10 Disturbing Doctor Who Implications You Totally Missed

In The Face of Evil, the Fourth Doctor was forced to reckon with the consequences of his actions on the planet of the Sevateem. It's a great Doctor Who story that introduced the idea that our hero doesn't always do their due diligence when they're saving the day.

We can see this in multiple Doctor Who episodes that contain dark implications about what the Doctor is doing, or how the situation emerged in the first place.

Later developments in Doctor Who canon also provide some pretty dark implications when rewatching old episodes. If Sutekh was clinging to the TARDIS for 50 years, then did he hold hands with Captain Jack during Utopia? And what happened when the TARDIS exploded in Frontios? Dog guts all over the place?

Dark implications can also come from the fact that Doctor Who is primarily aimed at a younger audience, meaning that writers have to pull back from explicitly mentioning certain plot points. For example, the moment we discover how abhorrent Roger ap Gwilliam is in 73 Yards, when it's heavily implied that Ruby's colleague has been sexually assaulted.

Doctor Who has so many of these dark moments hidden within, that the full horror can sometimes be easy to miss.

The Vashta Nerada have made a big impression since their debut over 16 years ago.

They've appeared in audio dramas, video games, and comics in the years since Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead aired, but they've never returned to the TV show itself – despite Steven Moffat having sneakily sown the seeds for a potential Doctor versus Vashta Nerada rematch.

While describing his hungry foe to Donna, the Tenth Doctor explains that the Vashta Nerada don't just exist in the Library – they also exist on Earth. He says:

"Where there's meat, there's Vashta Nerada. You can see them sometimes, if you look. The dust in sunbeams."

Cheers Doctor, that makes it much easier to sleep at night!

The dust in sunbeams containing Vashta Nerada is a terrifying concept that feels like prime sequel material. A dusty old house, with sunlight streaming through the gaps in the shutters to expose the carniverous creatures lying in wait. Pass through the wrong types of sunbeams and you'll have the flesh torn from your body. And then, when the lights are off, they seamlessly become the shadows and continue their hunt.

It's a chilling revelation that exposes how shockingly widespread the Vashta Nerada are on our home planet. Night or day, nobody is safe from the piranhas of the air!