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From the classic era to the modern revival, Doctor Who has mastered the art of the shocking ending. We're counting down 10 of the most unexpected cliffhangers, plot twists, and character moments that nobody saw coming.
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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
00:27what 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.
01:35What?
01:36Number 9.
01:36The Dominators.
01:37Part 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.
01:58In 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 Dominators 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,
02:25this would have been considered a little over the top,
02:27especially with the real-world threat
02:28of nuclear devices looming large.
02:31Number 8.
02:31Last of the Time Lords
02:33Last of the Time Lords served not only as the climaxed
02:36in New Who Series 3,
02:38but also as the last regular appearance
02:40of 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.
02:47However, 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.
02:56He even says what right after this happens.
02:59The collision of worlds was to set up
03:01the 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
03:14on their Doctor Who bingo card that year,
03:16but this bizarre ending helped cut through
03:18the sadness of losing Martha
03:20and created much intrigue for the upcoming holiday episode.
03:23Number 7.
03:24The 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
03:33when you get meta with it.
03:34The Doctor's Daughter takes place on a planet
03:36where human beings use cloning
03:38to provide soldiers for 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.
03:59However, 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.
04:24Vengeance on Varos, Part 1
04:25Although Colin Baker was far from the only guilty party
04:28in Doctor Who's first major decline,
04:31his 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.
05:06When 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 five, The Almost People.
05:22The actual plotline of Series 6's
05:24The Rebel Flash slash The Almost People
05:27is so inconsequential
05:28that we're not even gonna 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
06:10a chain of events that would affect
06:12the entire rest of the series.
06:14Number four, The Name of the Doctor.
06:172013'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.
07:00But at this point, viewers were as baffled
07:02by Hurt's arrival as 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.
07:15Number 3. The Daleks
07:16There's no greater or more recognizable
07:19Doctor Who villain than those lovable,
07:21plunger-wielding tin cans, the Daleks.
07:23Straight from the planet Skaro,
07:25the Daleks stand for everything the Doctor opposes.
07:28War, subjugation, apathy, and hatred.
07:30Their 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.
07:38The 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. The Caves of Androzani
08:10Part 4
08:11At the end of the 1984 serial, The Caves of Androzani,
08:14the 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.
08:43This 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 to this day.
08:53Number 1. The Stolen Earth
08:55Between this, his actual regeneration,
08:57and 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 era 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 without warning?
09:43And if not, how would they get around the fact
09:45that he'd already begun regenerating?
09:47The answer would come in the next episode of the show,
09:50but that week was a very long one for 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
09:58and which ones are your favorites.
10:00As always, I've been Jess from WhatCulture.
10:03Thank you so much for hanging out with me.
10:04If you're liking, come say hi to me
10:06on my Twitter account, where I'm at JessMcDonald,
10:09but make sure you stay tuned to us here
10:10for plenty more great lists.