Doctor Who Series 10: 10 Biggest WTF Moments
8. A Visit From The Pope
It’s a safe bet that in Doctor Who a domestic scene is going to be rudely interrupted in the most unlikely of ways. We’ve seen deadly Christmas trees in the living room, spoonheaded robots on the stairs and even an Ood on the loo. But the most shocking home visit of series 10 wasn’t the Pilot or even the alien woodworm – it was the unannounced entrance of his holiness Pope whatshisname. What a way to ruin a first date.
As if to accentuate the absurdity of the scene, the TARDIS translation circuits fail and the Pope pontificates in Latin to the bemusement of Bill and Penny. Setting the scene in Bill’s house instead of the Doctor’s university office might have made it a cheap gag, but it did also bring up a serious point about unnecessary guilt and the judgement of the church.
Even though in The Pyramid at the End of the World the real Bill gets a similarly unannounced visit, this time from the real secretary general of the UN, it’s not half as shocking as the Pope turning up. Whilst theological themes abound it’s rare that contemporary religious institutions and their mediators are given such a prominent role in an episode of Doctor Who (The Daemons, The Curse of Fenric).