10 Most Meta Doctor Who Moments EVER

5. The Bootstrap Paradox Speech

Doctor Who Time Crash
BBC

Excellent two-part story Under the Lake/Before the Floor relies on a famous paradox to make its resolution work, and what better way to explain said paradox than the Doctor giving an explanatory speech in advance directly to the viewer? The pre-credits scene of the second episode consists entirely of a monologue delivered to-camera by the Twelfth Doctor, explaining the Bootstrap Paradox to the viewer as if we are his companion (a fan's dream come true) by discussing an example involving Ludwig van Beethoven.

But it's not just the fact that the Doctor is talking to the camera that makes this scene a masterclass in meta. He's explaining the ending of the episode in advance, assisting the viewer in understanding the very story they're about to watch, even going so far as to tell them to google the bootstrap paradox. Amusingly, googling "bootstrap paradox" now brings up this very scene as the first video result. Just to cement this as an iconic meta moment, the Doctor begins playing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony on his electric guitar, which then transitions into an awesome rock rendition of the Doctor Who theme music, reportedly performed by Capaldi himself. Why can't every episode start like this?

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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.