10 Major Doctor Who Events That Changed Everything

8. Reintroducing The Daleks

2005 saw the relaunch of the Russell T Davies penned New Series of Doctor Who and with it, an entirely new Doctor in Christopher Eccleston who was miles apart from anything we'd seen before from the character. From the buzzcut to the cold, colourless black of their battered jacket and boots, it was clear that The Ninth Doctor had been through a war both literally and figuratively, that had left scars that needed time to mend.

It's only in Episode 6's masterpiece that is 'Dalek' that we find out which race the Time Lords were at war with, and who is responsible for this new anguish and brutality within The Doctor, and of course it's science-fiction's genocidal pepper pots. 'Dalek' stands out for just how far we see The Doctor stray away from their signature morality when faced with the eponymous foe. The Doctor is prepared to kill it on sight on several occasions, even admitting that they believe that extermination is what it deserves. They're still polar opposites of each other's ways of life, but now they're also so painfully the same, both tormented by knowing they're alone in the universe.

The Doctor coming face-to-face with the enemy they'd sacrificed their entire species to destroy, not only devastates them in realising The Daleks might not be as utterly dead as was believed, but also gives the character relationships greater depth and consequence than we'd ever seen before.