10 Doctor Who Moments That Will Haunt You Forever
7. Tegan Bids Farewell (Resurrection Of The Daleks)
Just as all incarnations of the Doctor must eventually regenerate, all companions must eventually step out of the TARDIS and make a life for themselves without the Doctor. Sometimes they go back home, sometimes they continue travelling the universe solo. But they almost always leave on fairly good terms with the Doctor.
That's what makes Tegan’s departure in Resurrection of the Daleks all the more haunting. Standing in an abandoned warehouse filled with dead soldiers and destroyed Daleks, the exhausted Aussie sadly explains to the Doctor that she’s tired of all the death and destruction, and that travelling with him stopped being fun a long time ago. After a quick handshake she runs off, desperate to get away, while the Doctor pleads with her not to leave.
It’s a sad departure for a companion who had been travelling with the Doctor for nearly three whole series, and it feels all too real. It’s easy to pretend that travelling in the TARDIS would be a magical, fulfilling experience, but when you actually consider the scale of the death and destruction in your average episode, it starts to look like Tegan was the only sane person to ever travel through time and space!
Perhaps that’s why this moment is still so haunting – it suddenly breaks down the fantasy of the show. Tegan can barely look the Doctor in the eye as she says farewell, and it's uncomfortable to watch.