Doctor Who: 10 Worst Things That Have Happened To The Doctor At Christmas

6. Getting His Hand Chopped Off

Doctor Who The Snowmen Clara Ice Governess
BBC Studios

Another eventful Christmas for the Tenth Doctor, 2005's The Christmas Invasion was his first proper outing in his brand-new body, and during a final battle with the Sycorax leader, the durability of that body was certainly put to the test.

As it turns out, the Tenth Doctor is quite adept at swordfighting, like several of his other incarnations before him. So when he challenges the Sycorax leader to a duel, he manages to hold his own for a significant portion of the fight - until disaster strikes when his Sycorax foe pins him down, and chops off his hand.

Okay, it's not really a disaster, because fortunately, the Doctor had only just regenerated, and thus, his body contained enough "residual cellular energy" to allow him to regrow that lost hand in an instant. Which he does. And it's a fightin' hand!

So yes, the Doctor is ultimately unscathed here, but he still seems pretty distressed in the seconds following the loss of his hand, so it can't have been a pleasant experience for him - even though he did have a cheeky grin on his face a few moments later.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.