Doctor Who may be a family TV show, but the science fiction series can often delve into the deep, dark, and terrifying. With Halloween coming up, many Whovians like to look back at the most spine-chilling episodes to feed their seasonal need for horror while also sticking with their favorite Gallifreyan.
Each regeneration of the Doctor has their own scariest episode, and we're going to look at every one of them. This list doesn't include Paul McGann's 8th Doctor, John Hurt's War Doctor, Jo Martin's Doctor, or David Tennant's 14th Doctor. We still love them; they just didn't have enough scary experiences to be a part of this list. That said, here is the scariest Doctor Who episode for each Doctor.
Doctor Who (1963-1989) "The Edge of Destruction," season 1, episode 12
William Hartnell's First Doctor set a lot of precedents for how the series would go. That includes the horror aspects. Since this is a family-friendly show, it couldn't be too scary, but it still needed to feel otherworldly and mysterious. "Edge of Destruction" did this in spades.
When an accident on the TARDIS causes the Doctor and his companions to lose consciousness, they awaken to paranoia and suspicion of each other. Their doubts seem to drive them insane, and it becomes Time Lords (including Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter) versus the humans. This episode shows how even the Doctor is not immune to the psychological terror that distrust can cause.
Doctor Who (1963-1989) "Fury from the Deep," season 5, episodes 29-34
When I was young, I found a movie on the SyFy channel that looked interesting. It was the 1958 film The Blob, about an alien life form that consumes a town. It was not a film for young children, and I had nightmares for days. If you change the alien blob to a parasitic alien seaweed, you get the gist of "Fury from the Deep."
Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor ends up back in England near a refinery, despite the Doctor wanting to take his companions to another world. But things at the refinery are devolving as communications are down, workers are missing, and the sound of a heartbeat comes through the pipes. The fear in this story comes from an off-screen villain that attacks in subtle yet sudden ways.
Doctor Who (1963-1989) "Terror of the Autons," season 8, episodes 1-4
If you worry about the fact that we are filled with microplastics, maybe skip "Terror of the Autons." The Master, Doctor Who's enemy, teams up with the Nestene, a deadly alien race that can control anything made of plastic. Now, think about how much more plastic we've added to our world since these episodes were released in 1971. Could the Nestene become blood benders with the amount of plastic in our systems?
Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor is stuck on Earth with a broken dematerialization device, but he learns that the Master (Roger Delgado) is also on Earth. The Master has a plan to take down the human race and it includes waking the Nestene and creating an army of plastic Autons. But even the most ordinary plastic objects come to life and destroy their victims. If you do watch "Terror of the Autons," try not to think too much about the plastic all around you that could grab you at any moment.
Doctor Who (1963-1989) "The Horror of Fang Rock," season 15, episodes 1-4
An eerie lighthouse where the electricity keeps going in and out, a thick fog that surrounds the lighthouse in seconds, and a green light that appeared from space. Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor and his companion, Leela (Louise Jameson) wind up trapped with the three lighthouse keepers, though something begins to pick them off.
There is a legend of a beast inhabiting the island of Fang Rock, where the lighthouse is located. The Doctor must discover if there is any truth to the legend before anyone else dies. "The Horror of Fang Rock" provides all the feelings of being trapped, helpless, and woefully unprepared when a monster closes in.
Doctor Who (1963-1989) "The Caves of Androzani," season 21, episodes 17-20
"The Caves of Androzani" has been called one of Doctor Who's best stories by many fans throughout the years. Part of what makes it so great are the elements of horror. Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor must battle against time in a suffocating world of brutality and violence.
"The Caves of Androzani" walked for Saw to run its marathon. If you're not into violent horror, this Doctor Who story is not for you, though the gore isn't up to Saw levels, thankfully. But if you are interested in seeing the choices people make in order to survive, and want to know how the Doctor would choose, it is a well-written, horrifying tale.
Doctor Who (1963-1989) "Vengeance on Varos," season 22, episodes 3-4
Long before Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games series, Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor dealt with a televised battle of death and mayhem. "Vengeance on Varos" is another violent entry in the Doctor Who annals, with a message that strikes you to the core.
The Doctor and his companion, Peri (Nicola Bryant), land on the planet Varos to search for a mineral that will repair the TARDIS. Varos tortures political prisoners on live TV for the entire planet to watch, and then they vote on who lies or dies. When they are suspected of being spies, the Doctor and Peri find themselves the latest "stars" of the show.
Doctor Who (1963-1989) "The Curse of Fenric," season 26, episodes 8-11
If you're looking for supernatural horror, "The Curse of Fenric" has a demon and his legion of vampire creatures that attack during World War II. Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor must face Fenric, a second time, having locked him away centuries before, when the evil entity is released by an ignorant scientist who believes he can control it.
"The Curst of Fenric" also contains a type of philosophical horror, where the death and destruction feel almost inevitable. The Doctor doesn't know if he can stop the evil in time, and many of the people in the area begin to lose faith in themselves and each other. Their grim future faces them and they seem helpless to stop it from coming to pass.
Doctor Who (2005-2022) "The Empty Child," season 1, episode 9
"Are you my Mummy?" These few words are enough to give me chills. They instantly bring to mind the creepy ghost boy in the gas mask that Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor faces. And while this episode is actually a two-part story, concluded in "The Doctor Dances," season 1 episode 10, the first part is the most eerie.
During the London Blitz of World War II, the Doctor, Rose (Billie Piper), and Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) find a group of starving children who brave the raids to eat the food left by those who took shelter. But, there is something else they fear more than bombs. A little boy in a gas mask desperately wishes to join the other children, but he's less than human, and he might also be the cause of a zombie-like infection spreading through the town.
Doctor Who (2005-2022) "Midnight," season 4, episode 10
David Tennant's Tenth Doctor has quite a few scary episodes to choose from, and it was extremely difficult to determine which was the scariest. Many fans would say that "Blink," season 3 episode 10, is the scariest because of the introduction of the Weeping Angels. But, in terms of feelings of fear and horror, "Midnight" wins the place on this list.
In this episode, the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) are having a relaxing holiday on the planet Midnight. Donna stays at the spa while the Doctor takes a shuttle to see the famous Sapphire Waterfall. While on the shuttle, a foreign entity boards and takes control of people's bodies and minds. The passengers turn on each other in paranoia, and even the Doctor finds himself frightened and helpless.
Doctor Who (2005-2022) "Night Terrors," season 6, episode 9
Vintage dolls and wax museums were some of my biggest fears as a child. So, I always shake and shiver along with George (Jamie Oram), the little boy who has called on the Doctor to help him with the monsters in his closet. In "Night Terrors," Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor, along with Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill), answer George's plea, though at first it just seems like a classic case of a child's nighttime fears.
When the sonic screwdriver has off-the-charts readings, however, it becomes clear that the monsters in George's closet are real. And they are not friendly. With an excellent twist ending that I did not see coming, I would gladly watch this episode many times over, even if I have to watch it snuggled under my comforter.
Doctor Who (2005-2022) "Listen," season 8, episode 4
There are many episodes of Doctor Who that play off the fear of the unknown, but "Listen" captures that fear particularly well. Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor begins the episode by suggesting that we are never alone and there is a being that exists who is always hidden. Capaldi's monologue is enough to raise the hairs on the back of your neck, especially when he turns to find his previously blank chalkboard now inscribed with "LISTEN."
The Doctor and Clara (Jenna Coleman) try to learn more about this creature that's always hiding, and inadvertently find themselves in several different time periods, all featuring something lurking just out of the corner of their eyes. My shoulders are tensing as I think about the young Doctor, just a boy, and having something grab his leg from underneath his bed. If I had watched this episode as a kid, I would have probably needed to take a running jump to get on my bed at night afterward.
Doctor Who (2005-2022) "Village of the Angels," season 13, episode 4
I did not think the Weeping Angels could be any more terrifying, but "Village of the Angels" proved me wrong. The small comfort that came in knowing that victims of Weeping Angels were still alive, just in a different time, is snatched from us. Now we have to worry about what happens if you get caught by an angel more than once.
Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor travels to the village of 1967 Medderton, where a little girl is missing and a young woman claims to have been born in 1985. It turns out that the entire village is in danger from a group of Weeping Angels, having already been attacked once before. This episode ends in a cliffhanger, so the audience is left to sit with their feelings of horror.
Doctor Who (2023- ) "The Well," season 2, episode 3
If you couldn't get enough of the psychological horror in "Midnight," you're in luck because "The Well" is a continuation of that story. Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor ends up 500,000 years in the future, after the Earth and the human race have been destroyed. It turns out that the planet he's on was once the very planet his 10th regeneration visited. The entity that terrorized the shuttle passengers is still there, but it's grown in the millennia since it last saw the Doctor.
"The Well" takes the terror up a notch as the entity now does even more to create paranoia and distrust. The mind games it plays mess up everyone, and there are a lot of casualties. This episode also has the quintessential, "Is it really over?" ending that marks a great horror story.
Now that we've discussed each Doctor's scariest episode, it makes me wonder how to rank the scariest over all. Which episode scared you the most? And, how many of these do you think you can watch before Halloween?