Taking home the silver in our countdown of 2014's most memorable Doctor Who moments is this heartwarming scene from Listen in which Clara encountered the Doctor as a young child. The episode in question would still be one of this year's most acclaimed with or without this particular scene so it's inclusion really is just the icing on the cake. Even though the show has now been running for 51 years, viewers still remain pretty much in the dark as far as their knowledge of the Doctor's childhood on Gallifrey is concerned. It's probably reached the point of no return now, anyway. The overriding mystery and enigma of the show's mythology would suffer if they told us too much about his formative years but this scene gave us an intriguing insight into them without overwhelming us with detail. Listen explored our irrational phobia of monsters creeping under our beds and it was reassuring to find out that it's something that the grand old Doctor himself has always feared, too. Luckily for him, though, he had Clara Oswald at his side to affirm that there was nothing to fear. As she pointed out, fear makes a companion of us all so it's OK to be scared sometimes - it's how you utilise the fear that counts. The Doctor's been utilising it pretty well thus far, wouldn't you agree?
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.
