10 Moments That Changed Doctor Who Forever
9. The Doctor's Earthly Exile
Ask anybody to describe Doctor Who, and along with bubble wrap and fish custard, they'll inevitably mention "travelling through time and space" at one point or another.
But there was a time when the Doctor was stuck firmly on present-day Earth, and for multiple seasons too.
In The War Games, the Second Doctor is faced with a problem he can't fix on his own. With no options left, he's forced to ask for help from the very people he's been running from: the Time Lords.
The Time Lords soon put the Doctor on trial, charging him with repeatedly and consistently violating their law of "no interference". Fair enough, honestly.
Their verdict? That the Doctor should be exiled to Earth and forced to regenerate, marking one of the biggest format changes in the show's history.
It took over three seasons for the Doctor to be granted full control of his TARDIS again, and in that time, the Doctor working on present-day Earth and fending off alien invasions with the assistance of UNIT became an integral part of the show's identity that persists to this day.