10 Doctor Who Scenes More Terrifying When You Know The Truth
If the Toymaker’s curse is real, then Catherine Tate better watch out!
Doctor Who has had viewers hiding behind the sofa since 1963. But its scares tend to be pretty ‘safe’.
Sometimes it goes a step further – the Gelth, Chief Clown, Peg Dolls, and Miss Evangelista have all been said to give children sleepless nights. But the thrill of seeing these creatures, and the satisfaction derived from the Doctor defeating them, is all part of the show’s appeal.
As put by the Second Doctor, “There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things”, and they must be fought!
However, some of Doctor Who’s biggest scares come from beyond the television screen. After all, in the real world, there’s no Doctor to save the day – that we know of.
Over the last 60 years there are examples of actors getting injured (and nearly dying), haunted filming locations, a curse (supposedly) inflicted on a member of the cast, scripts with grim subtext lurking beneath the surface, and a scene that was cut because of its resemblance to a real-world tragedy.
Doctor Who may be a family show, but it has its fair share of dark secrets too.
10. The Tragedy Of Sky Silvestry
As the host of the mysterious Midnight entity, Sky Silvestry is utterly terrifying. But in the moments before she gets possessed, she’s pretty terrified herself.
It’s hard not to feel sorry for her as she retreats into the corner of the Crusader 50, knowing the creature has picked her as its first victim. And given that she’s just been dumped by her partner, she’s not exactly in the best mental state to begin with – and that’s putting it mildly.
Even if the Midnight entity hadn’t struck, her trip would've still been tinged with tragedy, because upon reaching her destination (the Sapphire Waterfall), Sky was planning to kill herself.
This extra bit of backstory isn’t explicit in the script, but as Russell T Davies revealed on the episode’s DVD commentary, there’s one crucial line that gives the game away:
“She’s on her way to a waterfall palace, but she says ‘I’m on a schedule’, which is like, what for, what on earth are you going to a waterfall on a schedule for?”
Midnight is a scary episode as it is. But knowing that this was going on in the background (and is potentially why the entity picked Sky in the first place) makes it a whole lot darker.