10 Most Chilling Doctor Who Moments
6. "Pain" (World Enough And Time)
No modern showrunner understands the true horror of the Cybermen like Steven Moffat. His best Cyber-story to date comes right at the end of his era, when he depicts the Mondasian origins of the classic Doctor Who villains in World Enough and Time.
There are some shocking and frightening images in the penultimate episode of Series 10, from Bill getting shot in the chest, to the mysterious patients with their bandaged heads. But by far, the most chilling moment is when Bill unmutes the half-converted Cybermen in the hospital ward.
Their repeated utterance of the word "pain" is a horrifying twist that gets across the true horror of being converted into a Cyberman, without having to show the spinning blades in the conversion factory like in Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel. Even just by looking at a Mondasian Cyberman, with their suffocating surgical sock heads, heavy chest units, and headlamps, it's hardly surprising that the conversion process is so painful.
While the final stages of Cyber-conversion may shut down the body's pain receptors as well as its emotions, there's still the grim reality that they're in a constant state of pain up until that point. In fact, it's a state of pain so overwhelming that "pain" is literally the only word they can say.
You know, at times, it's hard to believe this is the same show as the farting aliens and the Doctor playing football.