Doctor Who: 10 Times The Doctor Went Too Far

The Runaway Bride sees the Tenth Doctor in his peak emo era. He’s still mourning the loss of Rose and isn’t taking their new long-distance relationship too well. In short, he’s on a dark path, though the extent of his slip into madness isn’t revealed until the closing moments.

Under the Thames Barrier, the Doctor faces off against the Empress of the Racnoss, and is driven to an act of terrible violence. He decides to flood her lair, drowning her along with untold numbers of her freshly-hatched children, and, if he has his way, himself.

He stands in the downpour and the fire, staring down on the massacre below with a stone-faced expression, clearly practising for his upcoming music video.

The Empress repeatedly screaming about her children might slightly undercut the seriousness of the moment, but make no mistake, this is dark as hell. There’s no quip. No clever escape plan. Just the Doctor drowning some babies with no-one to stop him.

And as we see in Turn Left, if Donna Noble hadn't been around, he really would have gone all the way.