10 Doctor Who Endings Nobody Saw Coming

2013's The Name of the Doctor begins with the Doctor and Clara hunting down a being called The Great Intelligence, which has captured their friends Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax.

The Intelligence (played by Richard E. Grant) wants to go back in time and undo all of the good work that the Doctor has done, and so Clara and the Doctor enter his timestream to protect it from the Intelligence. In doing so, they come across a shadowy figure lurking in the depths of the Doctor's memories.

This figure is the Doctor, but he's also not. He's a man who did awful things during the Time War in order to save the universe. He is the War Doctor.

Stood there was the unmissable figure of John Hurt, portraying the Doctor's greatest secret. His story was fully-fleshed out in the 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor, but, at this point, viewers were as baffled by Hurt's arrival as they were captivated.

Even hardcore Whovians didn't know there was a secret Doctor between Eight and Nine, and that's because Moffat had only just made him up. Still, this was one of the biggest bombshells in the show's history.