Doctor Who: 14 Most Paused Moments Of The Last Decade

5. The Time Lords Returns (The End Of Time)

The Tenth Doctor went out in flames of glory on New Year's Day 2010 and the momentous moment had certainly been prepared for with a preceding year of 'specials' which didn't really contribute to the overriding narrative of his impending regeneration until the last possible minute. Still, there was so much going on in his final adventure - and then some - that you were probably pausing it all the way through, but let's just talk about that climactic cliffhanger of part one when it was revealed that the episode's ominous narrator was actually Rassilon, Lord President of the Time Lords (OK, he was actually Timothy Dalton - let's not get the lines overly blurred here!), who proceeded to restore his doomed race to their former glory by saving them from the confines of their Gallifreyan time lock. Blimey. Russell T Davies really was going out no holds barred, wasn't he? And let's just be thankful he was, because the momentous moment made for one of the most memorable cliffhangers in Doctor Who history and let's not forget the slightly small matter of the Master transforming the entire human race into replicas of himself. It was almost too much for our Whovian brains to handle on Christmas Day, but there was the image of Bernard Cribbins wearing reindeer antlers to more than make up for it. Seriously, though. The Time Lords were back and it was already like they had never been away. It's a shame they were tragically overused in part two but that doesn't detract from the initial impact of their long overdue return. It was, after all, for the end of time itself. Not pompous at all, then.