10 Doctor Who Moments That Will Haunt You Forever

10. Just Save Someone (The Fires Of Pompeii)

We all think of the Doctor as somebody who saves people. That’s just what they do, and it's basically the premise of the entire show. As Amy coldly reminds Eleven in Amy's Choice, what is the point of the Doctor if they aren't saving lives?

This in mind it can be easy to forget that there are some things that even the Doctor can’t change.

It’s the sudden confrontation with this fact that makes The Fires of Pompeii such a long-lasting gut-punch. After three series of the Doctor being the infallible hero, he’s put in a situation where he cannot intervene, no matter how many people will die. Pompeii’s destruction is too important a historical event and the Doctor can’t just change time with a snap of his fingers.

But even knowing this from the first moment of the episode it’s impossible not to be shocked when the volcano finally erupts, and the Doctor walks past families begging for salvation, enters the TARDIS, and leaves.

It’s only here, with Donna tearfully pleading for the Doctor to "save someone... not the whole town... just someone", that he relents, if only slightly. Catherine Tate's acting is brilliant in this scene and it's undoubtedly one of the most underrated tearjerker moments in the show.

While the Doctor extending a hand (literally) to Caecilius and his family ends the episode on a slightly more positive note, it doesn’t erase anybody’s memories of Donna pleading with a Doctor who is fully resigned to the fact that he must let thousands of people die.