Doctor Who horrors: My behind-the-sofa moment

Everyone has had that Doctor Who fear, the first time the show really crawled up your spine and seized your neck hairs, and you were about to cry for help, to switch off the television but you couldn’t quite stop watching…

As an eleven-year-old boy, I was pretty susceptible to being scared. The Doomsday Cyberman emerging at the top of the stairs prevented any journeys up there on my own, and the Miss Evangelista’s face-reveal in Forest of the Dead had me pedaling home from my mate’s house terrified she would emerge from the trees and eat me.

But these were little scares, insignificant jolts, in comparison to my behind-the-sofa moment. Enter: The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit.

At the time, I was only just falling into the world of Doctor Who. Series Two had just aired and I had borrowed a VHS off my friend, to watch the episodes I’d missed first time round. In my sister’s room (I didn’t have a TV), I take a sip from my full glass of juice and push the tape in, unbeknownst to what the next two hours would have in store.

Ten minutes in:

"Toby…Don’t turn around—Don’t look at me!"

Terrifying but captivating. He’s getting closer to Toby… and I hear it in the voice, I believe if he looks he will die. What would I do? Is he behind me? I am Toby and the voice is gliding, breast-stroking through the air and my stomach feels sick with adrenaline and he’s about to touch Toby…Did I feel something on my shoulder? No no no… DON’T LOOK TOBY!
Nothing.
That was horrendous, how can he ever work again? Can I ever work again? OH MY GOD IT’S ON HIS HANDS!

Imagine fearing the Ood in this episode, when the hands of horror are that of Toby Zed’s. Creepy when possessed by the Beast, even creepier when he’s just Toby; you’re waiting for him to change, for the Beast inside him to reawaken. It’s mesmerizing and terrifying in equal measure and scared me so much that I dressed up as Toby ten years later.

The possessed Ood are one of many reasons why The Impossible Planet is such a terrifying story. What moment made you want to hide “behind the sofa”?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Horrifying and mesmerising

However much The Impossible Planet might have made me anxious for The Satan Pit, nothing can quite prepare you for your behind-the-sofa moment. My glass of juice was now half-empty and starting The Satan Pit, I hung on for about thirty minutes until, like the Doctor, I fell into a pit of despair.

BECAUSE THERE IS THE DEVIL. I can’t look at the TV, anywhere but the TV, let the Doctor and the Devil battle it out. I don’t want to turn it off but god I don’t want to be in this room. He’s everywhere—laughing, rattling, seeping through the fingers in front of my eyes. The Christian inside me can’t bear the Devil sharing my sister’s room, sprawling out and bringing me to hell. My eyes finding anywhere but the screen, praying that the Doctor can save us all.

It was horrible.
And it was sensational.

And yet again, it was mesmerizing. No matter how agonizing it may be to let the monster into your room, it was also so exhilarating. Even though the Doctor defeats monsters every week, you don’t take this for granted as a kid. You believe things to be in flux and this contributed to my personal peril—maybe he couldn’t defeat the devil.

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I see the story very differently now. A once “I’ll never watch it ever again” pair of episodes, I think these are two of the best, most thrilling of the modern era and stuffed with cracking villains and set pieces. The Christian inside me has also been laid to rest, and I can look at the Beast now as a CGI demon, rather than an entity of absolute horror.

However, that behind-the-sofa experience still resonates with me on any re-watch. The Beast crawling up behind Toby Zed always leaves me feeling uncomfortable and vulnerable, while the final battle with the Devil instantly fills me with apprehension. As every-time I watch the same sequence of events, I get the same fear I got originally… what if he beats the Doctor this time?

Being scared by Doctor Who always leaves a lasting imprint. Maybe because you weren’t expecting it? Or maybe because it’s a “kids” show? Yet, when it grabs you and sends you back home shaking, it’s an experience impossible to forget.

Because every time that I’m in an empty room, listening far into the silence, I pray I’m not the next Toby Zed.

Do you remember your first “behind the sofa” moment? Did it leave an impact on you? Is horror a key aspect of Doctor Who for you? Let us know in the comments below.