35. The Fires of Pompeii - Save Someone
The second moment from 'The Fires of Pompeii' to make it into this list, Donna stands up to the Doctor. He refuses to interfere having put time back on track. He returns to the house of Caecillius who is huddling his family as his house collapses around him. The Doctor refuses to help and runs back to the TARDIS. This is probably the first time weve ever seen the Doctor turn his back on innocent people crying for his help. He almost takes off without Donna. This is the Doctor at his most cold. In the TARDIS he ignores Donnas protest accepting that these people have to die as its a fixed point, he had to accept it before in the Time War. But he gives in to Donnas last plea, to just save someone. We never see the Doctor make a decision, just the weeping Caecillius family hearing the sound of the TARDIS, which at that moment is the best sound in the universe and they are bathed in its light a guardian angel. Its a beautiful moment as he pulls them aboard his ship to safety. So grateful were they that they made the Doctor and Donna their gods. However in this scene we see a Doctor at his very coldest. Its an extremely powerful and in many ways heartbreaking scene, brilliant performances by David Tennant and Catherine Tate.
34. Family of Blood - A Normal Life
Some might argue that all that the Doctor has ever wanted is a normal life, purely because its the kind of life he can never have. He can do so much but he couldnt settle down, get married or have kids again. When he becomes human however he is bestowed with the values and heart of a human and he falls in love. But when the Family of Blood begin bombing the nearby village the only way to stop it is to bring back the Doctor. Something the human John Smith will not do easily. When he realises the choice is inevitable, for a split second when he and sweetheart Joan Redfern touch the watch at the same time, they live out their life together, marriage, kids, even death. This is the closest the Doctor will ever get to living a normal life. And so, John Smith sacrifices himself and his love to become the Doctor again. Its all a tragic tease for the poor John Smith and it is a very moving moment.
33. The Empty Child The Transformation
The return of the Daleks certainly reassured us that Doctor Who or rather the Daleks still had the fear factor. But could the new series create something original that was just as chilling? Answer, yes. When the Doctor goes to see Dr. Constantine at the hospital, where the patients are all Gas Mask Zombies, the poor Dr. Constantine coughs and splutters his last words in his chair. Those words being Are you my mummy? before he transforms into a Gas Mask Zombie himself in a horrifying scene that is really quite graphic. Praise to the special effects department and Richard Wilson for such a disturbing and creepy scene. Doctor Who definitely still has it.
32. Forest of the Dead - Saved Her
This is another of those triumphant heroic scenes that makes you want to punch the air. After having just had to mourn the death of River Song, he leaves her diary and her sonic screwdriver in the Library. The Doctor is still trying to work something out about the whole situation, not entirely sure what it is, how he can have this foreknowledge and not have done anything with it. The penny is in the air as the Doctor and Donna walk away only for him to about turn and pick up her screwdriver that he gave to her and asks why. Inside a tiny neural relay containing her memories which the Doctor sprints across the whole library with, jumps down a massive gravity lift before legging it to the data core of the library and uploading her, to live forever. Times like this make you think the Doctor is brilliant.
31. Blink - Dont Blink
How could this not be in the list of greatest moments. How Steven Moffat managed to write this scene is a miracle, almost as big a miracle as making an episode without the Doctor, good. But having Sally Sparrow having a conversation over DVD and 40 years in the past is nothing short of brilliant. After a philosophical debate about time the Doctor terminates the conversation and gives Sally and important warning, Dont Blink became synonymous with the word statue as the Weeping Angels converge.