10 Doctor Who Moments That Will Haunt You Forever

Companions in Doctor Who don’t die. Well, sometimes they do, but they don’t die die. They end up in a parallel dimension, or living out the rest of their lives in New York City, and so on. Whether or not "that’s alright then" is up to the viewer, but at the end of the day, they’re usually doing quite well.

Except for poor Adric that is. 1982's Earthshock concludes with the maths-whiz about to evacuate a freighter headed for a deadly collision with Earth. At the last possible second, he realises he knows how to deactivate the Cybermen’s control device and jumps out of the escape pod, trapping himself on the ship, which then crashes into the Earth. It’s a classic Doctor Who ending – the companion figuring out the solution at the eleventh hour, bravely putting their own life at risk to save the day.

To drive the finality of this moment home, the end credits roll in complete silence, over a shot of Adric’s shattered Star of Mathematical Excellence – an iconic part of his costume. It’s only here that it finally sinks in: Adric is dead, and he is never coming back. Even considering Adric’s wavering popularity with certain parts of the fanbase, it’s no surprise that the quiet credits are remembered as one of the most emotionally impactful moments of the classic era.

This was the first time a long-running companion had been killed and the first time the credits had rolled in complete and utter silence. We're used to humming along to the Doctor Who theme when any episode ends so to have Earthshock end in such a unique way rammed home how monumental a moment this was.