10 Most Meta Doctor Who Moments EVER

7. The Twelfth Doctor's TARDIS Reaction

Doctor Who Time Crash
BBC Studios

One of the more prevalent and enjoyable tropes in Doctor Who is the reaction of a new companion as they step into the TARDIS for the first time. There have been many "it's bigger on the inside!" moments, and while some have been more subversive than others, none have been quite so self-referential as that of the Doctor himself.

When the Twelfth Doctor crosses paths with River Song, he soon realises that she doesn't recognise him, allowing him to get up to all kinds of mischief without her knowing he's the Doctor. She soon decides to borrow the TARDIS and take him along for the ride, allowing the Doctor to act out his own ideal version of the TARDIS introduction scenes we've all grown so accustomed to: "Finally, it's my go!".

What follows is a brilliantly self-aware scene in which the roles are reversed, with the Doctor acting as a companion. Peter Capaldi acts his socks off, unleashing his inner fanboy with a hilarious speech that puts other TARDIS introduction scenes to shame:

"My entire understanding of physical space has been transformed! Three-dimensional Euclidean geometry has been torn up, thrown in the air and snogged to death! My grasp of the universal constants of physical reality has been changed forever."

A final nod to the camera as the Doctor explains how he's "always wanted to see that done properly" is the oh-so-meta cherry on top.

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Patch is a pop culture enthusiast and purveyor of puns. He writes about media in a vague attempt to justify the alarming amount of time he spends consuming it. Nobody's convinced... but nobody's told him that yet. He spends his spare time working on Portal 2: Desolation, an ambitious fan-made sequel to Valve's beloved puzzle games.