The 2023 episode ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ garnered much fan interest after the production team shrouded it in complete mystery. Nobody quite knew what to expect. We look back at some of the most surprising Doctor Who episodes in its 60 year history…
5) Midnight
There were a number of obscurities in Doctor Who Series Four, but ‘Midnight’ had to be one of the biggest. And even when it had aired, no matter what viewers’ opinions were, most had to admit they had never seen anything quite like it.
Unlike many Doctor Who episodes, ‘Midnight’ takes place almost entirely on one set. It’s arguably more like a piece of theatre than television – a character study that explores what would happen to a disparate group of travellers trapped inside a giant space bus with an enemy in their midst. It’s one of the simplest Doctor Who episodes in the Whoniverse, and perhaps one of the scariest, even if it does repeat itself a bit (even if it does repeat itself a bit.)
In short: watch out for extonic sunlight, and be careful who you trust…
4) Last Christmas
By 2014, Doctor Who‘s marketing had grown ever-more mysterious. The ‘next time’ trailers for Doctor Who episodes had gotten shorter and revealed less, such was the spoiler clampdown.
For this reason, by the time the 2014 Christmas special ‘Last Christmas’ came around, viewers didn’t really know what to expect. It certainly looked like it was going to be one of the more lightweight festive romps; in a surprising twist, Nicholas Frost was appearing as Father Christmas, and viewers were left stumped as to how this could possibly make sense even in all the weird wonderfulness of the Whoniverse.
Few people could have predicted that this would be one of the scariest Doctor Who episodes of all time, and by far the creepiest Christmas special in Doctor Who history. ‘Last Christmas’ is like a cross between Alien, The Thing, Inception and Miracle on 34th Street. If you’ve never seen it before, you should. And watch it with the lights out…
3) Utopia
The 2007 episode ‘Utopia’ was another one of those Doctor Who episodes which caught fandom off guard. Hardcore viewers knew that Captain Jack Harkness would be returning, and some of the more discerning fans had figured out that the Time Lord’s old enemy the Master would be returning for the series finale. They’d already been given the Face of Boe’s enigmatic hint (“you are not alone”) plus the potential anagram in Mister Saxon, which rearranges into ‘Master no. six.’
But few people expected the Master to make a return in ‘Utopia’ in the shape of Derek Jacobi. He previously played the Master in ‘The Scream of the Shalka,’ and in ‘Utopia’ it is revealed that the Master turned himself into a human in order to escape the Time War, which is why the Doctor couldn’t sense his presence. He gets shot in the episode, leading to a surprise regeneration at the story’s conclusion when he morphs into John Simm.
In short, ‘Utopia’ felt like a season finale, and took many people by surprise as it was only episode 11. In previous years, the eleventh Doctor Who episodes had been more lowkey (such as 2005’s ‘Boom Town’ and 2006’s ‘Fear Her.’) ‘Utopia’ was truly jaw-dropping, and remains a fan favourite to this day.
2) The Girl in the Fireplace
On the face of it, ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’ looked like it would be a classic historical Doctor Who romp, with the Time Lord meeting a famous character from Earth history whose life gets messed up by an alien invasion.
But in reality, while all of the above did happen, ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’ turned out to be a tragic SF love story with a fascinating dose of timey-wimey goodness. Many fans were bowled over by its ingenuity and power, and the clever twist in its final scene. The episode became something of an instant classic and made the writer Steven Moffat extremely popular among fans.
And again, it was one of those Doctor Who episodes that just ‘snuck up’ on people; there were no returning characters or regenerations or Dalek invasions. It was simply a story about a girl in a fireplace – and an incredibly effective one.
Indeed, such was the impact of ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’ that it went on to inspire many of the Doctor Who episodes that followed. The 2014 adventure ‘Deep Breath,’ for example, is a direct sequel to this story. And the idea of the Doctor meeting an important character as a little girl and then later as an adult was reused in 2010’s ‘The Eleventh Hour.’ Moreover, one could argue that the relationship between the Doctor and River Song is very similar to the one between him and Madame de Pompadour, who features in this episode as the eponymous Girl in the Fireplace.
1) Fugitive of the Judoon
Few Doctor Who episodes have knocked fans sideways in the way ‘Fugitive of the Judoon’ did. Many viewers were expecting a fun story which saw the return of a popular New Who villain, and indeed the early marketing for the story reinforced this idea. An early publicity photo showed the Doctor confronting the quasi-baddies on a spaceship of some kind, and it was intriguing – but not out of the ordinary.
What’s funny is that ‘Fugitive of the Judoon’ turned out to be one of the most extraordinary Doctor Who episodes of all time, loaded with surprises which ultimately rewrote the entirety of Who canon. In fact, the aforementioned publicity photo turned out to be from one of the most dramatic, canon-rewriting scenes in the series’ history, introducing a new (unknown) incarnation of the Doctor and heaps of backstory relating to a mysterious organisation known as the Division.
And as it turned out, the word ‘division’ was an appropriate one, as fandom was certainly divided on the direction the series was taking. But few fans were disappointed with the unexpected return of John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, even if he was prevented from meeting the Doctor in this episode.
Tell us, though – how did you feel about ‘Fugitive of the Judoon’? And which do you think are the most surprising Doctor Who episodes of all time? Let us know in the comments below.
Leave a Reply