9. "I Just Wanted To Say... I'm So Sorry"
What with all the running around dodging asteroids and bitchy trampolines that's going on in The End of the World, it's easy to overlook this moment. After all, it was the beginning of the whole new series, we still didn't know if we were totally behind this glossy new upstart. Everything's moving so fast. There aren't any cliffhangers. And the new Doctor seems so surface level and vacuous. Which of course was exactly how he was supposed to feel, had we but known it at the time. This was a Doctor closed off from his emotions, living entirely on the surface level because anything deeper than that just hurt too much. And Jabe the Tree Woman stripped it all away with a touch on the hand and a kind word of sympathy. Nothing too intrusive. Nothing pushy or disrespectful. A touch on the hand and the knowledge that someone cared. And suddenly that was The Doctor standing in front of us. It worked on a plot level because it was the first tease about the time war which at the time we still knew nothing about. But on a character level it worked so much better. Because that's the heart of romance - finding a connection to the emotional level. Breaking out of the things that restrict and hold you back. Even if that means learning to embrace your pain.