10 Most Horrific Moments In Doctor Who

2. The Peking Homunculus - Talons Of Weng-Chiang (1977)

A homicidal ventriloquist's doll, in the shape of a small Chinese man, with the living cerebral cortex of a pig, that's what. Between the two of them, writer Robert Holmes and actor Deep Roy have a lot of kid's nightmares to answer for, and probably more than a few adult nightmares, too. When we first see Mr. Sin, he's little more than an entertaining though slightly creepy ventriloquist's dummy, but that all changes when we see the blood running down his hand. (This was supposed to be a children's show, right?) Things only get worse when it decides to go on the attack, menacing no less than Leela at the end of one episode by very, very slowly advancing upon her. Which wouldn't be so bad except a) it has a knife in its hand, and b) we know that it probably won't ever, ever stop. (And yes, we're not forgetting the eponymous Robots of Death, who are every bit as scary in their way as Mr. Sin.) If that's not high octane nightmare fuel, we don't know what is. But it's still not the worst this show has to offer...