Nightmare Fuel / Doctor Who Series 4

HEY, WHO TURNED OUT THE LIGHTS?

• "Voyage of the Damned": The hosting robots for a space ship turn evil and try to kill any survivors from the previous meteor collision.
  • "Information: You are all going to die." And it says it so cheerfully... (Simultaneously oddly hilarious. This show is like that.)
• "Partners in Crime":
  • A diet pill that creates aliens from body fat itself and occasionally from all those other bits of the body, although the creatures themselves were too cute for words. (Which just makes it worse.)
  • The first time the viewer sees the Adipose birth. Imagine you're just primping in the mirror, and then these things start sprouting from your body... and then you dissolve as your entire body becomes them.
• "The Fires of Pompeii":
  • Pompeiians being turned into statues (which look eerily like the plaster casts archaeologists pulled from the ash molds during excavations) by subterranean lava creatures. What makes it worse, some of the natives of Pompeii believe that becoming statues is the will of the gods and therefore an honor that should not only be accepted but embraced.
  • Imagine Pyroviles overrunning the planet. A scary thought, yes?
• "Planet of the Ood":
  • The Ood return and are revealed to be a race of aliens turned into willing slaves by lobotomy. Some of them develop glowing red eyes and become vicious. They get their revenge by turning their human captor into an Ood in a nightmarish transformation sequence. It's even worse when the human captors include Everton from Chef! (1993) and Percy from Blackadder.
  • The Doctor and Donna come across a cage full of "uncultivated" Ood. They are singing a song that the Doctor can hear, but Donna can't. When he gives her the ability to hear it, she is so disturbed and overwhelmed that she asks him to turn it off again, and the viewer is likely to agrees with her. The feverish intensity and utter despair of those wails...
    "While we are silent, we are screaming. With silence, we shout."
  • When Halpen turns into an Ood, he peels back his face and vomits up his own brain.
• "The Sontaran Stratagem"/"The Poison Sky":
  • The Sontarans returning and Martha Jones emerging from a goo-filled coffin.
  • The idea that you could be murdered by your car at any moment.
• "The Doctor's Daughter": A war fought by very quickly grown clones took place over countless generations with the implication that thousands and thousands of people had died with only an inkling of what they were originally fighting for. How long was the war? Seven days.
• "The Unicorn and the Wasp":
  • Killer wasps. GIANT killer wasps. As in cow-sized giant killer wasps. A woman had sex with one. And was at least partially genetically compatible.
  • It used A Form You Are Comfortable With to take a human form for that, at least. And the species was explained to be intelligent and peaceful. The one we see in the episode is only the way he is because his mother didn't bother to tell him that his father was an alien sentient shapeshifting wasp, and also abandoned him at birth and stuck him in an orphanage. He was justifiably freaked out when he turned into a wasp when he lost control of his shapeshifting powers due to not knowing he had them.
• "Silence in the Library"/Forest of the Dead":
  • A two-part story penned by Steven Moffat, involving living carnivorous shadows in a giant space library, plus a cyberspace segment involving vanishing children and a woman with a warped face◊.
  • Apparently the little specks in bright light are Vashta Nerada, too.
  • "Hey... who turned out the lights...?" Go ahead; shudder.◊
  • What makes "count your shadows" so horrifying is that it's not impossible to have two shadows. If you're standing between two light sources of similar brightness (Two lamps, or even two windows on different walls) you will have two shadows.
    • More the point that you almost never even notice your own shadow, even when you think about it.
    • It could be referring to the umbra of your shadow, which is the darkest part. You can have multiple penumbras (the lighter parts), but the Vashta Nerada are pitch black. And you can't have two umbras.
  • "The lights... are going... out..."
  • The child psychologist says to a child: "The real world is a lie and your nightmares are real. "
  • The Doctor saying that every creature in the universe has a irrational fear of the dark... only to explain that the fear isn't irrational.
  • Oh God... The Vashta Nerada exist on every world in the universe. Sometimes a person just goes missing....
    • It's also especially implied that they exist on Earth...
    • Implied?!
      The Doctor: [Vashta Nerada] are the dust in sunbeams. ... They mostly live on roadkill, but sometimes a person just goes missing. Not everyone comes back out of the dark.
  • Let's not forget the line by the Doctor after they've fled from Proper Dave.
    The Doctor: [to River] Thought you said there were five people alive in this room.
    River: Yeah, so?
    The Doctor: So, why are there six...?
    [beat; everyone turns around slowly]
    Proper Dave/Vashta Nerada: Hey! Who turned out the lights?
    The Doctor: RUN!
  • A person's last dying thoughts getting stuck in the suit radio until they fade: "Icecream, Icescream, Ice cream..."
    • It's not entirely clear when Anita died (presumably sometime before entering the data core but after the Doctor's revelation of "saved"), but the reveal of it is a lot more horrifying because of that. Throughout the entirety of the episodes, the Vashta Nerada-controlled corpses have only repeated their victims' last thoughts or speaking in a halting, struggling voice, as well as lumbering around like zombies. The fact that they could passably imitate Anita's speech and a much more natural gait raises some frightening possibilities about how this story could have ended much worse than it did.
  • Pretty much everything in the virtual world from Miss Evangelista telling Donna the world she's in isn't real onwards. Much of it would fit right at home in a horror film.
    • The idea of being told the world isn't real in general. How your children are only fictions, your life is a complete lie and it's all a dream in someone else's head. Quite reminiscent of The Matrix.
    • The ominous red glow in the sky when Donna takes Josh and Ella home.
    • The children all being exactly the same all over the world. Suddenly their laughter as this is revealed becomes very creepy when you realise because all the children in the world are the same, they all laugh the same way. Yeesh!
    • Miss Evangelista's distorted face, which is also this In-Universe, since Donna and the Girl both scream in terror upon first seeing it. It looks like a Picasso painting.
    • And good God, let's not forget the scene where Donna is tucking her children into bed. They tell her that when Donna isn't there, it’s like they aren't there either, even when she closes her eyes, and then they just disappear in the blink of an eye, leaving the beds empty. (Maybe she blinked.). Donna completely panics and starts screaming and sobbing, because of how she probably thought they were gone forever. A completely real parental fear and a big Tear Jerker too because of how most parents can probably relate to it. Even when you know it’s coming, that is pretty horrifying.
    • Donna and Lee being separated from each other as the world falls apart while Donna screams at Lee that she will find him... and then she doesn't, because she thought he wasn't real. Unfortunately, it turns out he was real after all, but because of his stutter, he couldn't call her name.
  • Finally, the cliffhanger:
    "Donna Noble has left the Library. Donna Noble has been saved. Donna Noble has left the Library. Donna Noble has been saved. Donna Noble has left the Library. Donna Noble has been saved..."
• "Midnight":
  • An unknown and unseen intelligence that repeats absolutely everything said, possessing a woman, causing claustrophobia on a space shuttle and leaving the Doctor completely helpless and broken for once. It's not the monster that's scary, it's the fact that it Mind Rapes the Doctor and then convinces six ordinary people to murder him, and does so very easily.
  • The Doctor is forced to repeat everything the monster says... including her commands to kill him. He is literally made to beg for his own death. Imagine being completely paralyzed, as several people physically drag you to your death, and hearing your own voice say, "Faster!"
  • This exchange:
    The Doctor: (with Sky repeating) "Listen to me. Whatever you want, if it's life or form or consciousness or voice, you don't have to steal it. You find it without hurting anyone. And I'll help you, that's a promise. So, what do you think? (Sky speaks first) Do we have a deal?"
  • It's the only episode in the history of the show in which we never find out what the monster actually was. Good luck sleeping now.
  • Just how quickly a group of ordinary people decide that killing an innocent person is the best response; the whole mob mentality/homicidal rage thing... Because that's something that can and does happen. Not the (also terrifying) alien, you don't have to worry about that... but you can worry that, some day, you just might be stuck in a confined place with six panicking people. You might try and be the voice of reason and they might just straight up murder you for it.
  • The passengers are first considering throwing Sky out. The Doctor goes into a long speech asking them if, deep down, they were truly willing to murder someone. There's a long pause before a woman says "I'd do it," and she's dead serious. Then the creature causes them to all consider throwing the Doctor out too. He does his usual "I'm-competent-and-clever" act that usually causes people to follow him without question. Instead, the other passengers start to question who he is and if he's really good, which ultimately leads to them very nearly killing him at the end. It's the one time we see the Doctor's words utterly torn apart and used against him, and it's downright terrifying.
  • At the climax of the episode when Biff is trying to throw the Doctor off the shuttle, he yells at Professor Hobbes and his son Jethro to help him to do it. A father is forcing his teenage son to commit murder with him.
  • Doctor Who Nightmare Fuel is normally at least somewhat reduced by the end of the episode, because the monsters get defeated. In this one? We have no guarantee the thing is dead. Nor do we know if there are more of them.
  • The Midnight theme. DO NOT listen to that theme late at night in the dark.
  • A planet made of diamonds has been found.
  • It would be hard to find someone who doesn't agree that "Midnight" is one of the finest, if not the finest example of Nothing Is Scarier ever put to screen.
• "Turn Left":
  • A world where the Doctor and Donna never met, thus the Doctor is killed and every attempted present-day alien invasion of Earth from that point onward is successful, turning Earth into a doomed dystopia. It's not easy seeing one of your beloved characters getting KILLED.
  • Martha, Sarah Jane, her son Luke, Maria Jackson and Clyde Langer, and the members of Torchwood all die in an effort to save others after the Doctor was gone was nightmarish.
    • Sarah Jane and Martha are mentioned to have asphyxiated when the hospital was transported to the Moon. But Luke, Maria and Clyde's fate is more alarming. There's no sign of them.
  • The implication of what brutality and cruelty the governments stoop to during the ensuing dystopia is unsettling. Using ethnic segments of the population as political scapegoats and then shipping them off for 'gainful employment' (and, presumably, oven-related death) is chilling.
    • Three little words out of Donna's grandfather Wilfred: "It's happening again."
  • "There is something on your back." It freaks everyone out, even a soldier!
  • "The stars are going out..." All set to the Midnight theme.
  • All of this put together, and we are all but told outright that the Doctor is the only thing between this world and total annihilation. You'd better hope he'll always be there.
  • This episode turns the light-hearted and thoroughly Narm-tastic moment from "Voyage of the Damned" where the starship Titanic flies over Buckingham Palace (while the Queen waves!) into pure horror; without the Doctor to save it, the ship crashes into London and obliterates it in a nuclear explosion. And Donna and her family watch it happen.
    • And then the entire south-west of Britain is flooded in radiation.
  • Bad Wolf Bad Wolf Bad Wolf Bad Wolf Bad Wolf Bad Wolf Bad Wolf Bad Wolf Bad Wolf Bad Wolf Bad Wolf Bad Wolf Bad Wolf Bad Wolf
  • The entire tone of Donna's World. Everything right from Donna turning right is just bleak. Not helping in the slightest is the music, which is "This Is Gonna Suck" distilled.
  • Donna gives a little speech about how she's not afraid, because she knows that when she does what she has to do, the timeline will be reset, and she'll still be alive, and now with the Doctor!
    Rose: I'm sorry.
• "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End":
  • Guess who comes back for the finale? (Hint: They were in two out of the three previous finales. And their freakish creator returns as they begin their grandest invasion of Earth ever.) To further establish the utter brutality of the episode, in one scene both Sarah Jane and Captain Jack are horrified by one word spoken by our returning "friends". While in and of itself it's not that scary, think about the implications. Jack is hundreds of years old, has seen and done everything, is virtually unkillable, and one word terrifies him. Sarah Jane's grown up and had a fulfilling life beyond the Doctor, seen more then most other companions, and in a way grown from a child to an adult. And one well placed word reduces her to tears because she's so scared. You know that when Sarah and Jack have nightmares, they are hearing the word "Exterminate". Just something about that sequence that really drives it home — this isn't an invasion, it's a sterilization.
  • It gets even worse when you realize that Ianto Jones is a survivor of the Battle of Canary Wharf, so he's probably just as familiar and just as hopeless at the realization that they're coming again. Even worse; HIS GIRLFRIEND WAS HALFWAY CONVERTED DURING CANARY WHARF!
  • When they finally established communication with the Doctor, Jack's terrified rant at wondering where the hell the Doctor has been tells you that Jack's afraid of them, even with being immortal. Don't forget: they killed him. And they can keep killing him over and over and over. Jack isn't going to be born for three thousand years. He's got very good reason to be afraid: if they win, he couldn't be there in the first place.
  • Think about it! Sarah Jane was present when Davros created the Daleks and Jack — you never forget the first time... the first time you die that is.
  • Sarah Jane looks at her son as soon as she hears the Daleks' battle cry, knowing what those words mean. That's a massive dose of horror right there.
  • Liz Sladen absolutely sells terrified without speaking a word, shifting from curiosity to quivering in fear the moment the Daleks speak.
  • "The Stolen Earth" gives the Daleks one or two funny bits ("Yes, we know who you are."), but there is enough effing Nightmare Fuel of every kind in the episode. For example (all of these come with the warning that you may negate a perfectly good Wham Episode):
    • The aforementioned reaction of Sarah, Jack and Martha to hearing the word "Exterminate".
    • Daleks stealing entire planets as part of their master plan.
    • Daleks marching everyone on Earth out of their homes and incinerating anyone who doesn't come along.
    • Dalek Caan screwing with the Time Vortex in a way that beats out even the Doctor, even though it turns out he's on the Doctor's side as a result.
    • Dalek Caan's current state.
    • Davros' eaten away chest and exposed organs. Ugh.
    • The Daleks effing shooting the Doctor during a subversion of The Meadow Run, leading to an equally shocking cliffhanger.
  • Davros being within 10 seconds of achieving his extremely long life's ambition of ending everything. EVERYTHING. Ever. Period. No backsies. Just a small corner of existence filled with Daleks. "YES! I WOULD DO IT!" indeed.
  • His metaphorical holding a mirror up to the Doctor to show him who he really is — "the man who never carries a gun..."
  • The dialogue leading up to his "THE DESTRUCTION! OF REALITY! ITSELF!" Davros is going into great detail to explain to Rose and the Doctor how, once the Reality Bomb goes off, it can't be stopped. It is going to spread out and destroy everything. Every planet, every star, every living being in existence is going to be reduced to nothingness — and not just in "our" universe, but every dimension in The Multiverse. Absolutely nothing will survive... except Davros and the Daleks. Think about that — there'd be nothing left except an evil race and their Mad Scientist creator. That's what the final legacy of the universe would have been had the good guys lost, which they came within a hairsbreadth of doing. All of creation reduced to inert particles, and the only exception are Space Nazis.
    • Davros' cry about "THE DESTRUCTION! OF REALITY! ITSELF!" is especially chilling in retrospect from "The End of Time". The exclamation, and the idea in general, is uncannily similar to Rassilon's battle cry before the assembled lords of Gallifrey, and chillingly lends credence to the Doctor's comments on just how far the Time Lords had sunk by the end of the Time War — namely, to the level of the Daleks themselves.
  • The Osterhagen Project. A "last resort" Doomsday Device for planet Earth, for when the human race is doomed beyond saving and their suffering is deemed too great to bear. With the activation of three keys it would launch 25 strategically-placed nuclear warheads beneath the earth's crust and rip the planet apart. Martha, entrusted with one of these keys by UNIT, threatens to use it to ruin Davros' plans. The Doctor is horrified by this, questioning Martha's sanity for even considering such a thing. After Earth is saved, he urges her to "save the world one last time" by destroying her key. Just the notion of such a project even being conceived (in fiction or in real life), and simply imagining any kind of scenario in which such a solution would be considered, is Nightmare Fuel aplenty.