10 Moments That Changed Doctor Who Forever
Who knew a little bit of salt could have such dire consequences?
To borrow a line from the Seventh Doctor, every great decision creates ripples, like a huge boulder dropped in a lake. The heavier the decision, the larger the waves, the more uncertain the consequences.
A lot has happened to the Doctor in their thousands of years of time and space. Most of the time the Doctor walks away (relatively) unscathed, brushing the dust off and jumping into the TARDIS to find the next planet that needs saving, or the next evil alien monsters that need defeating.
But some moments are more pivotal than others. Sometimes, there are consequences. And occasionally, these consequences are so great that they can fundamentally change Doctor Who as a show, sending out ripples that are still being felt years – or even decades – later.
From the origins of the Last Great Time War to accidentally changing reality with the flick of a salt shaker, these are the moments we can pinpoint as having the biggest effects on the history of the Whoniverse.
10. Dalek Caan’s Temporal Shift
Evolution of the Daleks ends with a standoff between the Doctor and Dalek Caan – the last of the Time Lords versus the last of the Daleks (at least, as far as anybody knew at that point).
Tired of the endless death and destruction, the Doctor shows Caan mercy, begging the Dalek to lay down its arms and finally end the conflict between the two species. To no great surprise, Caan refuses, and instead activates an Emergency Temporal Shift – a last-ditch randomised time and space teleporter which is the reason the Cult of Skaro ended up in 1930s Manhattan in the first place.
This time though, the Temporal Shift took Caan a lot further than 70 years into the past and across the Atlantic. Somehow, he was able to breach the Time Lock around the Last Great Time War, allowing him to save Davros and help establish the New Dalek Empire.
He does also lose his mind in the process, but hey, swings and roundabouts.
This sets the foundation for the Series 4 finale, which in turn has massive implications for the Doctor himself.
If it wasn’t for Dalek Caan’s last-minute escape there would be no Metacrisis Doctor and no DoctorDonna. As a result, the Eleventh Doctor would no longer be on his final regeneration, Donna would never have her memory erased, and Rose Noble would never inherit the Metacrisis in The Star Beast.