The Doctor Who developments of 2014 haven't really changed or added to our limited knowledge of the Doctor's childhood - and it should probably stay that way, too - but this year's series did give us an intriguing insight into his early years on Gallifrey which is still worth a mention. At the end of one of Series 8's most acclaimed episodes, Listen, Clara Oswald unknowingly visited the Doctor as a child to reassure him that he didn't have to be scared of what was under his bed. It's an irrational fear that's got the better of us all at some point in our lives (and particularly after this episode aired, strangely enough...) and it was heartwarming to see that it's one that even possesses the power to scare our beloved Time Lord, too. As mentioned, fans still know very little about the Doctor's early life on his home planet - and about the Doctor in general, actually, now that you come to mention it - so when it was revealed that his current companion was actually comforting him as a young boy it was one of those beautifully unexpected moments which sent the fandom into overdrive. For Clara, meanwhile, it was another thing for her to tick off her list of 'Things That No Other Companion Has Ever Got To Do'. She's met all of the Doctor's incarnations, discovered more about the Time War than any of her predecessors and now she's met him as a young boy, too. Jeez. It's no wonder she can't stay away.
Dan Butler is the Doctor Who Editor at WhatCulture.com. When he isn't writing his own articles or editing other people's, he can be found trawling the internet for gifs of Steven Moffat laughing. Contact him via dan.butler@whatculture.co.uk.
