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Doctor Who is famous for its limitless potential, but some episodes pushed the boundaries more than others. We're counting down 10 modern episodes that completely blindsided viewers with shocking plot twists, subversive formats, and jaw-dropping reveals.
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00:00Doctor Who can change so much from week to week that you never really know what you're in for.
00:04One week you're watching a pretty scary story about the devil,
00:07and the next you're watching Peter Kay in a sweaty rubber suit.
00:10Basically, that's the Hooniverse in a nutshell.
00:12Because of this limitless potential, Doctor Who has so many ways to surprise and shock viewers.
00:17And there have been many episodes in the modern series that have caught people completely off guard.
00:22The episode itself could be highly unique and subversive,
00:25or there could be some huge plot moments that have you going,
00:29WHAT?!
00:30I'm Ellie for Who Culture, here with 10 Doctor Who episodes you were not ready for.
00:35Number 10. Sleep No More
00:36Mark Gatiss's Sleep No More is one of the most divisive episodes in the show.
00:41At the time, it had the lowest viewing figures of any episode of the revival.
00:45But with a decent 61% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it also has its fans as well.
00:50This divisiveness largely stemmed from the unexpected concept and execution of the episode,
00:55which took a big swing that many would argue didn't pay off.
00:59Playing out like a found footage horror film,
01:01Sleep No More was a radical departure from your typical Doctor Who fare.
01:04Even foregoing the show's classic opening title sequence in favour of a custom title card.
01:09There are very few episodes in Doctor Who history that do this,
01:13so it's no surprise that people were weirded out by Sleep No More right from the off.
01:17It was also a standalone episode in a series that had consisted entirely of two-parters up to this point.
01:22Another reason why it feels like an oddball not just in Series 9, but in all of Modern Who.
01:27And for some extra WTF points, it also ends on an unresolved cliffhanger,
01:32which left millions of viewers feeling suitably jarred.
01:35Mark Gatiss was planning to write a sequel at one point, but it never came to pass.
01:40Based on the mixed reception of the original, that was probably for the best.
01:44Number 9. The Well
01:45The Well spends its first half essentially creeping up on you before shouting BOO in your ear and
01:51devolving into complete and utter carnage for the final 20 minutes.
01:55Even those who did stumble across the odd theory or supposed plot leak tying this episode to 2008's
02:00Midnight will have had a shiver run down their spine at the mentions of galvanic radiation,
02:05extonic stars and a planet made of diamonds before that creeping realisation hits you,
02:10the Doctor and the soldiers simultaneously. Also literally in the latter case.
02:14It's a masterfully executed slow burn that knows precisely when to wallop you in the face with
02:20the big reveal. And though perhaps the rest of the episode doesn't live up to the first half,
02:24it was all worth it for that big moment. A midnight sequel? In the year of our Lord 2025?
02:30Insane stuff. Who saw that coming? Well, apart from all those people on Reddit.
02:35It's always difficult to do a sequel to something so beloved, but The Well probably surprised a lot of
02:40people with how good it was. It certainly didn't scale the heights of the original,
02:44but it by no means tarnished it either, which is an accomplishment in and of itself.
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03:38so you can't really go wrong. 8. Fugitive of the Jadoon
03:43Fugitive of the Jadoon saw the introduction of a new incarnation of the Doctor, an incarnation that
03:49no fan had seen or heard of up until this point. Neither of these Doctors can remember living the
03:55life of the other, which was both a confusing and intriguing development. However, this new
04:00Fugitive Doctor did possess her own police box TARDIS, indicating that she came after William
04:06Hartnell's first Doctor. I don't know, it's still a little bit unclear. To quote the curator, who knows?
04:11As if this revelation wasn't shocking enough, fans were also treated to the return of the beloved
04:16Captain Jack Harkness. Like the Fugitive Doctor, this reveal was kept completely under wraps,
04:21making for a jaw-dropping surprise when the cheeky time agent's voice was first heard talking to a
04:26rather confused Graham O'Brien. It was expected that this episode would be a standard mid-series romp
04:31focused on the Jadoon, who, despite the title, are basically a subplot in their own story.
04:36Absolutely nobody expected it to change the fabric of Doctor Who as we knew it,
04:40and bring Captain Jack back to boot.
04:437. Blink After the complete and utter disaster that was
04:48Love and Monsters in the previous series, an episode that doesn't feature the Doctor was a
04:52concerning prospect. But Blink made that concern disappear almost instantly. After finding out
04:58that the Doctor and Martha had been sent back in time without the TARDIS, the eccentrically named
05:03Sally Sparrow, brilliantly played by Carey Mulligan, finds herself stuck in the middle of helping the
05:08Doctor and running away from the creepy weeping angels who are stalking her. Creepy weeping angels.
05:14Well, there's a bit of a tongue twister for you. A mixture of peak sci-fi timey-wimey writing,
05:19quality acting and direction, and the introduction of the scariest Doctor Who monster of all time,
05:25is what made this episode successful. Despite the absence of the Doctor, Blink just worked,
05:30with Sally being a strong enough protagonist to carry the episode single-handedly,
05:34and the angels strong enough to make you forget that the Doctor wasn't even there. And that's
05:38not to forget Larry, of course. What a guy. After The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances,
05:43and The Girl in the Fireplace, it was expected that Steven Moffat would deliver the goods with
05:47his next episode. But was it expected that he'd deliver one of the best Doctor Who stories and
05:52villains of all time in an episode that barely features the Doctor? No. No, it was not.
05:586. Asylum of the Daleks After the announcement that Karen Gillan and Arthur
06:03Darville would be making way for Jenna Coleman as the new companion, it was expected that we'd
06:07first meet her after the Ponds had left the show. That's how it works. That's how it had always
06:12worked. And since Doctor Who is such a stickler for tradition with these things, there was no reason
06:17to suspect otherwise. But then, during Asylum of the Daleks, we meet Oswin Oswald, living her rather
06:23odd day-to-day life trapped in the Dalek Asylum after crashing there a year prior. Fans would be forgiven
06:28for thinking that the Doctor was going to save Oswin and have her join the TARDIS crew, and that the
06:33new companion had simply been brought forward. But that wasn't the case at all. Turns out that
06:37Oswin never escaped from the Daleks after the crash, and she became a Dalek herself. And the
06:41truth was too much for her to handle, so she created a souffle-riddled world inside her head.
06:46In simpler terms, Oswin Oswald died. It begged the question of how Oswin could have died if Jenna
06:51Coleman is the next companion. And it also begged the question of what the hell is going on.
06:56Fans would eventually find out that there were multiple versions of Clara scattered throughout
07:00the Doctor's life, and that Oswin was one of them. But at the time, nobody expected Jenna Coleman
07:05to be introduced in the way that she was. Stephen Moffat would come out and thank those who had seen
07:10the episode early for keeping the Twister secret, which you have to imagine wouldn't be the reality
07:14in this day and age. But luckily, 2012 audiences played along.
07:195. The Power of the Doctor
07:21Where do we even start with this one? From its earliest bits of marketing,
07:26fans could tell they were in for a real treat with The Power of the Doctor, with old favourites
07:30like Ace, Teagan, and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart confirmed to return. But none of us were truly
07:35prepared for the sheer volume of surprises that The Power of the Doctor had in store.
07:39This episode was never promoted as a multi-Doctor special, so seeing the return of Doctors 1,
07:445, 6, 7, and 8 was a joyful surprise for all Who fans.
07:48Watching the 5th and 7th Doctors have a heartfelt chat with their respective companions was the
07:53icing on the cake, gaining closure for things said and done in the past. There was also the
07:57companion support group at the very end of the episode, which brought back characters like
08:01Mel Bush, Joe Grant, and Ian Chesterton, much to the surprise and delight of just about everybody
08:07with eyeballs. But it was the ending that had fans truly shocked. It's easy to forget now,
08:12but at the time, it wasn't known who Jodie Whittaker would regenerate into, with both Shuti Gatwa and David
08:17Tennant having previously been announced to appear in upcoming episodes. Many will have expected it
08:22to be Gatwa who would appear, due to him specifically being announced as The Doctor months prior.
08:27Instead, though, we got ol' spiky hair himself reprising the role of The Doctor on screen for the
08:32first time since 2013. Cue the what?
08:364. Listen
08:38Series 8 had begun under solid, if unspectacular, circumstances. We had the usual post-regeneration
08:45trauma episode, an early Dalek story to help cement Peter Capaldi as The Doctor,
08:49and the schlocky fun of Robot of Sherwood. And then, out of nowhere, Listen.
08:54Did anyone expect something quite so cerebral, so strange, so unique, this early into the 12th
09:00Doctor's run? We don't typically see episodes like this at this stage. Listen feels more like
09:04something you'd see in a Doctor's second series, when they're properly established and the writing can
09:08take more risks. A bit like Human Nature and the Family of Blood, or Blink, and the aforementioned
09:13Midnight for the 10th Doctor, all of which came later in his era. Moffat clearly thought to hell
09:18with that and delivered the WTF vibes up top, weaving an unsettling tale about fear,
09:23nightmares, and creatures of the unknown. The episode is complex, flitting back and
09:27forth between Clara's dates with Danny and her struggles with the Doctor, before diving into
09:32Danny's own past and his distant future. But it never feels muddled, rather purposeful,
09:37and plotted for maximum drama. And then just when you think you've seen it all,
09:40Clara ends up on Gallifrey and interacts with a young Doctor. So not only did we get something
09:44shocking and spooky and quite unprecedented for a Doctor's fourth episode, it was also a 50th
09:49anniversary sequel in disguise. Moffat has arguably never been more Moffat-y than this.
09:553. The Girl Who Waited
09:57The second half of Series 6 got off to a rocky start with the likes of Let's Kill Hitler and
10:02Night's Heroes. But out of nowhere came The Girl Who Waited.
10:05Like the previous series, Amy's Choice, the relationship between Amy and Rory was front
10:10and centre in this episode. While the Doctor's recklessness and morals, particularly where
10:15his companions are concerned, were also brought into question. The Doctor and the Ponds land on
10:19the resort planet of Apalapachea. Beautiful word to say, by the way. Apalapachea.
10:24Where Amy soon finds herself alone in a different timeline, left to fend for herself as she waits for
10:29the Doctor to come and save her. Rory then finds an older, bitter version of Amy, who tells him she's
10:34been waiting for 36 years. The episode switches between old and young Amy, finally bringing them
10:39together when the Doctor promises Rory that the TARDIS can hold both versions at once.
10:44Rule 1. The Doctor lies. Coming from the guy whose only previous Doctor Who credit was the
10:49admittedly quite mediocre Rise of the Cybermen and the Age of Steel, few were expecting The Girl Who
10:54Waited to be such a tour de force of writing, direction and acting, with Gillen delivering her
10:59best performance. Well, actually two performances, as Amy Pond. Writer Tom McRae has referred to The
11:05Girl Who Waited as his most accomplished piece of plotting ever. High praise, but more than earned.
11:112. Rose. After a 16-year hiatus, Doctor Who announced that it was returning in 2005,
11:19with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billy Piper as his companion. Before the episode aired,
11:23fans criticised the new logo and the changing of the TARDIS, as well as the casting of pop star
11:28Billy Piper in such a major role, with some going as far as to send hate mail to the production
11:33team.
11:34You know, pretty standard stuff when there are big changes for Doctor Who on the horizon.
11:37Due to the ongoing criticism and previous behind-the-scenes drama that caused the show to
11:41be cancelled in the first place, there was a lot of scepticism that the 2005 revival was actually going
11:47to work. But spoiler alert, it did. The first episode, Rose, peaked at 10.81 million viewers
11:54when it aired, making it one of the most viewed New Who episodes to this day. The episode had the
11:59massive job of introducing the Doctor to both an old and new audience, and despite making the risky
12:05move of focusing more on the companion, the show made the good decision of bringing back an old monster,
12:11the Autons, to satiate some of that classic demand. In short, the whole thing worked wonderfully.
12:16Even in the face of all the doubt that led up to it. Few expected Series 1 to be as
12:21good or as
12:21successful as it was. And even fewer expected Rose to catapult the show to another 20 plus years on
12:27our screens. And number one, the name of the Doctor. Excitement for Doctor Who's 50th anniversary was at
12:34an all-time high when this episode aired a few months prior to the big day. Fans all around the
12:40world
12:40were speculating about who would be returning in the 50th and what the overall story was going to be
12:45about. But introducing a previously unseen incarnation of the Doctor, played by the legendary John Hurt,
12:51no less? Yeah, nobody saw that coming. The name of the Doctor dropped this plot bomb as a tantalising
12:58lead-in to the 50th, with the words, introducing John Hurt as the Doctor, sending Whovians into a
13:04frenzy of excitement. Also confusion and tons of speculation, as you'd expect. The reveal changed any
13:10and all theories people had about the 50th anniversary, with it now being clear that
13:14Moffat was planning something much bigger than we'd anticipated. This moment changed Doctor Who
13:19forever, and in some ways has normalised the idea that writers can look back and exploit potential
13:24gaps in the Doctor's life in this way. The actual 50th episode, The Day of the Doctor, was a roaring
13:30success, cementing Hurt's War Doctor as a crucial incarnation in the Doctor's life. It was a huge swing
13:35from Moffat, but it all felt worth it in the end. And that concludes our list. If you think we
13:41missed
13:42an obvious example, then please do let us know in the comments down below. In the meantime, I've been
13:47Ellie for WhoCulture, and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.