10 Most Paused Doctor Who Moments Ever

4. The War Doctor's Introduction (The Name Of The Doctor)

Doctor Who Blink Sally Sparrow Weeping Angels
BBC Studios

2013 was a massive year for Doctor Who. With the show turning 50 years old, fans were expecting the final few episodes of the year to pull out all the stops, delivering an epic storyline worthy of such a momentous occasion.

But nobody expected this.

When that mysterious figure turned around at the end of Series 7 finale The Name Of The Doctor, and the text "introducing John Hurt as the Doctor" faded onto the screen, you could almost hear Whovian heads exploding up and down the country.

The reveal of a secret Doctor raised a ton of questions about Doctor Who history, the history we thought we knew ("How does this affect the numbering of the Doctors?" "Where does John Hurt fit within the timeline?" "Why has he been hidden all this time?"), and hell, plenty of viewers were left wondering if Hurt's Doctor came after Matt Smith's, due to the fact that Smith's replacement hadn't been announced at the time.

It was an exciting, slightly confusing time, and countless fans paused on this image mainly just to let the onscreen text sink in.

In this post: 
Doctor Who
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.