History Awesome / DoctorWho

* Awesome/DoctorWhoClassicSeries
* Awesome/DoctorWhoNewSeries
* Awesome/BigFinishDoctorWho
* Awesome/DoctorWhoMagazine
* Awesome/DoctorWhoNewAdventures
* Awesome/EighthDoctorAdventures

* This also inspired the creation of The Ace Test for the evaluation of the physical badassness of companions. Basically: "can you see this person clobbering a Dalek with a baseball bat?"

** Producing ''Journey's End'', where 10.57 million viewers watched, 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.

* In the filming of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26Battlefield 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.

* In 2017, after years of babies grumbling about the Doctor always being cast as a white man and it being long past time that the role was opened to more diverse casting, we finally got our wish as Creator/JodieWhittaker became the Thirteenth Doctor.

* In 2017, after years of fan grumbling about the Doctor always being cast as a white man and it being long past time that the role was opened to more diverse casting, we finally got our wish as Creator/JodieWhittaker became the Thirteenth Doctor.

** 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/ChristopherEccelston, Creator/DavidTennant, Creator/MattSmith, Creator/PeterCapadli, 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.

* Midway through his career as the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee 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 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7tKAi-lDhM to the dominance of the Villain Song.]]

* 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 Churchill himself.

* 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 Colin Baker doing a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcFUK-X0Ox8 cold reading]] of the Doctor's speech from "The Rings of Akhaten".

* The Seventh Doctor's UnflinchingWalk in "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" was pretty awesome for Sylvester [=McCoy=] too: the explosion was somewhat bigger than the special effects crew were expecting, and it doesn't faze him at all.

* In the filming of "Battlefield", Sylvester [=McCoy=] arguably saved Sophie Aldred'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.

* His [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhlmNkk5r0k cold reading]] of the Eleventh Doctor's speech from "The Pandorica Opens".

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

* John Hurt puts such weight and gravitas into his performance you might forget [[SpotlightStealingSquad the episode's about three Doctors]].

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW1x2TmIq8s&NR=1 The full list recounted to Martha in "Human Nature"]]. Since Tennant 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.

* To top it off, behold [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giaMRyn47Xg the Ballad of Russell and Julie]] about Doctor Who's revival, as sung by David Tennant, Catherine Tate and John Barrowman. Epic Awesomeness.

* Sladen's reaction to Sontaran general Styre in "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 "The Stolen Earth", she achieved levels of fear with a tiny little tremble and a pale face that would take screams on a King Kong level from lesser actresses.

* At the end of "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.

* 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: "The End of Time" Part Two was scheduled against ''Coronation Street'', and ''won'' (10.4 million to Corrie's 8.6 million on overnights).
* Steven Moffat turning the series title into a nearly 50-year old [[ArcWords Arc Word]].
* The special effects team during "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.

* In America, the Series 7 Part 2 Blu-ray was given to several hundred people in error before the airing of "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 David Tennant and Matt Smith if the fans were good. The fans kept the secret, and Moffat [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Em8lmmTNkA complied]].
* On November 25, 2013, ''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.

* In 2016, the BBC commissioned an ''entire'' lost story to be reconstructed in animation. Which story? Why, "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!

** 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 Billie Piper's simple "YES!", to Colin Baker's pride that his own daughters will now have a female Doctor to admire. Other actors like Creator/SylvesterMcCoy, Creator/KarenGillan, Creator/ArthurDarvill, Creator/FreemaAgyeman, Creator/AlexKingston, Creator/JohnBarrowman, Pearl Mackie, and Creator/MarkGatiss all welcomed Whittaker to the ''Doctor Who'' family.

** 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 Billie Piper's simple "YES!", to Colin Baker's pride that his own daughters will now have a female Doctor to admire. Other actos like Creator/SylvesterMcCoy, Creator/KarenGillan, Creator/ArthurDarvill, Creator/FreemaAgyeman, Creator/AlexKingston, Creator/JohnBarrowman, Pearl Mackie, and Creator/MarkGatiss all welcomed Whittaker to the ''Doctor Who'' family.

** 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 Billie Piper's simple "YES!", to Colin Baker's pride that his own daughters will now have a female Doctor to admire.

** 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 and most dreaded villains as a BigNameCameo.

** 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 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO3veBHQ7aQ extend the regeneration into a complete version...]] With [[StealthPun fantastic]] results.
* Creator/JohnHurt being knighted in the 2015 New Year's Honor List, making him the first actor to play the Doctor to receive that honor.

* In 2016, the BBC commissioned an ''entire'' lost story to be reconstructed in animation. Which story? Why "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!

* Incidentally, this is what [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=d7pg6pv9&trope=CrowningMomentOfAwesome inspired the creation]] of the [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Crowning Moment Of Awesome article]] in the first place. Click here to see [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Ace_asskickery_motivation_by_Wickedfeylady.jpg the awesome in action.]] Or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYR5lINNrsE here]].

* 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 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.

* In a matter of three appearances, John Hurt has 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.

** 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, remembered and loved by audiences fifty years later.

* 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 Day of the Doctor" winning a Guinness World Record for being the biggest simulcast in television history to date, transmitted in 94 countries.

* Creator/JohnHurt being knighted in the 2015 New Year's Honor List, making him the first actor to play the Doctor to recieve that honor.

** 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.]]

* 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 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWb9L5hDdIk glitch]].

** 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]] [[http://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.]]

* 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 Churchill.

* Writing his own Doctor Who stories. I mean, who the hell is awesome enough to write their own Doctor Who for their own character?

** And amazingly it was all caught on camera and was considered so awesome that it gets its own brief documentary on the DVD for Battlefield.

* Producing the vast amount of Big Finish Audios he did in the hiatus.

* Marrying Georgia Moffett. Who is also the daughter of Peter Davison. Tennant married the daughter of the man who inspired him to go into acting in the first place. 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.

* Elisabeth Sladen deserves one for saying, upon seeing a man wearing a gas-mask, "Are you my mummy?" in the commentaries for ''Genesis of the Daleks''.

[[AC:Matthew Waterhouse]]
* One of the darker chapters in the show's production history was Creator/TomBaker becoming incredibly difficult to work with in his final season. Recollections abound of him snoring in read-throughs at parts of the script he didn't like, verbally abusing the writers, having numerous shouting matches with co-star and [[RomanceOnTheSet brief-wife-to-be]] Lalla Ward, and caught in the middle of it all was new companion and PromotedFanboy Matthew Waterhouse, watching [[BrokenPedestal the image of his childhood hero shattering violently before his eyes.]] During one of Tom's "acting up and being rude" periods on the last day of filming for "Full Circle," Matthew (in full Adric get-up) finally put his foot down and told him to [[PrecisionFStrike "fuck off."]] And got away with it. And kept Tom quiet (aside from his lines, of course) for the ''whole rest of the studio day.'' The 2010 Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine interview described it as a "coming-of-age moment." Though given that this account came from Waterhouse himself and the reactions to his interview from his costars in the next issue (which was basically them gently laughing at him) it's disputable whether this even ever ''happened.''

[[AC:UsefulNotes/ComicRelief]]
* Creator/RowanAtkinson in "The Curse of Fatal Death" - Yes, it was silly, but Atkinson doesn't play a ''parody'' of the Doctor, he takes the role ''seriously,'' playing it as if he was actually the Doctor in a "real" episode. And he's ''wonderful.''

** Also, CharlieBrooker likes it.
** The fact that a show that was simply intended to be a cheap and fun way of educating children about history and science is still made, remembered and loved by audiences fifty years later.

** Restoring the use of the CliffHanger as an art form.
** Using the BBC's rival network ITV to break the news of David Tennant's departure. Seriously, mega-cojones. 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.

* 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: "The End of Time" Part Two was scheduled against ''Coronation Street'', and ''won'' (10.4 million to Corrie's 8.6 million on overnights). For those of us who lived through that time, it felt like justice had been done.

* 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 HUGE secret that actress Jenna-Louise Coleman, publicized to be the Doctor's next companion starting with the 2012 Christmas Special, had a MAJOR 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.

* David Tennant and Billie Piper's return for the 50th anniversary special.

* How about finding nine lost episodes, including the ''entirety'' of the long-lost "The Enemy of the World", in 2013? Talk about a 50th anniversary gift.
** 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. In fact, he's a Colonel at this point!

* Creator/PaulMcGann finally getting his long overdue return as the Eighth Doctor in ''The Night of the Doctor.'' Granted he dies in the special, but it's still brilliant to see him back. The special also answers the old question of "How did the Eighth Doctor regenerate?".
** 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.

** November 23rd, 2013 was a Saturday, [[BookEnds just as November 23rd, 1963 was]].