Doctor Who: 10 Scariest Episodes That Sent Us All Behind The Sofa

4. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances

The superlatives constantly heaped on Steven Moffat's first Doctor Who two-parter are seemingly never-ending, aren't they? In many ways, it's the ultimate NewWho episode, but it's also one of the scariest pieces of television in the Moff's career. The child is extremely creepy, but the way the episode deals with the threat is, well, fantastic. Nine begins looking for clues through the war-torn London streets, ending up in a hospital filled with the undead; there, he meets another Doctor, one who's slowly morphing into the creature itself; there's a terrifying sequence when Eccleston looks on in horror, as Richard Wilson's elderly doctor coughs up a gas mask. The danger, for the most part, is all around and pressing in. The scariest moment by far though is the now-classic moment when the Doctor, Rose and Jack can still hear the child, but the Doctor declares, "The tape ran out thirty seconds ago." It's a scene that didn't just send kids behind a sofa, it curdled blood.