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

3. Losing Handles

Doctor Who The Snowmen Clara Ice Governess
BBC

While this one is similar to the losses of Astrid and Clara in that it's a companion death, we're giving Handles his own separate entry because the circumstances are completely different from those other two.

For one thing, Handles wasn't a bubbly young female - he was a severed Cyberman head. And for another, he didn't just work with the Doctor for a single, brief adventure - he worked with him for a vast portion of the Siege Of Trenzalore. As we mentioned before, this siege stretched on for centuries, and because of this, Handles is actually one of the longest-serving companions in the history of the show.

This in mind, it's no surprise that the Doctor is absolutely heartbroken when Handles shuts down halfway through The Time Of The Doctor.

The Doctor spoke to Handles like he was a living, breathing person, and even gave him his own little spot to lie down and enjoy the sunrise. The two of them were partners for hundreds of years, and Handles was a constant companion the Doctor could rely on throughout the siege. It's amazing how attached the Doctor was to this funny little robot head, and in the end, Handles' death hit him with an emotional wallop that's normally reserved for the departures of regular TARDIS companions.

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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.