11 OMG moments from Doctor Who
Here’s a gobsmacker for each year of New Who’s life
2005
“Run!” (Rose, 26 March)
In the basement of a London department store, teenage shopworker Rose Tyler finds herself being menaced by shop dummies. But just when it looks like she’s about to suffer death-by-mannequin (some of them sporting truly horrific shirts), someone reaches in, grabs her hand – and tells her to run for her life.
The Doctor is back. And he’s just met a new best friend who’s going to change his life – and all of ours – forever.
Fantastic.
2006
“I’m burning up a sun, just to say goodbye”
(Doomsday, 1 July)
After two series of adventures in space and time, Rose finds herself trapped in a parallel universe to the Doctor. But a dream – and a voice – leads her all the way to Norway where, on beach called Bad Wolf Bay, the Doctor is able to project a hologram of himself just long enough for one last goodbye.
Rose finally finds the courage to tell the Doctor she loves him, and he’s about to tell her something in reply when – pop – he vanishes into thin air.
It’s a heartbreaking scene, brilliantly played by David Tennant and, in particular, Billie Piper – all tears and snot and raw, visceral grief. In 2014, the farewell was voted Greatest Sci-Fi Scene of All Time by readers of SFX magazine. To quote the Doctor when Rose declares her love: quite right too.
2007
“Don’t blink!” (Blink, 9 June)
It’s a measure of the quality of Steven Moffat’s BAFTA-winning script for Blink that, despite the Doctor’s limited appearance, it’s still regularly voted one of the greatest Doctor Who stories of all time.
A pre-Hollywood Carey Mulligan is fantastic in the lead role of Sally Sparrow, while the Weeping Angels – malevolent statues that can only attack when you can’t see them – quickly established themselves as one of the show’s great bogeymen, even beating the Daleks to be voted the greatest Doctor Who monster of all time in a Radio Times poll.
And if you’re a bit sick of the phrase “time-wimey” by now – you’ve got to admit it was funny at the time.
