10 Major Doctor Who Events That Changed Everything

7. 'The War Doctor'

Just when you think you know everything there is to know about the many lives of The Doctor, Steven Moffat is certain to throw in a curveball that nobody could've expected. As The Eleventh Doctor rescues Clara Oswald from his timestream in Series 7's 'The Name Of The Doctor', they are confronted with their darkest and most successfully repressed secret of all.

The Doctor had a secret incarnation.

In between Eighth Doctor Paul McGann and Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston, a secret iteration known only as 'The War Doctor' was revealed to have been the one who fought in the Time War and betrayed everything that the name 'The Doctor' stood for. We all have moments from our lives that we're not particularly proud of, but John Hurt's incarnation is the very darkest moment of The Doctor's history and truly was forged in fire. This revelation not only tainted the action figure shelves of every Whovian who believed they had the complete line-up, but pulled the curtain on an entire era of our antagonist's life that we had never known about, and showed the side of The Doctor that they themselves despised the most.

Although they eventually get their heroes' redemption at the end of 'Day of the Doctor', The War Doctor was a worthy addition for the fiftieth anniversary, in demonstrating that even after five decades of time-travelling adventures, Doctor Who showed no signs of becoming predictable in it's surprise reveals.