Scariest Ever Doctor Who

[Rob McCow]

What do we reckon is the scariest ever moment in Doctor Who? What really sends the shivers down the spine? Although there's a difference between what scared you as a child and what actually is the most frightening.

For me it has to be the whole idea of shop dummies coming to life. Although it's never been perfectly realised in the show - for it to be absolutely terrifying, it'd have to be dummies that were obviously not people dressed up.

Although in the new series, the bit where the beast appears on the screen in The Impossible Planet didn't half make me jump!

What makes Doctor Who properly scary?

[Dirk Gently]

I'll have to give this some thought because off the top of my head I can't think of anything that made me jump or that I've found scary.

[Pip Madeley]

Mr Quill.

[Jeff]

I'd be pretty much with Tim, except for the Angels from Blink. That was a pretty damn worthy horror story, a good concept well realized.

[Jason Thompson]

The Angels in Blink were the first monster that really made me jump, and the episode was quite creepy.

On a different level, I find the situation that the Doctor finds himself in repeatedly in the classic series (though not so much in the new) very scary: that of being dismissed as a spy or saboteur or liar by someone who could have him shot, despite the fact that he is only trying to help and has been quite truthful. Not like when he's telling people how he happened to be somewhere by travelling through time and space, which they could hardly be expected to believe, but for example having found a dead person and being assumed by others to be the murderer just because they find him with the body. The idea of being surrounded by people who refuse to believe a word you say when you repeatedly tell them nothing but the truth, when these people have some power over what happens to you, frankly terrifies me. The best example I can think of off the top of my head is the Doctor and Peri's plight in part 1 of The Caves Of Androzani, where they face being executed despite being totally innocent and just having the misfortune to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Stephen Morgan]

Even though Doctor Who never gave me nightmares as a child, I remember that Mission to the Unknown was quite a scary episode. And recently while listening to the audio I was reminded about how scary it was when characters Garvey and Lowery are attacked by Varga plants, and their subsequent, slow degeneration into vicious plant like beings. I wonder what kind of impact an episode like this would have on youngsters today?

[duncan]

I found The Sae Devils and Morbius quite scarey as a child, but the new series has scared my kids on a few occasions. The Unquiet Dead was the first story to do that, then The Reapers did the trick. The Wearwolf scared them too, but nothing scared my daughter more than the wardrobe monster in Fear Her. I had to check the wardrobe in her bedroom for several nights afterwards before she would go to bed.

[Joe Meredith]

I was going to mention the Angels in 'Blink' as well - I thought they were extremely unsettling, just by the sheer simplicity of their concept - the bit at the end when they were advancing was definitely the scariest moment in Doctor Who. As a kid, the Vervoids really frightened me though; with them sneaking around in the dingy recesses of the ship, and their sudden appearances out of the air conditioning to attack, made me keep the landing light on for a few weeks after!

[Milky Tears]

I agree with the Pipster on this one.

[SiHart]

It was always stories with people getting possessed and losing control of their own minds that got me. I was really scared by Kinda and Snakedance when I was young- especially the scenes in Tegan's mind in Kinda and the the end of Snakedance which was really scary when I was 7.

Otherwise, I was scared of Scaroth pulling his face off, the Cybermen in Earthshock (and their androids that could turn you to mush) and the Melkur statue unnerved me.

Si xx

[Andrew Curnow]

I don't remember ever being scared by Doctor Who, not even as a time tot. Maybe it's because it was always a warm family time, I don't know.

That said, I was a little unsettled by the appearance of George Cranleigh in "Black Orchid" (perhaps because he was a human who had been disfigured rather than an ugly alien). And I did find the 'unzipping' clip in the "Aliens of London" trailer rather spooky too.

[Dino]

I found The Sae Devils and Morbius.

Yes, but at least The Sae Devils were foiled by the recent postal strike.

[Dirk Gently]

Very good Dino, very good.

[chalkie]

we have an authentic ww2 gas mask, when my sons find it they invariably start with the " mummy? are you my mummy..." v scary ep

[duncan]

Yes, but at least The Sae Devils were foiled by the recent postal strike.

Yes, very good. Thanks for pointing out my failings in the spelling department.

[Stuart Wallis]

Probably the idea of being dragged off and operated on unneccessarily, as happened to Polly in The Underwater Menace, or similarly the Marshchild waking up and finding itself in the same position in Full Circle.