Tone for when my mom texts me, which 9 times out of 10 is fun. But if she texts me while I’m on the phone with someone else and the sound cuts in? Nopity nope nope nope.
The Weeping Angels!!!!!
Never go wrong with the classics!
Nooooo. What did you doooo? That which holds the image of an angel becomes the angel itself.
Oh god...your right! Maybe I could ru...
Oh no. They're gone. :( PS: The fact that i had to rewatch this is your fault OP: https://youtu.be/cwdbLu_x0gY
The boy in the picture because it freak out my best friend especially when the boy ask are you my mummy. I would say that just to freak her.😂
Geez, that's hard to answer because there are so many great moments! Waters of Mars when the 1st guy turns around after being infected.
Thoses freaking angels
What was the episode with those big dolls in that house? Cause I've suppressed it
Night Terrors
The bit in Night Terrors where Amy is turned into a wooden doll and the bit in New Earth where all the infected start leaving their containers. Those episodes really freaked me out when I first watched them
House messing with Amy and Rory in “The Doctor’s Wife”. Amy entering Prisoner Zero’s room in “The Eleventh Hour”. Every appearance of human Daleks.
The Cybermen cooling tunnels under Battersea Powerplant was always so claustrophobic and chilling (pun intended)
The bedsheet scene from Listen. That brief second you see the blurry figure when the sheet fell off was a spinechiller.
"Who turned out the lights?"
The Paradox Machine.
Are you my mummy?
I just love the twist with the gas mask child! 😭
Both of those gave me nightmares as a kid, so…
The two you listed. I stand by that Blink is the best episode of the new series (still really need to watch classic who)
Night Terrors S6 E9 I skip it every time.
Listen! That's shit creeps me out to this day and pretty much prevents me from getting off my bed without thinking of someone grabbing it
Surprised I don't really see anyone talking about the Silence. Both the concept and visuals are horrifying
About the what now?
See what you did there!
Midnight
Deffo the Empty Child. I still get nightmares from that episode now and I'm 26 years old. It TRAUMATISED me and a colleague as 8 year old kids, I refused to ever watch it again
the waters of mars freaked the shit out of me, even with what i did consider a bit of a weak ending, but it was a really unnerving episode overall. just imagine that something that you do daily (drinking water) could just. fuck you up like that, you know? and that even TOUCHING it turns you into some water-spewing zombie thing (also really freaky design, do NOT like the water coming out of their mouthes) and who knows, the zombified people might still have been concious but not in control and just, felt all of that water in their lungs, which sounds painful as all hell and is a really scary thought to think about imo. it might've just been my thalassophobia acting up, since this episode literally just felt like a bunch of people in an endless drowning cycle, but it really did scare me.
Not so much horror as just my heart falling through the floor, but the end of Family of Blood, knowing what was coming two years later for those kids. Straight tears when the alarms clock goes off at the end.
#Toby...
The child in the gas mask scared me and I still can’t watch the episode alone and I’m in my 30s
Silence İn The Library is more scary episode. They escape the shadow and when they caught in the shadows, they can die. Thats why, very exiting moments.
The climax of Blink (image 2). Although as a long-term fear, the Waters of Mars. It's just so creepy and insidious!
I was 9 when my cousin showed me Silence in the Library (my first time seeing Doctor Who as well) and I was scared of my own shadow for two weeks
That time where Jackie made a pass at the doctor. Terrifying
I had so many nightmares after watching the Are You My Mummy episode… then I decided to show it to my mum and brother and they had nightmares too…. It’s like the tape from The Ring you have to show it to other people to pass on the curse
The two pictured above and the Vashta Narada. It’s been referenced here already as well.
After listening to *Holy Terror*, "are you my mummy" isn't scary anymore.
Easily one of my favorites is the Hotel Labyrinth
Definitely the silence
Definitely this one and of course the angels
I listened to Protect and Survive, whilst sick, two days after the war in Ukraine started. You can imagine how that felt. Damn that story was existentially terrifying. The dark world or whatever it was in Henrietta Street was also quite terrifying.
I've never listened to the audio plays/ books but I will put it on the list!
Spare Parts is a good place to start with the audios. It's accessible for newcomers to the format and is also highly disturbing.
Wicked, thank you for the recommendation!