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The Power of the Doctor isn't the only Doctor Who episode that leaves your jaw on the floor...
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00:00Since it first hit the air in 1963,
00:02Doctor Who has pulled out some of the greatest episode endings in British TV history.
00:07The size and scope of a show about the entirety of time and space
00:11means that literally anything can happen to the Doctor and their companions,
00:15which has led to some truly memorable cliffhangers over the years.
00:18Drastic decisions, mind-blowing plot twists,
00:21events totally changing out of left field,
00:23it's all happened in Doctor Who.
00:25So we've rounded up 10 endings that left viewers wondering
00:28what the hell they just witnessed.
00:29Usually in a good way, but not always.
00:32I'm Jess from WhatCulture and here are 10 Doctor Who endings nobody saw coming.
00:36Number 10. The Time of Angels
00:38The Weeping Angels was still new and exciting when this episode rolled around.
00:42Before their creator, Stephen Moffat diluted their effectiveness,
00:45the Angels were a force to be reckoned with
00:47and had the 11th Doctor and his friends cornered underground with seemingly nowhere to run.
00:52After some back and forth with the strangely charismatic Angel Bob,
00:56the Doctor announces that his enemies have made a huge mistake by placing him in a trap.
01:01He then grabs the pistol and shoots the gravity globe that had been illuminating the cave.
01:05It's not the greatest cliffhanger in the world, so why does this episode appear on the list?
01:09Well, because the Doctor used a gun.
01:11Fans had been repeatedly told that the Doctor hated all weapons, especially guns,
01:16always opting for the peaceful solution to any conflict.
01:19To see Matt Smith's incarnation of the character wield one so freely,
01:23and so early in his lifespan, was more than a little jarring.
01:26While he didn't fire it at a living creature,
01:28the juxtaposition of the universe's peacekeeper holding a firearm
01:32was enough to leave fans going,
01:34and all together now, what?
01:36Number 9. The Dominators. Part 5.
01:38This second Doctor serial pitted the Time Lord against the titular race,
01:42known for their use of nuclear radiation to power their technology.
01:45The Dominators plan to destroy the peaceful planet of Dulcus
01:48and use its remains as fuel,
01:50something that the Doctor inevitably doesn't take kindly to.
01:53In fact, he takes so unkindly to it
01:55that he decides to obliterate them all with a nuclear weapon.
01:59In the serial's final episode,
02:01the evil aliens attempt to blow up Dulcus
02:03using small atomic bombs called seeds.
02:06However, the Doctor manages to stop the seeds
02:08from entering the planet's core,
02:09and smuggles one back aboard the Dominator's ship.
02:12The episode ends with the TARDIS flying away
02:14from a huge nuclear explosion
02:16that presumably killed every single Dominator on board.
02:19This level of rampant destruction
02:21is not something that modern fans would associate with the Doctor.
02:24Even at the time, this would have been considered a little over the top,
02:27especially with the real-world threat of nuclear devices looming large.
02:31Number 8. Last of the Time Lords.
02:33Last of the Time Lords served not only as the climaxed in New Who Series 3,
02:38but also as the last regular appearance of companion Martha Jones.
02:42She bids the Doctor goodbye at the end of this episode,
02:45leaving Number 10 alone once again.
02:47Poor fella.
02:48However, he has no time to mope around
02:49because the bow of a ship called Titanic
02:52crashes through the walls of the TARDIS.
02:54The Doctor's expression of bewilderment says it all.
02:57He even says ought right after this happens.
02:59The collision of worlds was to set up the Christmas special Voyage of the Damned,
03:03which saw the Doctor team up with Kylie Minogue
03:05to escape a doomed space liner also named Titanic.
03:09You'd think they would have learned from the first time.
03:11It's safe to say that nobody had
03:13crashes into the Titanic on their Doctor Who bingo card that year,
03:16but this bizarre ending helped cut through the sadness of losing Martha
03:20and created much intrigue for the upcoming holiday episode.
03:23Number 7. The Doctor's Daughter.
03:25Sticking with Ten now and that time he met his daughter,
03:28who would go on to become his wife,
03:30who's actually the daughter of himself.
03:32Yeah, look, this episode gets weird when you get meta with it.
03:34The Doctor's Daughter takes place on a planet
03:36where human beings use cloning to provide soldiers
03:39for their war against the hearth.
03:40When the Doctor is cloned upon arrival,
03:42we get Jenny, his daughter,
03:44who's played by Georgia Moffat,
03:46fifth Doctor Peter Davison's real-life daughter
03:49and David Tennant's real-life wife.
03:51Again, meta.
03:52After growing attached to Jenny across the episode,
03:54the Doctor is devastated when she takes a bullet for him
03:57and dies from her injuries.
03:58However, after he leaves the planet,
04:01Jenny is brought back to life
04:02via the mystical power of the Source.
04:05Fans assumed that Jenny was a one-off character,
04:07nothing more than a plot device
04:08to teach the Doctor some lessons about parenthood.
04:11Seeing her get revived and then jet off into space
04:13on her own adventures was pretty surprising
04:15and left viewers hoping for further interactions
04:17with Jenny in the future.
04:18It's just a shame we haven't seen her on TV
04:20since this episode aired in 2008.
04:23Number 6. Vengeance on Varos. Part 1.
04:25Although Colin Baker was far from the only guilty party
04:28in Doctor Who's first major decline,
04:30his detractors got some catharsis
04:33in Vengeance on Varos' first episode.
04:35While searching for a valuable mineral
04:37to repair the TARDIS with,
04:38the Doctor and his companion Perry
04:40are held captive by the governor of the planet Varos.
04:43The Doctor manages to escape,
04:45but ends up stranded in a desert
04:47and begins to die of thirst.
04:49At least, that's what we're led to believe.
04:51On Varos, public torture and executions
04:53are viewed as a form of entertainment.
04:55Think Big Brother, but way worse.
04:57Actually, not that much worse.
04:59The Doctor is only hallucinating the desert
05:01due to the effects of a structure
05:02called the Punishment Dome,
05:04with his struggles being broadcast across the planet.
05:07When the governor orders the transmission be cut,
05:09the credits on the actual episode begin to roll.
05:12A clever ending that would have fit perfectly
05:14into the metafocused world of today,
05:15this episode must have blown everyone's minds
05:18when it first premiered in the 80s.
05:20Number 5. The Almost People.
05:22The actual plotline of Series 6's
05:24The Rebel Flash slash The Almost People
05:27is so inconsequential that we're not even
05:29going to bother recapping it.
05:30All you need to know is that after defeating
05:32a group of rogue human duplicates
05:34working in an acid factory,
05:36the Doctor reveals that Amy Pond
05:37is actually a duplicate of herself.
05:39The episode then cuts to the real Amy,
05:41who's trapped in a pristine white room.
05:44Oh, and she's also pregnant.
05:46She's confronted by a lady with an eye patch,
05:48who tells her that she's about to give birth.
05:50The episode then goes off the air,
05:51with Amy screaming through the pains of labor.
05:54At the same time, across the country,
05:56millions of people watching Doctor Who
05:58all came down with a serious case of plot whiplash.
06:01This ending threw a huge curveball at the audience,
06:03who were expecting just the conclusion
06:05to the two-part storyline.
06:07Instead, the episode completely bulldozed
06:09through that plot and set in motion a chain of events
06:11that would affect the entire rest of the series.
06:14Number 4. The Name of the Doctor.
06:162013's The Name of the Doctor begins
06:19with the Doctor and Clara hunting down
06:21a being called the Great Intelligence,
06:23which has captured their friends
06:24Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax.
06:27The Intelligence, played by Richard E. Grant,
06:29wants to go back in time
06:30and undo all of the good work the Doctor has done,
06:33and so Clara and the Doctor enter his time stream
06:36to protect it from the Intelligence.
06:38In doing so, they come across a shadowy figure
06:40lurking in the depths of the Doctor's memories.
06:42This figure is the Doctor, but he's also not.
06:45He's a man who did awful things during the Time War
06:47in order to save the universe.
06:49He is the War Doctor.
06:51Stood there was the unmissable figure of John Hurt,
06:54portraying the Doctor's greatest secret.
06:56His story was fleshed out in the 50th anniversary special
06:59The Day of the Doctor, but at this point,
07:01viewers were as baffled by Hurt's arrival
07:03as they were captivated.
07:05Even hardcore Whovians didn't know
07:06there was a secret Doctor between 8 and 9,
07:09and that's because Moffat had only just made him up.
07:11Still, this was one of the biggest bombshells
07:13in the show's history.
07:14Number three, the Daleks.
07:16There's no greater or more recognizable Doctor Who villain
07:20than those lovable, plunger-wielding tin cans,
07:23the Daleks.
07:23Straight from the planet Skaro,
07:25the Daleks stand for everything the Doctor opposes.
07:28War, subjugation, apathy, and hatred.
07:31Their iconic design has become a symbol of the show
07:33all over the world,
07:34and their catchphrase of exterminate
07:36is now part of TV lexicon.
07:37The Daleks' first appearance came at a first Doctor serial
07:41from 1963 and 64, called, well, The Daleks.
07:45The first episode of the serial ends with companion Barbara
07:48being accosted by a Dalek in what has been described
07:50as one of the series' best-ever cliffhangers.
07:53The Daleks were a revolution,
07:55and there is tangible evidence that their appearance
07:57led to a spike of interest in the show.
07:59They have remained a fixture of Doctor Who
08:01for over half a century,
08:02and all of their incredible storylines and moments
08:05can be traced back to this shocking ending.
08:08Number 2.
08:08The Caves of Androzani, Part 4
08:11At the end of the 1984 serial,
08:13The Caves of Androzani,
08:15the fifth Doctor succumbs to an illness
08:16caused by a toxin.
08:18After hallucinating the faces of his past companions,
08:21the Doctor regenerates into a new form,
08:23swapping out the visage of Peter Davison
08:25for that of Colin Baker.
08:27It wasn't just the character's appearance
08:29that had changed.
08:30Something was different about this new Doctor,
08:32and something felt a little off.
08:34His first line in the role,
08:36You Were Expecting Someone Else,
08:37was delivered with a biting sarcasm
08:40that felt very out of place
08:41with the bubbly, eccentric Doctors of old.
08:44This harsher portrayal of the character
08:45lasted less than three years,
08:47but the initial introduction
08:48of this more serious version of the Doctor
08:50is something that fans are still grappling with
08:52to this day.
08:53Number 1.
08:54The Stolen Earth
08:55Between this, his actual regeneration,
08:58and his appearance as the 14th Doctor,
09:00David Tennant really loves shooting bright lights
09:02out of his hands and face, doesn't he?
09:04Back when he was the 10th Doctor,
09:05Tennant's error on the show
09:07looked like it was coming to a premature end,
09:09when he got himself shot by a Dalek
09:11in the Stolen Earth.
09:12Moments after seeing Rose for the first time
09:14since she departed the TARDIS,
09:16the Doctor suffered this seemingly fatal wound,
09:18and had to be ushered back to his blue box
09:20by Rose, Donna, and Captain Jack.
09:22As his companions fret around him,
09:24the Doctor's hands begin to glow
09:26that familiar orange-yellow hue.
09:28He then gets to his feet
09:29and unleashes a salvo of energy,
09:31beginning the process of changing his face.
09:34There had been no news of Tennant
09:35leaving the show when this episode aired,
09:37so fans were left completely aghast
09:39when they saw their hero regenerate.
09:41Were they really going to replace him
09:42without warning?
09:43And if not,
09:44how would they get around the fact
09:45that he'd already begun regenerating?
09:47The answer would come
09:48in the next episode of the show,
09:50but that week was a very long one
09:52for Doctor Who fans.
09:53That's the end of our list,
09:54but let me know down in that comment section
09:56which Doctor Who endings you did not see coming,
09:59and which ones are your favourites.
10:00As always, I've been Jess from WhatCulture.
10:03Thank you so much for hanging out with me.
10:04If you're liking,
10:05come say hi to me on my Twitter account,
10:07where I'm at JessMcDonald,
10:09but make sure you stay tuned to us here
10:10for plenty more great lists.
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