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Wham Episode / Doctor Who

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Doctor Who has been around for more than fifty years. It is inevitable that wham episodes and wham lines are frequent in its long history. Beware of unmarked spoilers for the entire series except for the most recent episodes, like Series 12/Season 38 and Series 13/Season 39/Flux.

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Wham Episodes

    Classic Series 

Season 2

  • "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" was the first time a companion, Susan, had left. It was also the first time villains from a previous story appeared, and it set up the further Dalek stories. It was also the first story featuring an invasion of (almost-)contemporary Earth, setting this plot up for future stories.
  • "The Chase" may seem like a comical and lesser Dalek story, but has major implications. The Daleks have created a time machine, so for the first time the Doctor's enemies can time travel and returning to the TARDIS no longer means safety. It also saw the departure of the last of the Doctor's original companions, marking the start of the series' Revolving Door Casting.
  • The very next story, "The Time Meddler", depicted another time traveller from the Doctor's (still unnamed) culture for the first time and, for the first time, suggested that it was possible to alter Earth's past history on a large scale.

Season 3

  • "The Daleks' Master Plan" established that the Doctor's companions weren't safe: it featured not one but two companions dying, one of them spacing herself and her assailant in a last-ditch attempt to save the mission.

Season 4

  • "The Tenth Planet" was the first regeneration episode. Basically, every fan these days is familiar with regeneration, but the switch from the First Doctor to the Second Doctor must have been a massive Wham Episode for viewers back in the 1960s, especially kids, as the majority of viewers in the pre-Internet age would have been totally unaware the change was coming. This was also the first Cybermen story ever.

Season 6

  • "The War Games", where the Doctor is forced to call on his own people to fix a problem for the first time, during which we learn the Doctor is a Time Lord, and that his people are extremely powerful. It ends with the Doctor being exiled to Earth and forced to regenerate, changing the course of the series for the next three years and beyond. The story also bid goodbye to companion Jamie McCrimmon as a generation of British tween girls wept.

Season 7

  • "Spearhead from Space", the first serial in colour, is almost a companion to its predecessor in the amount of Wham. The entire starring cast was reset, the Doctor was suddenly on a much more violent adventure, it was revealed the Doctor has two hearts, and suddenly the space race suddenly had a much more chilling consequence. It also satisfies the "game-changing" aspect of the trope by changing the format of the series, with the Doctor now exclusively Earth-based and working for UNIT, rather than travelling on his own.

Season 10

  • "The Three Doctors" brought back the two previous actors who had played the Doctor, a previously unprecedented event, and at the end, the format of the series changed as the Doctor's exile to Earth was lifted.

Season 11

  • "The Time Warrior", in addition to introducing the Sontarans, revealed the name of the Doctor's home planet as Gallifrey.
  • "Invasion of the Dinosaurs": The revelation that Captain Yates is working with the conspirators marks the first time a trusted associate of the Doctor has turned against him on-screen. UNIT's previously-cohesive atmosphere is marred, heralding the Doctor's eventual resignation and return to wandering.
  • "Planet of the Spiders": Jon Pertwee had held sway over the role for a record five seasons at this point, and for the first time, a younger man was cast as the Doctor, setting a precedent that the Doctor could be virtually any age.

Season 12

Season 14

  • "The Deadly Assassin": The first serial to completely take place on Gallifrey and as such established much of the backstory regarding the culture that would inform stories for decades to come, including the revelation that Time Lords (in theory) may only regenerate 12 times. The Doctor is companion-less for the first time in the series, accused of a crime he didn't commit. It also features the return of the Master (the character having previously been retired due to the actor's death) and the revelation that yes, the Time Lords are absolutely capable of political scheming and skullduggery.

Season 18

  • "Logopolis": Tom Baker was the most popular Doctor the classic series ever had, so his departure after seven seasons into the (then) youngest Doctor actor ever was a Wham.

Season 19

  • "Earthshock", both for the episode 1 cliffhanger revealing the Cybermen (that Producer John Nathan-Turner took great pains to keep a secret, even turning down a cover of the Radio Times) and for episode 4's ending, the first time an established companion was killed off.note 

Season 21

  • "Resurrection of the Daleks": One of the bloodiest, goriest Dalek episodes of the original series. Tegan was upset by all the death and violence in the Doctor's travels and this was the straw that broke the camel's back, prompting her very abrupt and somewhat cold departure. It was the first time that we actually get a good insight into how the Doctor's travels can take a psychological toll on a person.
    Tegan: It stopped being fun, Doctor!

Season 23

  • The Trial of a Time Lord episode 13, "The Ultimate Foe". The Valeyard is really a corrupted future incarnation of the Doctor, employed by the Time Lord High Council to destroy the Doctor to prevent him from revealing their role in the attempted genocide of the human race. The Doctor's only ally in this is the Master, who (obviously) cannot be trusted.

The TV movie

    New Series 

Series 1/Season 27

  • "The End of the World", an otherwise ordinary episode, comes with the now well-known reveal that the Doctor is actually the Last of His Kind, and all the Daleks (for now) were killed in the Time War.
  • "Dalek": Although the Daleks were enough of a staple that their return to the show was inevitable, some people considered them a bit of a joke. This episode was written to show people just how dangerous the Daleks are, and why they're the Doctor's archenemies. In addition, it's revealed that the Doctor was responsible for the act that killed all of the Time Lords.
  • "The Long Game" ends with the Ninth Doctor literally kicking Adam Mitchell off the TARDIS due to his attempts to exploit time travel for personal gain. This was the first time that the Doctor has ever expelled a companion for bad behavior. Writer Russell T Davies admits that Adam was meant to be a short term companion and an example of a companion that didn't work out.
  • "The Parting of the Ways" was intended to be a bigger wham than it was, as Davies had intended for the regeneration of Christopher Eccleston's Doctor into David Tennant's to be a complete surprise. Unfortunately, the BBC publicity department prematurely announced that Eccleston was leaving. The moment still packs the punch, as does the episode's revelation as to who and what Bad Wolf is. Retroactively, additional wham factor for depicting the origin of Captain Jack's immortality.

Series 2/Season 28

  • "School Reunion", which was a wham in-universe for reintroducing Sarah Jane Smith and K9 (not to mention having Rose discover that she was far from unique), and a wham in fandom for officially confirming that the revival series is part of the 1963-1989 continuity, something that had been the subject of serious debate among fans during Series 1.
  • "Doomsday": The emotionally devastating separation of Rose and the Doctor, the first time a full-time companion left in the revived series.

Series 3/Season 29

  • "Utopia": You Are Not Alone, the culmination of a series full of foreshadowing and the return of the Master.
  • "Last of the Time Lords": The three-episode arc comes to a close, and it is revealed, among other things, that Captain Jack Harkness might be the Face of Boe.

Series 4/Season 30

  • "The Stolen Earth": Rose and the Doctor are reunited... and then a Dalek shoots the Doctor. And once Jack, Donna, and Rose get the Doctor back in the TARDIS, it appears he's going to regenerate — the first time a possible regeneration is used as a legitimate cliffhanger.
  • Continued in "Journey's End":
    • The Doctor avoids regenerating by sending the energy into his severed hand, which results in a human-Time Lord biological metacrisis when Donna later touches it, creating a half-human clone of the Doctor who is later sent off with Rose.
    • On Donna's end, the metacrisis makes her part-Time Lord and gives her all of the Doctor's knowledge, and when it's kickstarted after she gets zapped with electricity, she becomes the Doctor-Donna and saves the day... but her brain can't handle all that information, so the Doctor is forced to wipe her memories of him and return her to Earth to save her life.
    • Davros is (seemingly) killed off again, along with the Daleks.
  • "The Waters of Mars": The Doctor actually does what he swore never to do, and changes a fixed event. After saving people from certain destruction, there's some pretty heavy stuff, including a What the Hell, Hero? from the very people he saved. In fact, the woman he saved commits suicide shortly after so as to maintain the "proper timeline", leading to a Heroic BSoD.
  • "The End of Time": The Time Lords aren't just back, they're the ones trying to do as the title says.

Series 5/Season 31

  • The otherwise rather average "Cold Blood" turns into a Wham Episode in the last five minutes thanks to two big wham moments:
    • First, companion Rory is shot and killed, and then promptly erased by the crack eating up everything in the universe. This makes Amy, his fiancée (though she doesn't remember it) a more tragic character for the remainder of the season.
    • In the very last scene, the Doctor takes out the piece of shrapnel he pulled out of the crack, from the explosion that caused it, and discovers that it's a piece of the TARDIS.
  • "The Pandorica Opens", big time. Where to begin? Rory gets revived after being erased from time, only he's not real; he's an Auton Duplicate! And he ends up shooting Amy, which kills her. Next, the TARDIS exploding is the cause of the cracks in time, and it explodes with River inside, which destroys the whole universe. And to top it all off, the titular Pandorica is actually a prison for the Doctor, and he's been locked inside it, all the while screaming about how he is the only person who can stop the TARDIS exploding!

Series 6/Season 32

  • "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon":
    • The Doctor, in his future, gets shot twice, then again during his regeneration sequence, killing him permanently. The companions know that, but the Doctor mustn't know.
    • The young girl from the Apollo spacesuit is implied to be Amy's daughter. This possibility is made even more confusing by the fact that the TARDIS can't determine whether Amy is actually pregnant or not. To top things off, the girl is seen wandering the streets close to death at the end of the episode... and then starts regenerating! Yes, as in Time Lord-style regenerating.
    • River kisses the Doctor at the end of the episode, confirming their relationship is DEFINITELY romantic to some degree.
  • "The Almost People": It's revealed that the Amy accompanying the Doctor and Rory is actually a Ganger, and has been for some time, and the real Amy is, erm, somewhere, being kept by a midwife from hell, and about to give birth.
  • "A Good Man Goes to War":
    • River Song's name is a mistranslation of "Melody Pond", clarifying the earlier line "the only water in the forest is the river" and revealing that River is Amy and Rory's daughter.
    • There's a war going on against the Doctor, with Melody/River intended as a weapon to kill him.
  • "Let's Kill Hitler": River is the astronaut who killed the Doctor.
  • "The Wedding of River Song": We find out that the Doctor who was shot in Utah was actually a Teselecta, that the Doctor's exact relationship with River is that they're married and that it will be the Doctor who will cause silence to fall. Then we find out that the first question is... "Doctor who?"

Series 7/Season 33

  • The mini-episode "Pond Life: August" may qualify for the shortest Wham Episode of all time. After four 90-second long shorts featuring Amy and Rory as a happily married couple, the fifth shows Amy throwing Rory out of their home and announcing her plans to file for divorce.
  • "Asylum of the Daleks": The Dalek species now has no idea who the Doctor is. Also, the introduction of Jenna Coleman as Oswin Oswald months ahead of her announced debut.
  • "The Angels Take Manhattan": Amy and Rory kill themselves to destroy the Weeping Angel farm with a paradox, Rory is taken back in time by a surviving Angel immediately after this, and then Amy sacrifices any further time with the Doctor to spend the rest of her life with Rory.
  • "The Snowmen": For starters, new companion Clara dies, and her last words are exactly the same as Oswin from "Asylum of the Daleks". Then you find out her full name: Clara Oswin Oswald, proving that there is a connection between them. Oh yeah, and there's yet another Clara walking around in the present day!
  • "The Name of the Doctor": While we don't learn the Doctor's name, we do learn that Clara scattered herself throughout the Doctor's life in order to save him from the Great Intelligence's interference. On top of that, we learn that the Doctor's greatest secret is a past regeneration that did something so awful, he couldn't be called "The Doctor".
  • "The Night of the Doctor", one of the webisodes that was released before the 50th Anniversary special, not only features the return of the Eighth Doctor, but also has him regenerate into John Hurt's Doctor from the end of "The Name of the Doctor". It also officially brought over a decade of EU material into full canon status.
  • "The Day of the Doctor":
    • Gallifrey falls no more. The ending changes the course of the series in much the same way "The War Games" and "The Three Doctors" did.
    • Another wham moment occurs when Peter Capaldi makes his surprise debut as the Twelfth Doctor.
    • The surprise appearance of Tom Baker as the Curator was both a glorious nostalgia-fix for Classic series fans and an early indicator that the future awaiting the Doctor on Trenzalore might not be so grim, after all.
  • "The Time of the Doctor":
    • A message is suddenly broadcast to the universe, and every walk of life seems psyched to figure out what the message is saying. Through this one event, the entirety of Matt Smith's era gets resolved. We find out who blew up the TARDIS, what the Doctor's greatest fear was in "The God Complex", the purpose of the Silents, the significance of the Question and "Silence Will Fall", what Trenzalore is, and why it will fall when the Question is asked.
    • The Doctor's new regeneration cycle resolves a plot point dating back to 1976, and something that had been hanging over the future of the series since it returned to TV.

Series 8/Season 34

  • "Deep Breath": Eleven's brief cameo appearance near the end.
  • "Listen": 804 episodes, 245 stories, 51 years, thirteen Doctors and we finally get to see the Doctor as a child. We also find out what significance the barn the War Doctor enters in "The Day of the Doctor" had: It was the Doctor's hideaway as a child. It also has Clara realize that time travel has left her a Butterfly of Doom, accidentally but drastically altering the lives of both the Doctor and Danny Pink.
  • "Dark Water":
    • Danny dies, leaving Clara completely ready to betray the Doctor, albeit in a simulation.
    • Missy finally reveals her identity: a female incarnation of the Master.

Series 9/Season 35

  • "Face the Raven": Clara dies to save Rigsy's life, the Doctor is teleported away from the TARDIS, and he is angry at Ashildr.
  • "Heaven Sent": The Doctor endures a nigh-unbelievable ordeal of grief, fear and defiance inside his own Confession Dial, but gets through to Gallifrey in the end, and warns the Time Lords that now, he's angry at them. The first story since "The Deadly Assassin" in which the Doctor is without even a temporary companion, and the first ever in which (almost) every line of dialogue is his.
  • "Hell Bent" makes it three Wham Episodes in a row to finish the series. Rassilon is exiled from Gallifrey, the Doctor allows Clara to live indefinitely until she feels like returning to the fixed point in space-time where she dies, Clara and Ashildr steal a TARDIS and go off to have their own adventures, and the Doctor loses his memories of Clara's face and voice, among other things.

Series 10/Season 36

  • "Oxygen": The Doctor is rendered permanently blind after the events of this episode, and the only person who knows that is Nardole.
  • "Extremis": The reveal the Master is in the Vault is not too surprising. Her desire to turn good, which is why the Doctor spares her and puts her in the Vault, certainly is.
  • "The Pyramid at the End of the World": Bill is able to fix the Doctor's eyesight and save his life as a result. Unfortunately, doing so allows an alien race to conquer the Earth.
  • "World Enough and Time": The poor Doctor loses Bill to Cyber-conversion and looks to lose his last chance at redeeming Missy to the allure of evil, on top of having to confront the Harold Saxon Master and the first generation of Cybermen... and all this is the beginning of the story of why he must regenerate into his thirteenth numbered self.
  • "The Doctor Falls": Missy makes a Heel–Face Turn, but she and her previous incarnation Mutual Kill each other. Bill is saved from her fate by Heather from "The Pilot", while the Twelfth Doctor is fatally wounded in battle and tries to prevent his regeneration, only to come across the First Doctor in an arctic environment.

Season 12/Season 38

  • "Spyfall": O, the MI6 agent helping out Team TARDIS, is really the Master. On top of that, the Master's destroyed Gallifrey, and his stated reason for so doing is because he discovered a lie about the entire foundations of Time Lord civilization and history, something connected to the "Timeless Child" first mentioned in "The Ghost Monument". And, as a result, the Doctor and the Master are apparently the Last of Their Kind yet again.
  • "Fugitive of the Judoon": Let us count the ways:
    • Captain Jack Harkness returns, trying to pass on a message to the Doctor about the entire universe being in danger and to "Beware the lone Cyberman".
    • Ruth Clayton is not only the titular fugitive, she's the Doctor... but neither she nor Thirteen have any memories of each other, so they have no idea where or how they relate to each other in the Doctor's timeline, and since Ruth is a fugitive from Gallifrey, the planet clearly isn't destroyed in her time.
  • "The Timeless Children": Holy shit. The secret of the Timeless Child is finally revealed: regeneration is actually not a natural aspect of Time Lord biology; instead, it was reverse-engineered from the Timeless Child, an otherwise-ordinary-looking girl who was discovered having fallen through a portal to another dimension or universe. Her adoptive mother ended up reverse-engineering the secret of regeneration and implanting it in herself and the rest of the race that would become the Time Lords, granting them immortality, but imposing the completely artificial twelve-regeneration limit on the rest of the species. The identity of the Timeless Child? The Doctor themself, who it turns out has lived countless lives prior to the supposed "First" Doctor, repeatedly having their memory wiped by a Time Lord organization called the Division, for which they were doing work which has been redacted from the Matrix. The episode ends with the Doctor wiping out any surviving organic life on Gallifrey, including (seemingly) the Master.
    • As a side effect of the above reveals, this episode single-handedly doubles the number of onscreen regenerations of the Doctor.Explanation

Series 13/Season 39/Flux

  • "Village of the Angels": Out of all the episodes from the Flux arc so far, THIS one has been the most shocking yet. The supposedly renegade Weeping Angel that has possessed Claire turns against the Doctor by offering her to the Angels trying to capture Angel-Claire. What's more, said pursuer Angels are actually members of the Division, the same organization from last season, and that they have several alien species working for them. And to top it all off, the Angels turn the Doctor into a Weeping Angel herself, while Yaz and Dan — still trapped in the past from an Angel's touch — can do nothing but watch.
  • "The Vanquishers": Though most of the episode's consequences are implied rather than explicitly focused on, the story- and the five that preceded it- have a huge impact on the universe. While the Flux is stopped, there is no Reset Button to undo the events, meaning that a big chunk of the universe is implicitly gone for the time. Most, if not all, of the forces of the Daleks, Cybermen, and Sontarans have been wiped out by the final Flux event. Time itself is officially revealed to be sentient and potentially malicious, leading to it being restrained by the Temple of Atropos. And the Doctor has access to a watch containing the memories of all her lost incarnations, although for now she has stored it away in the TARDIS so she won't be tempted to open it, and then there's Time's warning that once again, the Doctor's death is near.

Centenary Special

    Expanded Universe 
  • Alien Bodies initiates the "future Time War" arc that will dominate the first half of the Eighth Doctor Adventures, introduces Faction Paradox, and involves the Doctor's corpse.
  • The Shadows of Avalon has the Doctor's TARDIS apparently being destroyed and Compassion mutating into one.
  • The Ancestor Cell resolves the Eighth Doctor Adventures' Time War plot and, for the first time in any medium of Doctor Who, destroys the Time Lords.
  • The Time of the Daleks ends with the realisation that something is wrong with time and it involves Charley.
  • Neverland ends with the Doctor infected by Anti-Time and becoming... ZAGREUS!
  • Zagreus has the return of Rassilon and ends with the Doctor being exiled to another Universe, one without time.
  • To the Death, where you either ended up dead, broken or defeated. There was no in between. It kills not one, but THREE companions, and shows just how heavily the Eighth Doctor gets emotionally DESTROYED!
  • A meta-wham for Doctor Who Magazine Seventh Doctor strip Ground Zero: Ace dies, the first companion death since Adric, breaking from the Doctor Who New Adventures.
  • The end of Eighth Doctor DWM strip The Fallen: the discovery of a shrunken corpse reveals the Master has returned, setting in motion the comic's next big story arc.
  • Eighth Doctor DWM strip Ophidius: Fish Person Destrii forcibly swaps bodies with the Doctor's companion Izzy, but is subsequently killed by one of the story's aliens, trapping Izzy in the wrong body.

Wham Lines

    Classic Series 

Season 2

  • "The Space Museum":
    • Ian asks a good question when he and the others are walking on dust:
      Ian: Why aren't we leaving any footprints?
    • The final scene, leading into "The Chase":
      Dalek: They cannot escape! Our time machine will soon follow them. They will be exterminated! Exterminated! Exterminated!
  • The final scene of episode 3 of "The Time Meddler".
    Vicki: It's a TARDIS. The Monk's got a TARDIS!

Season 10

Season 11

Season 15

  • "Image of the Fendahl":
    The Doctor: There are four thousand million people here on this planet and, if I'm right, within a year there'll be one. Just one.

Season 19

  • "Castrovalva":
    • The Doctor wants to know where the pharmacy is:
    The Doctor: Show me where the pharmacy is on this map.
    Man: Well, it's here, and here, and here, and... oh.
    • There's also this line from part 4 which reveals why Castrovalva's history books have been bothering the Doctor:
    Shardovan: The books are old, but they chronicle the rise of Castrovalva... up to the present day.
  • "Four to Doomsday":
    The Doctor: How can organic life endure that long?
    Bigon: The only organic life aboard is in the floral chamber.

Season 23

  • "The Ultimate Foe":
    The Master: They made a deal with the Valeyard, or as I've always known him, the Doctor...

Season 26

The TV movie

The Master: The Doctor is half-human! No wonder...
  • And for the benefit of those who missed it the first time:
    The Doctor: I'm half-human. On my mother's side. note 

    New Series 

Series 1/Season 27

  • "The End of the World" has this line near the end, which both recontextualizes the Doctor's darker mood for the revival and reveals a major event which happened in-between the TV movie and Series 1:
    The Doctor: My planet's gone. It burned, like the Earth. I'm not just a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lords.
  • "The Unquiet Dead": In an in-universe version, Gwyneth, who has Psychic Powers, tells Rose "Maybe your dad's up there too, miss." This shocks Rose, as she had never mentioned her dead father to Gwyneth at all.
  • "Dalek":
    • The Doctor walks into a cell, in which an unidentified alien, referred to as the "Metaltron", is being held.
      The Doctor: Look, I'm sorry about this. Mr. van Statten might think he's clever but never mind him. I've come to help. I'm the Doctor.
      "Metaltron": DOC...TOR?!
    • While the Doctor and the Dalek are talking about the end of the Time War:
      The Doctor: I watched it happen! I MADE it happen!
    • When Rose, Adam, and a Red Shirt are fleeing from a Dalek, and manage to leave it at the bottom of a flight of stairs (though this came as a surprise only to those who hadn't seen "Remembrance of the Daleks")...
      Dalek: EL-E-VATE!
    • And this exceptionally whammy one:
      The Doctor: Alright. If you want orders, follow this one: kill yourself.
      Dalek: The Daleks must survive!
      The Doctor: The Daleks have failed! So why don't you finish the job: rid the universe of your filth. Why don't you just DIE?!
      Dalek: ... You would make a good Dalek.
  • "The Empty Child":
    • The Doctor meets Dr. Constantine sitting in a hospital ward full of motionless people with severe injuries. The Doctor asks what killed them.
      Dr. Constantine: They're not dead.
    • It was already known that the Time Lords were dead. But this exchange confirms that that includes the Doctor's granddaughter Susan Foreman:
      Dr. Constantine: Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I'm neither, but I'm still a doctor.
      The Doctor: Yeah, know the feeling.
  • "The Doctor Dances":
    The Doctor: I sent the child to its room. This is its room.
  • "The Parting of the Ways": The Doctor asks the Dalek Emperor if he was responsible for the "Bad Wolf" Arc Words that have been appearing throughout the season. His response?
    Dalek Emperor: I did nothing... they are not part of my design. This is the truth of God.

Series 2/Season 28

  • "School Reunion": When Mr. Finch catches the Doctor off guard, instead of keeping the power of the Skasis Paradigm for himself, he offers to share it with the Doctor.
    Finch: Think of the changes that could be made if this power was used for good.
    The Doctor: What, by someone like you?
    Finch: No. By someone like you.
  • "The Girl in the Fireplace": When the Doctor is looking in Reinette's mind, she suddenly mentions a "lonely childhood". Then he realizes which childhood she means..
    Reinette: Oh, Doctor. So lonely, so very very alone!
    The Doctor: What'd you mean, alone? You've never been alone in your life... when did you start calling me "Doctor"?
    Reinette: Such a lonely little boy, lonely then and lonelier now. How can you bear it?
    The Doctor: [stunned] How did you do that?
  • "The Impossible Planet": The first indication that this story isn't going to just be about space exploration: Rose is getting lunch from an Ood, when he says, in the same calm tone the Ood usually speak in...
    Ood: The Beast and his armies shall rise from the pit to make war against God.
  • "Army of Ghosts":
    The Doctor: But I don't understand, the Cybermen don't have the technology to build a Void ship, that's way beyond you! How did you create that sphere?
    Cyber-Leader: The sphere is not ours.
    The Doctor: What?
    Cyber-Leader: The Sphere broke down the barriers between worlds. We only followed. Its origin is unknown.
    The Doctor: Then what's inside it?
  • "Doomsday":
    The Doctor: Time Lord science... [[The Ark]]'s bigger on the inside!

Series 3/Season 29

  • "Utopia":
    Professor Yana: I... am... the Master...
  • "The Sound of Drums": The Master makes a speech on TV, finishing a sentence with "Every, I dunno... medical student?" This causes the Doctor to look at Martha, who is in fact a medical student, before discovering that there's a bomb hidden on the back of her TV.
  • "Last of the Time Lords":
    • As the Master is about to execute Martha, she starts laughing. When he asks her why, she responds:
      Martha: A gun. A gun in four parts, scattered across the world. I mean, come on. Did you really believe it?
    • Followed up by:
      Martha: Right across the world. One word, just one thought, at one moment, but with fifteen satellites!
    • Not as influential, but later on:
      Jack Harkness: ..."The Face of Boe", they called me.

Series 4/Season 30

  • "The Doctor's Daughter": Donna makes a deduction based on several plaques she's observed around the city and a computer display she and the Doctor have come across during their mission to rescue Martha and halt the Forever War fought by Clone Armies the planet they have landed on is experiencing:
    "This war's gone on for seven days."
  • "Silence in the Library": The child psychologist character says exactly the opposite of what you'd expect:
    "The real world is a lie, and your nightmares are real."
  • "Forest of the Dead":
    The Doctor: River, you know my name. You whispered my name in my ear!
  • "Midnight": Not because of the context of the line, but because of the fact that the creature that could only repeat until then spoke first.
    The Doctor and Sky: Listen to me. Whatever you want, if it's life, or form, or consciousness, or voice, you don't have to steal it. You can find it without hurting anyone. And I'll help you. That's a promise. So. What do you think?
    Sky: Do we have a deal?
    The Doctor: [overlapping] Do we have a deal?
  • "Turn Left": Donna tells the Doctor about the alternate timeline, ending on the message the mysterious blonde woman who kept appearing gave her to tell him:
    "Just two words, she said: Bad Wolf."
  • "The Stolen Earth" has a few.
    "Supreme one. Is there news of him?"
    "Why don't you ask her yourself?"
    "Exterminate!"
    "Your voice is different. Yet its arrogance remains unchanged." — One for the Doctor, as well as Sarah Jane.
  • "Planet of the Dead":
    Carmen: It is returning, returning through the dark.
  • "The End of Time":
    • From part 1:
      "This was the day the Time Lords returned."
    • Part 2 has a Wham Sound Effect:
      tap tap tap tap...

Series 5/Season 31

  • "The Eleventh Hour":
    • The first sentence adult Amy speaks in her real accent is one for the Doctor, as it was pretty obvious to the audience just where "Amelia" had gone:
      "Well, why did you say 'five minutes'?!"
    • The Doctor figures out what "human residence" means:
      "They're not talking about your house, they're talking about the planet."
  • "Victory of the Daleks":
    "Bracewell is a bomb."
  • "The Time of Angels":
    • "That which holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel."
    • The Doctor and River have just had a revelation:
      River: The Aplans!
      Octavian: The Aplans?
      River: They've got two heads.
      Octavian: So?
      The Doctor: So why don't the statues?
    • This little crap-inducing exchange:
      The Doctor: Bob, keep running, but tell me: how did you escape?
      Bob: I didn't, sir. The Angel killed me too.
  • "Amy's Choice": The Dream Lord has conceded defeat, and Amy and Rory are certain everything's fine. The Doctor knows otherwise.
    "I'm going to blow up the TARDIS."
  • "The Lodger": The Doctor and Craig race upstairs preparing to rescue Sophie from the time engine in the upstairs flat... only for Amy to inform them of something very important she's discovered after looking at the plans of the building:
    "THERE! IS! NO! UPSTAIRS!"
  • "The Pandorica Opens":
    Sontaran: The Pandorica is ready!
    The Doctor: Ready for what?
    Dalek: Ready for you.

Series 6/Season 32

Series 7/Season 33

  • "Asylum of the Daleks":
    • Amy is told there's someone to see her:
      Amy: I don't have a husband.
    • Just when the Doctor is surrounded by thousands of Daleks, expecting to be killed immediately.
      Dalek PM: Save us. You will save us.
      Doctor: I'll do what?
      Dalek PM: You will save the Daleks!
      Every Dalek present: SAVE THE DALEKS! SAVE THE DALEKS! SAVE THE DALEKS!
      Doctor: Well, this is new!
    • Later on in that episode:
      Amy: Don't you dare say that to me. Don't you ever dare! You want kids, you have always wanted kids. Ever since you were a kid. And I can't have them! Whatever they did to me at Demon's Run, I can't ever give you children. I didn't kick you out, I gave you up!
    • And, of course, one staring everyone in the face from the get-go:
      Doctor: Does it look real to you?
      Oswin: Does what look real?
      Doctor: Where you are right now. Does it seem real?
      Oswin: It is real.
      Doctor: It's a dream, Oswin. You dreamed it for yourself because the truth was too terrible.
      Oswin: Where am I? [cut to the real world] Where am I? Where am I?
      Doctor: Because you are a Dalek.
  • "Hide":
    The Doctor: [near-whisper] I am the Doctor... and I am very afraid.
  • "The Name of the Doctor":
    • This:
      Jenny: Sorry, ma'am, so sorry. So sorry, so sorry. I think I've been murdered.
    • This, more so than the rest of the episode's wham moments:
      War Doctor: What I did, I did without choice.
      Eleventh Doctor: I know.
      War Doctor: In the name of peace... and sanity.
      Eleventh Doctor: But not in the name of the Doctor!
    • Although it is not a line of spoken dialogue, the on-screen credit "Introducing John Hurt as The Doctor" at the end changes the entire course of the series and its history in six words.

50th Anniversary Specials

  • Several stunning lines in "The Night of the Doctor", especially the first:
    Eighth Doctor: I'm a Doctor. Though probably not the one you were expecting.
    • A stunning reversal of 50 years of Doctor-companion banter:
      Cass: Is that... a TARDIS? DON'T TOUCH ME!
    • After the Eighth Doctor is almost Killed Off for Real:
      Ohila: We restored you to life, but it's a temporary measure. You have a little under four minutes.
    • After Eight has been encouraged to join the Time War:
      Eighth Doctor: I would rather die.
      Ohila: You're dead already. How many more will you let join you?
    • The whole Big Finish canon is explicitly made canon.
      Eighth Doctor: Charley, C'rizz, Lucie, Tamsin, Molly...
    • Eight loses hope:
      Eighth Doctor: I don't suppose there's any need for a Doctor anymore.
    • And the final line:
      War Doctor: Doctor no more.
  • "The Day of the Doctor":
    • For the fans who thought they knew what Billie Piper's role would be:
      The Moment: Rose Tyler... no. In this form, I'm known as... Bad Wolf.
    • The line which officially confirmed that the series would never be the same:
      Tenth Doctor: You're not... actually suggesting that we change our own personal history?
      Eleventh Doctor: We change history all the time; I'm suggesting something far worse. Gentlemen, I have had 400 years to think about this... I've changed my mind. [deactivates the Moment]
    • One of the biggest:
      First Doctor: Calling the War Council of Gallifrey — this is the Doctor!
    • And just afterward:
      Androgan: No sir, all thirteen!
      • A rare (unique) example of Wham eyebrows.
    • Revealing a possible future regeneration of the Doctornote :
      Eleven: I could retire, and be the curator of this place.
      The Curator: You know, I really think you might...
    • And later:
      The Curator: Gallifrey Falls... No More!
  • "The Time of the Doctor":
    • The Doctor is told by Handles that the source of the signal is Gallifrey.
    • When the Doctor finds out what planet they're on:
      The Doctor: Mother Superious, there is only one thing I need from you. This planet, what's it called?
      Tasha: Trenzalore.
    • When Tasha Lem declares the new purpose of the Papal Mainframe:
      Tasha: From this moment on, I dedicate this church to one cause: Silence.
    • When Tasha tells the Doctor about the Dalek attack:
      The Doctor: Why didn't you call me? I could have helped you.
      Tasha: I did! I died in this room screaming your name!
    • The hard limit on 12 regenerations for a time lord being broken:
      Daleks: EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY, THE DOCTOR IS REGENERATING, THE DOCTOR IS REGENERATING!

Series 8/Season 34

  • Near the end of "Deep Breath":
    Clara: Hello? Hello?
    Eleventh Doctor: [hoarsely and difficult to recognize] It's me.
    Clara: Yes, it's you. Who's this?
    Eleventh Doctor: It's me, Clara. The Doctor.
    Clara: What do you mean, the Doctor?
    [Jump Cut to the Eleventh Doctor not long before regenerating]
    Eleventh Doctor: I'm phoning you from Trenzalore.
  • "Into the Dalek":
    • First, this:
      Rusty: Daleks must be destroyed!
      The Doctor: [imitating Dalek voice] Daleks must be de- [pauses mid-sentence] ...What did you just say?
    • The episode's main Wham Line:
      Rusty: I see into your soul, Doctor. I see beauty. I see divinity. I... see... hatred!
    • Near the end of the episode:
      Rusty: I am not a good Dalek. You are a good Dalek.
  • "Listen":
    • The Doctor and Clara are at the end of the Universe with the stranded Orson Pink, and they should be the only people left:
      The Doctor: If there's nothing out there, then why's the door locked?
    • Clara hides under a little boy's bed when two adults come to see him. She doesn't realize who he is until she hears this as they're leaving...
      Unknown Man: Well, he's not going to the Academy. He'll never make a Time Lord.
  • "Time Heist": When the Doctor finds out the identity of the mysterious "Architect".
    The Doctor: I hate the Architect!
  • "Flatline":
    Clara: Go on then, say it. I was a good Doctor.
    The Doctor: You were an exceptional Doctor, Clara...
    Clara: Thank you.
    The Doctor: ...goodness had nothing to do with it.
  • "Dark Water":
    • Misinterpreted by Clara and the audience:
      The Doctor: Go to Hell.
    • And followed shortly by:
      The Doctor: You betrayed me. You betrayed our trust, you betrayed our friendship, you betrayed everything that I've ever stood for. You let me down!
      Clara: Then why are you helping me?
      The Doctor: Why? Do you think that I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?
    • And still later:
      The Doctor: Who are you?
      "Missy": Oh, you know who I am... I'm Missy.
      The Doctor: Who's "Missy"?
      "Missy": [annoyed sigh] Please, try to keep up. Short for "Mistress". Well, I couldn't very well keep calling myself "The Master", now could I?
  • "Death In Heaven": When the Doctor and Clara find Kate Stewart alive after she was saved by a Cyberman.
    Clara: Doctor. She's talking about her dad.

Series 9/Season 35

  • "The Magician's Apprentice":
    The Doctor: Tell me the name of the boy who isn't going to die today!
    Boy: Davros. My name is Davros.
  • From "The Witch's Familiar", a wham for the fans in that it marks the Doctor trading in his sonic screwdriver in favor of his new sonic sunglasses:
    The Doctor: I'll give it a quick blast from my sonic, and the real-time envelope will reassemble right here!
    Clara: Doctor, you don't have your screwdriver.
    The Doctor: Oh yeah, I’m over screwdrivers. They spoil the line of your jacket. These days I’m all about wearable technology.
  • "Sleep No More":
  • "Heaven Sent":
    • The one which finally ties together all the mysteries of the episode:
      The Doctor: The answer, of course, is that there were never any other prisoners. And the stars, they weren't in the wrong place, and I haven't time travelled... I've just been here a very, very long time.
    • The ending line:
      The Doctor: [to his Confession Dial] You can probably still hear me. So just between ourselves... you got the prophecy wrong. The Hybrid is not half-Dalek. Nothing is half-Dalek; the Daleks would never allow it. The Hybrid, destined to conquer Gallifrey and stand in its ruins... is ME!
  • The post-season Christmas Episode "The Husbands of River Song" has two examples that radically alter the tone of their respective scenes and the episode as a whole.
    • First:
      River Song: Hang on a minute. I recognize that planet.
      The Doctor: Well, that's nice! Maybe they'll name the crater after us!
      River Song: That's Darillium!
    • And in the denouement:
      River Song: How long... is a night on Darillium?
      The Doctor: Twenty-four years.

Series 10/Season 36

  • "Knock Knock": When the Doctor and Bill confront the Landlord and Eliza, the Doctor surmises something about Eliza's real identity, after initially believing that the Landlord was her father.
    The Doctor: Your father would have had better things to do than playing with insects in the garden. But he isn't your father. When you were ill, he was sent out of the house by the doctors who are failing to save his mother!
  • "Oxygen": By the end, the Doctor has saved Bill, Nardole, and all of the other spacemen, even though he earns milky-white eyes of blindness due to him entering the vacuum of space. In the TARDIS, his eyes are restored back to their normal appearance, and back at the university he works in, Nardole is chewing him out for nearly dying and leaving a vault that he is supposed to protect unguarded. Then this exchange happens.
    Nardole: [regarding the Doctor, who has his sonic sunglasses on, never looking at him while he is giving his "The Reason You Suck" Speech] LOOK AT ME!
    The Doctor: Nardole, I can't, I really can't! [takes off sunglasses] I can't look at anything ever again. I'm still blind.
  • "The Lie of the Land": One line at the end of the episode establishes the reason for the Vault storyline and what the rest of the Story Arc of Series 10 is.
    Missy: I keep remembering all the people I've killed.
  • "World Enough and Time" gives us three in quick succession:
    • The first one, a rare on-screen variant, finally drives home the giant ship's planet of origin for those who hadn't either figured it out or had it spoiled by the BBC:
      "MONDAS"
    • The second delivered by the Mondasian Cyberman found by the Doctor and Nardole in the closet:
      I. Am. Bill. Potts.
    • And the final one, which sees Mr. Razor reveal his true identity, complete with mid-sentence accent switch:
      [to Missy] "Do you still like disguises? Of course, they are rather necessary when you happen to be someone's former Prime Minister!"
  • "The Doctor Falls":
    First Doctor: You may be a doctor, but I am the Doctor. The original, you might say.
  • "Twice Upon a Time": The Doctor finding out who is the one attacking visitors in Villengard's ruins. It's Rusty the Dalek.
    Twelfth Doctor: You know what? You're a bit of a legend these days, but not everyone believes it. People don't think that it could happen. That someone like you could turn against your own kind because your kind don't do that. Because people don't believe there could be any such thing as a good Dalek.

Series 11/Season 37

  • "The Ghost Monument":
    • The Doctor, trying to find out what really happened on Desolation, discovers a message left behind by the scientists who worked in an Abandoned Laboratory:
      The Doctor: [reading aloud] "We are scientists. Abducted, tortured, and made to work while our families are held hostage. We are forced to find new ways of destruction. Poisons, weapons, creatures. We gave them our minds, and they made us the creators of death. This planet has been left scorched and barren from our work. The atmosphere and water are toxic, killing machines and creatures inhabit every corner. We had no choice but to obey... [horrified Beat] the Stenza."
      • For context: The Stenza are the species of the villain from the previous episode, "The Woman Who Fell to Earth". That guy, "Tim Shaw", was explicitly not a very impressive member of such, being a Dirty Coward who had to cheat to succeed, so he didn't make his species look altogether that dangerous... but this changed things.
    • Shortly after, Angstrom reveals that the Stenza didn't just target Desolation and Earth:
      Angstrom: You know the Stenza too?
      Graham: [quietly] My wife died because of them.
      Angstrom: [close to tears] Mine too! I'm sorry... They took our planet, sent us into hidin', cleansed millions of us...
  • "Kerblam!":
    • The Doctor, trying to figure out what is going on with the titular MegaCorp's computer system and who sent her a message for help in her package, hooks up Twirly, the original model of delivery robot, to the system, and it says:
      Twirly: Help me. Help me. Help me.
    • When Ryan, Yaz, and Charlie find Kira locked in a room in the basement, they see her open a package. When she removes the single layer of bubble wrap she finds inside, Charlie yells for her not to pop it, but she can't hear him. When she does, it turns out to be explosive, and Ryan realizes that Charlie's attempt at warning Kira meant he knew the bubble wrap was dangerous because he's the killer.
  • "Resolution": The Doctor announces that the DNA sample from the sewer wall comes from "the most dangerous creature in the universe".
    Graham: Does it have a name?
    The Doctor: A Dalek.

Series 12/Season 38

  • "Spyfall":
    • At the end of part 1, O's true identity is revealed:
      O: Doctor, I did say, "look for the spymaster." Or should I say Spy... Master?
    • The Master leaves the Doctor a holographic message explaining who destroyed Gallifrey, and why.
      "If you're seeing this, you've been to Gallifrey. When I said someone did that, obviously I meant– I did. I had to make them pay for what I discovered. They lied to us. The founding fathers of Gallifrey — everything we were told was a lie. We are not who we think. You or I. The whole existence of our species — built on the lie of the Timeless Child. Do you see it? It's buried deep in all our memories. In our identity. I'd tell you more, but... but why would I make it easy for you? It wasn't for me."
  • "Orphan 55":
    • Bella calls Kane out for not recognizing her own daughter, revealing that Kane is her Missing Mom.
    • During the escape through the tunnels, the Doctor finds a sign on the wall, and Graham remarks that the writing looks like Russian. It quickly becomes apparent that Orphan 55 was Earth All Along.
  • "Fugitive of the Judoon": Several.
    • Graham's mysterious kidnapper reveals himself:
      Captain Jack Harkness: HAH! You missed me, right?
    • Jack gives the fam a message for the Doctor:
      Captain Jack Harkness: Beware the Lone Cyberman.
    • Ruth reintroduces herself.
      Ruth: Let me take it from the top. Hello. I'm the Doctor.
    • When Gat explains why the Judoon cannot apprehend both Doctors, we also learn who their employers are.
      Gat: It'll destroy the Time Streams before you get anywhere near Gallifrey!
  • "The Timeless Children":
    • The scene of the Timeless Child beginning to regenerate is enough of a shock, but the Master's narration of the scene really sells it:
      The Master: [It was] the first regeneration of any person on the planet of Gallifrey.
    • And then later, as the Doctor demands to know what happened to the Timeless Child, the Master promptly drops this bombshell:
      The Master: The child is you.

60th Anniversary Specials

  • "The Star Beast": The Meep reveals their true colors when the Doctor learns that the Meep is actually a twisted monster.
    The Meep: Oh, to hell with this!
  • "Wild Blue Yonder": At the end, when the Doctor and Donna meet Wilf again. It's all very heartwarming as the Doctor catches up with his old friend, and then:
    Wilf: I never lost faith! I said, "He won't let us down, he'll come back and save us!"
  • "The Giggle": When the shop owner asks if the Doctor remembers him, the Doctor stares at him coldly and only say his name...
    The Doctor: The Toymaker.

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