10 Most Paused Doctor Who Moments Ever

2. The Black Archive (The Day Of The Doctor)

Doctor Who The Day of the Doctor Black Archive
BBC

50th anniversary special The Day Of The Doctor was an easter egg hunter's paradise, and right from the word go, it was chock-full of deep-cut references to pretty much every single era of the show.

For that reason, you could argue that the entire episode qualifies as a "most paused moment" in its own right, but if we had to single out one specific thing, then it has to be the Black Archive, which pops up a few different times throughout the story.

The Black Archive is a vault that houses a wealth of dangerous alien tech, and it also contains lots of information on the Doctor, as well as the Doctor's companions. As a result, when it appeared in the episode, it was almost like the production crew was challenging fans to pick out every single easter egg and background detail they could find - and that's no easy task, considering the sheer number of them.

From photos of past companions like Rory, Kamelion, and Wilf, to Cybermen heads and Clockwork Droid masks - and even River Song's red high heels - it's not too much of a stretch to say that the Black Archive is basically the Doctor Who props department. This is one you could analyze for hours, and even then, you probably wouldn't be able to get everything.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!