10 Most Chilling Doctor Who Moments
4. Tick Tock Goes The Clock (Night Terrors)
It's a universal truth that nursery rhymes can be deeply, deeply creepy. Although there's no historical evidence to prove it, many people believe that Ring a Ring o' Roses is inspired by the Great Plague of the 1660s. Why? Because nursery rhymes are creepy as hell!
Doctor Who understands this, which is why Night Terrors introduced the chilling nursery rhyme "Tick Tock Goes the Clock". Night Terrors is already a pretty creepy episode thanks to the nightmarish Peg Dolls, but not merely content with the image of Victorian toys and their slightly-too-large heads, writer Mark Gatiss also has them sing this spine-tingling number:
"Tick, tock, goes the clock, and all the years they fly. Tick, tock, and all too soon, you and I must die."
The image of the Peg Doll turning Purcell into a wooden avatar as it sings this rhyme while giggling childishly is freaky, with a capital F. The horrible cracking sounds and childlike glee is a masterful bit of sound design from composer Murray Gold and sound effects editor Paul Jefferies.
The rhyme's return at the end of Closing Time was enough to turn your heart to ice, as River lay in wait, ready to kill the Doctor at Lake Silencio. These two episodes may not be anyone's favourites, but the throughline of the nursery rhyme was a scarily effective piece of connective tissue throughout Series 6B.