History Awesome / DoctorWho

In a discussion as to who was the best companion in ''Series/DoctorWho'', there were a surprisingly large number of votes for Ace. When someone asked why, everyone gave the same reason: she once beat the crap out of a Dalek with a technologically-superpowered baseball bat. Because [[BerserkButton it called her "small"]]. In fact, Creator/SophieAldred herself mentioned in a DVD documentary that, after her marriage and her children, the greatest moment of her life was the fact that ''she'' beat the crap out of a ''Dalek'' using a ''baseball bat''. ''And she would carve it on her tombstone.'' Sophie, if you're ever going to read this, we encourage you to do just that. Not that we want you to die any time soon, of course...

* "Something Borrowed": When the guards at the wedding refuse to let Peri in after she asks nicely while trying to explain the situation, the Doctor just walks up and barges his way in.

** The Seventh Doctor not only manages to ''reprogram'' the Cybermen, but he makes them attack the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] that were storing them. That's right, '''[[CurbStompBattle Cybermen. Fighting. Nazis.]]''' Guess who won? Bonus points for the Cyber-Leader taking one look at [[JerkAss Captain]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk Hartmann]], throwing him across the room and later shooting him in the face. They also make a [=MG42=] machine gun explode by simply grabbing the barrel, heat up a Tiger Tank, destroy all the Nazis and generally be badass. To top it all off, unlike what the cover of the Monster Collection edition shows, they're not the "Nightmare in Silver" Cybermen or the Cybus Cybermen - they're the Mondasian offshoots from ''The Invasion'' and [[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100620164045/tardis/images/f/fd/Cyb_gun1.jpg look]][[http://www.dbutler22.freeserve.co.uk/dwinv2.jpg like]] [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Cybermen_6972.jpg this]]. And yet they're [[NightmareFuel terrifying enough]] to make a [[BreakTheHaughty SS Commander]] [[BringMyBrownPants shit his pants.]]

* The first Doctor looks and acts like he's 60+ years old (he's actually about 400). So when he's challenged to a kung fu duel in ''The Eleventh Tiger'' you expect him to come up with something brilliant and avoid the fight. He doesn't. Instead he physics the arrogant thug into submission. He uses his momentum from an attack to flip him onto his back. To prove he's not a one hit wonder, he does it again. THEN when the thug pulls out his "breaks clay jars, and heads are softer then clay jars" kick, the Doctor stands in classic "bring it on" pose and catches the light with his sapphire ring, temporarily blinding the thug. The kick still connects. With the pole the Doctor was standing in front of. All the Doctor did was tilt his head. He then sets about tending the thug's wounds. Ian and Barbara are stunned into silence. If they weren't paragons of '60s virtue they'd have both said "ohh hell yes." As it is, they eventually respond by ''reciting the lyrics to Kung Fu Fighting''.

** The Seventh Doctor not only manages to ''reprogram'' the Cybermen, but he makes them attack the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] that were storing them. That's right, '''[[CurbStompBattle Cybermen. Fighting. Nazis.]]''' Guess who won? Bonus points for the Cyberleader taking one look at [[JerkAss Captain]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk Hartmann]], throwing him across the room and later shooting him in the face. They also make a MG42 machine gun explode by simply grabbing the barrel, heat up a Tiger Tank, destroy all the Nazis and generally be badass. To top it all off, unlike what the cover of the Monster Collection edition shows, they're not the "Nightmare in Silver" Cybermen or the Cybus Cybermen - they're Mondasian Cybermen who [[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100620164045/tardis/images/f/fd/Cyb_gun1.jpg look]][[http://www.dbutler22.freeserve.co.uk/dwinv2.jpg like]] [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Cybermen_6972.jpg this]]. And yet they're [[NightmareFuel terrifying enough]] to make a [[BreakTheHaughty SS Commander]] [[BringMyBrownPants shit his pants.]]

** The fact that the reprogrammed Cyberleader scans Ace, George Limb and Captain Hartmann, then decides to ignore the other two completely and attack [[JerkAss Hartmann.]] This, and the subsequent attack on the Nazis, can be interpreted as evidence that even the ''Cybermen'' [[EvenEvilHasStandards hate Nazis]], probably because the Nazis stand for ''everything'' the Cybermen don't - the Cybermen convert to survive... the Nazis exterminated millions; even the Cyberman can't stand for that, it's not survival.

* ''City of the Daleks'': The Doctor walks through a room full of Daleks who've just been blinded and are spraying gunfire nonstop to save the Daleks exterminating humanity and Amy from being erased from time. And of course then has to run to the top to escape the explosion.

** The Seventh Doctor not only manages to ''reprogram'' the Cybermen, but he makes them attack the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] that were storing them. That's right, '''[[CurbStompBattle Cybermen. Fighting. Nazis.]]''' Guess who won? Bonus points for the Cyberleader taking one look at [[JerkAss Captain]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk Hartmann]], throwing him across the room and later shooting him in the face. They also make a MG42 machine gun explode by simply grabbing the barrel, heat up a Tiger Tank, destroy all the Nazis and generally be badass. To top it all off, unlike what the cover of the Monster Collection edition shows, they're not the "Nightmare in Silver" Cybermen or the Cybus Cybermen - they're Mondasian Cybermen who [[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100620164045/tardis/images/f/fd/Cyb_gun1.jpg look]][[http://www.dbutler22.freeserve.co.uk/dwinv2.jpg like]] [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Cybermen_6972.jpg this]]. And yet they're [[NightmareFuel terrifying]] [[UncannyValley enough]] to make a [[BreakTheHaughty SS Commander]] [[BringMyBrownPants shit his pants.]]

*** It's also a meta-moment of awesome: The Nazis think of themselves as being the {{Ubermensch}}, but nope, the Cybermen see them for who they are--just another bunch of humans.

** The Seventh Doctor not only manages to ''reprogram'' the Cybermen, but he makes them attack the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] that were storing them. That's right, '''[[CurbStompBattle Cybermen. Fighting. Nazis.]]''' Guess who won? Bonus points for the Cyberleader taking one look at [[JerkAss Captain]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk Hartmann]], throwing him across the room and later shooting him in the face. They also make a [[CoolGuns/MachineGuns MG42 machine gun]] explode by simply grabbing the barrel, heat up a Tiger Tank, destroy all the Nazis and generally be badass. To top it all off, unlike what the cover of the Monster Collection edition shows, they're not the "Nightmare in Silver" Cybermen or the Cybus Cybermen - they're Mondasian Cybermen who [[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100620164045/tardis/images/f/fd/Cyb_gun1.jpg look]][[http://www.dbutler22.freeserve.co.uk/dwinv2.jpg like]] [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Cybermen_6972.jpg this]]. And yet they're [[NightmareFuel terrifying]] [[UncannyValley enough]] to make a [[BreakTheHaughty SS Commander]] [[BringMyBrownPants shit his pants.]]
** The human characters still have loads of [=CMOAs=], and are all pretty damn badass. The most shining examples are, naturally, Ace, who hits a Cyberman hard enough to make a huge dent in one of its "Handles", [[HardboiledDetective Cody McBride]], who attacks the Cybermen with a [[KillItWithFire oxycelatene torch]] and manages to saw off the arm of one of them, Mama the bartender who blasts a Cybermat with a [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter double-barreled shotgun]], Colonel Schott, the WWI veteran who decides to keep on fighting the Cybermen (which he isn't scared of at all) with a [[CoolGuns/{{Handguns}} Luger]] and a Tiger's main gun while the driver is dead and the arrogant SS Commander is busy crapping his pants, and Colonel George Lazonby, who goes down fighting the Cybermen with a [[CoolGuns/MachineGuns Bren Gun.]]

[[folder:Behind the Scenes]]
[[AC:Jon Pertwee]]
* Midway through his career as the Third Doctor, Creator/JonPertwee put the ''Doctor Who'' theme to words in the form of "Who is the Doctor?", spoken more or less in-character. Among other things, the results stand as a powerful challenge [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7tKAi-lDhM to the dominance of the Villain Song.]]
-->''As fingers move to end mankind, metallic teeth begin to grind''\\
''With sword of truth, I turn to fight the satanic powers of the night!''
* The Third Doctor regularly had fight scenes, mostly because Jon Pertwee liked them. He also did all of his own stunts, which is pretty awesome on its own, especially when you consider that he did the majority of them [[MadeOfIron while suffering through well-nigh debilitating back pain.]]
* And the reveal that he [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2283542/Double-O-Who-Jon-Pertwees-secret-life-wartime-agent--years-did-battle-Daleks.html used to be an intelligence agent]] during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, reporting directly to UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill himself.

[[AC:Colin Baker]]
* For getting the Sixth Doctor RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap in the audio dramas. Whereas the Sixth Doctor is usually the least popular to TV fans, he is the ''most'' popular to audio drama fans.
* Getting elected President of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society.
* He is, to date, the only actor to play the Doctor and have written his own ''Doctor Who'' stories.
* Similar to [=McCoy's=] and [=McGann's=] cold readings of Doctor Who speeches, we have Creator/ColinBaker doing a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vasazrCYTCE cold reading]] of the Doctor's speech from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E7TheRingsOfAkhaten The Rings of Akhaten]]".

[[AC:Sylvester [=McCoy=]]]
* The Seventh Doctor's UnflinchingWalk in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E4TheGreatestShowInTheGalaxy The Greatest Show in the Galaxy]]" was pretty awesome for Creator/SylvesterMcCoy too: the explosion was somewhat bigger than the special effects crew were expecting, and it doesn't faze him at all.
** He has said he was fully expecting to have scorch marks on his back afterwards, but he knew there could be no second take so he simply went on with the shot.
* In the filming of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E1Battlefield Battlefield]]", Sylvester [=McCoy=] arguably saved Creator/SophieAldred's life when he noticed a watertank used for a booby-trap holding Ace was about to crack and pour water onto a floor covered in electrical cables; in a second, he managed to get the stage hands to pull her out just before the glass broke.
** Sylvester [=McCoy=] later clarified in an interview that he had to make them know he wasn't ad-libbing a line in character as the Doctor, so shouted ''"[[PrecisionFStrike SHIT!!]] -- somebody GET HER OUT! "'' since the Doctor would ''never'' say that on screen. This made the crew realise that something was ''definitely'' wrong.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_Omz0lhapA Sylvester playing the spoons to an upbeat version of the Doctor Who theme.]] He really gets into it.
* His [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhlmNkk5r0k cold reading]] of the Eleventh Doctor's speech from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens The Pandorica Opens]]".

[[AC: Paul [=McGann=]]]
* Akin to [=McCoy=]'s cold reading of Eleven's speech, here's Creator/PaulMcGann's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIKpBoJKqas&feature=related cold reading]] of the First Doctor's "One day, I shall come back" speech from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDaleksInvasionOfEarth The Dalek Invasion of Earth]]".
* Returning after seventeen years to play the Eighth Doctor [[BackForTheDead once more]] in "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor The Night of the Doctor]]".

[[AC: John Hurt]]
* Creator/JohnHurt puts such weight and gravitas into his performance you might forget [[SpotlightStealingSquad the episode's about three Doctors]].
* In a matter of three appearances, John Hurt effectively filled an enormous gap in the Doctor's life that had been ignored for a long time, and with a performance that is done masterfully.

[[AC:David Tennant]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW1x2TmIq8s&NR=1 The full list]] recounted to Martha in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature Human Nature]]". Since Creator/DavidTennant was required to ad-lib about a minute of footage that would be fast-forwarded, he just rambled on aimlessly a bit before jumping right back into character at the end. The bit about pears isn't an ad-lib, though; it's from the novel that the episode was based on.
* Tennant married the daughter of the man who inspired him to go into acting in the first place, Georgia Moffet, daughter of the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison. And thanks to Creator/StevenMoffat, he got to perform with his idol in the role that he wanted to play one day... The Doctor. PromotedFanboy, thy name is Tennant. Also a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}} that there's such love and devotion between two people.
* Pranking Creator/FreemaAgyeman on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLnSphQ88_w Virgin Radio]] and managing to keep up the masquerade for a minute.
* Tennant did a tribute video with the cast and crew at the end of his run for a party, set to the Proclaimers' "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)". The Proclaimers themselves merrily join in. Warning: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPKgPB80jNA MAJOR EARWORM]]
* To top it off, behold [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giaMRyn47Xg the Ballad of Russell and Julie]] about ''Doctor Who'''s revival, as sung by Creator/DavidTennant, Creator/CatherineTate and Creator/JohnBarrowman. Epic Awesomeness.

[[AC:[[Creator/ElisabethSladen Elisabeth Sladen]]]]
* Sladen's reaction to Sontaran general Styre in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E3TheSontaranExperiment The Sontaran Experiment]]" was enough to have the director leaping up and down with joy - actually running up the West Country equivalent of a mountain to congratulate her on the scene. And these moments are only added onto with the second season premiere of ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' when Sarah Jane sees a Sontaran space pod, and knows exactly how screwed they are.
* In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth The Stolen Earth]]", she achieved levels of fear with a tiny little tremble and a pale face that would take screams on a ''Film/KingKong'' level from lesser actresses.
* A posthumous moment of awesome for the late actress: the fact that almost nobody had any clue she was ill until she had already passed. It's a testament to her sheer professionalism and love for what she did, because she never saw it as being about her, it was about making great television that entertained fans. Lis, we love and miss you, and the world's a little darker now you're gone.
* Lis's ''magnificent'' career renaissance. She became so beloved by fans that her departure was headline news, a first for any Companion. And then, ''thirty years'' after she was last seen on ''Doctor Who'', she made a one-off appearance on the show that made her famous, and was so popular she ''earned [[Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures her own spin-off]]''. A spinoff aimed at children who largely ''had no idea who she was'', which went on to earn critical raves and a high audience for its channel. Name another actor or actress who has made that kind of comeback on television, ''ever''. And she did it all without a fuss. But then, that was Lis Sladen for you. Oh, Lis... we will never, ''ever'' forget you.
** Actually, just before she got back on TV, she made two series of AWESOME audio adventures for Big Finish, which is kind of a company that makes stories for fans of Old Who. She also returned in radio plays with Jon Pertwee. If anything, it just kind of shows how great her devotion to her character and giving the fans even more really was that she could return, first 20 years after her time, then thirty, and still just be her character like she's been living it all along.
* Creator/KatyManning described her as "What a legacy! That wonderful woman... the quintessential Doctor Who girl. I give her that title with absolutely no qualms at all."

[[AC:The Mill]]
* At the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E12BadWolf Bad Wolf]]" we see thousands and thousands and thousands of Daleks all chanting EX-TER-MIN-ATE. For the first time, the show was able to transcend budgetary considerations and deliver not just a tabletop full of dapol toys, not just cardboard cutouts propped up in the background, not just three Daleks driving around in a circle trying desperately to look like many, but a proper, honest-to-god army to be feared.

[[AC:The show itself]]
* Really, with a show that has run for thirty-three seasons over fifty years and counting, contains two [=MoA=] ''goldmines'' in the Doctor and the Master, as well as many other characters with more than a few moments themselves (Daleks, Davros, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) ''Doctor Who'' itself is a Moment of Awesome for Creator/TheBBC.
** The fact that a show that was simply intended to be a cheap way to fill an empty block between the kids' shows timeslot and the football match is remembered and loved by audiences fifty years later.
** In 2005, accepted wisdom in the British television industry held that the family TV genre was dead. The audience simply wasn't there; families didn't watch TV together anymore. Something like the revived ''Doctor Who'' wasn't going to last long.\\
''Doctor Who'' promptly proceeded to demolish all those assumptions. It regularly got ratings higher than those of most other dramas, its average audience staying stable in defiance of the general TV decline. It was repeatedly acclaimed by public, critics, and TV professionals alike. It quickly established itself as a centrepiece of the BBC's Saturday night schedule, heralding the revival of the family TV genre, and becoming a justification for the BBC's continued existence. ''Doctor Who'' became a crowning achievement for the BBC, and for British television in general.
* The Davies/Gardner production team have several [=MoAs=] themselves, including:
** Bringing the show back to be one of the BBC's big hitters.
** Using the BBC's rival network ITV to break the news of David Tennant's departure. Even better, they had no idea it'd even ''work.'' They had a backup plan but they bet their chips that Tennant would win the award and be able to drop the bomb during his acceptance speech.
** Producing ''Journey's End'', where 10.57 million viewers watched in the UK, making it the highest rated show for the week, the first and only time the show has ''ever'' achieved this rating in its history and the first sci-fi show to do so in 32 years. Made sweeter by the fact that it ''demolished'' SoapOpera rival Coronation Street at its timeslot, all while Michael Grade was head of ITV at the time. All while ensuring Doctor Who got the last laugh.
* There's the fact that the work of the new production team (along with the later work by Moffat, of course) has caused an explosion in the show's popularity across UsefulNotes/ThePond in the US. Sure, ''DW'' had fans in the US in the past, but it never truly approached the level it reached during the BBC America years.
* Back in the 1980s, Sylvester [=McCoy=]'s era was scheduled against UK soap ''Series/CoronationStreet'', and got clobbered, getting some of the lowest ratings in Who's history. Fast forward twenty years: "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]" Part Two was scheduled against ''Coronation Street'', and ''won'' (10.4 million to Corrie's 8.6 million on overnights).
* Creator/StevenMoffat turning the series title into a nearly 50-year old [[ArcWords Arc Word]].
* The special effects team during "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E4TheGirlInTheFireplace The Girl in the Fireplace]]". Apparently they decided that the iconic Doctor-astride-a-horse-through-a-mirror-into-a-ballroom shot was quite literally impossible to produce. After episode writer Creator/StevenMoffat threw, to quote the man himself, "the biggest queeny strop yet done on ''Doctor Who''" and cried like an infant, the team basically decided to give "impossible" the finger and do it anyway. And it was awesome.
* A collective CMOA goes to the show's makers, and the few fans and members of the press in on it, for successfully keeping the secret that actress Creator/JennaColeman, publicized to be the Doctor's next companion starting with the 2012 Christmas Special, had a role to play 3 months earlier in the series 7 premiere, ''Asylum of the Daleks''. The premiere was actually shown in 4 semi-public screenings for fans in 4 countries prior to its televised debut and practically ''no one'' from the audiences in those screenings spoiled the secret online before the episode aired.
* The show also gets another CMOA over the only constant in the series: the [=TARDIS=] itself. When the BBC registered the TARDIS as a trademark in 1996, the Metropolitan Police challenged it, as the TARDIS is based on the police box they used in the 1960s. The Patent Office ruled in favour of the BBC, as the role of ''Doctor Who'' in the British collective psyche was so great that people identified the police box symbol with the series rather than with the police.
* The fact that no British holiday season would feel complete anymore without the show's annual ChristmasEpisode, which inevitably warms viewers' hearts and caps off family gatherings on a high note, deserves special props. Eat your heart out, ''Series/CallTheMidwife''!
* In America, the Series 7 Part 2 Blu-ray was given to several hundred people in error before the airing of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor The Name of the Doctor]]". Normally revealing a finale early is disastrous, but Moffat managed to keep fans quiet by promising a release of an interview of Creator/DavidTennant and Creator/MattSmith if the fans were good. The fans kept the secret, and Moffat [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Em8lmmTNkA complied]].
* On November 25, 2013, "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]" grossed $4.8 million. In 660 theaters. ''In. One. Night.'' Two days ''after'' it premiered on BBC America. For perspective, it was number two behind ''Film/TheHungerGamesCatchingFire'' that day. It made more than ''Film/TheFifthEstate'' did in its entire run and almost as much as the 3D run of ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''. Again, in ''one night''. Not too shabby.
** November 23rd, 2013 was a Saturday, [[BookEnds just as November 23rd, 1963 was]].
* Any time a lost episode, episodes, or rarest of all, complete serial that was thought to be junked by the BBC turns up. You've got maybe one very precious remnant of something that's been AWOL from television upwards of ''four decades''. On a feather and a prayer, through one magic discovery, be it in a rubbish bin, a garage sale, a dusty backlot of old celluloid in Hong Kong or Nigeria, or even pure dumb luck, another missing link is completed. And as soon as the film goes digital, it will proliferate the internet, whereupon the episode will be copied by those wishing to market or share the piece of ''Doctor Who'' history- ''countless backups'' from '''one''' reel of old weathered film!
** How about finding nine lost episodes, including the ''entirety'' of the long-lost "The Enemy of the World", in 2013?
** Not to mention the other story they found in near entirety, "The Web of Fear", which features the first ever appearance of beloved companion Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
** To put it in perspective as to how amazing these finds are, it's considered very lucky to find even audio of lost episodes, let alone an entire episode. To find this many tapes, containing an ''entire missing story'' and all but ''one'' part of another, is a spectacular find.
* A collective decade of awesome for a small handful of fans (nearly all of them children at the time) who managed to make complete audio recordings of ''every single episode'' from TheSixties. So even though to date 26 serials and nearly 100 episodes (until 2013, it was over 100) are [[MissingEpisode now missing]], thanks to these fans, and with a little help from narrated [=CD=], telesnaps, and animation (a few animated reconstructions being officially sanctioned by the BBC), it's now possible to "watch" all 97 missing episodes of ''Doctor Who''.
** David Holman, in particular, recorded every episode from ''Marco Polo'' to (probably) ''The Three Doctors'' by putting the microphone to the speaker and managing to keep everyone quiet during recording. He kept going even until he lost interest!
** Graham Strong deserves a mention, too. He managed to directly connect his tape recorder to the television, managing to make "crystal clear" recordings, sometimes managing to trump the BBC's recordings in terms of quality!
* Creator/StevenMoffat managed to weave a whole new Doctor out of the gap between Eight and Nine and come up with a perfect reason to not upset the numbering; have the "[[FanNickname 8.5 Doctor]]" simply not call himself the Doctor.
** The very inception of the War Doctor into ''Doctor Who'' opens up a whole new avenue for storytelling potential, and finally lets writers cut loose and deal with the long untouched history of the Time War, because it was unclear which Doctor fought in it. Now we know.
** The War Doctor's regeneration was only shown half-completed. We didn't see his full transition into Nine because Christopher Eccleston declined to return for the 50th and Steven Moffat wanted to respect his decision, on the grounds that making it appear that an actor was in something they did not want to be in without their consent would be unethical. But some fan decided to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO3veBHQ7aQ extend the regeneration into a complete version...]] With [[StealthPun fantastic]] results.
* "The Day of the Doctor" winning a Guinness World Record for being the biggest simulcast in television history to that point, transmitted in 94 countries.
* Creator/JohnHurt being knighted in the 2015 New Year's Honours List, making him the first actor to play the Doctor to receive that honor.
** The fact that a show once best-known for its cheesy bubble-wrap space monsters can now ''get'' the likes of Creator/JohnHurt, Creator/DerekJacobi, or Creator/TimothyDalton to portray its greatest hero or most dreaded villains as TheCameo. And not even as a promotional StuntCasting gimmick, but as an unadvertised ''surprise'' for the fans!
* Michael Grade may have screwed over the show in the 80s, but ''Doctor Who'' fans got the last laugh by far. How so, you may ask? Grade is the only BBC Controller to never receive a knighthood, because UsefulNotes/ElizabethII is a '''''HUGE''''' fan of the show.[[note]]Yes, folks, the Queen of Great Britain and Northern Island ''is a nerd.'' What other country can claim ''that?!''[[/note]]
* In 2016, the BBC commissioned an ''entire'' lost story to be reconstructed in animation. Which story? Why, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E3ThePowerOfTheDaleks The Power of the Daleks]]", the first story of the Second Doctor era! OK, so it was limited animation but you have to give them credit for doing it in black and white and color!
* In 2017, after years of hoping that the role of the Doctor was opened to more diverse casting, we finally got our wish as Creator/JodieWhittaker became the Thirteenth Doctor.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-_bSdWEYK8 The Teaser]] deserves special mention: The new Doctor being hidden in a hoodie as we see them walk into the woods, before holding out the TARDIS key and the TARDIS being heard materializing before taking off their hoodie to reveal Jodie as the new Doctor, who [[AndTheAdventureContinues then goes onto her next adventure]].
** Whittaker also quickly started tackling the inevitable backlash to her casting head on, mocking everyone complaining for being frightened of her gender.
** Not to be overlooked, ''lots'' of actors from the new and classic series immediately took to Twitter to express their whole-hearted endorsement of Whittaker, with comments ranging from Creator/BilliePiper's simple "YES!", to Creator/ColinBaker's pride that his own daughters will now have a female Doctor to admire. Other actors like Creator/SylvesterMcCoy, Creator/ChristopherEccleston, Creator/DavidTennant, Creator/MattSmith, Creator/PeterCapaldi, Creator/SophieAldred, Creator/JanetFielding, Creator/KarenGillan, Creator/ArthurDarvill, Creator/FreemaAgyeman, Creator/AlexKingston, Creator/JohnBarrowman, Creator/PearlMackie, and Creator/MarkGatiss all welcomed Whittaker to the ''Doctor Who'' family.
** The BBC was also quick to confirm that Whittaker would be getting the exact same paycheck as Capaldi, at a time when it was under intense scrutiny for its gender pay gap.
* After months of speculation on how a female Doctor would affect the ratings, and insistence from a certain segment of the fandom that they'd never watch again, the Series 11 premiere got among the highest ratings the series has ever had, and almost double Twelve's debut episode. Score one for the She's My Doctor crowd.
** While the ratings took the expected drop that always happens after premires, Series 11 still has higher numbers than Series 10 ever got, even with some harsh competition in its new Sunday time slot (including Formula 1 racing, which routinely wrecks the ratings of ''every'' show opposite it).
* Jodie Whittaker's casting wasn't the only long-overdue milestone provided by Series 11, as the crew were so determined to do [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa "Rosa"]] properly that they brought in Malorie Blackman to co-write it with Chibnall, making her the show's first ever non-white writer.
[[/folder]]

* Michael Grade may have screwed over the show in the 80s, but ''Doctor Who'' fans got the last laugh by far. How so, you may ask? Grade is the only BBC Controller to never receive a knighthood, because UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen is a '''''HUGE''''' fan of the show.[[note]]Yes, folks, the Queen of Great Britain and Northern Island ''is a nerd.'' What other country can claim ''that?!''[[/note]]

** Sylvester [=McCoy=] later clarified in an interview that he had to make them know he wasn't ad-libbing a line in character as the Doctor, so shouted ''"SHIT! GET HER OUT OF THERE!"'' since the Doctor would ''never'' say that on screen. This made the crew realise that something was ''definitely'' wrong.

[[AC:[[Creator/ElisabethSladen Lis Sladen]]]]

* Katy Manning described her as "What a legacy! That wonderful woman... the quintessential Doctor Who girl. I give her that title with absolutely no qualms at all."

** Sylvester McCoy later clarified in an interview that he had to make them know he wasn't ad-libbing a line in character as the Doctor, so shouted ''"SHIT! GET HER OUT OF THERE!"'' since the Doctor would ''never'' say that on screen. This made the crew realise that something was ''definitely'' wrong.

* Jodie Whittaker's casting wasn't the only long-overdue milestone provided by Season 11, as the crew were so determined to do [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa "Rosa"]] properly that they brought in Malorie Blackman to co-write it with Chibnall, making her the show's first ever non-white writer.

** Not to be overlooked, ''lots'' of actors from the new and classic series immediately took to Twitter to express their whole-hearted endorsement of Whittaker, with comments ranging from Creator/BilliePiper's simple "YES!", to Creator/ColinBaker's pride that his own daughters will now have a female Doctor to admire. Other actors like Creator/SylvesterMcCoy, Creator/ChristopherEccleston, Creator/DavidTennant, Creator/MattSmith, Creator/PeterCapaldi, Creator/SophieAldred, Janet Fielding, Creator/KarenGillan, Creator/ArthurDarvill, Creator/FreemaAgyeman, Creator/AlexKingston, Creator/JohnBarrowman, Creator/PearlMackie, and Creator/MarkGatiss all welcomed Whittaker to the ''Doctor Who'' family.

* In ''The Gunpowder Plot'', Rory, stuck in orbit around Earth within the Houses of Parliament of 1605, armed with an EMP generator and a [[ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUK Dennis the Menace]] slingshot, takes out as many Rutans and Sontarans as he can. That's right, two species locked in war for millennia can't take down the Lone Centurian. Rory's made more badass with this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWb9L5hDdIk glitch]].

* Michael Grade may have screwed over the show in the 80s, but ''Doctor Who'' fans got the last laugh by far. How so, you may ask? Grade is the only BBC Controller to never receive a knighthood, because UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen is a '''''HUGE''''' fan of the show.

** The fact that the reprogrammed Cyberleader scans Ace, George Limb and Captain Hartmann, then decides to ignore the other two completely and attack [[JerkAss Hartmann.]] This, and the subsequent attack on the Nazis, can be interpreted as evidence that even the ''Cybermen'' [[EvenEvilHasStandards hate Nazis.]]

In a discussion as to who was the best companion in ''Series/DoctorWho'', there were a surprisingly large number of votes for Ace. When someone asked why, everyone gave the same reason: she once beat the crap out of a Dalek with a technologically-superpowered baseball bat. Because [[BerserkButton it called her "small"]]. In fact, Creator/SophieAldred herself mentioned in a DVD documentary that, after her marriage and her children, the greatest moment of her life was the fact that ''she'' beat the crap out of a ''Dalek'' using a ''baseball bat''. ''And she would carve it on her tombstone.'' Sophie, if you're ever going to read this, we encourage you to do just that.

* Similar to [=McCoy's=] and [=McGann's=] cold readings of Doctor Who speeches, we have Creator/ColinBaker doing a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcFUK-X0Ox8 cold reading]] of the Doctor's speech from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E7TheRingsOfAkhaten The Rings of Akhaten]]".