10 Darkest Alternate Timelines In Doctor Who

Humanity evolving into monsters and the Earth being turned into a wasteland are both devastating outcomes, sure, but it really doesn't get much worse than the entire universe coming to an end.

Matt Smith's brilliant first series as the Eleventh Doctor was full of wonder, laughs, and heart, and it was definitely a few shades lighter in tone than the preceding David Tennant years. Despite this, the thirteen-episode run concluded with one of the darkest events in the history of the show, with the universe being blown to smithereens following the destruction of the TARDIS.

And just for added bleakness, Amy was shot dead by an Auton version of Rory, the Doctor was locked in a supposedly inescapable prison - the Pandorica - and River was trapped inside the aforementioned exploding TARDIS. Not good.

The following episode then picks up in "the eye of the storm", with the Doctor and his remaining allies watching everything around them fade out of existence.

It's incredibly dark stuff, and while the normal timeline is ultimately restored, that image of silence falling across the universe as countless stars go supernova is, to this day, the most jaw-dropping cliffhanger that modern Who has ever delivered.