A friends son cosplayed with the gas mask kid and went to a con. Down to the outfit and perfect accent for "Are you my mummy?" She said she'd never seen so many adults completely freak out before.
If we’re talking “disturbing” rather that scary then I think the winner would have to be Turn Left for the labour camp scene alone, such a dark, pessimistic look at reality that was then explored further in Children of Earth
Turn Left was a blueprint for Years and Years, RTD’s later show that portrayed society decaying to the point where the UK becomes a literal dictatorship. Glad he got to exploit those ideas in a broader environment.
@@lewiskazinsky7334 turn left was more the blueprint for miracle day that he then could explore further and how he wanted to outside a doctor who environment in years and years
Fun fact silence in the library was my first doctor who episode that I ever watched..... if we only knew how sad that episode is with river. When ever I rewatch it I always shed a tear when she realizes he dosent recognize her
It wasn’t just the imagery that made the Empty Child scary. The script was ripe with graphic descriptions adding to the visuals. That line that”something is pushing up from down your throat” paints a profound mental experience in the audience. You feel what your seeing
That's exactly right, I don't know how it's done but sometimes writers just use a few words that inspire some pretty nightmarish ideas without actually showing them. Some extremely low budget horror webshows I've seen have scared the pants off me more than any high budget horror film!
@@zaccarpenter621 yeah just the fact that they are child’s dolls and that just a touch could cause you to never see the light of day again creeped me out
I'd give an honorable mention to Planet of the Ood, just for that transformation scene alone. The story with nonchalant modern day slave trade, executions and lobotomies is more disturbing in sense of implications rather than imagery, but that one shot of the executive ripping off his scalp and vomiting out the tentacles and his brain is maybe the most distgusting shot of NW.
I think one thing you forgot about Fear Her is the domestic abuse idea/theory behind Chloe’s dad. Which explains why Chloe and her mum is scared of him and their fear when the drawing of her dad comes to life.
I’m surprised “turn left” wasn’t on the list. That episode was really really dark. Heck it ends with a companion technically Dying. Still appart from the spider these were interesting choices
I wouldn't have gone "hey wait a sec" I would jump back and be like "holy shit we need to get out of here, run to the back of the train and cry in a corner, that's before even knowing it was dangerous, a black figure running towards you? Nah you would gtfo
@@fretboardmaster70 Birds in general, had a kookaburra steal a bit of steak off me and hit me in the face on the way through. Might've lost an eye if I wasn't wearing sunnies.
That was a great episode, but I'm surprised that this video, which is about disturbing content, makes no mention of the suicide at the end. That single gunshot and the look on the Doctor's face gives me chills each time I watch it.
Come on, really? Where's "Flatline"? It's basically the core premise of "Fear Her" (people ending up as 2-dimensional representations of themselves), only executed with a *much* creepier vibe. For one thing, people actually *die* in "Flatline". The scene where PC Forrest got pulled into the floor by the Boneless and then ended up as a cross-section of her nervous system painted on the wall is the stuff of nightmares. Not to mention how the actual Boneless look when they try to enter 3-dimensional space *wearing the skins of their victims.* I actively avoided that one for the longest time after first seeing it, because it creeped me out so much.
I also like Hell Bent. Lovely twist with the memory wipe, bittersweet end to Clara but she gets to own her fate, and I did not mind that they didn’t make more of the return to Gallifrey. Downplaying it was actually quite smart IMO, to the point where Chibnall blowing it up again seemed pointless.
Blink and Midnight used to scare me when I was a kid !! Still gives me chills now. Bonus: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances also used to give me chills but I’m okay with it now
You missed Planet of the Ood. In that one, the ood's origins are explore. We find out that they're born with a secondary brain, which is removed and replaced with the translator ball (like a lobotomy), and later we see someone being gruesomely transformed into an ood, very similar to the mindflayer transformation in the Baldur's Gate 3 trailer.
Asylum of the Daleks might be the most disturbing, if for no reason other than that we sort of feel bad for the Daleks. We get to see how "crazy" Daleks see themselves. The scene where Amy goes through a room and we (and Amy) see the Daleks how they see themselves- human- is truly hard to watch because of the implications, especially since one is shown as a child. (Also Amy and Rory's relationship for most of the episode is hard to watch because they're supposed to be together but they spend the episode basically divorced and fighting).
In that case, wouldn’t the Lumic Cybermen be even _More_ disturbing, since we see their self-loathing turn into literal-self-destructive insanity?; and not only that, but these are _Humans_ that are _forcibly_ turned into inhuman monsters _against their will!_ (as opposed to alien squids that are angry for having impure genetics.)
The cold opening of the Shakespeare Code always scared me as a kid. I could never stand the sound of torn flesh and pained screams as the witches rip that boy to pieces
World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls? A companion mortally wounded, whisked away to the medical unit, to only see her condition get worse as she is left more or less alone for what essentially amounts to several years, until she ends up being converted into one of the first Mondasian Cybermen, only to retain some of her emotions and to be aware that she had been transformed into a Cyberman, and is unable to look at herself, and has many of the residents of the ship looking at her with fear and disgust. Also, you know, two Masters making googly eyes at each other.
What you say about the Weeping Angels has me thinking again, about that whole thing with the human epigenetic aversion to the “Uncanny Valley” - that anything which looks close to human, but isn’t, makes us uncomfortable. The RL fridge horror question people often ask with this is, “What were our neolithic ancestors so frightened of, that the fear of it has stayed in our genetic memories?” Perhaps the answer is simpler than we thought: Some hominids who hunted our distant ancestors - be they fellow homosapiens, or their neanderthal cousins - may have made themselves look like statues, or other effigies, as a disguise, which they’d use as a lure, a trap, or to give more innocent folk a false sense of security. Imagine being one of your pre-historic forebears, and finding a cave or a shrine, with a very human-sized statue stood in it. You might be fascinated, curious, even reverent of what appears to be a divine figure made to look similar to one of your own. And it doesn’t move, so surely it was just made, sculpted, and left there, right? But when you get too close, THEN it moves, and attacks you, or one of your less fortunate kin! Yes, humans have ALWAYS been scared of things that look human enough, but don’t move or act like they’re human. The fact that the earliest of our ancestors also had to learn to spot human faces, in order to see through such disguises, is probably the best explanation for pareidolia - where we notice faces, even in ordinary and innocuous objects.
Not sure if it's just me, but "The Lodger" scared me quite a bit, especially with the camera shots looking up the stairs and a creepy silhouette is just staring down.
Inferno gave me some bad chills- it's basically a zombie apocalypse with natural disasters and people avoiding scientific warnings for persona gain. From a fan when he came back from Australia, he said that after Curse of Fenric was broadcasted everyone was telling him how great the show was getting. I found the Massacre, the Daleks' master plan and planet of the ood disturbing.
Special mention to ‘Ghost Light’ from Sylvester McCoy’s era...taking Ace to a place she found creepy as a child at the time that caused the place to be haunted? One of the most classic ghost stories I recall from my childhood...was right on level with any of the 60s Hammer films
I'm surprised that 'Rose', 'Spearhead from space' and 'Terror of the Autons' weren't on here. Spearhead freaked me out as a kid, especially when the autons break out of the shop windows. After watching that scene numerous times, I was so scared, I couldn't walk past a shop window with mannequins for ages. Same with Rose. Especially the costumes they had for Spearhead. The masks made it more creepy. Terror of the Autons want that scary for me, except for the daffodil scene with Jo. Now that did freak me.
It causes me distress to think about that episode, because it implies that the entire series, all the way back to the First Doctor, is just a dream, and each regeneration was just an attempt at trying to escape the dream Crab hallucination.
The Empty Child scarred me for life! Thanks Doctor who! I can’t believe the ‘Don’t cremate me’ episode didn’t get a mention though, that was eerie! Also the Library, shadows who eat you and take over your consciousness is pretty disturbing.
I think that was because the episode was everywhere with it's focus. One minute, we're focusing on The Doctor talking to some old priest while Ace was fucking around, and the next second, we're onto some old archeologist deciphering old Scottish texts.
A lot is self explanatory. However, they filmed 4.5 episodes worth of content, and rather than flesh it into 5 episodes, they cut it down to 4, so bits are missing. Here's a run-down. Doctor Judson is a fictional version of Alan Turing (Enigma Machine vs Ultima Machine), and he's mostly there to decipher Nazi messages during World War 2, but the commanding Officer (Millington) wants him to decrypt viking symbols located around the area. Simultaneously, a group of Russian's are on a secret mission to steal the Ultima machine -- but this is all part of Millington's plan. He's easing security around the base and preparing for their arrival, waiting for them to steal it (while it's packed full of chemical weapons). This all part of a plan conjured by Fenric -- the definition of evil -- trapped inside a flask by the Doctor long ages past, which is hidden somewhere inside the base. All the 'main players' are Wolves of Fenric, descendants of the Viking's who bore that flask through time, and they are considered Fenric's 'chess pieces' (Chess being the game the Doctor used to trap Fenric in the first place). Like it or not, all of the Wolves have a part to play in releasing Fenric. Turns out, the plan Millington has for the chemical weapons is precisely the type of act which created the Haemovores -- a future version of humans who succumbed to aggressive industrial pollution, covering the planet in toxic chemical slime, thus they were forced to live under water and feed on blood (hence they are blue, bloated, tentacled, and vampiric). This is the same fate Fenric has in store for the current timeline via Millington's chemical weapons vs the Russians and Germans. Millington thinks detonating chemical warfare overseas will help win the war, but he doesn't know it will facilitate destroying the planet over time, creating an era that will once again lead to a new age of Haemovores. Unknown to Ace (but secretly known by the Doctor), she is one of the Wolves of Fenric, planted in Dragon Fire (Season 24) by Fenric to meet with the Doctor, accompany him, and help release Fenric from the flask, which she (unknowingly) does by telling Doctor Judson how to decrypt the viking runes. Once the machine does this, the Haemovores are summoned from their own time period and start converting the locals, and eventually, Fenric is also released from the flask, allowing him to use the Haemovores to summon the last remaining chess piece - The Ancient One (Hastur the Unspeakable). Now that Fenric's free, he needs a body -- as that sheer amount of evil cannot be sustained inside the crippled body of Judson -- and naturally, after being trapped for 17 centuries by the Doctor, Fenric has a little bit of a grudge. So, it's time to kill all the humans, get a hot new bod, kill the Doctor, and decimate the universe! However, the Doctor finally managed to secure a chess board and sets up the same trap as before, and while Fenric is partially trapped by the puzzle once again, the Doctor has a chat with the Ancient One. The Doctor informs the Ancient One that Fenric's plan will simply lead to the exact same outcome for its people as before -- another polluted planet with them eventually stuck under the sea once again, and that chat comes AFTER Fenric had ordered all Haemovores (except the Ancient One) to be killed off, so it's the only one left. Naturally, the big fishy boi is not too happy about any of this, so a pact is made off-screen. While Fenric struggles with the puzzle, Ace -- who realized the solution by witnessing the Brits and Russians team up to take down Fenric -- informs Soren of the winning move, who she doesn't notice was Fenric in a new body. So yeah, she fulfilled her purpose as a Wolf of Fenric, giving him the winning move, and thus, the Doctor has no way of trapping him any more. Whelp, that's it. 99% of the base is dead, Fenric wins the game, Doctor loses, case closed, time for a slimy end to the world -- but as always, the Doctor had planned for this. Ace doesn't know this, of course, because the Seventh Doctor is a sneaky, slippery and secretive Doctor keeping everyone in the dark. She has complete faith in him, which repels Haemovores (including the Ancient One), so the Doctor is forced to smash her faith in him (to allow the Ancient One to attack Fenric -- which destroys both antagonists in one move). The base blows up, life moves on, and the Doctor + Ace add another wedge between their relationship due to the Doctor being a devious little bastid. ...Or something...
STORIES not episodes, but I do like your list. What about death in heaven where its suggested people are still conscious after death, "dont cremate me!" or Torchwoods children of Earth
Doctor who: The doctor falls When bill becomes a cyberman that was pretty freaky, or when anyone became a cyberman. I recall another scene where someone was talking about how they felt so cold after a piece broke allowing them to feel and be human again. Having human emotions while being dismembered and frozen inside a metal shell killing machine is enough to drive anyone insane.
I always thought The Two Doctors and Vengeance on Varos were quite disturbing. The Colin Baker era was certainly good at getting reactions out of its violent nature
The Empty Child for me. Especially when you watch it with little kids either side parroting the show and the lights off. “Are you my mummy?” in stereo is seriously chilling... 😱
I think Midnight and Blink are the scariest. Also the Silence. How did you miss that? I’ve been watching who since the early 70s and never found any episode in older who particularly horrifying.
Honestly don't think they've included the silence on any list which makes me think they have something against it because if anything should have been on this list its the silence cuz the whole concept is basically we can't say something like the silence doesn't exist cuz we wouldn't remember if we ever saw them and they are supposedly always watching so if you feel like you're being watched its supposed to be them but you'll never remember... Like how is anything on this list more disturbing?
For disturbing... The Greatest Show in the Galaxy... Bellboy's suicide followed by the Chief Clown's reaction... This era had a lot there for a "family" show
I forgot the title of the episodes (I think it was a two parter) of the 10th Doctor and the cybermen where you can hear people screaming for decapitation while everyone were forced to wait in line while hearing the screams with the sound of an electric saw. Decapitations were off camera, but I think the episode was very disturbing.
Honestly it just becomes hilarious to me with the recent revelation that the knocking on the door was actually just Jack Harkness and River Song pulling a prank.
Doesn't even mention the most disturbing part of Asylum of the Daleks, namely that they can aparently now turn humans into daleks. Before it was implied that they could make daleks out of human cells, by searching for and mutating cells with appropriate cellular structures but this one cranks it up one more notch with Oswin being turned bodily, while she was still alive, into a dalek, and still being alive at the end of it, now alive as a dalek.
The Ark in Space: Most horrific use of green bubble wrap. 5th segment Key to Time: When Krull pulled a man into the drain pipe. Arachnids in the UK: The apartment of the first victim they encountered. The family of blood. The Heaven Sent creature.
Sadly, I am not yet finished with classic Who, but until now (I'm at season 12) there are a few which were quite disturbing: The Sensorites: Physically not appealing, scary and just dangerous, the eponymous Sensorites were something I would not like to meet The Dalek Invasion of Earth: The cliffhanger of the Dalek emerging from the Thames gave me the chills The Time Meddler: first time seeing someone evil, who is also the kind of the Doctor - the term Timelord wasn't established yet The War Machines: for todays standards not that disturbing, but 50 years ago computers were a thing most people did not understand. a computer controlling tank-like machines was surely disturbing back then The Tenth Planet: first story with the Cybermen, plus death of the first doctor: disturbingly enough The Enemy of the World: If you see Patrick as both the doctor and the main antigonist it was unsettling (and brilliant) Spearhead from Space: First appearance of the Autons. Next to their really weird appearance, some episodes were rather graphic. The Green Death: Dangerous Green Goo everywhere. Yuck. Not counting the Masters and Dalek Episodes since I'm too biased :D
'The Time Meddler' is great, but quite light hearted - apart from one part of terrible darkness - when the Vikings raid the village, Wulnoth finds his wife, Edith, in shock, and in a dishevelled state. His fury at the Vikings is justified. Edith had been raped. It was written as such, but removed, as strong material like that was not suitable for an early time slot. However, if you know how Viking raiders operated, it's easy to understand Wulnoth's anger, and the reason behind it.
@@brianartillery now that you say it, I remember. when I first saw it, I definitely had the feeling they were implying it. The whole section was cut rather short, and I had no further thoughts about it. Mainly because of "it's doctor who after all" and to my knowledge it being a TV show not mainly targeted at adults. But I definitely agree. (still watching classic who, currently at season 13)
For me the most disturbing episodes are "Blink" and "Empty Child" "Blink" because I already have a problem with feeling that someone/something is watching me and wants to kill me and "Empty Child" is kind of self-explanatory. I still really like this episode and I make jokes about "are you my mummy" everytime I see one poster in my school (it's from global warming protest where one of protestors wears a gas mask. No one understands this joke as I'm probably the only one watching Doctor Who in my class but still it's funny to me)
You've missed out easily the most disturbing episodes. From Peter Capaldi's first season Dark Water/Death In Heaven. Tackling what happens after you die was something Doctor Who should have probably left alone. Definitely not kids stuff and the reason why the BBC received many complaints after its first showing.
and the it turned out that there was no heaven , peoples minds where just being uploaded to a Cybermatrix computer thingy, so there was no heaven keeping through to Doctors Whos comitment to an atheistic view of the world
Those three words of dialogue... You know the ones I mean. For someone watching, especially a young person, who has recently said their final goodbyes to a loved relative or close friend, or even a beloved pet, hearing those three words must have been unbearable. I disagree entirely with the Doctor Who production team for allowing that dialogue to remain. Utterly unforgivable.
Blink is a sequence that can also be shown very well to people who are not yet Dr. Who have seen episode. This works because the doctor is not the main character, but strangers who also have no idea about anything.
Planet of the Spiders was the first Who I ever saw. I was 6. Scared the crap out of me and I've been a fan ever since. In the awful Chibnal era it's good to be reminded of just how epic Who can be.
I can’t remember the name of the episode but it featured the 11th Doctor and Amy (as well as River Song) with a very different take on the Weeping Angels. Possession, cold-blooded murder and extreme paranoia.
0:02 ' "Doctor Who's a kids' show" they said'. If, by "they", you mean the BBC - no, they didn't. They've always pointed out that it's never been produced by their children's department: it comes from Drama. It was always transmitted in a pre-watershed, family-time slot, so I understand where this comes from. In any case, my distant recollection of childhood includes being absolutely delighted when I was scared out of my wits. Probably something to do with the adrenaline. It was Mary Whitehouse who tried to convince the BBC that you shouldn't scare children. I spent many a happy Saturday evening behind the sofa watching Jon Pertwee (possibly a bit of Troughton, though I don't actually remember) through half-closed eyes. Anyway, I'm only 2 seconds into the video: you'll probably address this and make me look like a right plonker, which would be par for the course. Play on!
The Empty Child is definitely among the scariest due to fear of the unknown, Midnight is more of a psychological Horror as is Blink as you don't know what'll happen next, but Midnight does that bit better. The Satan Pit is definitely more mythological, supernatural horror.
@@julieeverett7442 I wouldn't really say that's creepy but they haven't included a single story from the Hinchcliffe era - the era best known for being dark and disturbing
The peg dolls literally gave me nightmares and daymares....they really creeped me out when I was like 10 years old.... seriously...those scared me more than weeping angels..
I started watching Dr Who in 1963 as a child. I don’t recall any of them freaking me out. On the other hand a black and white episode of Tales of Mystery and Imagination which ended with a couple of human hearts cooking on the fire did.
What about the episode Where a scientist time travels and comes back younger but then transforms into a MASSIVE spider-like creature (I think it's a doctor who episode)
@@daveellis3048 great scene with Gatiss on the floor of the Cathedral, bones cracking, while having a battle of wits about civilization vs raw animal instinct.
To me the episode: “Night Terrors” will always be the most disturbing and scary doctor who episode of all time. I remember watching it live when it was on tv and I had to switch it off because it freaked me the heck out 😂
I'd like to volunteer an episode as an honorable mention: The Wife of the Doctor. People most likely remember this for the jokes between the Doctor and Idris!TARDIS, but it has some disturbing a$$ s**t. First of all, the episode begins with a poor woman named Idris getting her memory wiped so that the mysterious, planet sized entity named House could extract the TARDIS's consciousness from her blue box "body" into Idris's body (forced possession). Then comes the realisation that House had done this multiple times and that the people that are the servants of house were pieced together from different body parts of dead Time Lords when the Doctor recognises an ouroboros tattoo on the hand of the man belonging to a Time Lord known as the Corsair, who was apparently, in the Doctor's words "a bad girl". Then, in between the Doctor and TARDIS building a body from empty TARDIS shells and joking about fish fingers (of all things), a House possessed TARDIS shell tortured Amy and Rory. Heck, House wanted to kill Amy and Rory outright, even demonstrating that it could drain the oxygen out and allow for them to choke to death, before Amy convinced House that it wouldn't be fun to kill them immediately and thus began a torturous chase a la horror movie. During one particular scene, House even tortured Amy by showing her a vision of an old and dying Rory that blamed her for abandoning him. Then, the episode ends with an absolutely heart wrenching scene: "I've been looking for a word. A big, complicated word but so sad. I've found it now." Then, the Doctor asked: "What word?" "Alive. I'm alive." "Alive isn't sad." "It's sad when it's over. I'll always be here. But this is when we talked. And now, even that has come to an end. There's something I didn't get to say to you." "Goodbye." "No. I just wanted to say... hello. Hello, Doctor. It's so very nice to meet you." And at that point, I was just, "no. Just no. Give me Cybermen, Daleks, the Gelths or even the Sisters of Plentitude any time. Just not this."
Fear Her is only disturbing because the child actress is not directed well. Probably too many Dalek stories, but Resurrection of the Daleks has to be up there. The plague weapon effects on the crew, the deadly serious tone and the ridiculously high body count really make it stand out for disturbing content. Most of Eric Saward’s stories have that in common - the image of smoldering human viscera in Earthshock was quite a lot for me as a little kid. I’d also say Dark Water/Death in Heaven is up there for the “Don’t cremate me” scene. Oh what an excised line will do to up the fear factor in a story (was scripted originally to be a sales ploy).
A good list of disturbing episodes from both classic and new Who but I have some I can add that definitely belong in a top most disturbing episode list (many spoilers ahead): -Heaven Sent (The Doctor is almost completely alone inside a shapeshifting gothic castle, essentially torturing and burning himself up for billions of years in a never-ending cycle of grief, haunted by the ever-stalking specter of a corpse that terrified him as a child, leaving a sea of skulls behind him) -Ghost Light (The Doctor takes Ace to the haunted manor she burned down as a young girl, 100 years before the event, to discover the source of the psychic energy that horrified her after her friend was attacked in a racist hate crime, discovering Victoria grotesqueries, ancient aliens, diabolical plots, horrid murders and twisted imagery) -Spearhead From Space (As the new Doctor has regenerated and is an unknown variable to newly-established UNIT, the non-corporeal, squid-like Nestene Consciousness tries to take over the world via its army of disturbing, uncanny-valley plastic Auton soldiers and fascimilies, terrorizing old ladies in their cottages, shooting innocent people in the street, etc. Disturbing and memorable enough to be reused for Rose to open the new series) -The Doctor's Wife (In a bubble right outside the confines of the universe itself, The TARDIS' consciousness is plucked from its shell and placed in a human woman by a sentient asteroid named House that feasts on TARDISes, there are patchwork people whose minds are gone and a possessed Ood, The Doctor, Amy and Rory are subject to vicious mindgames) -Turn Left-As Donna visits a mysterious fortune teller, an alternate world is created where The Doctor loses and dies, various companions die as there's no one to stop the many invasions and nightmare scenarios The Doctor usually stops, millions die in a nuclear-explosion, the UK descends into a fascist nightmare world and Donna's only choice to put things right results in her sacrifice-and there's still more apocalyptic nonsense to deal with afterwards... -Inferno-A pompous scientist is drilling to the very center of the Earth in search of a new fuel source, instead releasing a liquid that turns people into violent, primordial werewolf/ape-like creatures. The Doctor is accidentally taken to an alternate version of Earth where the UK is a fascist republic, his friends are now his enemies and the drilling project is further along with no solution to the inevitable end of all things in sight. -The Brain of Morbius-A Frankenstein homage in which The Doctor and Sarah Jane land on the storm-wracked planet Karn, discover a mad scientist trying to create a monstrous-corpse body from the parts of many aliens in which to house the disembodied mind of a ruthless Time Lord dictator, The Doctor's only allies The Sisterhood, who wish to sacrifice him to their sacred flame -Silence In The Library/Forest of The Dead-"Who turned out the lights?" The Doctor and Donna visit a creepy, empty library planet where everyone's disappeared, there are the Vashta Nerada, the microscopic-piranha creatures that inhabit the wood-pulp in books and become living shadows, walking skeletons in spacesuits that stalk about the corridors, data-ghosts that linger on long after death, the alternate virtual reality where Donna's entire life is fake including her children, tons of disturbing imagery in this one. -So many other disturbing stories both classic and new I could list-Flatline, Vengeance on Varos, The Haunting of Villa Diodati, Planet of Evil, World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls, The Seeds of Doom, Dark Water/Death In Heaven, The Deadly Assassin, Pyramids of Mars, The Caves of Androzani, etc, etc.
“Turn Left”. It was just genuinely awful because you could see it happening. When they’re all relocated, and their housemate is taken to a labor camp, it’s freaking terrible. And then you see that second where Donna realizes what she has to do.
I've often thought that the Krynoid sapling shooting out of its pod and coiling around its victim's arm might have inspired the Xenomorph larva shooting out of the egg onto John Hurt's face in _Alien._ Even the leathery egg-case looks like the Krynoid's pod... albeit bigger in size, and with a bigger effects budget, of course :)
It's probably just because he was my childhood doctor, but many things from Tom Baker's first few seasons disturbed me. Seeds of Doom had a captive man being infected, turning into a plant monster and fed raw meat to speed his metamorphosis. Talons of Weng-Chiang had Jack the Ripper vibes, with a hideous pig-faced mannequin (Mr Sin, gloriously named the Peking homunculus) hiding in a laundry basket waiting to jump out and knife you. Pyramids of Mars terrified me with indestructible Terminator style robot mummies hunting humans trapped in an enclosed bubble part of rural England and a malignant Darth Vader looking Suketh god of death, about to be released back onto the universe.
One of the things I found the saddest in ‘Midnight’ was how quickly the humans turned on the Doctor and were more than ready to throw him out of aircraft. During the episode I kept wishing Rose, Donna or Martha had been there to protect him and refuse to let it happen!
That episode was a great example of why the Doctor needs to bring his companions with him, as the way he normally acts can seem rude and pretentious if you don't know him that well. Like when he was saying that he knows stuff because he's clever and the guy took it as him calling them stupid.
This definitely needs the episodes "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead". Those episodes were some of the few that truly scared me. (Episodes 8 and 9 of the fourth season)
Revelation of the Daleks always made me a bit queasy in the stomach, maybe went a tad far with the body horror, glad it was up top. What about The Green Death, giant agressive maggots, yikes. The Seeds of Doom had some horrific imagery too. But Fear Her? Disturbing only in terms of how crap it was!
A friends son cosplayed with the gas mask kid and went to a con. Down to the outfit and perfect accent for "Are you my mummy?" She said she'd never seen so many adults completely freak out before.
I'd have given that kid a high five and asked for a photo. That's so awesome.
I can't even hear someone say it! I am absolutely terrified of it, it sends shivers down my spine
@Gibson William pfff Sure hun. Gtfo of here with you bs
That's hilarious. 😂😂😂
I used to have that as my ringtone, I've never seen so many grown adults freak out in a Starbucks before
If we’re talking “disturbing” rather that scary then I think the winner would have to be Turn Left for the labour camp scene alone, such a dark, pessimistic look at reality that was then explored further in Children of Earth
Good call. That is indeed a dark moment.
holy shit your right
Damn you are 100% right
Turn Left was a blueprint for Years and Years, RTD’s later show that portrayed society decaying to the point where the UK becomes a literal dictatorship. Glad he got to exploit those ideas in a broader environment.
@@lewiskazinsky7334 turn left was more the blueprint for miracle day that he then could explore further and how he wanted to outside a doctor who environment in years and years
"What could be more disturbing than the literal pit of Satan himself?"
My guess would be the 3 things that outranked it on this list.
i dont think it was a ranked list i think it was just 'disturbing episodes with no ranking list'
@@MandungerFinzberry Then why the ten...nine...eight...etc.
a mother in law that hates your guts ...
"Doesn't get more disturbing than that"
*Puts it at number 9*
😂 we keep you guessing!
I still get chills when I hear “Are you my mummy?”
That gave me nightmares as a kid. I still see that mask in my dreams tbh
For me it was waters of mars.
It has always terrified me
@@marceline3986 The agender flag. Nice pfp btw
Same
Yeah it took me ages to be able to watch the episodes fully 🤣
Silence in the Library? "Vashta Nerada, piranhas of the air."
"Ice Cream. Ice cream. Ice Cream." Nope, I didn't need to sleep tonight.
I agree. This episode terrified me more than any other on the list.
I completely agree! Those two episodes were the most terrifying.
This literally gave me a fear of skeletons for 10 years, my brother used to turn my lights off and go “who turned out the lights”
Fun fact silence in the library was my first doctor who episode that I ever watched..... if we only knew how sad that episode is with river. When ever I rewatch it I always shed a tear when she realizes he dosent recognize her
Yeah. The vashta nerada were way worse than Fear Her.
It wasn’t just the imagery that made the Empty Child scary. The script was ripe with graphic descriptions adding to the visuals. That line that”something is pushing up from down your throat” paints a profound mental experience in the audience. You feel what your seeing
That's exactly right, I don't know how it's done but sometimes writers just use a few words that inspire some pretty nightmarish ideas without actually showing them. Some extremely low budget horror webshows I've seen have scared the pants off me more than any high budget horror film!
Midnight is a master study in acting and improvisation.
Also, Merlin did it.
Lesley Sharp doesn't get the credit she deserves.
@@robertkirchner7981 because a wizard did it
I'm surprised the library episodes and episode with the dolls weren't on the list
Fuck those dolls were horrific
The dolls that sang something like “blah blah blah... til the doctor falls..” in that girly voice
@@Speedoodleman they sung "Tick Tock goes the clock". that mixed with the setting and designs really showed how creepy they are
@@zaccarpenter621 yeah just the fact that they are child’s dolls and that just a touch could cause you to never see the light of day again creeped me out
Wasn't the episode called "Midnight Terrors"?
"Midnight" still gives me paranoia and I can never sleep after watching it. That's why I like it! 👍
i'll always be more afraid of the thing i can't see than the thing i can
The thing that freaked me out the most was her eyes (once she was possessed).
Humans are seen as living aspects of the universe. No matter how you kill, they are way ahead.
Lol
I hate that episode. It’s the only one I can’t rewatch. Though I didn’t watch the spider one at all tbh.
I'd give an honorable mention to Planet of the Ood, just for that transformation scene alone.
The story with nonchalant modern day slave trade, executions and lobotomies is more disturbing in sense of implications rather than imagery, but that one shot of the executive ripping off his scalp and vomiting out the tentacles and his brain is maybe the most distgusting shot of NW.
I think one thing you forgot about Fear Her is the domestic abuse idea/theory behind Chloe’s dad. Which explains why Chloe and her mum is scared of him and their fear when the drawing of her dad comes to life.
Now it makes sense .
That wasn't reallu a theory, it was spelled out pretty obviously
I’m surprised “turn left” wasn’t on the list. That episode was really really dark. Heck it ends with a companion technically Dying. Still appart from the spider these were interesting choices
Two actually sarah jane and martha
The scene in Midnight when the mechanic says that he saw a black figure running towards the truck really creeps me out
I wouldn't have gone "hey wait a sec" I would jump back and be like "holy shit we need to get out of here, run to the back of the train and cry in a corner, that's before even knowing it was dangerous, a black figure running towards you? Nah you would gtfo
"Even though spiders are such tiny creatures"
*laughs in Australian*
and we have two of the deadly spiders in the world
yeah but dude, us aussies all now that spiders are not the problem, its them fucking magpies
@@KYCDK agreed!
@@KYCDK And those bloody seagulls on Rottnest island. One stole a Hot Dog out of my hands and another stole my cream cake. Thieving bastards
@@fretboardmaster70 Birds in general, had a kookaburra steal a bit of steak off me and hit me in the face on the way through. Might've lost an eye if I wasn't wearing sunnies.
I was TERRIFIED when I first watched waters of mars and I have only seen the episode once since.
That was a great episode, but I'm surprised that this video, which is about disturbing content, makes no mention of the suicide at the end. That single gunshot and the look on the Doctor's face gives me chills each time I watch it.
Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve in 1965 was disturbingly dark and kinda uncomfortable
I'm surprised they even commissioned even back then
Me too! Me and my brother both cried and rang mum to come home and comfort us 😂
I was more terrified by the doctor!😂😂😂
The whole people still feeling pain after they die at the end of series 9 was pretty disturbing
Add in the scream in the background from someone who was cremated? NOPE.
It was bloody brilliant though!
What episode was that?
@@och1443 forget the name. Where cyber men came from all the dead people and Claras boyf did a good ol sacrifice
@@assassinscreed8597 Dark Waters?
Come on, really? Where's "Flatline"? It's basically the core premise of "Fear Her" (people ending up as 2-dimensional representations of themselves), only executed with a *much* creepier vibe. For one thing, people actually *die* in "Flatline". The scene where PC Forrest got pulled into the floor by the Boneless and then ended up as a cross-section of her nervous system painted on the wall is the stuff of nightmares. Not to mention how the actual Boneless look when they try to enter 3-dimensional space *wearing the skins of their victims.* I actively avoided that one for the longest time after first seeing it, because it creeped me out so much.
fuck, i forgot about flatline, that one was terrifying. especially with the assumed innocent intent from the boneless in the beginning
It’s the noise the boneless make over the tannoy that creeps me out the most 😭 it’s so bloody unsettling for some reason
thank you! I foiund this episode damn right chilling
Honestly I found that episode mostly hilarious because of the jokes involving The Doctor stuck in a shrinking Tardis
not sure about fear her being here
I recall RTD trying to compare her to the child from Remembrance of the Daleks, a much better candidate for possessed child creepiness!
No Heaven Sent? I love the gothic imagery in that episode, such a great piece of writing, even if it lead into Hell Bent.
Heaven Sent is honestly one of my favourite episodes! I definitely got chills!
it wasnt really horrific though
Hardly disturbing. More relaxing.
I like Hell Bent.
I also like Hell Bent. Lovely twist with the memory wipe, bittersweet end to Clara but she gets to own her fate, and I did not mind that they didn’t make more of the return to Gallifrey. Downplaying it was actually quite smart IMO, to the point where Chibnall blowing it up again seemed pointless.
Blink and Midnight used to scare me when I was a kid !! Still gives me chills now.
Bonus: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances also used to give me chills but I’m okay with it now
You missed Planet of the Ood. In that one, the ood's origins are explore. We find out that they're born with a secondary brain, which is removed and replaced with the translator ball (like a lobotomy), and later we see someone being gruesomely transformed into an ood, very similar to the mindflayer transformation in the Baldur's Gate 3 trailer.
Asylum of the Daleks might be the most disturbing, if for no reason other than that we sort of feel bad for the Daleks. We get to see how "crazy" Daleks see themselves. The scene where Amy goes through a room and we (and Amy) see the Daleks how they see themselves- human- is truly hard to watch because of the implications, especially since one is shown as a child. (Also Amy and Rory's relationship for most of the episode is hard to watch because they're supposed to be together but they spend the episode basically divorced and fighting).
In that case, wouldn’t the Lumic Cybermen be even _More_ disturbing, since we see their self-loathing turn into literal-self-destructive insanity?; and not only that, but these are _Humans_ that are _forcibly_ turned into inhuman monsters _against their will!_ (as opposed to alien squids that are angry for having impure genetics.)
The cold opening of the Shakespeare Code always scared me as a kid. I could never stand the sound of torn flesh and pained screams as the witches rip that boy to pieces
I love it
World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls?
A companion mortally wounded, whisked away to the medical unit, to only see her condition get worse as she is left more or less alone for what essentially amounts to several years, until she ends up being converted into one of the first Mondasian Cybermen, only to retain some of her emotions and to be aware that she had been transformed into a Cyberman, and is unable to look at herself, and has many of the residents of the ship looking at her with fear and disgust.
Also, you know, two Masters making googly eyes at each other.
Well comparatively I don't think so
Seriously disturbing and scary. I feel like Danny Pink's demise was pretty intense too.
The most disturbing part of that story was how the matron dealt with patients complaining about being in pain.
@@paulbeardsley4095 yeah,they were muted
@@redhood7650 You kind of guess that was what she was going to do but think, No, you can’t!
What you say about the Weeping Angels has me thinking again, about that whole thing with the human epigenetic aversion to the “Uncanny Valley” - that anything which looks close to human, but isn’t, makes us uncomfortable. The RL fridge horror question people often ask with this is,
“What were our neolithic ancestors so frightened of, that the fear of it has stayed in our genetic memories?”
Perhaps the answer is simpler than we thought: Some hominids who hunted our distant ancestors - be they fellow homosapiens, or their neanderthal cousins - may have made themselves look like statues, or other effigies, as a disguise, which they’d use as a lure, a trap, or to give more innocent folk a false sense of security. Imagine being one of your pre-historic forebears, and finding a cave or a shrine, with a very human-sized statue stood in it. You might be fascinated, curious, even reverent of what appears to be a divine figure made to look similar to one of your own. And it doesn’t move, so surely it was just made, sculpted, and left there, right?
But when you get too close, THEN it moves, and attacks you, or one of your less fortunate kin!
Yes, humans have ALWAYS been scared of things that look human enough, but don’t move or act like they’re human.
The fact that the earliest of our ancestors also had to learn to spot human faces, in order to see through such disguises, is probably the best explanation for pareidolia - where we notice faces, even in ordinary and innocuous objects.
Not sure if it's just me, but "The Lodger" scared me quite a bit, especially with the camera shots looking up the stairs and a creepy silhouette is just staring down.
and James Corden
Inferno gave me some bad chills- it's basically a zombie apocalypse with natural disasters and people avoiding scientific warnings for persona gain. From a fan when he came back from Australia, he said that after Curse of Fenric was broadcasted everyone was telling him how great the show was getting. I found the Massacre, the Daleks' master plan and planet of the ood disturbing.
"Inferno" is my favorite episode, with my favorite classic Doctor and my favorite classic companion!
And the cliffhanger to episode six - Everybody dies. Incredible.
#1. The Timeless Child.
Because nobody wants to witness that garbage.
Haha yeah
Special mention to ‘Ghost Light’ from Sylvester McCoy’s era...taking Ace to a place she found creepy as a child at the time that caused the place to be haunted? One of the most classic ghost stories I recall from my childhood...was right on level with any of the 60s Hammer films
"Ace - don't touch the soup..."
I'm surprised that 'Rose', 'Spearhead from space' and 'Terror of the Autons' weren't on here. Spearhead freaked me out as a kid, especially when the autons break out of the shop windows. After watching that scene numerous times, I was so scared, I couldn't walk past a shop window with mannequins for ages. Same with Rose. Especially the costumes they had for Spearhead. The masks made it more creepy.
Terror of the Autons want that scary for me, except for the daffodil scene with Jo. Now that did freak me.
The Autons were the epitome of the uncanny valley.
Watch Doctor Who they said
It'll be fun they said
It'll be fun they said.
It'll be fun, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.
Ho Ho Ho
Now I have a sonic screwdriver.
This video has given me Post-Who Stress Disorder again.
"Last Christmas" anyone? Or was I the only one freaked out by the dream crabs? *shudders*
It causes me distress to think about that episode, because it implies that the entire series, all the way back to the First Doctor, is just a dream, and each regeneration was just an attempt at trying to escape the dream Crab hallucination.
The Empty Child scarred me for life! Thanks Doctor who! I can’t believe the ‘Don’t cremate me’ episode didn’t get a mention though, that was eerie! Also the Library, shadows who eat you and take over your consciousness is pretty disturbing.
Thanks for explaining the plot of “The Curse of Fenric”! After over 30 years, I still couldn’t understand what was going on in that episode! 😬
I think that was because the episode was everywhere with it's focus. One minute, we're focusing on The Doctor talking to some old priest while Ace was fucking around, and the next second, we're onto some old archeologist deciphering old Scottish texts.
Yes, I know exactly what you mean. For an episode that's often held up as a masterpiece of Sylvester's era it's a bit of a mess.
A lot is self explanatory. However, they filmed 4.5 episodes worth of content, and rather than flesh it into 5 episodes, they cut it down to 4, so bits are missing. Here's a run-down.
Doctor Judson is a fictional version of Alan Turing (Enigma Machine vs Ultima Machine), and he's mostly there to decipher Nazi messages during World War 2, but the commanding Officer (Millington) wants him to decrypt viking symbols located around the area. Simultaneously, a group of Russian's are on a secret mission to steal the Ultima machine -- but this is all part of Millington's plan. He's easing security around the base and preparing for their arrival, waiting for them to steal it (while it's packed full of chemical weapons).
This all part of a plan conjured by Fenric -- the definition of evil -- trapped inside a flask by the Doctor long ages past, which is hidden somewhere inside the base. All the 'main players' are Wolves of Fenric, descendants of the Viking's who bore that flask through time, and they are considered Fenric's 'chess pieces' (Chess being the game the Doctor used to trap Fenric in the first place). Like it or not, all of the Wolves have a part to play in releasing Fenric. Turns out, the plan Millington has for the chemical weapons is precisely the type of act which created the Haemovores -- a future version of humans who succumbed to aggressive industrial pollution, covering the planet in toxic chemical slime, thus they were forced to live under water and feed on blood (hence they are blue, bloated, tentacled, and vampiric).
This is the same fate Fenric has in store for the current timeline via Millington's chemical weapons vs the Russians and Germans. Millington thinks detonating chemical warfare overseas will help win the war, but he doesn't know it will facilitate destroying the planet over time, creating an era that will once again lead to a new age of Haemovores.
Unknown to Ace (but secretly known by the Doctor), she is one of the Wolves of Fenric, planted in Dragon Fire (Season 24) by Fenric to meet with the Doctor, accompany him, and help release Fenric from the flask, which she (unknowingly) does by telling Doctor Judson how to decrypt the viking runes. Once the machine does this, the Haemovores are summoned from their own time period and start converting the locals, and eventually, Fenric is also released from the flask, allowing him to use the Haemovores to summon the last remaining chess piece - The Ancient One (Hastur the Unspeakable).
Now that Fenric's free, he needs a body -- as that sheer amount of evil cannot be sustained inside the crippled body of Judson -- and naturally, after being trapped for 17 centuries by the Doctor, Fenric has a little bit of a grudge. So, it's time to kill all the humans, get a hot new bod, kill the Doctor, and decimate the universe! However, the Doctor finally managed to secure a chess board and sets up the same trap as before, and while Fenric is partially trapped by the puzzle once again, the Doctor has a chat with the Ancient One.
The Doctor informs the Ancient One that Fenric's plan will simply lead to the exact same outcome for its people as before -- another polluted planet with them eventually stuck under the sea once again, and that chat comes AFTER Fenric had ordered all Haemovores (except the Ancient One) to be killed off, so it's the only one left. Naturally, the big fishy boi is not too happy about any of this, so a pact is made off-screen.
While Fenric struggles with the puzzle, Ace -- who realized the solution by witnessing the Brits and Russians team up to take down Fenric -- informs Soren of the winning move, who she doesn't notice was Fenric in a new body. So yeah, she fulfilled her purpose as a Wolf of Fenric, giving him the winning move, and thus, the Doctor has no way of trapping him any more.
Whelp, that's it. 99% of the base is dead, Fenric wins the game, Doctor loses, case closed, time for a slimy end to the world -- but as always, the Doctor had planned for this.
Ace doesn't know this, of course, because the Seventh Doctor is a sneaky, slippery and secretive Doctor keeping everyone in the dark. She has complete faith in him, which repels Haemovores (including the Ancient One), so the Doctor is forced to smash her faith in him (to allow the Ancient One to attack Fenric -- which destroys both antagonists in one move). The base blows up, life moves on, and the Doctor + Ace add another wedge between their relationship due to the Doctor being a devious little bastid.
...Or something...
STORIES not episodes, but I do like your list.
What about death in heaven where its suggested people are still conscious after death, "dont cremate me!"
or Torchwoods children of Earth
Doctor who: The doctor falls
When bill becomes a cyberman that was pretty freaky, or when anyone became a cyberman. I recall another scene where someone was talking about how they felt so cold after a piece broke allowing them to feel and be human again. Having human emotions while being dismembered and frozen inside a metal shell killing machine is enough to drive anyone insane.
Is it weird that I love these episodes???
It would be weirder if you didn't
no, I enjoy most of them too, I must be one few people around that doesnt like Midnight
I like all of them except Asylum of the Daleks and Fear her
"Asylum"? The most disturbing thing about this episode is the writing!
I have a soft spot for it tbh
@@alternatethirteenth5594 omg your pfp
@@Speedoodleman Beebo is your friend!
Good writing at Oswin/11 bit, not at anywhere else lol
Yeah it they should have put The Power of the Daleks in that spot instead
I always thought The Two Doctors and Vengeance on Varos were quite disturbing. The Colin Baker era was certainly good at getting reactions out of its violent nature
The Empty Child for me. Especially when you watch it with little kids either side parroting the show and the lights off. “Are you my mummy?” in stereo is seriously chilling... 😱
I think Midnight and Blink are the scariest. Also the Silence. How did you miss that? I’ve been watching who since the early 70s and never found any episode in older who particularly horrifying.
Well you missed the scariest one, The Power of the Daleks (fyi I wasn't actually born when it aired but I've seen the animated version)
What’s the Silence? I don’t them. But there was something I meant to do...
Why am I holding a knife?
Honestly don't think they've included the silence on any list which makes me think they have something against it because if anything should have been on this list its the silence cuz the whole concept is basically we can't say something like the silence doesn't exist cuz we wouldn't remember if we ever saw them and they are supposedly always watching so if you feel like you're being watched its supposed to be them but you'll never remember... Like how is anything on this list more disturbing?
@@matthewcarpenter6202 maybe the silence is making them forget they’ve seen that episode. 😆
Interesting that some of the best stories are the ones that scared us the most.
The Ambassadors of Death with the late great Jon Pertwee was creepy x 10!
God, yes! Plenty of creepy moments in that one.
Yeah, Midnight nearly drove me insane. It was terrifing
Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve in 1965 was disturbingly dark and kinda uncomfortable
I'm surprised they even commissioned even back then
For disturbing... The Greatest Show in the Galaxy... Bellboy's suicide followed by the Chief Clown's reaction... This era had a lot there for a "family" show
I forgot the title of the episodes (I think it was a two parter) of the 10th Doctor and the cybermen where you can hear people screaming for decapitation while everyone were forced to wait in line while hearing the screams with the sound of an electric saw. Decapitations were off camera, but I think the episode was very disturbing.
Very good selection. I also find “silence in the library“/forrest of the dead“ really scary
No mention of Hide? That episode scared the shit out of me, even if the ending sucks.
Heyy, I either forgot or haven't seen it, what happened in that one?
'Listen' with Capaldi was pretty disturbing tbf
Honestly it just becomes hilarious to me with the recent revelation that the knocking on the door was actually just Jack Harkness and River Song pulling a prank.
@@EditedAF987 when did we find that out?
@@ihatehumans5185 in Big Finish’s the Lives of Captain Jack series, specifically the episode titled “R&J”
The empty child gave me nightmares, and Fear Her was an underrated episode
I feel like theres some Capaldi episodes that deserve to be on this list.
Heaven Sent was disturbing to me.
Doesn't even mention the most disturbing part of Asylum of the Daleks, namely that they can aparently now turn humans into daleks. Before it was implied that they could make daleks out of human cells, by searching for and mutating cells with appropriate cellular structures but this one cranks it up one more notch with Oswin being turned bodily, while she was still alive, into a dalek, and still being alive at the end of it, now alive as a dalek.
The Ark in Space: Most horrific use of green bubble wrap.
5th segment Key to Time: When Krull pulled a man into the drain pipe.
Arachnids in the UK: The apartment of the first victim they encountered.
The family of blood.
The Heaven Sent creature.
Ah yes, those bubble wrap maggots were terrifying to these young eyes. The fully grown insects weren't much better...
Sadly, I am not yet finished with classic Who, but until now (I'm at season 12) there are a few which were quite disturbing:
The Sensorites: Physically not appealing, scary and just dangerous, the eponymous Sensorites were something I would not like to meet
The Dalek Invasion of Earth: The cliffhanger of the Dalek emerging from the Thames gave me the chills
The Time Meddler: first time seeing someone evil, who is also the kind of the Doctor - the term Timelord wasn't established yet
The War Machines: for todays standards not that disturbing, but 50 years ago computers were a thing most people did not understand. a computer controlling tank-like machines was surely disturbing back then
The Tenth Planet: first story with the Cybermen, plus death of the first doctor: disturbingly enough
The Enemy of the World: If you see Patrick as both the doctor and the main antigonist it was unsettling (and brilliant)
Spearhead from Space: First appearance of the Autons. Next to their really weird appearance, some episodes were rather graphic.
The Green Death: Dangerous Green Goo everywhere. Yuck.
Not counting the Masters and Dalek Episodes since I'm too biased :D
'The Time Meddler' is great, but quite light hearted - apart from one part of terrible darkness - when the Vikings raid the village, Wulnoth finds his wife, Edith, in shock, and in a dishevelled state. His fury at the Vikings is justified. Edith had been raped. It was written as such, but removed, as strong material like that was not suitable for an early time slot. However, if you know how Viking raiders operated, it's easy to understand Wulnoth's anger, and the reason behind it.
@@brianartillery now that you say it, I remember. when I first saw it, I definitely had the feeling they were implying it. The whole section was cut rather short, and I had no further thoughts about it. Mainly because of "it's doctor who after all" and to my knowledge it being a TV show not mainly targeted at adults.
But I definitely agree.
(still watching classic who, currently at season 13)
For me the most disturbing episodes are "Blink" and "Empty Child"
"Blink" because I already have a problem with feeling that someone/something is watching me and wants to kill me and "Empty Child" is kind of self-explanatory. I still really like this episode and I make jokes about "are you my mummy" everytime I see one poster in my school (it's from global warming protest where one of protestors wears a gas mask. No one understands this joke as I'm probably the only one watching Doctor Who in my class but still it's funny to me)
"and ask the question: what if they were bigger?" Australia did that too
Dammit, little Timmy's looking for mummy again!
You've missed out easily the most disturbing episodes. From Peter Capaldi's first season Dark Water/Death In Heaven. Tackling what happens after you die was something Doctor Who should have probably left alone. Definitely not kids stuff and the reason why the BBC received many complaints after its first showing.
and the it turned out that there was no heaven , peoples minds where just being uploaded to a Cybermatrix computer thingy, so there was no heaven keeping through to Doctors Whos comitment to an atheistic view of the world
Those three words of dialogue... You know the ones I mean. For someone watching, especially a young person, who has recently said their final goodbyes to a loved relative or close friend, or even a beloved pet, hearing those three words must have been unbearable. I disagree entirely with the Doctor Who production team for allowing that dialogue to remain. Utterly unforgivable.
Asylum of the daleks is extra terrifying because of the divorce 🥲
Blink is a sequence that can also be shown very well to people who are not yet Dr. Who have seen episode.
This works because the doctor is not the main character, but strangers who also have no idea about anything.
5:05 There’s something on your back!
Please no
Not them, I hated them, they are the worse
I still have a nightmare to this day (I’m 22) about the empty child. Usually when I drank a lot and smoked but Jamie makes his way into my dreams
Planet of the Spiders was the first Who I ever saw. I was 6. Scared the crap out of me and I've been a fan ever since. In the awful Chibnal era it's good to be reminded of just how epic Who can be.
I can’t remember the name of the episode but it featured the 11th Doctor and Amy (as well as River Song) with a very different take on the Weeping Angels. Possession, cold-blooded murder and extreme paranoia.
Time of angels and flesh and stone
@@justmanbunisfine thanks
TIME OF THE ANGLES
0:02 ' "Doctor Who's a kids' show" they said'. If, by "they", you mean the BBC - no, they didn't. They've always pointed out that it's never been produced by their children's department: it comes from Drama. It was always transmitted in a pre-watershed, family-time slot, so I understand where this comes from. In any case, my distant recollection of childhood includes being absolutely delighted when I was scared out of my wits. Probably something to do with the adrenaline. It was Mary Whitehouse who tried to convince the BBC that you shouldn't scare children. I spent many a happy Saturday evening behind the sofa watching Jon Pertwee (possibly a bit of Troughton, though I don't actually remember) through half-closed eyes. Anyway, I'm only 2 seconds into the video: you'll probably address this and make me look like a right plonker, which would be par for the course. Play on!
They said "What if we make them bigger?"
Then they said "That went well lets do it *five more times* "
The waters of Mars, any weeping angels episodes, and of course everyone's creepiest pick................ "mummy, mummy, are you my mummy?"
The sandman
The Empty Child is definitely among the scariest due to fear of the unknown, Midnight is more of a psychological Horror as is Blink as you don't know what'll happen next, but Midnight does that bit better. The Satan Pit is definitely more mythological, supernatural horror.
I’m a simple man
I see a video with the best Doctor Who story ever on the thumbnail I click
That one where the man swapped voices with the dog was pretty horrifying ngl
The prisoner zero one with the atraxi?
The eleventh hour
I would have added Flatline, that episode where people's faces got stolen, and the one with the Peg Dolls. Maybe a Part 2 is in order?
faceless ones 2nds era?
@@julieeverett7442 "The Wire" I presume.
@@cdpunk_ I guess, the classics did too I was thinking of one of theirs
@@julieeverett7442 I wouldn't really say that's creepy but they haven't included a single story from the Hinchcliffe era - the era best known for being dark and disturbing
The peg dolls literally gave me nightmares and daymares....they really creeped me out when I was like 10 years old.... seriously...those scared me more than weeping angels..
I started watching Dr Who in 1963 as a child. I don’t recall any of them freaking me out. On the other hand a black and white episode of Tales of Mystery and Imagination which ended with a couple of human hearts cooking on the fire did.
What about the episode
Where a scientist time travels and comes back younger but then transforms into a MASSIVE spider-like creature
(I think it's a doctor who episode)
The Lazarus Experiment
@@daveellis3048 great scene with Gatiss on the floor of the Cathedral, bones cracking, while having a battle of wits about civilization vs raw animal instinct.
lazerus experiment, yes that was disturbing
I don't think it was time travel
Disturbing as crap
Sean Ferrick!? You got some trek culture in my who culture
no, you got some who culture in my trek culture.
I'm Officer Culture!
To me the episode: “Night Terrors” will always be the most disturbing and scary doctor who episode of all time. I remember watching it live when it was on tv and I had to switch it off because it freaked me the heck out 😂
Surely they are my biggest fear if I see them in pictures I have nightmare book nightmare tv nightmares I mentally and physically cannot look at them
I'd like to volunteer an episode as an honorable mention: The Wife of the Doctor. People most likely remember this for the jokes between the Doctor and Idris!TARDIS, but it has some disturbing a$$ s**t. First of all, the episode begins with a poor woman named Idris getting her memory wiped so that the mysterious, planet sized entity named House could extract the TARDIS's consciousness from her blue box "body" into Idris's body (forced possession). Then comes the realisation that House had done this multiple times and that the people that are the servants of house were pieced together from different body parts of dead Time Lords when the Doctor recognises an ouroboros tattoo on the hand of the man belonging to a Time Lord known as the Corsair, who was apparently, in the Doctor's words "a bad girl". Then, in between the Doctor and TARDIS building a body from empty TARDIS shells and joking about fish fingers (of all things), a House possessed TARDIS shell tortured Amy and Rory. Heck, House wanted to kill Amy and Rory outright, even demonstrating that it could drain the oxygen out and allow for them to choke to death, before Amy convinced House that it wouldn't be fun to kill them immediately and thus began a torturous chase a la horror movie. During one particular scene, House even tortured Amy by showing her a vision of an old and dying Rory that blamed her for abandoning him. Then, the episode ends with an absolutely heart wrenching scene: "I've been looking for a word. A big, complicated word but so sad. I've found it now." Then, the Doctor asked: "What word?" "Alive. I'm alive." "Alive isn't sad." "It's sad when it's over. I'll always be here. But this is when we talked. And now, even that has come to an end. There's something I didn't get to say to you." "Goodbye." "No. I just wanted to say... hello. Hello, Doctor. It's so very nice to meet you." And at that point, I was just, "no. Just no. Give me Cybermen, Daleks, the Gelths or even the Sisters of Plentitude any time. Just not this."
I remember watching an episode of the Weeping Angels and I tried avoiding as many statues I could after that 😂😂😂😂😂
Fear Her is only disturbing because the child actress is not directed well.
Probably too many Dalek stories, but Resurrection of the Daleks has to be up there. The plague weapon effects on the crew, the deadly serious tone and the ridiculously high body count really make it stand out for disturbing content. Most of Eric Saward’s stories have that in common - the image of smoldering human viscera in Earthshock was quite a lot for me as a little kid.
I’d also say Dark Water/Death in Heaven is up there for the “Don’t cremate me” scene. Oh what an excised line will do to up the fear factor in a story (was scripted originally to be a sales ploy).
A good list of disturbing episodes from both classic and new Who but I have some I can add that definitely belong in a top most disturbing episode list (many spoilers ahead):
-Heaven Sent (The Doctor is almost completely alone inside a shapeshifting gothic castle, essentially torturing and burning himself up for billions of years in a never-ending cycle of grief, haunted by the ever-stalking specter of a corpse that terrified him as a child, leaving a sea of skulls behind him)
-Ghost Light (The Doctor takes Ace to the haunted manor she burned down as a young girl, 100 years before the event, to discover the source of the psychic energy that horrified her after her friend was attacked in a racist hate crime, discovering Victoria grotesqueries, ancient aliens, diabolical plots, horrid murders and twisted imagery)
-Spearhead From Space (As the new Doctor has regenerated and is an unknown variable to newly-established UNIT, the non-corporeal, squid-like Nestene Consciousness tries to take over the world via its army of disturbing, uncanny-valley plastic Auton soldiers and fascimilies, terrorizing old ladies in their cottages, shooting innocent people in the street, etc. Disturbing and memorable enough to be reused for Rose to open the new series)
-The Doctor's Wife (In a bubble right outside the confines of the universe itself, The TARDIS' consciousness is plucked from its shell and placed in a human woman by a sentient asteroid named House that feasts on TARDISes, there are patchwork people whose minds are gone and a possessed Ood, The Doctor, Amy and Rory are subject to vicious mindgames)
-Turn Left-As Donna visits a mysterious fortune teller, an alternate world is created where The Doctor loses and dies, various companions die as there's no one to stop the many invasions and nightmare scenarios The Doctor usually stops, millions die in a nuclear-explosion, the UK descends into a fascist nightmare world and Donna's only choice to put things right results in her sacrifice-and there's still more apocalyptic nonsense to deal with afterwards...
-Inferno-A pompous scientist is drilling to the very center of the Earth in search of a new fuel source, instead releasing a liquid that turns people into violent, primordial werewolf/ape-like creatures. The Doctor is accidentally taken to an alternate version of Earth where the UK is a fascist republic, his friends are now his enemies and the drilling project is further along with no solution to the inevitable end of all things in sight.
-The Brain of Morbius-A Frankenstein homage in which The Doctor and Sarah Jane land on the storm-wracked planet Karn, discover a mad scientist trying to create a monstrous-corpse body from the parts of many aliens in which to house the disembodied mind of a ruthless Time Lord dictator, The Doctor's only allies The Sisterhood, who wish to sacrifice him to their sacred flame
-Silence In The Library/Forest of The Dead-"Who turned out the lights?" The Doctor and Donna visit a creepy, empty library planet where everyone's disappeared, there are the Vashta Nerada, the microscopic-piranha creatures that inhabit the wood-pulp in books and become living shadows, walking skeletons in spacesuits that stalk about the corridors, data-ghosts that linger on long after death, the alternate virtual reality where Donna's entire life is fake including her children, tons of disturbing imagery in this one.
-So many other disturbing stories both classic and new I could list-Flatline, Vengeance on Varos, The Haunting of Villa Diodati, Planet of Evil, World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls, The Seeds of Doom, Dark Water/Death In Heaven, The Deadly Assassin, Pyramids of Mars, The Caves of Androzani, etc, etc.
“Turn Left”. It was just genuinely awful because you could see it happening. When they’re all relocated, and their housemate is taken to a labor camp, it’s freaking terrible. And then you see that second where Donna realizes what she has to do.
Hey guys, what about The Image Of The Fendahl or The Seeds Of Doom from the Tom Baker era? That was a very dark, almost hammer horror period for DW.
it was wasnt it!
I've often thought that the Krynoid sapling shooting out of its pod and coiling around its victim's arm might have inspired the Xenomorph larva shooting out of the egg onto John Hurt's face in _Alien._ Even the leathery egg-case looks like the Krynoid's pod... albeit bigger in size, and with a bigger effects budget, of course :)
It's probably just because he was my childhood doctor, but many things from Tom Baker's first few seasons disturbed me. Seeds of Doom had a captive man being infected, turning into a plant monster and fed raw meat to speed his metamorphosis. Talons of Weng-Chiang had Jack the Ripper vibes, with a hideous pig-faced mannequin (Mr Sin, gloriously named the Peking homunculus) hiding in a laundry basket waiting to jump out and knife you. Pyramids of Mars terrified me with indestructible Terminator style robot mummies hunting humans trapped in an enclosed bubble part of rural England and a malignant Darth Vader looking Suketh god of death, about to be released back onto the universe.
One of the things I found the saddest in ‘Midnight’ was how quickly the humans turned on the Doctor and were more than ready to throw him out of aircraft. During the episode I kept wishing Rose, Donna or Martha had been there to protect him and refuse to let it happen!
That episode was a great example of why the Doctor needs to bring his companions with him, as the way he normally acts can seem rude and pretentious if you don't know him that well. Like when he was saying that he knows stuff because he's clever and the guy took it as him calling them stupid.
This definitely needs the episodes "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead". Those episodes were some of the few that truly scared me. (Episodes 8 and 9 of the fourth season)
I love how you don't include any stories from the Hinchcliffe era - the era known for being quite disturbing
The Waters of Mars made me so paranoid for weeks after seeing it...
Oh yeah? "Hey, who turned out the lights?"
When I whacked silence in the library when I was younger I screamed so much when I saw that I had two shadows.
Mate the Empty Child is engraved into my mind and I never, EVER, look at it because I am afraid of it and I'm 22
Revelation of the Daleks always made me a bit queasy in the stomach, maybe went a tad far with the body horror, glad it was up top. What about The Green Death, giant agressive maggots, yikes. The Seeds of Doom had some horrific imagery too. But Fear Her? Disturbing only in terms of how crap it was!
The Weeping Angles are the best introduction to the Who universe! Blink? Better not.
I love The Curse of Fenric and Revelation of the Daleks they’re great
surprised to not see a 4th doctor episode here
It's great to see Steven Moffat owning a good proportion of these episodes. Just goes to show how good he is.
he does have some pretty good single episodes
Love “Blink”! Scared my family, but I did fine. And when that episode came out, I used to be the easiest to scare!
So many of these were from the RTD era, and I'm so glad that's what I grew up on
Glad you're giving props to the classic series. I would not have thought of *Planet of the Spiders*.