12 Bone-Chilling Episodes of Doctor Who

• Season 1, Episodes 9 & 10
• Written by Steven Moffat
• Directed by James Hawes
• Originally aired on May 28 & 21, 2005
• Doctor: Ninth
• Companions: Rose Tyler & Jack Harkness

The Doctor and Rose chase a mysterious capsule through space and time to World War II England, where a band of street children are being terrorized by a small, "empty" boy with a gas mask fused to his face and an ongoing mantra of, "Are you my mummy?" Anyone the boy touches turns into one of these terrifying gas-mask zombies, and with an entire hospital of patients, nurses, doctors and staff transformed into the undead creatures, it's up to the Doctor, Rose, and their newest companion, a handsome, charming American time agent named Jack Harkness to find out what created this monster and how to stop it before the entire world is transformed.

What makes these episodes so scary are the gas-mask zombies that wonder around with gas masks fused to their faces saying, "Are you my mummy? I want my mummy. Mummy! Mummy?" The little boy, Jamie, the original gas-mask zombie, is eerie and blank, as if there's nothing inside of him. The setting of WWII England is a dark one, creating an atmosphere that would be pretty scary even without the gas-mask zombies running around everywhere. With them, it's pretty much horrifying.

Nancy: You mustn't let him touch ya!

The Doctor: And what happens if he touches me?

Nancy: He'll make you like him.

The Doctor: And what's he like?

Nancy: I've gotta go.

The Doctor: Nancy, what's he like?

Nancy: He's empty.

• Season 2, Episodes 8 & 9
• Written by Matt Jones and Russel T. Davies
• Directed by James Strong
• Originally aired on June 3 & 10, 2006
• Doctor: Tenth
• Companion: Rose Tyler

When the Doctor and Rose find themselves on a planet that is impossibly orbiting a black hole, they find a world of terror lurking beneath the surface of the planet that will make them question everything they know and believe. With the crew of the exploration team, they find themselves battling against the possessed Ood and possibly the devil himself as they face their greatest fears in order to save themselves and the rest of the universe from the unimaginable evil if the Beast would unleash if he were to escape from the Pit.

This episode calls upon the most basic, primal fears in everyone - the fear of the dark, the fear of the unknown, the fear of the ultimate evil, the fear of dark, terrible secrets being revealed, the fear of fates worse than death... the fear of the devil. The Beast itself, in its physical form, is terrifying enough, but it is the monster's mind and words, the way it preys upon the characters using deception, terror and a silky smooth, deep voice, that is so scary. There are also many well-shot scenes with the kind of subtle terror that will have you looking over your own shoulder for days after watching it.

Disembodied Voice: Toby. Don't turn around.

Toby: Dan? That's not Dan.

Voice: Don't look at me.

Toby: Who are you?

Voice: I have so many names.

Toby: If I could...

Voice: If you look at me, you will die.

Toby: But who are you?

Voice: I'm behind you, Toby. I'm right behind you. Don't look. Don't look at me. One look and you will die. I'm reaching out, Toby. I'm so close. Don't turn around. Oh, I can touch you....

• Season 3, Episodes 8 & 9
• Written by Paul Cornell
• Directed by Charles Palmer
• Originally aired on May 26 & June 2, 2007
• Doctor: Tenth
• Companion: Martha Jones

On the run from "The Family," the Doctor changes himself into a human so that he and Martha can hide from the bloodthirsty aliens hunting him. Taking place at a boy's school the year before World War I, this episode gives us a glimpse of the Doctor as we've never seen him before. Even though The Family cannot track the Doctor because he is no longer a Time Lord, they manage to hunt down his general location and begin to infiltrate the town and the school by possessing locals for their physical forms, becoming Father of Mine, Mother of Mine, Sister of Mine, and the most terrifying of all, Brother of Mine, who will stop at nothing to find the Doctor.

Brother of Mine is the main reason this episode is so terrifying. The look in his eyes throughout the duration of the episode, whether he's conversing with the rest of the family, threatening someone, planning something nefarious, or simply standing there, is hauntingly creepy. The other members of The Family, Sister of Mine in particular with her single red balloon, are scary, too, as are the scarecrow-men Father of Mine sets on the villagers and school, but Brother of Mine's eyes are absolutely the scariest part of this episode. Those eyes will haunt you in your dreams for weeks to come.

Brother of Mine: He still visits my little sister once a year every year. I wonder if one day he might forgive her, but there she is. Can you see? He trapped her inside a mirror, every mirror. If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you, just for a second, that's her. That's always her.

• Season 3, Episode 10
• Written by Steven Moffat
• Directed by Hettie MacDonald
• Originally aired on June 9, 2007
• Doctor: Tenth
• Companion: Martha Jones

The Weeping Angels are an ancient race of beings who kill by sending their victims back in time and letting them live to death. But this isn't what makes them so terrifying. They look like statues - and they are statues... when someone is looking at them. But if you look away, if you blink, they will move, faster than you would believe... And Sally Sparrow is now facing off with four of them, the only hope for the Doctor who is stuck in 1969 and for the world, which will be destroyed if the angels get their hands on the TARDIS. But all she's got are her friend's nerdy brother, 17 DVDs and a mysterious key to help her against four of the most terrifying killers in the universe.

Everything about this episode, and the weeping angels in particular, is terrifying. The angels, appearance-wise, are scary enough, but when they move every time a character blinks or turns their back or a light flickers... It's enough to give you nightmares, enough to make you afraid of any and every statue you pass by, especially if they're in the form of an angel.

The Doctor: And that's it, I'm afraid. There's no more from you on the transcript, that's the last I've got. I don't know what stopped you talking, but I can guess. They're coming. The angels are coming for you. But listen, your life could depend on this. Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink. Good luck.

• Season 4, Episodes 8 & 9
• Written by Steven Moffat
• Directed by Euros Lyn
• Originally aired on May 31 & June 2, 2008
• Doctor: Tenth
• Companion: Donna

The Doctor receives a mysterious summons from an unknown person to go to the largest library in the universe. But when they get there, it is to discover that there are millions of life signs in the library, but nobody there. Soon they are met by a group of archaeologists led by the mysterious Dr. Song, who knows the Doctor very well from her past and his future, and they discover that the library is infested with the Vashta Nerada - terrifying, microscopic creatures that create shadows and darkness, piranhas of the air that can devour their victims in a matter of seconds... and then use their empty spacesuits as hosts to hunt down everyone else.

Let's see, shadows that can kill you, skeletons-in-a-spacesuit rambling about repeating on a loop the last words that the victim said, information nodes using real human faces to relay data, legitimate reasons to be afraid of the dark, heart-stopping chase scenes through shelves of infected books, creepy, disembodied voices coming from the consumed victims' spacesuits... All of these factors combine to make this one of the scariest Doctor Who episodes out there... as if we need another reason to be afraid of the dark.

The Doctor: That's not darkness down those tunnels. This is not a shadow. It's a swarm. A man eating swarm. The piranhas of the air. The Vashta Nerada. Literally, the shadows that melt the flesh. Most planets have them, but usually in small clusters. I've never seen an infestation on this scale, or this aggressive.

Donna: What do you mean, most planets? Not earth?

The Doctor: Mmm. Earth, and a billion other worlds. Where there's meat, there's Vashta Nerada. You can see them sometimes, if you look. The dust in the sunbeams.

Donna: If they were on Earth, we'd know.

The Doctor: Nah. Normally they live on road kill. But sometimes people go missing. Not everyone comes back out of the dark.

River Song: Every shadow?

The Doctor: No. But any shadow.

• Season 4, Episode 10
• Written by Russell T Davies
• Directed by Alice Troughton
• Originally aired on June 14, 2008
• Doctor: Tenth
• Companion: Donna

This is more of a psychological episode than anything, which makes it terrifying in a different way, as well as a unique concept for the show. The Doctor goes on what is supposed to be a four-hour ride to see the diamond planet Midnight, but on the way, something begins to knock on the side of the vehicle - even though life is impossible on Midnight because of the radiation. When the pilot and co-pilot are killed, the Doctor, along with the stewardess and his fellow passengers, find themselves pitted against an evil that they cannot see, except in the eyes of a possessed woman - and the creature inside of her is learning, repeating, copying everything they say.

This episode is almost purely psychological. The scariest part of the episode, I think, is that we never get to see what this being looks like, because it possesses its victims, and we never get to find out what it was... Even the Doctor doesn't know. But the look in Sky's eyes when the creature has control of her is not unlike that of Brother of Mine in "Human Nature" and "Family of Blood," and the way she starts out repeating what everyone says, then progresses to speaking at the exact same time, and then stealing the Doctor's voice... it's terrifying. And beyond that, we get a scarily Lord of the Flies look at human nature when a bunch of people get together in a small space, trapped with something they fear... and we see how human beings can be just as terrifying as any monster.

Val & Sky: I can't, I can't look at her. It's those eyes.

Dee Dee & Sky: We must not look at goblin men.

Biff & Sky: What's that supposed to mean?

The Doctor & Sky: It's a poem. Christina Rossetti.

Dee Dee & Sky: We must not look at goblin men. We must not by their fruits. Who knows upon what soil they fed their hungry, thirsty roots?

The Doctor & Sky: Actually, I don't think that's helping.

Hobbes & Sky: She's not a goblin, or a monster. She's just a very sick woman.

Jethro & Sky: Maybe that's why it went for her.

• Season 4, Special Episode 3
• Written by Russell T Davies & Phil Ford
• Directed by Graeme Harper
• Originally aired on November 15, 2009
• Doctor: Tenth
• Companion: None

The Doctor, traveling on his own now, arrives on Mars in 2059 to meet the first Mars colony... who will all die in a mysterious explosion that very day. Since their deaths are fixed points in time, the Doctor struggles with his moral sense of right and wrong and the rules of space and time as he tries not to get involved. But when someone drinks the water without sanitizing it first and becomes infected with a terrifying water-based entity, the Doctor, along with the crew he knows will die very soon, are running and fighting for their lives against cracked-mouthed, water-spewing, blank-eyed creatures that used to be people.

The people infected by the water are utterly terrifying. With their cracked mouths and unearthly eyes, and the way that water just continually drips off of their bodies out flows out of their mouths like they are drowning on dry land is nightmarish. Many of the scariest Doctor Who episodes involve a possession of some kind, and this episode is no exception. Couple the possessed Mars colonists with some aptly-timed jump scares, and you've got an episode that is going to have your heart beating in a frenzy of fear.

The Doctor: Where do you get your water from?

Adelaide: The ice field. That's why we chose the crater. We're on top of an underground glacier.

The Doctor: Tons of water. Marvelous.

Yuri: But every single drop is filtered. It's screened. It's safe.

The Doctor: Looks like it, yeah.

Ed: If something was frozen down there, a viral life form held in the ice for all those years...

The Doctor: Look at her mouth. All blackened, like there's some sort of fission. This thing, whatever it is, doesn't just hide in water, it creates water. Tell me what you want.

Yuri: She was looking at the screen. At Earth. She wanted Earth. A world full of water.

• Season 5, Episodes 4 & 5
• Written by Steven Moffat
• Directed by Adam Smith
• Originally aired on April 24 & May 1, 2010
• Doctor: Eleventh
• Companions: Amy Pond & River Song

The weeping angels are back, and scarier than ever. The Doctor receives a mysterious summons from River Song, who is on a mission with the Church (the Church and the military have combined at this point) to secure a weeping angel that caused a ship to crash in order to escape. But terror lurks around every corner as it is revealed that the planet they are on is infested with weeping angels... and they're growing stronger.

As if the weeping angels weren't terrifying enough the first time, in this episode we learn that not only can the angels themselves get you, but that their images can kill you too. After all, as Amy unfortunately finds out, "an image of an angel is itself an angel." Not to mention an entire planet of deteriorated angels that are slowly gaining their strength and encroaching steadily on the Doctor, killing everyone who gets in their way. This takes the already scary weeping angel plot line to a whole new scare-your-pants-off level. Don't blink.

The Doctor: Bob, keep running. But tell me, how did you escape?

Bob: I didn't escape, sir. The angel killed me, too.

The Doctor: What do you mean, the angel killed you?

Bob: Snapped my neck, sir. Wasn't as painless as I expected, but it was pretty quick, so that was something.

The Doctor: If you're dead, how can I be talking to you?

Bob: You're not talking to me, sir. The angel has no voice. It stripped my cerebral cortex from my body and re-animated a version of my consciousness to communicate with you. Sorry about the confusion.

The Doctor: So when you say you're on you're way up to us..

Bob: It's the angel that's coming, sir, yes. No way out.

• Season 6, Episode 9
• Written by Mark Gatiss
• Directed by Richard Clark
• Originally aired on September 3, 2011
• Doctor: Eleventh
• Companions: Amy Pond & Rory Williams

The Doctor receives a cry for help from a little boy who is afraid of just about everything, to save him from "the monsters". When the Doctor, Amy and Rory go to investigate, the Doctor discovers that the little boy isn't all that he seems, and that people who scare the child end up getting sent into his cupboard - the place where his dad tells him to put everything that scares him. In the cupboard is a dollhouse, and in that dollhouse are horrifying wooden dolls, and if they touch you - you become one of them.

The episode's title itself should be enough to make you realize that this episode isn't going to be a walk in the park. The dollhouse is terrifying, with its wooden food and creaky floors and children's giggling echoing off the walls... but when the wooden dolls themselves come out to play, the scare-o-meter goes off the charts. This has to be one of the most terrifying episodes of the show. It might very well give you nightmares.

Children: Tick tock goes the clock, and all the years they fly. Tick tock and all too soon, you and I must die.

• Season 6, Episode 11
• Written by Toby Whithouse
• Directed by Nick Hurran
• Originally aired on September 17, 2011
• Doctor: Eleventh
• Companions: Amy Pond & Rory Williams

The Doctor, Amy, and Rory find themselves in an eerie hotel with several other travelers of various backgrounds and beliefs. In this hotel, everyone has a room number. In everyone's room is their worst fear. And once you find your room, you will start to worship him. And once you start worshiping, there is no stop. Once you start worshiping, he will take you, and he will kill you. And he's picking off the "guests" one by one.

Oh, this episode has it all. Clowns, cackling clown marionettes, giant gorillas, weeping angels... If there is any episode guaranteed to keep you up at night, it's this one. After all, it is centered around a hotel that houses everyone's deepest, darkest fears. It's bound to have some heart-stopping frights around every turn.

Joe: Here comes the candle to light you to bed. Here comes the chopper to chop off your head. Chop... Chop... Chop.

• Season 7, Episode 9
• Written by Neil Cross
• Directed by Jamie Payne
• Originally aired on April 20, 2013
• Doctor: Eleventh
• Companion: Clara Oswald

The Doctor and Clara find themselves in a haunted mansion in the 1970s, where a clairvoyant and a professor are trying to unlock the secrets of the Witch of the Well, a terrifying entity that inhabits the house. The Doctor is searching for answers about who and what Clara is, but he gets drawn into the spine-tingling mystery of the ghost as he helps the psychic and the professor contact and help the spirit haunting the house.

I would say that this is probably number one on this list of scary episodes. The paranormal ghost-hunting theme of this episode is pretty creepy without all of the terrifying appearances made by the Witch of the Well and the pictures snapped of her ghastly visage. I would go so far as to say that this episode is truly, hauntingly, horrific (pun proudly intended).

Palmer: Caliburn House is over four hundred years old, but she has been here much longer. The Galiburn Ghast. She's mentioned in local Saxon poetry and parish folk tales. The Wraith of the Lady, the Maiden in the Dark, the Witch of the Well.

Clara: Is she real? As in, actually real?

Palmer: Oh, she's real. In the seventeenth century, a local clergyman saw her. He wrote that her presence was accompanied by a dreadful knocking, as if the devil himself demanded entry. During the war, American airmen stationed here left offerings of tinned Spam. The tins were found in 1965, bricked up in the servants' pantry, along with a number of handwritten notes. Appeals to the Ghast. "For the love of God, stop screaming."

• Season 7, Episode 13
• Written by Steven Moffat
• Directed by Saul Metzstein
• Originally aired on May 18, 2013
• Doctor: Eleventh
• Companion: Clara

The Great Intelligence is back in this, the final episode of season 7, and this time, he has new minions - echoes in the shape of stark-white, faceless men - the Whisper Men. With these frightening creatures, he lures the Doctor and his friends to Trensalore, the place of the Doctor's tomb, forcing the Doctor to face his worst fears and with the intention of getting his ultimate revenge on the man who stopped him the first time. In the Doctor's darkest hour, he needs his friends more than ever. Clara, Vastra, Strax, Jenny, accompanied by the invisible echo of River Song, are trapped with him and suffering at the hands of the Whisper Men, and as the Doctor begins to die, so do all the civilizations he's saved in his life.

The main reason that this episode is as scary as it is is the Whisper Men. They are reminiscent of the silence in appearance, except much more angular and spirit-like, rather than alien-esque. Their powers and abilities are terrifying. The setting for most of the episode, Trensalore, a giant battlefield-turned-graveyard with a giant TARDIS looming over it (the Doctor's last stand), is also grim and eerie, but the Whisper Men take the prize for scariest part of the episode.

DeMarco: Do you hear the Whisper Men? The Whisper Men are near. If you hear the Whisper Men, then turn away your ear. Do not hear the Whisper men, whatever else you do. For once you've heard the Whisper Men, they'll stop and look at you.

I have no doubt that when season 8 begins in the fall, we will have many terrifying adventures with the Twelfth Doctor as well, especially if Steven Moffat is still head writer. But as of now, these are 12 of the scariest episodes of the Doctor Who reboot.