Doctor Who: 10 Scariest Episodes That Sent Us All Behind The Sofa

By Mark White / March 17, 2014

"Hiding behind the sofa" is a past-time almost exclusively associated with one television show. The phrase derives from the early days of Doctor Who, and relates to the reaction that children first had in the 1960's when they saw the Daleks, the Cybermen and other terrors. There were calls that Doctor Who was too scary. Luckily, they soon went away.

The family fright-night reputation that Who earned in the early days was only ever expanded on. Sidney Newman's vision of "No bug-eyed monsters" was lost somewhere, as aliens and foes only became more and more ambitious; the Daleks became as iconic as the big blue box, and to date, every single NewWho episode has contained some kind of evil threat. Often, cast members and writers tease how "This new one's one of the scariest yet!" But all that propaganda aside, which episodes really are the scariest? Here are the top ten scariest episodes in the history of Who, from the Classic to the modern and everything in between. Note, these are episodes picked mostly on their fearsome reputation and the reaction that they had on the viewers of that specific time. Which are your favourites that deserve honourable mentions? Comment below!