Doctor Who: 15 Greatest NuWho Deaths So Far

When it comes to death, it doesn't get much bigger than the death of the entire universe. While the Doctor had travelled to the end of the universe before, in his tenth Incarnation, he'd generally managed to stop the universe being killed before its time. Not in this case. The Silence (presumably) blow up the TARDIS while the coalition of enemies trap the Time Lord in the Pandorica, causing the universe to fracture and die, meaning that the Eleventh Doctor had to find some way to reboot it.

The death of the entire universe raises the stakes for the end of Series 5, giving the Doctor one of his biggest challenges to date. It also allows for a number of weird and wacky occurrences, including a stone Dalek reawakening and penguins in the sahara, that help create the feeling that anything might happen.

However, at the same time it allows for a more intimate character story. The stakes are large but due to the low cast needed for a universe where everyone is being wiped out of existence, fans get to spend more time with the central emsemble, discovering how they deal with the problems at hand. This also allows for the gradual de-escalation of finale stakes, creating more options for future writers than "bigger than last year!".