Doctor Who: 10 Times The Doctor Went Too Far

2. Hell Bent

We’ve talked about the moment where the Doctor gave an innocent woman no option but to turn a gun on herself, but what about the time that he straight-up gunned down an innocent? Remember that?

Hell Bent sees Twelve going to the very edge of reason in an attempt to undo the death of Clara. Having spent over four billion years torturing himself in a bespoke puzzle box, he finds himself on Gallifrey, and immediately manipulates his people into extracting Clara from her timestream at the moment of her death.

And this is where things get a smidge out of hand.

The General, who’s generally (ha) a pretty solid bloke, attempts to stop Twelve, and is killed – though granted, with the crutch of regeneration handy – for his efforts.

There’s some debate as to whether Twelve technically ‘killed’ the General here, but I firmly believe it counts. Given how the modern show has treated regeneration as the death of each incarnation, I think it’s fair to say that Twelve took an innocent life in his desperate ploy to prevent Clara’s death. The fact that he passes regeneration off as being like the common cold for Time Lords is a dismissal of what he’s done, and almost certainly a lie he’s trying to convince himself of.

This sets the tone for the rest of the episode. The Doctor is no longer the clever, compassionate hero, but a man consumed by grief.

In the end, of course, he pays the price for going too far, and that price is all his memories of his best friend. I reckon the General is still feeling a little bit short-changed, but at least Twelve faces some sort of comeuppance.