Tear Jerker / Doctor Who – Classic Series

"Adric?"

Moments from the Classic era of Doctor Who that brought viewers to tears.

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First Doctor episodes

• The very first serial introduces us to the series' very first murder victim: an old cavewoman. Sure she was a political schemer, but she was only trying to protect her tribe from what she believed would destroy them. Not only that, but instead of killing the Doctor and his companions to prevent them from teaching the tribe the secret of fire, she sets them free. And once caught she faces her death with (for the most part) fortitude and dignity.
• The Daleks (oddly enough) in their debut appearance, after receiving an anti-radiation serum to protect from radiation poisoning. Many Daleks prove that the serum is incompatible with their biology, and they start screaming in pain before dying. It's surprising how sympathetic they seem when calling for help.
  Sick Dalek: (flailing about) Help! Cannot control! Cannot control! Help me! Help! Help! Help!
• The First Doctor's Accidental Engagement in "The Aztecs". Note that he is so traumatized by the pain he unintentionally inflicts on his 'fiancee' that it takes seven regenerations before the Eighth Doctor gets romantic with an ephemeral again, putting this in Tear Jerker territory.
  • Going back and picking up Cameca's engagement necklace. It's probably the first sign of affection the First showed to anyone who wasn't Susan.
  • Autloch discovers someone who shares his qualms about Human Sacrifice, only to find her discredited and himself exiled.
• Just seeing how much trauma John went through in "The Sensorites" is heartbreaking. Not only does he unintentionally doom himself and his crew to their imprisonment over the Sense Sphere, he is also driven mad by the Sensorites continually attacking his mind. Not even his fiance Carol can stand to face him in his condition. And during his treatment, he's aware of the City Commissioner's treachery, but can't tell anybody because of the helmet clearing his mind. Luckily, the heroes learn of the treachery and stop the Commissioner's plot. The scientists are also able to fix John, allowing him, Carol and the rest of the crew to peacefully depart back to Earth.
  • In the same series, the First Elder gets one when he learns of the Second Elder's death, along with fabricated evidence that he was a traitor. Though it's very slight, his tone of voice noticeably trembles and he seems quite shaken that someone he valued was betraying him. Fortunately, he learns of the real traitor and can remember his friend as the devoted figure he knew.
• The very first companion departure. Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter, is torn between staying with her love and leaving with the Doctor, so he makes the choice for her by locking her out of the TARDIS. "One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, Susan. Goodbye, my dear." This was so moving to the producers that they used part of the speech to represent William Hartnell at the very beginning of "The Five Doctors". And then again as Flesh Eleven's first words in "The Almost People".
  • Carole Ann Ford actually cried real tears filming that scene.
  • It gets worse in the Expanded Universe, To elaborate, Big Finish Doctor Who has the Eighth Doctor finally return, and to find he has a great-grandson, Alex. After a brief, eventually happy reunion, Earth is invaded again by the Daleks. In the final fight, Alex is killed in a Heroic Sacrifice, leaving Susan distraught, and the Doctor bitter and more vengeful toward the Daleks then ever. She would later join the Time Lords during the Last Great Time War and end up at odds with the Doctor, though her fate afterwards is unknown and the Doctor assumes she died. Though it was later revealed Gallifrey is in a pocket universe, so she may still be alive. Regardless, Poor Susan.
• And the next story — "The Rescue" — doesn't just brush off the whole thing. It's still not the focus of the serial, but there comes a time when the Doctor needs to operate the TARDIS. And, out of habit, he tells Susan to help him — only right then and there for it to fully sink in that she can't help him; that she's gone. And for several whole seconds, both the Doctor, Barbara, and Ian just stand there in silence, before Barbara tries to get their minds off it all.
• The loss of the Doctors first human companions in "The Chase". Ian and Barbara chose to return to their own time, and the Doctor spends the last few moments of the episode in an uncharacteristically gloomy and morbid mood.
  • William Hartnell wasn't even acting in this scene. He'd become such good friends with William Russell and Jacqueline Hill that he was devastated to see them leave.
• This even continues into the next episode, when the Doctor makes it quite clear that he views Steven as an inferior version of Ian, and takes an immediate dislike to him, picking on him and using him as a focus for all his frustration over losing his friends.
• Though she wasn't a 'proper' companion, Katarina's death in "The Daleks' Master Plan" is a bit of this, even with only the audio.
  Steven: Not that one! Katarina! *spaces herself and her attacker* Katarina!
  • The end of that same story. The jungle planet Kembel, once known as the most hostile place in the solar system, reduced in seconds to a barren wasteland filled with the corpses of the Daleks and Sara. It doesn't help that the Doctor and Steven, the only survivors, spend several minutes contemplating the horror that the Time Destructor was able to bring about, all in absolute silence and stern voices.
    The Doctor: What a waste... What a terrible waste...
  • This line, after the Doctor is expressing satisfaction with the destruction of the Daleks:
    Steven: Bret! Katarina! ...Sara.
• The ending of "The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve", where Steven leaves the TARDIS, disgusted that the Doctor left Anne Chaplet to be butchered. Gets even worse as the Doctor breaks down, remembering his companions who left him, especially Susan and combined with his guilt over his inaction in the massacre he's so broken he ponders whether to give up traveling altogether and return to Gallifrey. Even more sad as he’ll be separated from many more companions later in life.
  • The Doctor's speech is truly heartbreaking. He's never sounded more broken:
  The Doctor: Even after all this time he cannot understand. I dare not change the course of history. Well, at least I taught him to take some precautions. He did remember to look at the scanner before he opened the doors. Now they're all gone. All gone. None of them could understand. Not even my little Susan, or Vicki. And as for Barbara and Chatterton. Chesterton. They were all too impatient to get back to their own time. And now, Steven. Perhaps I should go home, back to my own planet. But I can't. I can't.
  • This gets a bit more heartbreaking in the behind-the-scenes portrayed in An Adventure in Space and Time, which suggests this dialogue was also William Hartnell (who was already beginning to suffer old-age problems on set) beginning to lament how he's the only one of the original cast and crew from 1963 still in the show.
• "The Tenth Planet" has the Doctor rapidly deteriorating, and whilst Ben and Polly don't know what is coming, he clearly does - his first regeneration, though he has no idea how the procedure will work, how it will hurt etc. The absent-minded, broken way he says "That's good... keep warm." to Polly as he leaves to become a new man is quite sad in hindsight.

Second Doctor episodes

• "The Power of the Daleks": In the climactic showdown, we get a panning shot of the dead bodies. Then, just before the end, we see a frightened family approached by Daleks and a baby starts crying. Fortunately, the Daleks blow up just before they can kill the family.
• "The Evil of the Daleks" introduces us to the very first humanized (read adorable) Daleks ever. Sadly, by the end of the episode, all the good Daleks are killed as they destroy their Emperor. All the Doctor could do was stand by the window and watch as the adorable pepperpots die when the building finally collapsed on top of the survivors. (According to 'Children Of The Revolution', some of them survived and met the Eighth Doctor, but died shortly afterwards.)
• This whole speech from "Tomb Of The Cybermen". Deborah Watling's wonderful, moving performance as Victoria sadly remembering her dead family beforehand is great enough, but then Patrick Troughton comes out with this about HIS family...
  The Second Doctor: I have to really want to - to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they... they sleep in my mind, and I forget. And so will you. Oh, yes, you will. You'll find there's so much else to think about, to remember. Our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing! Because nobody in the universe can do what we're doing. So you go get some sleep, and let this poor old man stay awake.
  • Just...perfect.
  • Note that this is the first time the Doctor ever talked about his family (outside of his granddaughter Susan). The fact that he chose to confide in Victoria about this is proof that he truly loved her very much.
• Victoria's goodbye in "Fury from the Deep". It's clear she's really torn between staying with The Doctor and Jamie, or the Harrisons.
  • Jamie's reaction to it as well. He clearly doesn't want her to leave and is quite depressed when she does. When the Doctor asks him where to go next, he responds he couldn't care less.
• What happens to the Companions of "The Krotons".
• "The War Games" episode 10 combines the Doctor's execution with the departures of two companions. Both of whom keep on hoping there's going to be a happy ending long after the Doctor's realized all too well there won't. Then after they've said goodbye to the Doctor (still hoping they'll see him again one day), the Time Lords casually inflict Victory-Guided Amnesia on them and we get to see the results. Heartbreaking.
  • Upon realizing that he couldn't avoid his trial, and had to say goodbye to his companions, the Doctor turns to Jamie, offering his hand and says goodbye. Jamie tries to object, but gets cut off by a much more curt "Good-bye, Jamie." You can practically see Jamie's heart breaking when he says goodbye back; he was the Second Doctor's companion for all but the first six episodes of his tenure, and the longest-running male companion in the Classic Who series. To see their friendship, and their adventures, have to end so suddenly, was just heartbreaking to those who had watched Jamie from the very beginning.
  • "I won't forget you, Doctor."
    • The last we see of him, he's charging a Redcoat who's shooting at him, when just before his memory was erased he talked down and cooperated with another. When you remember that and take into consideration how close Jamie was to the Doctor and how long they travelled together, well...
  • "I thought I'd forgotten something important, but it's nothing."
  • That Jamie and Zoe lost their memories was bad enough, but factor in the realization that given his nationality and time period, Jamie probably died at Culloden...
  • Except for the fact that unless the Time Lords screwed something up, that's an ontological impossibility.
  • Perhaps a slight happy tearjerker when, after he asks about them, the Time Lords do comfort the Doctor with the assurance that they'd taken steps to ensure both Jamie and Zoe will be fine.

Third Doctor episodes

• The end of Episode Six of "Inferno". It's a Mirror Universe and all, and the Brigade Leader's a nasty piece of work, but that doesn't change the fact that four billion other people are dying at about the same time. But what really does it is the Doctor's complete inability to save anyone else.
  Brigade-Leader Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart: You’re going to take us with you, Doctor!
  Third Doctor: I can’t - it’s impossible!
  Brigade-Leader: (Whilst pointing a pistol at him) I advise you to try.
  The Doctor: I can’t, I literally can't. It would create a cosmic disaster.
  Brigade-Leader: You are not going to leave us here!
  The Doctor: Do you think I want to? I’d give anything to save you all.
  Greg Sutton: It’s not loaded!
  Brigade-Leader fires a warning shot to the side to prove Sutton wrong.
  Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw: Let him go, Brigade-Leader!
  Brigade-Leader: We helped him... We have every right to go... I give you until three, Doctor. One!
  The Doctor: You’ll have to shoot me Brigade-Leader, I have no intention of taking you!
  Brigade-Leader: Two! Thr- (BANG!)
  The shot came from the Section Leader’s pistol. The Brigade-Leader keels over.
  Section Leader: Now’s your chance Doctor!
  Sutton: Go on, Doctor, get out of it!
  We see an Apocalyptic Montage, starting with the Primord that was once the parallel Benton looking on as the main drilling complex goes up in a colossal explosion. We then cut to an unknown city being consumed by flames; civilians run around screaming, two men sit on the ground looking shell-shocked, and a soldier tries to flee, but finds the way blocked by a newly-opened lava pit. The Doctor, meanwhile, is still trying to cross back to his universe.
  Section Leader: Go on Doctor, go now!
  Doctor: I can’t it's still too erratic-
  Professor Petra Williams: GREG!
  The last thing we and The Doctor see of that world is lava pouring in through the door of the room the characters are standing in.
• Ashe's Heroic Sacrifice in "Colony in Space", going up in flames before your very eyes when launching the rocket.
• In "The Three Doctors", Omega isn't a very sympathetic character because of his ceaseless power tripping. This changes the moment he removes his mask and discovers his entire body has disintegrated in the antimatter realm and only his will allows him to exist as long as he thinks he is still alive. Omega collapses to his knees and begins the loudest, most helpless, and absolutely pitiful wailing you've ever heard. What follows is a horrifying Villainous Breakdown.
• The DVD Commentary to "The Green Death", when Katy Manning begins talking about Jon Pertwee and breaks down in tears at the end.
  • And, of course, that lingering shot of the Doctor, standing alone by the door at Jo's engagement party, downing his last drink as he watches the guests mingle. There's a reason it's in every Fan Vid. Worse, Jo turns around once she notices he leaves and has a look of infinite sadness about her.
  • And then he drives off alone along the sunrise...
  • The Novelisation ends with "-and a tear rolled down the Doctor's 900 year old cheek..."
  • Also from The Green Death: when Stevens is freed from BOSS's control and sacrifices himself to destroy him. The shot of him resigned to his fate, shedding a Single Tear of regret is heartbreaking.
• In "Death to the Daleks", Richard getting killed by an Exxilon shooting him in the back with an arrow. and Jill trying to save him.
  Jill: Help me with him! Help me!
  (The Third Doctor runs up to her.)
  The Third Doctor: It's no good, he's dead! We can't help him!
  Jill: But, please, we can't leave him here!
  (More arrows thud into the ground near them)
  The Third Doctor: Quick, come on! (Pulls her away)
  • Also from Death to the Daleks, the Doctor's last line:
  The Third Doctor: (Watching the Exxilon city melt) It's rather a pity in a way. Now the Universe is down to 699 wonders.
• Aggedor's death in "The Monster of Peladon". The Doctor's face says it all.
• The death of the Third Doctor in "Planet of the Spiders" holds up even today in terms of emotion, largely because of the superb acting of Jon Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen.
  Sarah Jane: Oh, Doctor, why did you have to go back?
  The Third Doctor: I had to face my fear, Sarah...I had to face my fear. That was...was more important...than just going on living.
  Sarah Jane: Please...don't die.
  The Third Doctor: A tear...Sarah Jane? No, no, don't cry...while there's life, there's...
  (He breathes his last before he can finish his sentence. Sarah Jane closes his eyes.)
  Sarah Jane: Hope.
  • Three was always the suave, dashing, unflappable action hero. In his final moments, he just sounds so broken and weary.
  • Sarah's in an emotional state, the Brigadier is just silent and stoic, but aiding the Doctor in his final moments. He can't believe the Doctor's really dying either, but he takes it with quiet dignity.

Fourth Doctor episodes

• The way the newly regenerated Fourth Doctor was trying new costumes in "Robot", only to have each one turned down by the Brigadier, was absolutely heart-wrenching. He just looked so sad when each suit was rejected...
  • Well, when you think about it, the Doctor solidifying his wardrobe after each regeneration is basically his way of demonstrating that he's finally comfortable with his new identity. The reason he's so downcast there is that he's just trying to figure out who he's turned into this time...
  • The K1 robot's entire story...
• "The Ark in Space" had a sad ending:
  Noah: Goodbye, Vira...
  • In addition, the ending also has Rogin, a truly likeable member of the Ark's crew, being burned alive in a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Near the beginning of "Pyramids of Mars" The Doctor is quietly standing in the control room of the TARDIS, looking unusually sullen. When Sarah Jane walks in she's wearing a dress she found. When she shows it off to him, The Doctor instantly recognizes it as one once worn by Victoria.
  Sarah: (excited) Doctor! Look what I found!
  Doctor: (absently) Hello, Vicky.
  • The Doctor then goes on for a bit about how Earth isn't really his home, sounding much like a stranger in a strange land.
  • Watching Laurence trying "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight on Marcus (or more precisely, Marcus dead body possessed by Sutekh's will) when he shows up. Worse, there seems to be a faint glimmer that Marcus might break free of Sutekh's possession, only to kill Laurence a second later.
• The title character from "The Brain of Morbius", whatever terrible things Morbius did in his lifetime, he was still a very sad and pitiable creature in the end.
• Sarah Jane's departure from the TARDIS in "The Hand of Fear":
  Sarah Jane: Don't forget me.
  Doctor: Oh, Sarah! Don't you forget me.
  • It's a Bittersweet Ending since Sarah doesn't have to suffer the same Laser-Guided Amnesia that Jamie and Zoe did had the Doctor actually taken her to Gallifrey.
• D84's Heroic Sacrifice at the conclusion of "The Robots of Death":
  D84: Goodbye... My... Friend.
• Li H'sen Chang may have been a Punch-Clock Villain, but there's something about his Truth in Television pre-mortem vision of deceased loved ones coming to greet him.
• In "Horror of Fang Rock", the death of naive and kind-hearted Vince is particularly moving.
• Leela's departure in "The Invasion of Time". Leela tells the Doctor she'll miss him. He doesn't reply until he's back in the TARDIS, whispering "I'll miss you too, Savage." It's rather sad that he can't bring himself to say it to her face.
• "The Ribos Operation":
  • Unstoffe is deeply affected when the Graff brutally murders Binro simply for trying to help him.
    • This was especially tragic as it came so soon after the very moving scene where Unstoffe told Binro that his heretical ideas were right. The look of joy on the old man's face was a moment to provoke happy tears.
  • The Doctor didn't have it any easier, he had to stand by and watch as the Graff murdered many innocent people. It's no wonder he made certain the Graff suffered a Karmic Death from his own bomb.
• "The Pirate Planet":
  • The Doctor reassuring K9, as his batteries and power are depleted.
  • The Captain telling a dying Fibuli that he's a good man and that he will be avenged.
• "The Horns of Nimon": Sezom's confession to Romana that he caused the destruction of his home planet, Crinoth, by allowing the Nimons to gain a foothold. When you consider that, unlike Soldeed who was only interested in conquest, he believed he was acting in his people's best interests, it becomes even more heart-breaking.
• Near the end of "Meglos", just as The Doctor, Romana and K9 are about to leave Tigella to find and stop Meglos. the High-priestess Lexa dies shielding Romana from a stray laser blast. It's just so out of nowhere. Worse, moments before Lexa was little more than a one-dimensional religious zealot, next minute she's a dead hero.
  • Worse still, she died saving Romana. Since Romana is a Time Lord getting hit by a laser blast would probably have only required her to regenerate. So in effect, Lexa's death was little more than a Senseless Sacrifice.
  • Even worse, Lexa was played by Jacqueline Hill, who had played the First Doctor's companion Barbara Wright. "Meglos" was the last serial Jacqueline Hill ever stared in.
  • Romana is in absolute tears at being forced back to Gallifrey, and the Doctor's compliance to the order. He knows from experience that bad things happen when you try to defy the Time Lords (his execution springs to mind).
• The Marshchild's final moments in "Full Circle": just watching the poor creature, who's been treated cruelly by nearly every human it's encountered (not least the Mad Scientist who just attempted to dissect its brain while it was fully conscious), reaching out towards a video screen on which it can see the face of the one person who showed it kindness: the Doctor. And then realizing that it can't tell that the image of the Doctor it sees isn't real, and watching helplessly as it smashes the screen to try and get to the Doctor, electrocuting itself in the process.
  • The rather brutal treatment K9 receives at the hands of the Marsh-creatures. Poor K9 strolls onto the scene, telling the creatures he means them no harm. And promptly gets his head lobbed off for no good reason.
• Romana's departure in "Warriors' Gate" and the Doctor's reaction.
  Adric: Will Romana be all right?
  The Doctor: All right? (Whispered) She'll be superb.
• By the end of "The Keeper of Traken" the Master pulls one of the cruelest Grand Theft Mes ever and hijacks the body of Tremas. The rather kindly old man who'd just lost his wife to The Master's machinations.
• Let's not forget the moment in "Logopolis" where the Doctor is forced to eject Romana's room from the TARDIS, even though you can tell he really doesn't want to. Dammit, Tom Baker, who knew you could deliver a heartbreaking performance like that?
  • Nyssa helplessly watching as her entire planet is engulfed in the entropy (especially after discovering that the man she thought was her father has actually killed him and taken over his body). Can you even imagine something like that, everyone you know dying all at once, and you can't do anything about it?
  • And she's not the only one to suffer grief, in the scene where the Doctor has to inform Tegan that the Master has killed her aunt. Logopolis as a whole is practically rife with this, including last but not least...
• The Fourth Doctor's regeneration. Especially compared to the Fifth and Ninth, the circumstances may not have been the most impressive (and he knew it was coming), but keep in mind the Fourth is regarded by some as the most "alien" of the Doctors...to see such a strange, lovely creature go...
  • Not to mention that, if you were watching live from 1974-1981, you had spent over seven years and 172 episodes with this Doctor. That's a big loss.
    • Not only that but he was thinking of his companions before he "died."

Fifth Doctor episodes

• The death of Adric in "Earthshock" made a few fans go misty-eyed.
  • And the break with the traditional closing credits. No theme song, no reversing the intro; just a picture of Adric's broken gold star accompanied by deafening silence. This moment of silence is all the more noticeable because it hardly ever happens on television these days. With the Credits Pushback, it's nigh impossible to do.
    • The last sound you hear before the silent credits is Nyssa and Tegan crying quietly in the TARDIS.
  • What makes Adric's death really heartbreaking is that he died thinking he'd failed and that the entire population of Earth was going to die with him. He had no way of knowing that he'd actually already saved them. It got even worse when you realise what that is he's holding in his final scene - his dead brother's belt, and the last little piece of home he has with him.
  • The Doctor's reaction to Adric's death isn't one of sadness, regret, or anger but confusion. Sure he's dealt with death before, but this is the first time in many many years that he's had someone close to him die and he's so shocked that he just doesn't know how to react. An alien moment from a very human Doctor.
• Once again Omega proves to be a Tragic Monster, by the end of "Arc of Infinity". Borusa openly mourns for him and hopes that Omega could find peace after the Doctor used the antimatter gun to disperse him.
  Borusa: My hope is that he (Omega) has found peace at last...
  • Once Omega has gained his new body, he just walks around and takes in the sights. In fact, other than murdering a lone gardener to get a new outfit, he's positively adorable. Joining a crowd in watching a street side entertainer and smiling for probably the first time in a millennia.
• The last part of "Terminus", when Nyssa is bidding farewell to the Doctor and Tegan.
  Tegan: She'll die here.
  Nyssa: Not easily, Tegan. Like you, I'm indestructible.
  • Sarah Sutton cried real tears filming her departure.
• In "The Five Doctors", the look on the Second Doctor's face as he realizes that the Jamie and Zoe in Rassilon's Tomb can't possibly be real.
  • And the apparitions' screams as they fade away...
  • The twist that Borusa of all people was the one who pulled a Face–Heel Turn in order to obtain immortality was no doubt a shock to those who'd seen the episode for the first time.
  • The death of the Castellan, while the man was no saint, and certainly not likable. Being framed of betrayal, them promptly executed without trial still seems a rather pathetic way to go in the end.
• "Warriors of the Deep", a Fifth Doctor episode with an "Everybody Dies" Ending. All the death is bad enough, but then the Doctor says "There should have been another way," and his voice is cracking and guh.
  • "Resurrection of the Daleks", three episodes later, ends the same way — and Tegan, unable to bear any more stupid, stupid deaths, leaves. More accurately, she runs away, leaving the Doctor standing among the ruins of his enemies.
    Tegan: I'm tired of it. A lot of good people have died today...I'm sick of it. My Aunt Vanessa said, when I became an air stewardess, "If you stop enjoying it, give it up." It's stopped being fun, Doctor!
    The Doctor: No, don't leave! Not like this.
    Tegan: I must. I'm sorry! Goodbye. (runs)

    The Doctor: It's...it's strange. I left Gallifrey for similar reasons. I’d grown tired of their lifestyle.
  • Then in a cruel twist, Tegan goes to rejoin the TARDIS, only to see it leave. She got left behind again, albeit this time for good.
  Brave heart, Tegan.
• The end of "Planet of Fire". Turlough didn't want to leave the Doctor, but he had just found his brother and needed to take care of him.
• Despite Peri's cleavage, the Master's laugh, and the post-regenerative Mood Whiplash from hell, the Fifth Doctor's death at the end of "The Caves of Androzani" is still a massive downer, a counterbalance to what many consider one of the best episodes in Doctor Who history
  "...Adric?"
  • Really, everything about the story's climax is depressingly nihilistic, even by the usual grisly standards of Davison's era. Every other character dies in the end, all because of a series of selfish mistakes and miscommunications. Sharaz Jek's death is especially poignant, as we spend most of the latter half of the story exploring his tragic status as a tortured Anti-Villain, only for him to expire while clinging to his last surviving android servant while his base crumbles around them. The scene is so frantic that the Doctor can only rush past while trying to escape with the unconscious Peri.

Sixth Doctor episodes

• Watching The Doctor going through his post-regeneration trauma throughout "The Twin Dilemma". The poor guy has spasms of pain and screams one moment, then can't tell friend from foe the next.
  • The Doctor can't even remember his attempt to strangle Peri moments after trying to do so.
  • Six mistaking Peri for Tegan, a second later he realizes his mistake. Even worse is the wistful look on his face as he does so, as if he’s still saddened by how it ended.
  • The Doctor’s sadness and righteous fury at seeing what has become of the once lush and beautiful Jaconda.
  • Azmael's Heroic Sacrifice, and The Doctor's obvious grief.
  • Even from a behind-the-scenes perspective, this story is a Tear Jerker when we realise in hindsight that from this moment on, Doctor Who's card was marked.
• The Doctor's lament in "Attack of the Cybermen".
  The Doctor: Didn't go very well now, did it?
  Peri: Well, Earth's safe, and so is the web of time.
  The Doctor: I meant on a personal level. (Beat) I don't think I've ever misjudged somebody quite as badly as I did Lytton.
• The Doctor's grief over the loss of so many innocent and brilliant people in "The Two Doctors".
  • The second Doctor's reaction when Dastari and Chessene tell him Jamie's dead. The audience know Jamie's alright, but the poor Doctor has no way of knowing this, and lets out a howl of despair.
• In "Revelation of the Daleks", The Doctor's brief but shocked reaction when Davros casually mentions that the two graverobbers he befriended and recruited earlier are dead.
  Doctor: Do you ever do anything but kill!?
• From "Mindwarp": "You... killed Peri?" okay, she's Not Quite Dead (possibly. God knows), but the vulnerability, grief, and shock in his voice is so profound.
• The death of the Vervoids in "Terror Of The Vervoids". While the creatures did kill many innocent people, and would have likely continued to do so if not stopped. The poor creatures' look very pathetic as they wither, die, and turn to dust. The sad look on The Doctor's face as the last Vervoid leaf crumbles to dust in his hand says it all.
• The Doctor's rant in "The Ultimate Foe". It's Harsher in Hindsight post-Time War. It's even worse after The End Of Time.
  The Doctor: In all my travelling throughout the universe, I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here! The oldest civilisation: decadent, degenerate, and rotten to the core. Power-mad conspirators, Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen, they're still in the nursery compared to us! Ten million years of absolute power. That's what it takes to be really corrupt!

Seventh Doctor episodes

• Pex's Heroic Sacrifice and funeral in "Paradise Towers".
• Although the circumstances behind Mel's departure in "Dragonfire" are possibly the most random and arbitrary reasons for a departing companion in the show's history, it's well-compensated for by the actual farewell scene, in which the Doctor quickly reveals his inner loneliness and sense of loss:
  Mel: Well, I suppose it's time.
  The Doctor: [pottering around the console] Time? Hmm. Funny old business, time. It delights in frustrating your plans. All of Kane's bitterness and hatred thwarted by a quirk of time.
  Mel: No, I meant... I suppose it's time I should be going.
  [The Doctor freezes what he's doing and looks up, a shattered look on his face]
  The Doctor: Oh.
  Mel: Time I left.
  The Doctor: Yes... well... [weak laugh] You could be right. Time for you to go.
  Mel: Before I go, I—
  The Doctor: [Cutting her off with forced cheer, begins to fiddle with the console again, avoiding eye contact] Funny old business, time!
  Mel: Doctor, I—
  The Doctor: Well if you must go.
  Mel: Before I go, I'd just like to say—
  The Doctor: There's no point, Mel. [A little bit of hurt and anger breaking through] No point hanging around wasting time.
  Mel: [Snapping] No, I'm not going before I've said my piece! I just want to say—
  The Doctor: [Turning around, finally meeting her eyes] There's no time, Mel.
  Mel: Oh, alright. You win.
  The Doctor: I do? I usually do.
  Mel: I'm going now.
  The Doctor: (faux-cheer) Yes, that's right, you're going! You've been gone for ages! (increasingly maudlin) You're not really gone. You're still here. Just arrived... haven't even met you yet... It all depends on who you are and how you look at it. Strange business, time.
  Mel: (sadly) Goodbye, Doctor.
  The Doctor: (recovering) I'm sorry, Mel. Think about me, when you're living your life, one day after another, all in a neat pattern. Think about the homeless traveller and his old police box. And his days like crazy paving.
• In "Remembrance of the Daleks", the only reason Mike Smith is a Neo-Nazi is because he honestly doesn't know any better. And he doesn't get a chance at redemption.
  • The Doctor convincing the Supreme Renegade Dalek to destroy itself is quite saddening, particularly because while the Dalek flails in horror and distress at seemingly being the Last of His Kind, the girl who was made into the Dalek Battle Computer, whose mind is linked to the Supreme Dalek, also screams in pain, and is reduced to a sobbing wreck once the Dalek has died.
• The moment from "The Greatest Show In The Galaxy" that can only be described as cold-blooded murder when the young starstruck über-fan WhizzKid was killed. To be frank, it's hard to tell whose callous disregard for the young man's life was worse. The Gods of Ragnarok, or the treacherous Captain.
• The scene in "Ghost Light" where Ace tells the Doctor about the murder of her best friend at the age of 13 (though extra-canonical sources indicate that she survived) after her flat was firebombed by skinheads.
• If your heart wasn't ripped out of your chest when the Doctor intentionally stuck a knife in every last one of Ace's insecurities to force her to lose her faith in him in "The Curse of Fenric", there is a high possibility you are not in fact human; you can see how it hurts him to do so - this is someone he genuinely cares about, but she has to lose that faith for them to survive, so he does it anyway.
  • The audience knows, of course, that he doesn't mean a word of it. Ace does not.
  • Kathleen Dudman finding out about the death of her husband.
    Ace: (Reading Kathleen's letter) It is with deepest sorrow that I write to inform you that the ship on which your husband, Frank William Dudman, was serving, was struck by enemy torpedoes. Your husband was trapped in the fire and has been listed as missing, presumed dead. Please accept our sincere condolences.
  • The death of Reverend Wainwright, who attempts to repel the Haemovores with the power of faith, only for the two turned nurses to tell him that his faith in God is hollow because of the atrocities he witnessed during World War II- not the bombs the Germans dropped on the British, but the bombs the British dropped on the Germans in turn, all the German children killed at the hands of his countrymen.
• Karra's death near the end of "Survival". Pretty much that entire scene from Ace's broken cry onward.
  • The Doctor's final monologue, recorded at a point where it was clear that series 27 was unlikely to occur:
    The Doctor: There are worlds out there where the sky's burning, where the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on Ace, we've got work to do.

Eighth Doctor (TV Movie & "Night of the Doctor")

• The Seventh Doctor's death during The TV Movie. Yes, he was shot, but the bullets were removed and he seemed on the mend. But then a cardiologist with no knowledge of his two hearts got hold of him on the operating table. The eyes start getting watery as soon as the Doctor reaches up and grabs the surgeon's hand holding the scalpel. "Whatever it is you're about to do, stop." Perfectly lucid, desperate to stop the Master, and succumbing to sedation while terrified beyond belief at the idea of being cut apart by ignorant humans trying to fix a nonexistent problem.
  • The fact that the cunning chessmaster Doctor dies a stupid, easily avoidable death. If one follows both the series and the Doctor Who New Adventures, his manipulating and alienating of his companions means that he dies with no companions or familiar faces by his side and is unceremoniously shoved in the morgue. He didn't die alone, but he might as well have done.
• "WHO... AM I?!" The Eighth Doctor gets it even worse than his predecessors, not only not entirely sure of the person he's turned into this time, but he's not even aware that he's the Doctor! Waking up in a morgue with no idea who you are but being fairly sure you didn't look like that a few minutes ago would freak any person out.
  • In the novel he ends up on the floor curled in a ball, struggling to keep warm while repeating "Who am I?" over and over.
• The fact that one of the operating doctors says Seven dies at 10:03pm... and the Eighth Doctor, after probably being awake no more than 10 minutes, sees the time is 11:57am the following morning means the Doctor was legitimately dead for over thirteen hours.
• While Grace is examining Eight's chest and heartsbeat and he says "But it was a childish dream that made you want to be a doctor" in the novel, there's a flashback to Grace's life in Sacramento. She's only five years old when her mother passes away from cancer. Later in life, she pursued a career in the medical field to try and prevent young kids from losing their parent(s) as she did.
• When the Master kills Lee. It was so brutal and sudden, even though we knew it was coming. Luckily Lee got better.
  • Then he goes and kills poor Grace moments later.
• Eight's goodbye to Grace at the end of the movie.
  • It's even sadder that Grace refused his offer to tag along. It would have been fun...
  • Just before their goodbye The Doctor offers to take her along. Grace declines but then suggests that he stay. The Doctor then looks around considering the idea for one wistful moment, then sadly declines.
• The very idea that this gentlemanly, sweet, slightly scatterbrained Doctor is the one to experience the Time War.
  • "The Night of the Doctor" reveals that he attempted and failed to run from the Time War, and tried to help where he could, but eventually realized at the end of his life that the Daleks and Time Lords were becoming indistinguishable and that he was the only one who could end it, regenerating into a 'warrior' to finish it.
  • The experience that brings about this? The sole survivor of a crashing ship he was saving straight up decided she would rather die than be rescued by him the second she realized he was a Time Lord, despite his pleadings.
    • Cass' expression during her last moments sell it. You can tell that beneath all that spite and hatred, there's a bit of her that's terrified of dying and nearly on the verge of tears. Yet to her, this horrific last moment is preferable to being saved by a Time Lord.
  • The first word out of the Doctor's mouth after he's temporarily revived from having been killed permanently?
    Doctor: CASS!
  • Furthermore, when she refuses to let him save her, he doesn't bother to save himself and remains on the ship until it crashes into the planet, killing them both, him for good. When the Sisterhood of Karn bring him back to life temporarily to give him the chance to regenerate, he initially refuses and snarks he'll spend his last few minutes knitting instead. The Eighth Doctor is so broken by this point, he actively wants to die.
  • Then when the Doctor asks the leader of the Sisterhood if he'll feel any pain during his regeneration.
  The Doctor: (whimpers) ...Will it hurt?
  • And when she says it will, he says "Good". Because he's convinced that he's compromising every principle he's ever lived by, and believes that he deserves whatever pain the process might inflict upon him. Eight's last moments of existence were Eight at his most self-loathing.
  • Really, this minisode makes it very clear this was the culmination of a very long string of Break the Cutie moments that caused the Eighth Doctor to finally cross the Despair Event Horizon. "Physician, heal thyself" indeed..