Doctor Who: 10 Biggest "OMG!" Moments In New Who

The Name Of The Doctor is the series 7 finale episode and also the lead in to the much anticipated 50th Anniversary special Day of The Doctor. It is well known that Season 7 suffered a bit in the scripting department as showrunner Steven Moffat was so busy throwing all of his efforts into the 50th anniversary special and The Name of The Doctor possibly suffers the most. This really isn’t a story in its own right, yes it builds up the Nightmare Men and the return of Richard E. Grant as The Great Intelligence, but they ultimately come to nothing. This episode was really more of a prologue for the upcoming 50th but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t make us squeal “OMG!”

In this episode The Doctor and Clara discover the place of The Doctor’s burial and, inside the ruins of a breaking-down TARDIS, they discover the raw flow of The Doctor’s own personal timeline. As The Great Intelligence steps into the timestream in order to simultaneously defeat The Doctor at all points in his timeline, Clara follows behind in order to rescue The Doctor at all points (thus explaining her multiple appearances in previous stories and setting up any potential further appearances).

Once the shenanigans are over, Clara and The Doctor find themselves in a dark part of the timestream, prior incarnations of The Doctor run back and forth, memories of his previous selves. We catch glimpses of every previous Doctor as each one goes about their business, all located in this central nexus of The Doctors history. But there’s an extra figure, one not accounted for. “Who is that?” asks Clara. “He’s my secret” The Doctor tells her. As Clara passes out, the mysterious figure states that he did what he did in the name of piece and The Doctor responds: “but not in the name of The Doctor.” The figure turns around to reveal legendary British actor John Hurt, a huge name for Doctor Who in the first place, but then a caption informs us; “Introducing John Hurt as The Doctor.”

That’s it, cut to credits, theme music, etc. It’s a hell of a shocking ending and the revelation that there was an extra Doctor meant there were going to be ramifications to the entire show (as explored in The Time Of The Doctor when it is revealed The Doctor has run out of regenerations). The fact that they managed to secure such a notable actor as John Hurt for the role really sent the message that the 50th special was going to be a huge event and really kicked the build up into high gear.