15 Shocking Doctor Who Plot Twists That Nobody Saw Coming

2. Introducing The War Doctor

Just when Doctor Who fans thought they were finally getting their heads around the ever evolving Doctor Who mythology, Steven Moffat went and threw an almighty spanner into the works at the end of the Series 7: Part 2 finale. If you hadn't noticed by now, he does that quite a lot. Suffice to say, announcing that there has been a secret incarnation of the Doctor that nobody ever knew about was a revelation that nobody had been expecting and the fact that he was to be played by John Hurt was just the cherry on top of the timey-wimey cake. All he had to do was turn around and stare ominously down the camera and he had fans eternally wrapped around his little finger. As a veteran of the stage and scree, how could you not succumb to the show-stealing persona of his almighty presence? There was definitely a lot of history - and not to mention heartache - behind those troubled guilt-ridden eyes but just who was this secret Doctor and what was his significance? Why had the mere memory of him been banished to the darkest shadows of the Doctor's timestream? Viewers only had to wait 6 months to find out (it seemed like an impossible task at the time) before their answers were finally revealed in the momentous 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor. Before that, though, the War Doctor made a fleeting appearance in a surprise prequel which also marked the return of another Doctor...