Doctor Who Series 10: 10 Biggest WTF Moments
6. Bill Shoots The Doctor
The Lie of the Land may as well have been called WTF given
how many of such moments it featured. From the opening narration with the
Doctor appearing to be in league with the Monks to Missy’s tears at the end, the episode
through several curve-balls at us. The biggest talking point was the Doctor’s
fake regeneration, but it was the act that triggered it that was the most
shocking.
In Thin Ice Bill had been appalled when she discovered that not only was the Doctor accustomed to death, but that he was a killer himself. She learnt a valuable lesson on the frozen Thames, but ended up trusting him nonetheless. Her trust in the Doctor was so strong that in The Pyramid at the End of the World she handed over the Earth to the Monks in a desperate bid to keep him alive.
Resistant to the conditioning of the Monks, Bill believes the Doctor has a plan and that he is being forced into being the Monks’ chief publicist. But what does she do when she and Nardole smuggle their way to him? Shoots him, that’s what. She doesn’t go for the leg, she shoots to kill. Boom. As WFT moments go they don’t get much more dramatic and out of character than that.
The Doctor has been shot at before of course – once even by his future wife, River Song, but Bill isn’t under any nefarious influence. The Doctor loved it of course - it confirmed his arrogant belief that he could manipulate even his closest allies.