Doctor Who: 12 Big Moments When Moffat Delivered The Chills

One of Steven Moffat€™s biggest strengths as a writer is his ability to take every-day situations, put a spin on them, and make them terrifying. Are you my mummy? The clockwork robot under your bed. Remembering not to blink. The shadows that will eat your flesh. The angel in the television screen. The monster you keep forgetting. Holding your breath. Time and time again, Moffat has risen to the challenge of delivering scares to Doctor Who. You might argue that nine years on, Moffat's ability to transform normality into a place of terror has made this unique skill a little tired. Is he falling back on familiar tricks one time too many? Perhaps. But at the same time, if Moffat has to resort to the same staple in his writing over and over again then frankly, it's a hell of a staple to have! Listen was no different. The resolution of the episode may have left many of us scratching our heads but by that point we had already been scared stiff. The phrase hiding behind the sofa was never so apt as the moment Clara and the Doctor entered Rupert Pink's bedroom. With series eight of Doctor Who providing the chills twice in as many weeks, we look at the 12 biggest moments of terror Steven Moffat has delivered since writing for the show. Because Midnight and The Waters Of Mars aside, if you count every episode that you found scary since Doctor Who returned in 2005, the chances are it was Moffat who wrote it. With a warning for spoilers about series eight's Deep Breath and Listen, click NEXT to take yourself on a journey of chilling proportions. Remember once again why Doctor Who can still be scary, especially for the little ones...

12. Amy Encounters The Silence For The First Time - The Impossible Astronaut

The Weeping Angels may be the most popular creation Moffat has created but the Silence are certainly the creepiest monster in his repertoire. Whereas the menace of the Weeping Angels built up over the course of their debut episode Blink, the Silence entered the show with a terrifying bang that left the media questioning if Doctor Who was too scary for children. After a brief glimpse of the mysterious alien early in the episode, Amy walks into the bathroom in the White House and encounters one of the fiendish looking creatures standing behind poor Joy, a US government employee. The Silence is immediately made more creepy by its ability to make Joy forget it is there as soon as it is out of her eye line. But nothing could have prepared us for the moment it stretches out its hand, opens its mouth and vaporizes her. It wasn't just Amy that was stunned by this deadly enounter; we were too and with it hundreds of kids had nightmares. The only reason this moment isn't higher on the list is because it's more shock than scare (for the adults) and because there's another, far more chilling entry for the Silence on this list...