Doctor Who/Tear Jerker

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"Even then, even if I change, it feels like dying. Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away. And I'm dead."
—The Tenth Doctor in the "scene in the cafe", "The End of Time"
"Everybody knows that everybody dies, and nobody knows it like the Doctor."
—River Song, "Forest of the Dead"

Seriously, it's a very emotional show. The hero dies and turns into someone else on a regular basis, and as a Long Runner (almost 50 years) there have also been a lot of instances of The Character Died with Him. You have been warned...

First Doctor episodes

  • 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 is at least six hundred years and nine regenerations before he gets romantic with an ephemeral again putting this in Tear Jerker territory.
  • 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 shall 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."
    • It gets worse in the Expanded Universe; despite her grandfather's promise of coming back, he never did. The love of her life died during the rebuilding of the Earth and then her son died when the Daleks launched a counter-attack a few years later, and Susan was left to deal with it completely and utterly alone. It's also been confirmed that by the time of the new series she's dead, and likely perished along with the rest of her race in the Last Great Time War. Poor Susan.
      • To make things even better, it's been heavily implied that in the 400+ years and ten regenerations since she left, the Doctor has forgotten about her almost entirely.
      • Although the Expanded Universe is of debatable canon, it's heavily implied in "The Empty Child" that she is, indeed, dead.

Dr. Constantine: Before this war began I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither, but I'm still a doctor.
The Doctor: Yeah, I know the feeling.

  • 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! *decompression* 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: The waste... the terrible waste...

  • The ending of the Massacre, 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 wether to give up travelling altogether.
  • The fact that so many early episodes of Doctor Who are lost(most likely forever)may be the saddest thing in the entire franchise.

Second Doctor episodes

  • 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 Pat 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. You must 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 grand-daughter 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."
  • What happens to the Companions of The Krotons.
  • "The War Games" episode 10 combines half a regeneration (we see the old Doctor go, but not the new Doctor appear) 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.
    • "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...
  • War Games. 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...


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's how 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.
Doctor: I can’t, I literally can’t. It would create a cosmic disaster.
Brigade-Leader: You are not going to leave us here!
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!
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!
Section Leader: Go on Doctor, go now!
Doctor: I can’t is 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.
  • The DVD Commentary to The Green Death, when Katy Manning begins talking about Jon Pertwee and breaks down in tears at the end.
  • The death of the Third Doctor in "Planet of the Spiders" was the most heart-wrenching, largely because of the superb acting of Jon Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen.

The Third Doctor: A tear, Sarah Jane? No, no, don't cry. While there's life, there's...(Hope)


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 because he's just trying to figure out who he's turned into this time...
  • The Fourth Doctor story "The Ark in Space" had a sad ending:

Noah: Goodbye, Vira...

    • In addition, the ending also has Rogin, the one truly likeable member of the Ark's crew, being burned alive in a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • D84's Heroic Sacrifice at the conclusion of The Robots of Death:

D84: Goodbye... My... Friend.

Adric: Will Romana be all right?
The Doctor: All right? (Whispered) She'll be superb.

  • 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?
  • 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...


Fifth Doctor episodes

  • The death of Adric made a few fans go misty-eyed.
    • And the break with the traditional closing credits. No Doctor Who theme song, no starfield; 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.
  • 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.
  • "Warriors of the Deep," a Fifth Doctor episode with a Kill'Em All 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," two 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: 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.

  • 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.


Sixth Doctor episodes

  • In 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 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 traveling 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

  • 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: 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.

  • The scene in "Ghost Light" where Ace tells the Doctor about the murder of best friend at age 13.
  • The Doctor's final monologue at the end of "Survival," 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 episode

  • The Seventh Doctor's death during the 1996 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.
  • Eight's goodbye to Grace at the end of the movie.
  • The very idea that, this gentlemanly, sweet, slightly scatterbrained Doctor is the one to experience the Time War.


Ninth Doctor episodes

  • The end of "The End Of The World." Rose is looking out the window at the remains of the Earth after it is destroyed by the Sun's transformation into a red giant. "The end of the Earth. It's gone. We were too busy saving ourselves, no one saw it go. All those years, all that history, and no one was even looking." And then the Doctor takes her back to her time, and we see all these people and things that, a moment ago, were gone.

The Doctor: You think it'll last forever. People, and cars, and concrete. But it won't. One day, it's all gone. Even the sky.

    • In the same episode, what was said at the beginning of the episode. Rose's first trip in the TARDIS, and the first thing she sees is the death of Earth - not in any of the thousands of potentially imaginable holocausts that humans could bring upon themselves. But because it's an old, old planet that has reached its time.

Doctor: You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying. Like you're gonna get killed by eggs, or beef, or global warming, or asteroids, But you never take time to imagine the impossible: That maybe you survive.

    • Earlier in the episode, where Jabe tells the Doctor she knows where he's from and and how sorry she is for what's happened to him. Cue single Manly Tear from the Doctor.
  • You'd never think you'd cry over a Dalek of all things. But when the lone Dalek from the 9th Doctor episode "Dalek" stands on its own in the rain, asking where it will get its orders from when all the other Daleks are dead, many heartstrings were tugged, and it went into full Tear Jerker when it asks Rose to give it orders to die.
    • And the line after the order, with the Dalek facing its suicide/death was what really did it though.

Dalek: ARE-YOU-FRIGH-TENED-ROSE-TY-LER?
Rose: Yeah...
Dalek: SO.......AM.......I.......

      • And the single pathetic little "EXTERMINATE!" before it dies, as it gradually returns to what used to be its one anchor in its destroyed world.
    • The music "The Lone Dalek" doesn't hurt.
    • The Doctor talking to the Dalek about the Time War, and his reaction to thinking he killed Rose. Eccleston was just amazing in that episode.
      • Christopher Eccleston raging at the Dalek.

Doctor: "Why don't you just die?!"
Dalek: "...You would make a good Da-lek."

    • The whole scene where the Doctor and the Dalek realize that there'e no one else coming to the latter's distress signal

Doctor: "But there's no one else coming cause there's no-one else left..."
Dalek: "I...am...alone...in the universe..."
Doctor: "Yep!"
Dalek: "So..are...you. We are the same."

      • I think what makes these scenes all the more powerful is that you feel sympathy for what is supposedly the most hated creature in the series.
  • "Father's Day" is often cited as making fans cry.
  • "Father's Day"

Pete: Who am I, love?
Rose: My daddy.

Pete: I never read you those bedtime stories, I never took you on those picnics. I was never there for you.
Rose: You woulda been.
Pete: I can do this for you. I'll be a proper dad to you now.

  • "Just this once, Rose, everybody lives!"
    • And the moment before: "Yes, I am your mummy... I will always be your mummy."
  • The ending to 'The Doctor Dances' was a Tearjerk of Heartwarming, if such a thing exists. How desperately The Doctor wants just one day where nobody has to die.

The Doctor: "Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one..."
[shortly thereafter] The Doctor: Everybody Lives Rose! Just this once, everybody lives!
[later still] The Doctor: "I need more days like this..."

    • Not to mention Nine had probably only recently come out of the Time War before meeting Rose- and in that war he had to commit what was basically a double genocide, even if unsuccessful (not that he knew), half of which was his own people- knowing that in retrospect, it's clear just how desperate the Doctor is for a day when nobody has to die at all.
      • It's worse than that. Yes, he killed his own people, but A Million Is a Statistic. The conversation where Dr. Constantine says, "Before this war began I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither," and the Doctor agrees was a Tear Jerker, when you take into account the Doctor indeed was a grandfather.
  • Boomtown starts off as a humor episode. Its title and content threaten to be all about action. The bulk of the episode is given over to a quiet allegory about capital punishment. Blaine is a murderer, and attempted to be one on a genocidal scale, but her grief at the loss of her family, her fear of death, her knowledge that she's responsible for the sorry state of her own life make her all too familiar, both to the Doctor and the audience. Both she and the Doctor argue whether the capacity for mercy outweighs the need for justice for her crimes:

The Doctor: You let one of them go, but that's nothing new. Every now and then a little victim spared, because she smiled, 'cos he's got freckles, 'cos they begged. And that's how you live with yourself, that's how you slaughter millions. Because once in a while, on a whim, if the wind's blowing in the right direction, you happen to be kind.
Margaret Blaine: Only a killer would know that. Is that right? From what I've seen, your funny little happy-go-lucky life leaves devastation in its wake. Always moving on, because you dare not go back. Playing with so many peoples' lives - you might as well be a god. And you're right, Doctor, you're absolutely right; sometimes you let one go. Let me go.

    • An absolutely amazing line from Boom Town, and one I'd never expected a former Monster of the Week (and a relatively minor member of the group at that) to be able to perform as well as she did:

Blon: "Let's see who can look me in the eye..."

  • In The Parting of the Ways, we have Lynda, freshly-invited to join the TARDIS, and utterly ignorant of the Daleks' ability to survive hard vacuum. Then the lights flash in that cadence we know all too well....
  • The Doctor's holographic farewell to Rose in "Parting of the Ways". Especially when the hologram turns and looks right at her and tells her to have "a fantastic life." Cue the waterworks.
    • If you replace Rose's theme with the music intended for the scene, it gets worse.
  • Jack's resurrection.
  • Especially in retrospect, knowing what happens to him over the course of the next two thousand years or so, Jack being left behind on the Gamestation in The Parting of Ways is quite the tearjerker. What with the absolute disbelief on his face and us knowing just how much he's going to go through from now on...


Tenth Doctor episodes

  • "New Earth" drew happy tears here, from the moment the lever was pulled onwards. It was at that moment that all of the fear and doubt about Tennant replacing Eccleston melted away in a flood of happy tears.
  • In New Earth, Lady Cassandra accepts death, having taken over her willing servant, a clone with almost no real life anyway. The Doctor takes her back in time to a party when she was young. For those few seconds a woman who has spent so long desperately chopping and changing and eventually mutilating her own body in a desperate bid to be beautiful can finally see what she lost.

Cassandra (in Chip's body): Excuse me... Lady Cassandra...
Younger Cassandra: I'm sorry, I don't need anything right now. I'm fine, thank you.
Cassandra/Chip: No - I just wanted to say... you look beautiful.
Younger Cassandra: Well. That's very kind, you strange little thing. Thank you very much.
Cassandra/Chip: I mean it. You look... so beautiful.
Younger Cassandra: Thank you.

    • At the end, when Cassandra/Chip dies, and Younger Cassandra cradles the clone in her arms, stroking his face and shouting for someone to get an ambulance. It gets worse when you rewatch the episode and hear Cassandra at the beginning refer to Chip as being based off of 'her favorite template'. She remembered him!
  • 'School Reunion'.

The Doctor: "You can spend your whole life with me. But I can't spend my whole life with you."

  • "Goodbye - my Sarah Jane!"
    • That line is a double-whammy Tear Jerker and CMOH. And just for a moment, as he picks her up, she's young Sarah-Jane again...
    • Also, considering the news on 4/19/11 knowing that Elisabeth Sladen, the actress who played Sarah Jane, has passed on, the line "Goodbye... my Sarah Jane!" will now cue Inelegant Blubbering of the messiest sort from Whovians old and young. Made even worse by the passing of Sir Nicholas Courtney just two months before; two of Classic Who's biggest, most beloved icons, gone in a matter of weeks.
  • The death of K9 from season 2. When the Doctor says "Good dog", I couldn't help but tear up.
  • The last five or so minutes of The Girl in the Fireplace never fail to trigger the waterworks.
  • The reveal of Mickey's background in "Rise Of The Cybermen"; as if it's not enough that both parents walked out when he was a baby and the grandmother who raised him died, he blames himself for causing his grandmother's death (she fell down the stairs after tripping on a piece of loose carpet he was supposed to fix). He breaks down when he meets the alternate universe version of his gran.
  • Rose interacting with her "mother" in the alternate universe in "Rise of the Cyberman". You can't help but feel bad when Alt!Jackie looked at Rose and talked to her like she was dirt under her shoe, especially considering Rose considered this woman to be her mother just as much as Jackie from Rose's universe.
  • The sad little voice coming out of the Cyberman who has regained self-awareness; 'Is Gareth there? It's bad luck to see me before the wedding...' God, the poor thing...
    • At the end when all the Cybermen's control programs were broken all at once: at least before they were mostly unaware, but now, the people inside could see what they had become.
      • Not to mention that none of those people deserved what happened. They didn't ask to be turned into emotionless metal monsters, but they were all killed as part of Lumic's mad plan. And the Doctor had to Mercy Kill them all in part because death is preferable to being that, and to save all the living still in the world. It's practically a small-scale version of what we later learn he had to do in the Time War... and oh god, that's a tearjerker in itself.
  • There's something about "The Idiot's Lantern". The Abusive Parent is heavily implied to be a bit of a Fallen Hero, families have to hide their family members because The Men in Black will take away the ones who have had their face stolen, and even a member of The Men in Black himself hates what they're doing in the first place. Inspector Bishop wants to investigate, but its way out of any of their league and there's nothing they can do about it. Not to mention that Tommy, son of Abusive Parent, absolutely hates his dad for tattling on the other families. Its clear that no one in his family will ever forgive him again, even after Rose tells Tommy to try and make up with him. The dad just looked so lost while standing there on the steps of his house, realizing what he'd done. Not to mention how he left willingly when the mom (Rita) told him to get out. He clearly regrets what he's done, but there's nothing he can do. His life is over.
  • Love & Monsters!
    • Especially if you're under the interpretation that Elton's gone mad from the events of the episode.
  • "Doomsday" is often cited as making fans cry.
    • Doomsday... dear Jesus. Being separated by that wall... the goodbye scene ain't got nothin' on the one before it!
  • In Doomsday, when the breach is sealed. Especially the Doctor's walk away.
    • The transmission being cut off. When he gets back to the TARDIS, one eye wet, it's even worse.
    • The Doctor's expression as he leans against the wall. It is so simple, so unmoving, but his eyes... Rose can bawl her eyes out and everything, but Ten has the pure, unadulterated sadness conveyed solely in the Doctor's eyes.

The Doctor: Rose...

      • When the two touch the wall at the same place but divided by not just a wall but by an unbreakable universe.....Sniff.
    • "I did my duty… for Queen and country." That episode has an almost-unfair amount of Tear Jerker scenes.
  • Yvonne Hartman's Heroic Sacrifice after being turned into a Cyberman, especially with that one black tear sliding down her "face". Whatever she was, she so did not deserve that.
    • Her final words, too. "I did my duty for Queen and Country." She wasn't out for money or power, everything she did was out of patriotic love for her homeland- and look what happened because of it.
  • In "Runaway Bride," when Donna finds out that Lance had been lying to her the whole time, and in reality couldn't stand her.
  • The scene in "Gridlock" where the Face of Boe dies.
    • Even more so when rewatching it after the end of series 3, given that that may be Jack dying too. Which is simultaneously upsetting and in another way, almost happy, because finally, after five billion years which have no doubt contained one helluva lot of heartache and waiting, Jack Harkness gets the all too human gift of peace.
    • The Hymns. How the hell did they make a freaking traffic jam that tragic?!
  • The Tenth Doctor remembering Gallifrey as he talks to Martha at the end of "Gridlock". The look on his face, not quite crying but totally hollow and empty, like he's hurting just to think about it. The look on David Tennant's face, like he's just thought of the saddest thing in the world.
  • The third season episode 42, in particular the end where Captain Kath opens the airlock allowing her and her possessed husband Corwin to be sucked into space... while telling him she loves him, even when he's preparing to kill her.
    • And earlier when Corwin is striding towards Kath for the first time since his possession, about to vaporise her, while she begs him not to, reminding him that she's his wife, to which he responds:

possessed!Corwin: [In a curious, remembering tone] My wife?

    • It then gets even sadder when the Sun possessing him reasserts itself and hisses: "This is your fault!"
  • What about the bit in 42 when Martha and one of the weekly mauve shirts are trapped in an airlock capsule heading directly for the sun, and she calls her mum up - just to talk, about (in Martha's words) "Anything! What you had for breakfast! What you're going to give dad next time you see him!"
    • Made all the worse by the fact that the call was clearly being overheard by Mr. Saxon's people.
    • The point when they were about to push a possessed Doctor into a stasis chamber to be deep frozen in an attempt to get it out of him and he's screaming, saying how scared he is, yelling for Martha and reaching out for her, trying to find her even when she only lets go of him for a matter of seconds, because he can't open his eyes without killing someone and she's telling him to trust her... Gah. Just, gah, David.

Martha: Are you ready?
Doctor: No!

    • Not to mention before that, when we first realize he's possessed and he's going on about how he knows about them taking fuel from the living sun, just the rant he gives and how he says it is heart-wrenching because he's in excruciating pain from being possessed by the sun's spirit (?) and so enraged at the horror of what they've done to a living being. And he's right.

Doctor: You mined that sun! Skimmed its surface for cheap fuel! You should have scanned for life! That sun's alive, a living organism! They scooped out its heart, used it for fuel and now it's screaming!!! HUMANS!!!! YOU GRAB WHATEVER'S NEAREST AND BLEED IT DRY!!! GAHH!!! YOU SHOULD HAVE SCANNED!!!!!!

    • When the escape pod is being jettisoned, and Martha's banging on the wall, yelling for the Doctor and looking more and more desperate, and the Doctor, unable to help her, stands on the other side of the air lock and screams, "I'LL SAVE YOU." (five times.) and she can't even hear... And the pod just drops toward the sun. The silence makes it hit harder.
  • Human Nature/The Family of Blood.
    • Not only the drama of John Smith's choice (and seeing his "dream of a normal death") but the Ode of Remembrance too?
      • The bit when you realise Joan would never really see John again, only the Doctor. As in, John's dead. He lost himself when he opened the fob watch.
      • "The Family of Blood," from the part when Martha, Joan, and Smith are hiding and the Family begins to call out for the Doctor to show himself because they have the TARDIS. It's when he recognizes the blue box from his dreams that Smith finally realizes that's all true, and starts to cry himself, begging Joan, "Why can't I be John Smith? Isn't he a good man? Why can't I stay?" Damn you, David Tennant. The rest of the episode only gets more Tear Jerky from there.
    • A smaller one from Family Of Blood, when the scarecrow army attack the school and the schoolboys take up arms to defend the school. The sheer look of horror on their faces as they gun down the scarecrows, some visibly crying, coupled with that choir music from the start of Human Nature is pretty hard to watch. War Is Hell indeed...
    • Jessica Hynes's acting in her last scene — all that quiet devastation and disgust with the Doctor — is heartbreaking. Made worse by the fact that the Doctor hardly even acknowledges what a mess he's made of her life and so many others. At least he had the decency to ask after her in The End of Time.

Nurse Redfern: Can you change back?
The Doctor: Yes.
Nurse Redfern: Will you?
The Doctor: No.

      • Made even worse by the fact this conversation is the reverse of one the newly regenerated Tenth Doctor had with Rose.

Rose: Can you change back?
The Doctor: Do you want me to?
Rose: Can you?
The Doctor: No

        • These conversation's are true opposites. Whilst Rose eventually realises that whilst he looks different and cannot change back, he is ultimately still the man she loved, while Joan has to live with the fact that whilst he looks exactly the same and can change back any time he wishes, he is ultimately not the man she loves.
  • Sally Sparrow's reunion with Billy Shipton in the episode "Blink". Especially the final shot, of her in the empty hospital room after he dies.
    • Made worse when you remember the Doctor warning that they feed off the persons possibilities. Their could have beens, should have beens. That Sally Sparrow Shipton was one of those things taken away with a blink. Making two people who had a connection to a mourning young lady and a dying old man in a hospital room.
    • And made even worse by coming right off of Kathy's attack by the Weeping Angels. While she's stranded in the past, it's at least softened by the implications that she was looking for something new in life, enjoyed old things, and in a sense, maybe even belonged there. There is none of this with Billy, and the contrast hits you like a sack of rocks; this was truly a murder.
      • The dialogue is just heartbreaking.

Billy: It was raining when we met.
Sally Sparrow: It's the same rain.

Billy: No, gorgeous girl, you can't. There's only tonight. He told me, all those years ago, that we'll only meet again this one time, on the night I die.
Sally Sparrow: Oh Billy...
Billy: It's kept me going; I'm an old sick man but I've had something to look forward to. Life is long, and you are hot! ...Look at my hands. They're old man's hands - how did that happen?

Sally Sparrow: I'll stay. I'm gonna stay with you ok?

Billy: Thank you, Sally Sparrow. I have til the rain stops.

  • In the same vein as "Human Nature", I find Professor Yana's "death" in "Utopia" quite heartbreaking. He was so nice... and he became the Master.
    • Remember the Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming when the last humans leave for Utopia? Try watching it the second time round — remembering the Toclafane.
    • The fact of Yana being the Master is a tearjerker in and of itself- the Doctor tells Joan that John Smith was just a part of him, only a fraction of the being that is the Doctor. Then you realize that the same must be true of the Master- somewhere in there is just a kind, helpful old man that will likely never see the light of day because the Time Lords ruined his life when he was a child. The Fridge Horror tearjerkers are just as bad.
      • Sir Derek Jacobi's acting makes it even more effective. He wasn't the Master for very long, but he still was able to play the character as completely different from Yana. Just like when Tennant played John Smith, the difference in their personalities really drives home that Yana is dead, but Jacobi pulls off in minutes what took Tennant two episodes.
      • In the same vein, watching the Doctor's "You could be beautiful" speech to the Master in End of Time, realizing that he's remembering not only their childhood, but also the brilliant old professor trying to help his people reach Utopia. (Sniffle)
  • The start of Last of the Time Lords when we realise Jack's been tied up and tortured (and probably killed repeatedly in every possible gruesome way the Master can come up with) every day for the last 365 days... and he's still joking. Never mind that the humiliated Joneses have probably had to watch, the Doctor probably hasn't had it much better, and a good half of earth's population has been slaughtered. Not even those amusing Voodoo Child scenes will convince her that the Master isn't an Complete Monster.
    • When you re-watch the "decimation" scene, really watch it: the expression of helpless heartbreak on the Doctor's face, the tears running down Martha's face, the innocent people screaming in horror as they're slaughtered like cattle. Not so funny now, is it?
  • It was "Last of the Time Lords" that does it. "REGENERATE!"
    • The version they showed in the Confidential was even worse. The sound of him sobbing went on forever.
    • The scream of anguish. You could feel the sheer heartbreak at losing the last hope he had at real companionship; remembering how willing the Doctor was to "adopt" the Master makes it that much worse.
    • Yes, as monstrous as the Master is, Doctor is that lonely.
    • Even before then:

"You wouldn't listen... because you know what I have to say... I forgive you!"

  • "All my love to long ago" in "Time Crash".
  • Let's not forget the many Tear Jerkers in the 2007 Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned": whether it was Bannakaffalatta's Heroic Sacrifice, the Doctor scattering the late Astrid's atoms, so that she'll always be able to travel the universe, or the Doctor's goodbye to Mr. Copper, the episode is guaranteed to make everyone cry at some point.
    • Astrid, oh Astrid. Her flickering, translucent figure crying out "I'm falling," and just everything The Doctor says after that is so heartbreaking.
      • Epic sob when he said, "You're not falling, you're flying."
    • Foon's reaction to Morvin's death, all the way up to her lassoing the Host and jumping off the bridge. They were such a sweet couple!
    • Listening to "The Stowaway".
    • "I CAN DO ANYTHING." Excuse me, my heart is breaking into thousands of pieces.
  • During "Partners in Crime" when Donna tells the Doctor about how meeting him in "The Runaway Bride" changed her and her outlook on the world and how she woke up the next day to "the same old life", because she seemed to be speaking for all of us young people who are still looking for some sign of what they want to do with their lives and what the world is all about.
  • Maybe Doctor Who has always been about this kind of thing, to a lot of people: after all it introduces us to a world full of brave, beautiful, terrible, wonderful things, people, and places we can't quite touch: it scares us to death and entrances us at the same time. It's kind of a reflection on reality, because the real world has potential too, and yet so many of us fear ending up like Donna, living that same old life, and never getting to experience anything bigger or be anything more important. We're the Roses who never had a chance, the Mickeys who never learned to be brave, and the Donnas who tried to believe, and then had that hope taken away again. That's the real Tear Jerker.
  • "The Fires of Pompeii." You know from the title on how it'll end, but when you actually see the lava and smoke pouring into the city, interspersed with the panicked screams of thousands...
    • The family he saved and that one line, "All those people..." It would be bad enough for a fictional event, but for something that actually happened it was almost too much.
    • The Doctor has his hand on the lever that will kill thousands, knowing he has to pull it. Donna places her hand with his, refusing to let him bear the burden alone. And together, they pull...
    • And later, while the volcano is erupting. Donna is pathetically screaming at everyone to run into the hills instead of the beach. She's trying desperately to save them, knowing full well that she can't. It gets especially bad when she tries to pick up the little boy that was frozen with fear, but his mother grabs him away. She has the slightest glimmer of hope of saving somebody, anybody, but it just doesn't work.
      • That is soon followed by her completely breaking down in the TARDIS and begging in tears to the Doctor to save just one family. If there were any doubts about Donna's character before, they were gone with this episode.
  • Just try watching the Ood singing the praises of the Doctor Donna on repeat, having already seen what happens to Donna at the end, without crying. Just TRY it.
    • Any of the Ood song, really, especially at the end of The End of Time. "The universe will sing you to your sleep."
  • Jenny's death, she wasn't even alive for an hour! And she'd gone from just a soldier to someone looking forward to seeing the wonders of the universe. and then she takes a bullet to the chest for the Doctor, and watching the Doctor telling her she's going to be amazing and that she'll be okay as she dies in his arms.
    • It helps that she gets better.
      • It doesn't really for the Doctor, since he will probably never know that she survived...
      • Which makes it even worse. Let's look at all of this in order:

1) The Doctor tells Donna about his (dead) children
2) Notes that he has a daughter now
3) Said daughter dies
4) Said daughter is actually alive, but the Doctor will never know this
5) Cue Inelegant Blubbering

The Doctor: Donna, I've been a father before.
Donna: What?
The Doctor: I lost all that a long time ago. Along with everything else.
Donna: I'm sorry. I didn't know. Why didn't you tell me? You talk all the time but you don't say anything.
The Doctor: I know. It's just... when I look at her now, I can see them. The hole they left, all the pain that filled it. I just don't know if I can face that every day.
Donna: It won't stay like that. She'll help you. We both will.
The Doctor: When they died, that part of me died with them. It'll never come back, not now.
Donna: I'll tell you something, Doctor. Something that I've never told you before. I think you're wrong.

    • Don't forget Martha's Hath friend sacrificing himself to save her from that same episode. Cue seemingly never-ending crying scene.
    • And the Doctor's reaction to it. He grabs the gun you wonder just for a second if it had really pushed him enough to send him over the edge, then he declares that he never would. The Lonely God, Last of His Kind, can't keep a companion because of the nature of his existence, been through absolute hell the past few hundred years, and add to that the traumatic emotional roller coaster of gaining a daughter and fellow Time Lady, accepting her, and losing her within hours, and he still never would. Gah, DT!
  • When the Mauve Shirt Miss Evangelista dies in "The Silence in the Library", because despite being just a skeleton she was wearing some neurological Applied Phlebotinum device which keeps your consciousness around for a little while after death, but you don't realize what's happened - combine this with the Vashta Nerada and you're left as just a skeleton and a voice. So she fades away as the rest of the cast try to comfort her in her last seconds.
    • She had previously mentioned to Donna that the rest of her crew didn't like her because she was stupid. As she was dying, she asked for the "nice lady", AKA Donna. After one minute-long conversation, she wanted to talk to Donna over all the people she actually knew. None of them were kind to her one bit, were they?
      • And you can tell by the pure guilt on their faces when this happens that they're all too painfully aware of this fact as well.
        • That last bit at the end, when her thoughts have finally degenerated to the point where it just repeats "Ice cream. Ice cream. Ice cream..." was absolutely heartbreaking. No wonder Donna says it's the most horrible thing she's ever seen. There was a very strong HAL vibe, this quote, but is very applicable:

"It would have been funny, only she had never seen anything less funny in her entire life."

    • One episode later, Anita, another Mauve Shirt, discovers she has two shadows and realises it's only a matter of time before the Vashta Nerada eat her. Watching her struggling to keep it together and the crew's attempts to keep her safe is heartbreaking, as is the Doctor's fury when the Vashta Nerada finally kill her.

The Doctor: I really liked Anita. She was brave, even when she was crying, and she never gave in, and you ate her.

  • When River's about to plug herself into the computer rather than let the Doctor do it and she starts telling him it's okay.

River Song: It's okay. It's okay, it's not over for you. You'll see me again. You've got all of that to come. You - and me. Time and space. You watch us run.

    • Not only her death, but the look of broken heartedness on the Doctor's face once it's done as he just sits there, looking off in the direction of the chair with a face that makes it seem like he feels like he's really failed.
    • For some reason, the position of his arm by his face does it. Just the sort of resigned practicality of it, as compared to the rest of the image...
    • Hush now. Spoilers...
    • That scene with River and the Doctor in "Forest of the Dead" is even worse after series 5 and 6.

River Song: If you die here, it'll mean I'll have never met you.
The Doctor: Time can be re-written!
River Song: Not those times. Not one line. Don't you dare.

    • All the River Song parts are made much sadder after watching Series 6. Now the Doctor meeting River is so much worse, because it's not River's Doctor at all.
      • Oh lord, this. Some of the dialogue going back is just heartbreaking.

River: You know, sometimes, I really hate you.
Doctor: (sadly) I know.

        • or this:

River: You're younger than I've ever seen you.
Doctor: ...You've seen me before then?
River: Doctor...please tell me you know who I am.
Doctor: Who are you?

          • Right after this exchange River just gets this stricken look on her face...
    • She might have actually been hoping for death, considering, as she said in series 6, finally meeting the Doctor with no memory of her was something so terribly heartbreaking to her because it was the sign that, for the rest of her life, she'd never see him ever again, something she told Rory she lived for. Now though, she's in the computer world, sure with nice people that she knows to pass the time with, but with the fact that she'll never see the Doctor again, not just until the end of her life, but for forever.
      • Made even worse because at this point, she is just some woman to him, rather than the brilliant badass that we end up seeing.
    • From that same episode, Donna's struggle in the parallel universe, realizing that nothing is real and her children don't exist. Crying with her husband (who has an adorable stutter), they assure each other that they DO exist, and that they will find each other when they get out. Once back in the Library, Donna can't find him, and resigns herself to the knowledge that he wasn't real either. The audience knows better though, since we see him see Donna and try to call out to her, but he can't manage with his stutter and she leaves forever, never to see him again.
    • Ever dreamed of something you didn't have, a dream so real you were sure it couldn't be a dream? A dream so real you checked in the dream if it was really happening?
  • At the end of "Forest of the Dead" "Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair and the Doctor comes to call, everybody lives."
    • Especially if you don't consider being imperfectly saved after death for all eternity trapped inside a computer already shown to reprogram people to be a very happy ending after all.
    • "STAY WITH ME! You can do this, stay with me! Come on! YOU AND ME, ONE LAST RUN!!"
  • "Midnight." Oh dear God, "Midnight." The very concept of the episode is depressing. Every single one of the Doctor's strengths are turned against him. At the same time, the other people on the ship become more and more paranoid to the point where they actually attempt to murder a possessed passenger and the Doctor. But then comes the point after the Hostess has saved everyone by ejecting both her and the possesed woman from the ship. The Doctor asks the other passengers what the Hostess's name was and nobody knows.
    • The Doctor's interaction with Donna at the end of the episode. She gives him a big hug, and the two start to talk, with her eventually answering the Doctor's halfhearted "Molto bene" with one of her own. The Doctor then replies with his usual "No... don't do that" and it looks like, despite not being a happy ending, now that the danger has passed, things are going to be hunky-dory like usual. Then the Doctor adds a fearful "Really... don't." Many an episode has had the Doctor sad at the end, but never, not even after taking on the Devil, had he seemed so frightened. A few extra words take a usually comical Catch Phrase and use it to show just how traumatized the episode left the Doctor, and it's heartbreaking.
    • He's just so scared. The part that always gets me is when, after the Hostess and Skye die, he's set free, and all he can do is whisper, over and over, "It's gone. It's gone. It's gone. It's gone."
  • In "Turn Left" when the soldier says the Doctor is dead and we see the sonic screwdriver fall from his hand, when Martha, Sarah Jane, and the kids all get killed, when most of the Torchwood team sacrifices themselves, and when Donna's running in front of the car.
    • The slightly corny Italian guy saying goodbye to Donna and her Grandpa, before he gets shipped off to a "labour camp." The look on Wilfred's face as he salutes him is utterly devastating — you can tell he knows exactly where this is going.
      • Just the part where they're standing there and you hear the horn in the background.
      • "Labour camps. That's just what they called them the last time." And you can hear his heart is breaking along with the audience's. Oh man...
      • ^ becomes absolutely horrifying when you remember Wilfred actually fought in WWII.
      • What's even worse is that the Cyberman theme plays as the Italian family is being driven away, implying that something more horrible than mere death is in store for them.
      • Then you have the moment where Donna realises what's about to happen, and starts screaming at the soldiers.
      • The worse part is the speech Donna makes when she decided to go with Rose and is standing in the circle of mirrors.

Donna: 'Cos I understand now. You said I was going to die, but you mean this whole world is going to blink out of existence. But that's not dying, because a better world takes its place, the Doctor's world, and I'm still alive. That's right isn't it? I don't die, if I change things then I don't die, that's... that's right? Isn't it?
"I'm sorry."

    • She just starts out so happy and confident that she's dodged a bullet, And, of course, by the end of the episode we think it too. Then "Journey's End" happens.
    • Let's just mark the whole episode as a Tear Jerker, including the end where the Doctor realizes exactly who Donna talked to in the parallel world.
  • Both a Tear Jerker and Nightmare Fuel: when the Daleks put their first message through to the human race, consisting of nothing more than the repetition of their famous catchphrase. The scene moves rapidly amongst the cast members as they react in horror to what they're hearing. Particularly the reactions of Jack, clinging to Ianto and Gwen, kissing them and saying he can't do anything, they're as good as dead, and Sarah Jane clutching Luke and sobbing, knowing better than anyone exactly what's coming.

"Oh, God you're... you're so young."

    • Often overlooked here is the reaction of Ianto, because it's so briefly seen and quiet within Jack's typical boldness and Sarah Jane sobbing. One of 28 survivors of Canary Wharf, and he knows exactly what's coming.
  • There are several in the 'subwave network' sequence of "The Stolen Earth":
    • Martha's mother: 'You came home. At the end of the world, you came back to me.' This is made even moreso when you consider that "Project Indigo" could have taken Martha anywhere in the universe - even to the Doctor himself - but in the back of her mind, she wanted to go home to her mum...
  • Captain Jack saluting Harriet Jones.
    • Especially when you realise that she knows that she's about to sacrifice herself.

Harriet: Captain Jack Harkness, SHAME on you! Now stand to attention, Sir!

  • Harriet Jones facing the Daleks for the final time:

Harriet: (holding up her I.D.) Harriet Jones - former Prime Minister.
Dalek: Yes - we know who you are!
Harriet: Oh, you know nothing of any human - and that will be your downfall.

    • Let it be known that no series but Doctor Who could, in three lines, manage to evoke a Running Gag, a Tear Jerker, and a Crowning Moment Of Awesome at the same time
      • It's not the only time it does, either - consider K9's final "Affirmative" in School Reunion.
  • The scene where the Doctor connects with the subwave network:

Rose: (sadly, as she can't communicate with the network, only monitor it) Doctor, it's me... I came back.

    • And, a moment later:

Donna Noble: It's like an outer-space Facebook!
The Doctor: Everyone except Rose...

  • "I'm sorry... it's too late - I'm regenerating-!"
    • Worse is Jack's "Good luck". He's the only one who really accepts it's about to happen.
    • ...Except of course it doesn't. The second half fixes the problem in approximately twenty seconds, but it was the relieved type of being cheated.
      • Never mind the actual regenerating, the goddamn lead up to it. What starts out as a Meadow Run turns into a scene straight out of West Side Story. The Dalek comes out of nowhere (and the Daleks are just the most illogical bit of Nightmare Fuel ever; for heaven's sakes, characters whose designs are based on a salt shaker should not be as scary as they are to many people) and then... just... "Exterminate". Like Rose or not, that scene still tugs the heartstrings.

"I've got you, it missed you. Look, it's me. Don't die, oh, my God, don't die..."

    • Not until you've seen the Tenth Doctor actually regenerate do you really understand the overwhelming, crushing fear of death that motivated his sudden bright idea to channel his regeneration into his severed hand. It was a desperate try to get. One. More. Minute. In existance. Cue waterworks.
  • A little later.

Martha: Oh my god... he found you [Rose]!

    • What about that little montage of everyone who's died over the last four series coming back to haunt the Doctor in one last "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
      • The Doctor has done a lot of sucky things and there are more than enough reasons for him to be called out on them. But it's hard to think of a single one of the people in those flashbacks who didn't deserve to be remembered as so much more as just a senseless sacrifice, or as weapons who died to clear a path for the Doctor. They died because they chose to fight and what they thought of him, in the end, doesn't matter. They were heroes, damn it.
        • And that's why people like Davros are the villains- because they'll never understand what being a hero means. Davros, being the Whoniverse version of Hitler, is a charismatic speaker, and you can tell from the Doctor's expression during that sequence becausel he's struggling with what Davros is saying while knowing deep down that he's wrong, all because the Doctor tends to blame himself anyway and Davros is playing off that.
          • Made even more painful when his own allies start pointing it out.

Rory Williams: Do you know what--you know what's dangerous about you? It's not that you make people take risks, it's that you make them want to impress you. You- you make it so they don't wanna... let you down. You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around.

  • The Doctor (2.0) trying to make Donna accept how special she is, and her steadfast refusal to believe him:

Doctor: No, but you are, you...Oh... you really don't believe that, do you? I can see, Donna... what you're thinking. All that attitude, all that lip, 'cos all this time... you think you're not worth it.
Donna: Stop it!
Doctor: Shouting at the world 'cos no-one's listening. Well... why should they?
Donna: Doctor. Stop it.

    • How hurt she sounds, like she wants to believe him but she can't. Dammit Ms Tate, why must you be so awesome?
  • The look on the original Doctor's face when Rose kissed the Meta-Crisis. Just that look of complete loss and defeat...oh, Lord.
  • Donna's begging not to be mindwiped.
    • That scene was made even worse by the realization that just a little earlier, she saved all of reality, finally moving past her idea that she wasn't important.
      • Wilfred Mott's response to what's happened, especially "I'll look up at the sky, and think of you" pretty much steals the show.
      • Plus while this is all happening, the Song of the Ood is playing.
      • What makes it even worse is re-watching Series 4 from the beginning and picking up on all the clues left about Donna's ultimate fate, and Donna's statement as far back as Partners in Crime that she'd never forget the time she had with the Doctor. As of "The End of Time" (her final appearance since it has been said that no RTD-era companions will appear again, with the possible likely exception of Jack Harkness), all hope that she may at least remember the wonderful life she had and everything she accomplished, is gone. She ends up, at least, Happily Married and Wealthy Ever After (the latter thanks to the Doctor) but it is still horribly tragic and everyone that knows the Doctor will have to tread carefully around her for the rest of her life.
      • At the very end of "Journey's End", when the Doctor brings Amnesia!Donna back home, and gives this speech to her mother and Wilfred:

The Doctor: I just want you to know that there are worlds out there, safe in the sky, because of her. That there are people, living in the light, singing songs of Donna Noble. A thousand million lightyears away. They will never forget her...while she can never remember. And for one moment, one shining moment, she was the most important woman in the whole wide universe.
Donna's Mother: She still is. She's my daughter.

      • Don't forget the Doctor's next line, "Well maybe you should tell her that once in a while." He was able to completely shut down Sylvia right there, letting her know that Donna doesn't feel particularly loved by her own mother, which might explain her general feeling of worthlessness. All Jacqueline King does is raise an eyebrow, but she's able to cut through a whole range of emotion.
  • The ending of "The Next Doctor", which is one of the most touching examples of the Doctor being a Woobie:

Jackson Lake: All those bright and shining companions! ...But not anymore?
The Doctor: No.
Jackson Lake: If I may ask, why not?
The Doctor: They leave. Because they should, or they find someone else. And some of them, some of them... forget me. I suppose, in the end... They break my heart.

    • Not since the Master died was he this close to tears.
    • Plus the fact that he's trying to justify it, not to Jackson, but to himself- the first thing he says is "because they should," and he's trying to convince himself they're better off living their own lives, no matter how much he misses them.
    • And earlier in the episode, where he's explaining how Jackson Lake became the Doctor.
Doctor: I'm sorry, I am so sorry, but... That's an awful lot of luggage for one man...
—It's even worse once you realize he's not just talking about the suitcases.
  • Basically all of Waters of Mars. Everything from the scene in the airlock when the Doctor tells Adelaide that she and her entire crew are going to die, pretty much. Though Steffi's death scene stands out. She puts on a film of her children...
    • In the scene where the crew is trying to escape and the Doctor is walking back to the TARDIS (his face lit up to look like a skeleton and horribly depressing music playing in the background, no less). It was even worse when one character had a drop of water hit him, making him have to stay behind. And the Doctor's reaction when he hears "One drop." It was just so sad.
      • The Doctor defies the laws set down by the Time Lords, and uses the TARDIS to take the remaining three crew members home. Adelaide questions the Doctor on his contradictory actions, but he rebukes by declaring himself Time Lord Victorious, who now believes he has the power to change time to whatever he wants. Adelaide Brooke's answer? Walks into her home, and kills herself, correcting the timeline. The sheer shock on the Doctor's face, and the memories flashing through his mind.
    • What makes it worse is why the Doctor's so horrified. In Trying To Set Right What Once Went Wrong, he made it worse. Adelaide's granddaughter was originally motivated in life by not knowing how her grandmother died. Thanks to the Doctor's meddling, it's now not knowing why her grandmother committed suicide. His arrogance turned a mystery into a tragedy.
    • The Time Lord Victorious speech was enough to cue hysterical tears. That arrogance with which he struts out of the TARDIS, the smug security that he can do this now, he can dictate the flow of the universe to his whim and it just looks so good and right on him... but it's so wrong. The thin line that the Doctor can cross... and he crosses it, and it's heartbreaking.

Adelaide: The future of the human race! No one should have that kind of power.
Doctor: Tough.

    • Still, there is one good little gem at the heart of the mess- before, nobody knew why the base exploded. Now, Adelaide will be remembered as a hero.
  • A few scenes from "The End of Time", Part One qualify.
    • The Doctor and Wilf sit in a cafe and talk about dying. The Doctor tells Wilf that when he regenerates, it's still like dying, because everything that is him dies and a new man gets up and walks away.
    • In the same scene, Wilf asks the Doctor to fix Donna, who still can't remember being his companion. The Doctor says no, and tells Wilf that he's been traveling by himself. He says that he thought it would be better by himself, but he did the wrong thing and it all messed up, and he cuts off and breaks down crying.
      • There are actual tears visible in his eyes. He just barely stops himself from bawling like a baby! GAH!
  • "I don't want to go." says the Doctor, alone again after a heartbreaking series of good-byes.
    • It's even worse when you realize he became an actor specifically to play the Doctor. When he says, "I don't want to go," that's... Davies, you heartless bastard.
    • "What year is it?" "Boy, you must have had a lot to drink! January 1st, 2005."
      • "I'll bet you're going to have a really great year."
    • Wilf begging the Doctor to take the gun and not die. The moment, the exact moment, the Doctor hears the knocking, after the Hope Spot. The entirety of Donna's wedding.
    • "Borrowed a quid off a really lovely man. Geoffrey Noble, his name was."
    • "This song is ending, but the story never ends."
    • The Doctor's book-signing with Miss Redfern's great-granddaughter.

Doctor: Was she happy? In the end?
Verity: Yes, she was. Were you?

      • The truly heartbreaking moment is the look on his face as she asks him. He tries to smile, but his lip trembles, and it's just...
    • Then there's Jack. Notable because neither of them speak a single word to each other aloud, when there's clearly so much that needs to be said. The mock-casuality of his bringing together two people who have seen him at his worst, and a brief salute... For now, it'll have to do.
      • It was far more effective without words. After Children of Earth, we know Jack is devastated and can't forgive himself. Then he gets that note, looks up, sees the Doctor... and then we realize that, no matter what happened, the Doctor has forgiven Jack. Only then do we start to see the Jack we're used to.
    • The number of cast and crew members who have publicly stated "I cried when I read the script" is literally in the dozens.
    • Wilf begging the Doctor to take the gun and save himself, when the Master told the Doctor to step out of the way. "We will sing to you, Doctor. The Universe will sing you to your sleep."
      • What made it even more tragic is the similarity of those lines to what Horatio says to Hamlet at his death ("Goodnight, sweet prince/And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."). For the death of the Tenth Doctor, already desperately sad, to evoke that most tragic of play endings...too much altogether.
        • Especially considering the movie with David Tennant as Hamlet. Don't watch them within the same week at the least.
      • Four versions of that last line were shot, increasing the emotion each time. They went for number three as four was even more tear-jerking to the point that Tennant felt it out of character.
      • And the saddest part? Ten was saying just what we felt. We didn't want him to go either.
      • The final words were sad, the goodbyes were sad, but there was a sort of hollow stabbing sadness when you hear Wilf telling the Doctor not to die for him, because you know and the Doctor knows and in all likelihood Wilf knows that no matter how badly he wishes he could just walk away, he's already decided he can't.
      • When Ten regenerated, through the sadness, I couldn't help but think of the words of Sarah Jane: "Some things are worth getting your heart broken for".
    • Ten's actions. To simplify, one of the last things he does is saving Luke. Pulling him from in front of a speeding vehicle, doing what he's done for hundreds of years. Helping. Even with his final breath. And then his last action, his very last action, struggling to reach the TARDIS and getting it in flight... just... gah.
    • The music for that scene, "Vale Decem", is in no way helpful. The lyrics are in Latin, and not terribly good Latin at that, but a rudimentary understanding of the language makes it even more heartbreaking. Especially when you realise that one line can be reasonably translated as "You are not alone."
  • Eleven's first words being so cheerful. Because he remembered what the Doctor said regeneration meant to him in Part One, about it being like dying with a new man getting up in his place. Of course, this was probably intentional on the writers' part. Bastards.
  • The entire radiation scene. The Doctor's Rage Against Fate speech hits you just how serious regeneration is to the Doctor, or at least to Ten. How he protests against the unfairness of it all, until he finally accepts his fate. And of course, that self-sacrifice is exactly what makes him who he is. The Doctor, the last of the Time Lords dying to save one little human? Of course he would. And finally when the chamber floods with energy and this great man who has stood tall against angels and demons is curled in the fetal position in silence.
  • Going back to the visitations, the Sarah Jane Adventures episode "Death of the Doctor" reveals something that we didn't see there: the Doctor didn't just visit the companions of his tenth incarnation. He tells Jo Grant that he went to visit every single one of his companions from all of his lives. One can only imagine how tragic scenes with Susan, Romana, Adric, or hell, any of the others must have been. It's not made any better by Sarah Jane telling us how a number of them are doing great things with their lives, it just goes to show what great effect the Doctor had on so many individuals, which is the true meaning of his reward—seeing them safe and happy and being magnificent. As Miss Sarah Jane Smith once told the Doctor, he has the biggest family in the whole wide world...
    • In the whole wide universe, and other universes too.
    • Perhaps even worse when you realise that there are some companions he can't see. Take Susan. He's the last Time Lord. Susan's dead.
  • Another End of Time part two one, but a little different than the prior scenes. The final scenes with the Master, just for how badly screwed over he was by the Time Lords. "Get out of the way!" Oh, and if you look closely in that scene when the Doctor points the gun at him (and in the interrogation scene to boot), there's a point where he's on the verge of tears. Made it even worse.
    • That look on the Master's face when Rassilon sneers, "You're a disease." He finally realizes he means less than nothing to the Time Lords; that his whole life, everything he's done and all he's suffered has been for nothing.
    • Going from the forced confidence of "you never would, you coward" to John Simm's tiny little head shake of denial moments later.
      • Looking at that line from a different perspective...it almost sounds like he's begging the Doctor to kill him.
    • The "you could be so beautiful" scene, when the Doctor is trying to convince the Master they don't need to rule the universe, just see it. It's not Tennant's impassioned pleas, it's the tears in Simm's eyes and the crack in his voice, like he wants to believe, but can't conceive of a life without the drums.
      • Semi-relevant fact: The Master's sacrifice was originally intended for Jon Pertwee's last story, only Roger Delgado died before it could be filmed. The producers had to scrap the story completely.
  • Throughout the last twenty minutes or so of Part 2. The Doctor screaming at Wilf about how it wasn't fair that Wilf could die, while the Doctor had to travel the stars with people that he grew attached to, and then had to let them go. Then...the goodbyes...the goodbyes...especially Rose.
  • And when he collects himself, "I've lived too long", it sounds so much like a suicide.
    • A man is about to die a horrible, radiation-related death after being haunted by it for months, and watching the people he had to wipe out come back for a second shot thereby making his choice irrelevant, then having to send his own mother back into a time lock to die in an inescapable war... Not to mention that after he just survived the unsurvivable, he's now dying because a lovely old man got himself stuck in a booth... And people are calling this wangst?
      • One could look at that rant from a different angle. Since partway through Series Two, the Doctor's life has been pushed in a certain direction because of all these prophecies dictating his fate- the loss of Rose, the return of the Master, Donna losing her memories, and now his own death. Imagine how that must feel, to not have any real choice in your life because it's already been plotted out for you. At the heart of the matter, that's what Ten is really angry at- that the choice has been made for him, like so many before it. So he screams at the universe because it doesn't have the right to choose for him- but he still goes back to the booth. He still saves Wilf. Because that's what he does. Because he's the Doctor. And in that moment, he actually makes it his own choice- rather than dying because someone told him he was going to, he makes it clear he could leave, but he isn't going to because he will not let Wilf die- and that's when he takes his destiny back into his own hands.
    • All it can take for the waterworks to start up was one sound. The sound of rapping on a glass door, to a count of four. Tap tap tap tap.
  • This is all summed up pretty well in the Sarah Jane Adventures episode 'The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith', when she and the Doctor say their goodbyes.

Doctor: Don't forget me, Sarah Jane.
Sarah Jane: No one's ever going to forget you.

    • Because we won't.
    • Making that worse... Two words - Donna Noble.
  • While we're on Sarah Jane, she was by far the most heart-breaking goodbye in The End Of Time. Of all the people he went to see, only she had seen a regeneration before. When the Doctor sees Rose, she's yet to meet the Ninth Doctor. While Luke was all excited that the Doctor was here, you could tell she knew what was happening to him and what it meant and why he couldn't speak to her.
    • And worse, with the 2011 death of Elisabeth Sladen hitting the fandom, that scene isn't just Sarah Jane saying goodbye to the Doctor. That was her last scene in the series that made her famous. And David Tennant, the ultimate Ascended Fanboy who grew up as a massive fan of hers then got to play the Doctor alongside her, is practically saying goodbye to her for us. GAAAAHHHHH.
  • The Doctor stumbling and pressing himself as hard as he can through the snow, toward the TARDIS so he can regenerate. Knowing what he said to Wilf before about it before, this is a man walking to his death. And knowing he has to, because it's the only way he can still live. But yet...


Eleventh Doctor episodes

  • "The Eleventh Hour": Even though you could see it coming from a mile away, young Amelia Pond waiting with her suitcase.
    • You just knew he and the TARDIS were in no state to make it back in time. Poor little girl.
    • "Why did you say five minutes!"
  • The last few minutes of "The Beast Below". Practically everything after The Reveal, but mostly so Amy's "Very old, and very kind. And the last of his kind" speeches. Both of them.
    • "Nobody talk to me! Nobody human has anything to say to me today!" When The Doctor realises that to save an entire nation of stupid, ignorant people, he has to brain-kill the last of a very old and noble race to end its incessant suffering. And you can see the fury and anguish in his face; every last ounce of it.
      • When the Tranquil Fury started coming out in the Doctor's voice, and then when he exploded... Oh, God, that was the worst. That and:

And then I'll find a new name. Because I won't be the Doctor anymore.

    • "It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry. What if you were really old, and really kind and alone? Your whole race dead, no future. What couldn't you do then? If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind....(looks straight at the Doctor) you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry." Oh, Amy. That's exactly what the Doctor needed to hear. He doesn't realise just how good and kind a person he is because of all the dreadful things that he's had to do.
    • It's worse the second time through, when you know it's coming, and Amy fires off this little piece of foreshadowing:

Amy: "So this is how it works, Doctor: You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets... unless there's children crying."

    • The poem—oh dear god that ending poem. We'd originally heard one that used the Star-Whale as a threat to scare a child, but at the end, after everyone has realized the Star-Whale is actually benevolent and generous and had never wanted to harm anyone, we get a CMOT & CMOH all in one:

In bed above, we're deep asleep, while greater love lies further deep
This dream must end, this world must know: we all depend on the Beast Below.\

  • Victory of the Daleks. Think about it. Here is the Doctor, who had to kill every single one of the Time Lords and Daleks in the Time War, facing down the new Daleks. Fridge Horror strikes when you realize, oh Lord, that sacrifice he made is for nothing! The Daleks are still here, and his people's gone...
    • Well not quite for nothing, he still had to kill the Time Lords on their own (as of End of Time p2)... but yes, still pretty tragic.
    • It gets worse when you consider that the "new" Daleks are actually original-line Daleks from Skaro, instead of the hybrid ones that have been in the new seasons on and off. Not only is the death of his own race now very slightly less important, but now he has to deal with pepperpots that are very likely going to prove to be even more repugnant than some of the ones he's faced in recent seasons.
    • From the Doctor's reaction to the Time Lords' return in End of Time, and the fact that thousands of Daleks survived the Time War, but only one other Time Lord... well, maybe the Doctor wasn't aiming for the Daleks after all.
    • The Doctor's expression towards the end. The day is saved, but the Daleks have escaped... and he just looks so out of it and sort of staggers backwards, horrified...
  • "Flesh and Stone". The Doctor having to leave Father Octavian to be killed by a Weeping Angel... then he walks off screen without a word, and all you hear is the crack. Made worse in that the story at that point had already built up a decent and likeable character in Father Ocatvian and his men.
    • Come on. The character was basically a four-in-one of Cool Old Guy, The Brigadier, Officer and a Gentleman and a Badass Preacher. He did the best job anyone in his situation could dealing with the Angels while trying to deal with River and the Doctor at the same time, and it was a cruel way for him to go. What what really tears people up were his final words to the Doctor before he looks away (paraphrased).

Father Octavian: I die in the knowledge that my courage did not desert me at the end. For that I thank God, and bless the path that leads you away to safety.
The Doctor: <pause> I wish I could have got to know you better
<Octavian smiles>
Father Octavian: I think, sir... you knew me at my best.
The Doctor: Ready?
Father Octavian:<peacefully> Content.
CRACK

  • The Doctor and Amy commiting suicide together after Rory dies, in "Amy's Choice".

Amy: Then what is the point of you?
Amy: Because if this is real life, then I don't want it, I don't want it.

    • The very second Rory died. Amy's small voice when she asks Rory to come back, how she asks the Doctor to save him, and he just looks like a lost little boy when he says he can't. And then Amy says the most horrible thing, and he just stays silent, almost as if he wonders himself.

Amy: Save him. You save everyone, you always do. It's what you do.
The Doctor: Not always. ...I'm sorry.
Amy: Then what is the point of you?

      • After that, when Amy gets up from the floor, there's a tiny clip where the Doctor goes to help her, but he doesn't touch her, doesn't seem to really dare...
  • The Doctor says he knows who is behind the dream/alternate realities because "there's only one person in the universe who hates me as much as you do". We later find out that the person behind it is the Doctor himself meaning... Oh, Doctor.
    • Made WAY worse after watching The Doctor's Wife, and you realize that he is so desperate for forgiveness that he burned up chunks of his TARDIS to leave the universe. All this time, it seemed like Eleven had finally gotten over the Time War. Turns out, it's actually getting worse.
  • "The Hungry Earth": The Doctor tries to pull Amy out of the hole in the ground but fails. Why is it a Tear Jerker? The look on the Doctor's face. That, and when you remember that the Doctor's lost so many companions and friends over the years...It just makes you want to hug him, the poor Time Lord!
  • Rory's death and subsequent disappearance from all of history. Especially his confusion in that he had earlier seen himself and Amy from the future, waving to themselves in the past from a hillside.. When the episode ends, we see older!Amy on the hillside again, waving to her younger self... but this time she's all alone, and only briefly imagines she can see someone else there with her.

Rory: I don't understand... we were on the hill... I'm sorry.

    • In that vein, Amy's screaming and crying to go back for him, and then her struggling and failing to remember him.
      • Seeing Amy, who was normally so strong and fierce, completely breaking down into screaming and sobbing. The fact that both she and the Doctor know she'll be erased from time too if she goes back and that she just doesn't care because she can't stand to live without him... gaaahhh. The Doctor's reaction is heartbreaking too, over the last few episodes we saw him really grow to like and respect Rory, and he's practically on the verge of tears. He knows that if he doesn't take command of the situation and restrain Amy then he'll lose her too, even though he's devastated by Rory's death as well. The acting of the three leads makes that scene so damn effective.
    • It makes "Amy's Choice" about a hundred times worse.
    • Later, When van Gogh tells Amy he is sorry that she is sad and says he feels she's lost someone. Amy confusedly tells him she's not sad and hasn't lost anyone. Then Vincent points out that she's crying... She didn't even notice.
  • Van Gogh being shown his works in a museum and getting told what a great painter he was...and Amy learning that he still committed suicide.
    • Even worse if you work out the Fridge Logic as to why events still turned out that way. Consider that most creative year of Van Gogh's life was very likely spurred on by that visit to the future, and the praise he received. Now consider that he still had to return to a life where he was ridiculed and mocked, and the psychological effect of knowing that your destiny is to become a world-renowned artist, when you can't get even a shred of respect from the people around you.
      • Actually, the real tearjerker is that he killed himself despite the Doctor showing him the future. Because Vincent suffered from Manic Depression, and sometime the disease wins, and there is nothing you, your loved ones or your timetraveling alien from the future can do to stop it.
    • Every minute of the last 15 minutes of Vincent and the Doctor were tear jerkers. The look on Amy's face when she realizes that Van Gogh still killed himself, and again when she sees the painting that he painted for her.
      • Vincent crying with joy to see his own paintings in the museum. Bill Nighy's character being hugged by his idol. The Doctor telling Amy that the good things don't always soften the bad things, but the bad things don't make the good things less important. And the music helped. Even with all the emotionally charged bits that have been featured on the show before and after, it's the last five minutes or so of "Vincent and the Doctor" that bring out the waterworks.
    • Really, if you know Van Gogh's history it gets a bit worse, the first scene with Van Gogh is him painting the last painting he ever would, with a rustling in field reminiscent of the Krafayis, reminding him of what he'd done.
    • It gets even worse when you consider that he probably killed himself because the final painting he drew of the TARDIS exploding is what pushed him over into full-fledged terror and insanity. This, plus the fact that he knows it means that the two people who showed him understanding and respect are dying along with it. He's not just manic depressive. He's also heartbroken.
    • The last little exchange in front of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" painting:

Amy: If we had gotten married, our children would have had VERY red hair. (pause) The ultimate ginger.
The Doctor: The ultimate ginge!
Amy (quietly): Brighter than sunflowers.

      • The second Amy turns and starts walking toward the painting, and the music swells, you just know that it's the painting before it even shows it... Sobbing without fail each time.
  • And then there's The Pandorica Opens. Oh, Rory...
    • Everything about Rory in that episode, from his realising Amy doesn't remember him, to the moment when she does and he realises he's not the real Rory, but an Auton programmed well enough to believe his own facade. No matter how he tries to convince himself he is who he thought he was, and no matter how Amy begs for him to stay, the programming gets enough of a hold that he ends up shooting her anyway. The last scene of the episode has him clutching Amy's dead body while every star in the unvierse goes supernova. And just to make it worse, the Doctor is meanwhile being sealed away in the Pandorica, beyond anybody's reach, unable to save a damned thing.
    • Not to mention that had he not done anything everything probably would have been fine. The Doctor'd been about to use his Sonic Screwdriver, which would have shorted out the weapon before it could be used. It was only Rory pushing him that kept him from stopping it in time. On another note, has noone remembered (Oh God, he's being forgotten already!) that just earlier in the episode he told Ambrose that he would trust the Doctor with his life. It's like the writers are just throwing everything they can at us to make us cry our eyes out.
  • "The Big Bang" had more Mood Whiplashes than you can shake a stick at, such as the last conversation between Amy and the Doctor before he flies the Pandorica into the exploding TARDIS, knowing that he's most likely dooming himself to be sealed on the other side of the cracks in the universe forever. And the bedtime story he tells to young sleeping Amelia, essentially pleading with the universe for her to hear him so she'll remember him and bring him back into existence.
    • Seeing the tears in his eyes as he says, "I think I'll skip the rest of the rewind" is just heartbreaking.
    • the immediate next line: "I hate repeats." 11 knows the events that led to his regeneration.

"Good-bye, Amy Pond. Live well. Love Rory."

      • Him telling her to "love Rory" is a tearjerker in and of itself because without him, they may well have never come together. He's pleading for these two people who are so clearly meant to be together to still fall in love even if he's erased from existence. Plus, skipping the rest of the rewind... he'd have to go back through his recent regeneration, losing all those companions, the Time War, and every horrible event from his previous lives. (shudder) Imagine having to relive all the worst moments of your life and not being able to do anything.
    • The museum's narration of how Auton-Rory kept his promise to protect Amy in the Pandorica for nearly 2,000 years, only to conclude that he probably died during the London Blitz.
      • Rory drawing his sword, looking around, then slowly sitting down on the side of the Pandorica and trying to get comfy.
    • On the subject of Rory in The Big Bang, there's this:

"You'd have laughed at that. Please laugh."

    • Geronimo. Not helped by the fact that it was one of the first things he said, and he said this thinking it would be the last thing he said in his life.
    • This short exchange between Amy and River:

River: He wants to talk to you before he goes.
Amy: Not to you?
River: He doesn't really know me yet. Now he never will.

    • The Doctor's doing his rewind, and ends up visiting Amy when she can't open her eyes during Flesh and Stone. Sure, there's the I Knew It! about him having his tweed jacket not being a production error, but that melts away pretty quickly in the face of what he says to her:

The Doctor: Amy, you need to start trusting me. It's never been more important.
Amy: You don't always tell me the truth.
Doctor: If I always told you the truth, I wouldn't need you to trust me.
Amy: Doctor... the crack in my wall... how can it be here?
Doctor: I don't know yet but I'm working it out. Now, listen. Remember what I told you when you were seven.
Amy: What did you tell me?
Doctor: No, no... that's not the point. You have to remember. (Kisses her forehead and continues the rewind.)
Amy: Remember what? Doctor?

  • It's probably not considered typical to cry at the phrase Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.
    • Amy's entire speech at her wedding reception. Especially the part where she starts realising why the Doctor told her the story about the "brand new, ancient blue box. Ohhhh, clever, very clever."
    • The Doctor's speech to Amy. "You won't need your imaginary friend anymore..."
    • Rory, sweet, gentle, stupid, good Rory says, with a look of utter bewilderment "How could we forget the Doctor?". Just the look on his face and his tone, like he was just remembering the most important thing in the world and simultaneously mourning the fact that he forgot it in the first place.
  • The TARDIS. "The Big Bang". Think about it. Yes, the mysterious evil voice probably made sure the TARDIS would explode on the date of Amy and Rory's wedding day. However, it didn't specify that it would have to be on Earth. The TARDIS, exploding over and over again, keeping the Earth warm after all the stars ceased existing.
    • Not to mention River Song trapped inside that loop trying to escape the exploding TARDIS, yet failing to do so every single time. The clincher is the end of each one:

River: "I'm sorry my love."

  • From A Christmas Carol, the poor Sky Shark. She only attacked out of hunger.
    • Later on in that episode, the moment when Kazran, confronted with his younger self mistaking him for his abusive father, finally breaks down. Michael Gambon, you beauty.
      • Not to mention a callback to previously in the episode when the Doctor believed Kazran was capable of redemption because "you didn't hit the boy." That look in his eyes when it hits him that he's that close to becoming the man he despised...
    • The part where Abigail, now that everyone knows that she only has a day to live, says to Kazran, "We've had so many Christmas Eves, Kazran. I think it's time for Christmas Day." Dammit Katherine Jenkins.
    • Not to mention every freaking time she sings in that episode. Of course it turns into Fridge Horror when you realize the word "Silence" is very common in the last song... Steven Moffat, you clever, terrifying man.
  • "The Impossible Astronaut." River explains to Rory that not only are she and the Doctor meeting out of order, but in exactly reverse order: Every time she meets him, he knows her less and less. She fears the day when she meets him and he has no clue who she is, full-heartedly believing that it would kill her. Even more heart-wrenching when you consider that we already know she's right.
    • Also bound to throw a wrench in your heart is that it's probably gonna hurt just as bad for the Doctor when he meets her for, to her perspective, the first time.
    • Also from this episode, right near the beginning: The Doctor is killed mid-regeneration. Taken from outright horrifying to tear-inducing in that it was his future self, but still, damn. Way to kick the new season off, guys.
      • In "Death of the Doctor" (taking place between Season 5 and Season 6 of Doctor Who), Sarah Jane Smith says "With friends like these, he's never going to die, is he?". Cue the first few minutes of Season 6... Sure, the Doctor didn't actually die, but still.
      • Even more tear-jerking given that, as we now know from the end of "Closing Time", that it will be River that kills him.
    • Also the fact that River is trusting her father with her greatest fear, and he doesn't know who she is.
  • Day of the Moon. River, who meets the Doctor in exact reverse order, kisses the Doctor for his first time, her last time, and afterwards finds out that this was, in fact, the first/last time, and that from here on, every time she meets the Doctor, he'll be less and less in love with her.

Doctor: You know what they say, there's a first time for everything! *leaves*
River, in shock: And a last time...

    • This exchange:

Amy: What's the matter with you?
Rory: You... called me stupid.
Amy: I always call you stupid.
Rory: No... but... my face. (Amy sees at the transmitter, and realizes) I wasn't sure who you were talking about... You know, me or...
Amy: Him?
Rory: Well you did say "dropped out of the sky."
Amy: It's a figure of speech, moron! (kisses him)

  • How about the end of Day of the Moon, where we see the little girl Who's actually Melody Pond/River Song regenerating? Seriously, the look on her face and the little laugh? That got me teary-eyed.
  • The exchange between the three leads at the end of Curse of the Black Spot, when they're left with a choice of either leaving Rory on the ship or risking his death by drowning since the ship is keeping him alive howeverwhatwaythatworks, is heartwrenching. He opts to leave telling them that all they have to do is resucitate him when they get back. And he wants the person who does it to be Amy, not the Doctor, for one specific reason. "Because I know you'll never give up."
    • It's even more meaningful when you remember Rory's a nurse. The inaccuracy of the whole thing aside, he knows the odds, but he still trusts her completely. And he's right. For everyone who has ever wondered why Rory was willing to wait 2000 years for a girl that a number of people don't think deserved him? That whole scene is your answer. Don't even get started on the look on the Doctor's face the whole time.

Doctor: "Come on, come on, Rory, not like this, not today!"

  • The Doctor's goodbye to the TARDIS in human form in The Doctor's Wife. He's just so vulnerable. His lip's trembling, his eyes are full of tears...

Doctor: "Please... I don't want you to... Please."

    • Look how many times Rory has died so far, and he never got this sad. It's then you realise it's his more-or-less best friend of 700 years. The look in his eyes... gah! *sobs*
    • Made even worse by what she said before returning to being incapable of communicating- "this is the time we talked". She exists outside of linear time as we understand it, and experiences everything at once- meaning, he's never going to get a chance to speak to her as a person ever again.
      • Don't forget it might well be the last time we as the audience get to see her talking, and (because the ep's almost over) even that's ending. A tearjerker on a meta level, too.
      • The last thing the TARDIS said to him was the one thing she was never able to tell him all those years ago when they stole each other:

TARDIS: Hello, Doctor. It's so very nice to meet you.

    • If you listen very very closely, the TARDIS whispers something before she fades:

TARDIS: I love you.

    • The TARDIS's thoughts on her sisters' graveyard: "I'm thinking all of my sisters are dead, that they were devoured, and that we are looking at their corpses." Ouch.
    • There was an extremely sad moment before the Doctor realised who the TARDIS was; when he's looking for the other Time Lords that he heard, and finds the cupboard full of distress signals and realises that was all he was hearing.

Doctor: I really thought I had some friends there...

    • The worst Tear Jerker in this one is, when Amy starts protesting about her and Rory being sent back to the TARDIS and saying that the Doctor was simply seeking redemption from any surviving Time Lords. The Doctor's response is heartbreaking, both in terms of character building and in delivery.

Amy: You want to be forgiven.
The Doctor (quietly): Don't we all?

    • The scene of Rory and Amy getting separated and Rory waiting for hours in the corner, just sitting all curled up and continuously calling her name. Maybe the rest wasn't as sad since by then she'd realized it wasn't real, but that initial shot of him sitting down the hallway, clearly just desperate for a response from her… it's just so heartbreakingly sweet when they show how devoted he is to her.
      • Aaaand then of course we're treated to Rory's room full of crazy, the realization that he's probably been repeatedly Mind Raped for decades, and his dead body when she's pulled away again and he thinks she's abandoned him. The body alone is enough of a tear jerker. The room scrawled with threatening grafitti that may or may not have been done by Rory himself after he finally snapped? Is probably one of the most horrifying scenes in the entire fifty years of Doctor Who.
        • The last thoughts in Rory's head were the words on the walls—Kill Amy, Hate Amy, Die Amy. Imagine finding the person you love most in the world's dead body surrounded by that and being unable to do anything.
    • The sheer heartwarming happiness on Smith's face when the lever flips down at the end of the episode and he starts to cheer a bit and move happily around the control room.
  • In The Rebel Flesh, where Ganger Jennifer is reminiscing over her childhood memories. Except they're not really hers.

Ganger Jennifer: I'm not a monster... I am me... me! me! me!

    • In The Almost People, when it hits home to Ganger Jimmy that the man he wants dead is the child he considers his son's father. And then when Original!Jimmy dies and gives him permission to go be a father to the boy (doubles up as Heartwarming Moment).
    • Rory having to let Ganger Amy go.
  • In A Good Man Goes To War as the world is falling apart around his ears, The Doctor comes across a girl whom he met when she was little. A girl who has joined the army and risked her life, just so she could meet him again. And he has no idea who she is :

Lorna: You don't remember me.
Doctor: Of course I do, Lorna. I remember everyone.

    • Made all the worse when you consider how easily that girl could have been Amy. What if he never had come back for her in Eleventh Hour? She would just be another person The Doctor left behind without even realizing.
    • Oh, nice to meet you, Lorna! She's a sympathetic character, maybe she'll be the companion after Amy and Rory le-OH SWEET MERCY MOFFAT WHY?
    • The reason why the Doctor doesn't remember Lorna is that he hasn't met her yet!
    • When the Doctor turns around, looking utterly hopeless (and possibly ashamed?) and asks "Who was she?" Poor Lorna...
      • The Doctor knew full well this was someone he hadn't met yet from his own perspective, and as she was dying he realized he was going to meet her later on knowing she would die there for him... and he lied simply because he couldn't stand to break the heart of a dying woman.
    • AAAUGH this scene. "They're always brave," was tearjerking enough to begin with, but when 11 repeated it, almost in a whisper... Brr.
  • Another one from A Good Man Goes To War is the death of the Sontaran who worked as a nurse. Rory calls him a warrior and, with one his last breaths, the Sontaran corrects him: he's a nurse.

Sontaran: I've had a good life...I'm almost 12...(That makes perfect sense, all things considered, but holy shit it is still heartbreaking to hear)

    • Fridge Brilliance: Rory is a nurse who is pretending to be a warrior, and we find out a few minutes later that the term "Doctor", thanks to The Doctor, has become a word meaning a terrible warrior. Given that the Sontaran seems to have been from before the events of the episode, it's unlikely he knew that, but given Moffat's habit of, well, detail work, one can't help but wonder if there's a point there.
  • Yet another one from A Good Man Goes To War that only becomes one after the reveal at the end of the episode. River happily tells Rory about her birthday celebrations with the Doctor. Later in the episode, it's revealed she's his daughter, lost in time and meeting him in the wrong order. She was telling her father all about a day with her boyfriend, only to discover Rory had no idea why she was so happy to talk to him.
  • There is one in the beginning of the episode. Amy is telling them about the man who has lived for hundreds of years. The man who will stop at nothing to save her. The father of her child. Rory Williams, the lone centurion
  • Amy telling Rory through a door that their child is gone. He then opens the door to reveal he has her.
    • ...followed by Rory's own tears at being a father, protesting that he was going to try to "be cool." And then Amy tells him he is anyway.
  • Most of this episode is a tearjerker. Tears come every single time it is watched.
    • The Doctor declares that Melody is tired, and comes up with a little cradle. A very old cradle. "Where did you get a cradle?" asks Amy. After some awkward, painful moments, he says it was his[1] before walking away. *sniff*'
      • Why can't it be both his and Susan's? It could have been made for the Doctor but his children/grandchildren also slept in it.
  • Yet another one for "A Good Man Goes To War": River's "The Reason You Suck" Speech / What the Hell, Hero? given to the Doctor becomes this when you realize she was calling him out for what was done to her. River is essentially walking proof of what happens when the Doctor makes people scared.
  • The absolute worst example in "A Good Man Goes To War" is when the version of Melody that Amy is protecting during the final battle with the Monks is a flesh avatar. As the realisation slowly dawns on the Doctor sealed away in the control room, Melody liquifies in Amy's arms. Amy then gives off the most piteous and distraught cry for Rory imaginable. When the Doctor bursts into the hangar to try and warn Amy about Melody, he's interrupted by Rory.

Rory (choked): Yeah, we know.

  • The prequel to Let's Kill Hitler, anyone?
    • Oh god. It started so cheerful and got so sad. "I don't want to miss all those years..." And then suddenly the music goes all dark and somber and you realize that he's been listening and he hasn't picked up for a reason...
  • And in "Let's Kill Hitler" we find out that Amy and Rory's childhood friend Mels is actually Melody/River Song. Meaning that the Doctor failed to keep his promise to Amy, and they never get to raise their child at ALL.
    • The Doctor being unable to use the TARDIS' voice interface in the guise of Rose, Martha, or Donna, due to the guilt he feels over what happened with all of them.
      • The interface finally takes on the form of Amelia Pond. Not current!Amy; the Doctor knows too well he's messing up her life like he did her predecessors'.
    • The look on Melody's face when the Teselecta transforms into River.
    • Speaking of "Let's Kill Hitler", the climax of this episode gives us River Song's Heroic Sacrifice. The second one, in fact.

River: Just tell me. The Doctor… is he worth it?

Amy: Yes! Yes, he is!

  • In "Night Terrors", the look on Rory's face when he sees Amy being turned in to a doll.
    • At the climax Alex realizes that the reason George is so scared of everything is that he was afraid that he was unwanted. He responds by rushing to George through the crowd of Creepy Doll monsters and embracing him.

Alex: Whatever you are, whatever you do, you're my son.

    • Which was followed up by a single word, a single word.

George: Dad...

  • "The Girl Who Waited". The title alone says you're not leaving with a dry eye.
    • Older Amy's death in particular. First we have her begging Rory to let her go, because she will fight to live if he doesn't, then her staring at the hologram of the Earth and speaking about her husband as she dies.
      • Oh god. Older Amy's last words every time.

Amy: Show me Earth. Show me home. Did I ever tell you about this boy I met there? He pretended to be in a band…

    • When Rory finally snaps, yelling "I DON'T WANT TO TRAVEL WITH YOU!"
      • And then, when they make it back to the TARDIS: "You're turning me into you!"
        • It gets worse when you remember that that was exactly what Davros said to the Doctor.
    • When older Amy says that she hates the Doctor, and has never hated anyone as much.
    • When Older Amy and Doctor lock eyes from across the Gallery. The penny drops, and both the viewers and Older Amy realize exactly what's about to happen. Older Amy throws aside her weapons and sprints for the TARDIS door... only to have it closed in her face.
      • "You're turning me into you!" That's what the Doctor has always done, and that's why he knows who the Dream Lord is. "There's only one being in the universe who hates me as much as you do."
      • "If you love me, don't let me in."
    • This bit:

Old Amy: Give her the days... Tell Amy... Your Amy... I'm giving her the days. The days with you. Days to come... Days I can't have. Take them, please... I'm giving you my days.

      • Rory, on the other side of the door, isn't saying anything...he's just whispering 'I'm sorry,' over and over again.
    • Earlier on, Young Amy's description of love:

"You know when sometimes you meet someone so beautiful and then you actually talk to them, and five minutes later they’re as dull as a brick? Then there’s other people, you meet them and think: “Not bad, they’re OK”. Then you get to know them… and their face just sort of becomes them. Like their personality’s written all over it. And they just turn into something so beautiful. Rory is the most beautiful man I have ever met."

    • Also earlier, when Older Amy sees her husband for the first time in 36 years, and then she picks up her lipstick. She's about to put it on… Only to remember she's old now, stopping completely.
  • The God Complex provides several. Namely; Rita's death, the tragic monster, the Doctor making Amy lose her faith in him, realising just what has happened to him, then him leaving Amy and Rory behind and the reasons he gives. Doubles as something of a Trauma Conga Line.
    • The Minotaur's death speech, which Doctor translates. It describes an ancient being, soaked in the blood of the innocent, drifting through space in an endless shifting maze and how that creature would consider death to be a gift. As the Doctor walks away, the Minotaur reveals it wasn't describing itself.
    • The stage directions for the final scene are utterly heartbreaking in their description of the Doctor:

He is so old, so sad, and so alone.

    • There's also Howie, who mentions worrying about how his disappearance might be affecting his mother. It's also revealed that his greatest fear is a room full of Alpha Bitches who tormented him for his stuttering, and that he had just successfully finished a long rehabilitation process to stop said stuttering. Naturally, he dies, making all that for naught.
      • Rory's reaction was a mix of sweet and sad. When he says he had forgotten that not all victories are about saving the universe, he just sounds so very tired.
      • And, speaking of Rory, another bit of Tear Jerker hidden in his awesome. Rory was immune to the effects of the Hell Hotel because he had no faith! Imagine, for a second, all the things that bring you comfort, like religious belief or belief in other people, he finds no comfort in! Even the Doctor has faith in his companions, despite all the hellish things that have destroyed his faith in everything else, so get a hanky ready when you realize the kind of nightmarish things Rory has suffered to deny him the smallest solace in belief of something outside himself.....
    • A minor blink-and-you'll-miss-it one, but when Rory comes out of the house again, he's got three champagne glasses.
  • Closing Time is a fairly heartwarming episode that serves to show that people still believe in the Doctor, even when he doesn't believe in himself, but it's very horrifically contrasted by the ending which shows Madame Kovarian and the Silence come for River Song and force her into the astronaut suit and place her in Lake Silencio for the moment that we all knew was coming. To see River so helpless in this scene is what really makes it such a tragic moment.
    • Not to mention the moments where we see the Doctor borrow some stationery and a Stetson hat. He doesn't know their significance (yet), but we do ... Seeing him unknowingly fulfilling his fate is agonizing.
      • The thing is, it's NOT unknowingly, and he likely DOES know the significance. He specifically stated his next stop was America, and Word of God is there is a two-hundred-year gap between God Complex and Closing Time (which is why the future Doctor who died in The Impossible Astronaut was 1103 years old instead of 909). This means visiting Craig was his last trip before going to die and he knows it.
      • And then there's the reason why The Doctor was going to visit Craig and Sophie, thought all his centuries he has had many companions and friends, but Craig has earned a special place in the Doctor's heart, he is one of the few beings the Doctor has explicitly called his "mate."
    • "Petrichor. For the girl who's tired of waiting."
    • "I'm the Doctor. I was here to help. And you're very very welcome."
  • While technically not part of the show, this fanmade trailer for The Wedding of River Song was pretty tear-jerking, especially at the end when everything goes quiet and The Doctor hangs his head low as the First Doctor's famous "one day" speech echoes in the background.
  • The Doctor's telephone call in The Wedding of River Song during which he finds out that Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart has died peacefully in his sleep. Not only because it was a wonderful tribute to Nicholas Courtney, who died a few months previously, but also because if anything could make the Doctor accept his own mortality, it would be the death of his oldest and dearest friend.
    • And then they had to go and say that the Brig waited for the Doctor every day. Moffat just loves twisting heartstrings.
    • River and Amy holding the very fabric of creation over the precipice, and why? To send out a distress beacon to the whole of time and space bearing a message: "The Doctor is dying. Please, please help." And the response? A million million replies. One million times one million; one million, squared. A trillion lives cried out at once to say "Of course, we'll help." The Doctor thought the universe was better off without him, and the universe disagreed. Double points for being a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.

River: I can’t let you die without knowing you are loved by so many, and so much. And by no one more than me.

    • Amy telling Rory to leave before the eyepatch activates and either puts him through unbelievable agony or kills him, only for him to tell her that it's already started. He's still standing there, ready to fight and keeping it on because he needs to be able to see the Silence.
    • The look on River's face just as she thinks she's going to have to kill the Doctor; she looks pained, heartbroken and desperate.
    • When the Doctor "died," he was told by River how much she loved him. When River "died," the Doctor didn't know who she was.
    • The Doctor's speech to River, before she "kills" him.

The Doctor: You are forgiven. Always and completely forgiven.

  • In the DVD short "Last Night" the Doctor encounters his future self with River, who mentions that he's taking her to the Singing Towers of Darrillium. The present Doctor is with a younger River at the time, who returns to the room after their future selves depart. She later jokingly mentions that the Doctor will be the death of her. His face after each encounter is what does it.
    • It's a smaller one, but in "Good Night," when Amy and the Doctor are discussing the effect time being rewritten has on memory, the Doctor mentions Rory spending two thousand years as a Roman. Amy replies that Rory says he barely remembers it.

The Doctor: Ah, but sometimes you catch him just staring.

  • From "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe," the Doctor's analysis of Madge's difficulties in having Christmas with her kids after her husband has been reported missing.

"What's the point in their being happy, when they're going to be sad later? And the answer is, of course, because they're going to be sad later."

    • The end, where after telling Madge that he has no family or friends to spend Christmas with... he surprises Amy and Rory on their doorstep. Even though they knew he wasn't dead, there's the fact that they always set a plate out for him at dinner in hopes he'll show up. The wonder on the Doctor's face when he realizes that, even if he's the last Time Lord, he still has so many loved ones out there, and perhaps none more so than these two companions. After blaming himself for ruining Amy's life, after letting them think he was dead because he thought they were better off without him, they still cared. And they always, always wanted him to return.
      • Hurts even more when you realize that, after Ten lost everyone he loved in increasingly brutal and horrible ways, Eleven seemed determined to distance himself to prevent having to feel that pain ever again. How ironic that the first person Eleven meets becomes his mother-in-law. Poor, lonely Eleven, running from friendship because he knows how it always ends, wound up with more family than he's had since he left Gallifrey in the first place.
    • His ferociously happy expressions earlier, when he's explaining himself to Madge, are seven kinds of heartbreaking.

"Never mind, watch my box do its thing, it's really cool. You'll love it."

Types of Moments

  • The regeneration scenes, if done well enough, are double-whammy combinations of tears of sadness (the death of a Doctor) and tears of joy (the birth of a new Doctor). The better examples are the First Doctor regenerating into the Second ("Ah, yes! Thank you. It's good. Keep warm"), the Fifth regenerating into the Sixth ("Feels different this time..."), and the Ninth regenerating into the Tenth ("You were fantastic, absolutely fantastic. And you know what? So was I!")
    • How is the Tenth's regeneration into Eleven not mentioned here? Easily the most tear-jerking one of the bunch thus far. ( "I don't want to go...!")
    • Eleven knowingly facing his own murder certainly qualifies. At least until you find out he was faking it.
  • Companion deaths.
  • A few non-violent companion exits also count. "The Green Death" and "Warriors' Gate" come to mind. Especially "Warriors' Gate". The fact that the Doctor spends the next two stories wandering around like a lost old widower does not help.
    • Just try watching Leela's departure, knowing the Time War is coming.
  • Hell, just the Fridge Horror of how young the Doctor really is is a real downer. First died of old age at 450, and Eleventh is about 1100 (give or take a few decades). That means that right now he's barely past the point where his second incarnation should be dying of old age. He's sacrificed millennia of his life for the sake of protecting the universe. To make things worse, he hasn't seen any of his family since his first incarnation.
    • Actually, his second, third and fifth incarnation saw her again in "The Five Doctors". But still, thats likely over half a millennia ago from the point of view of the Eleventh.
    • The Doctor often lies, and does so unfailingly on topics he's not sure of, like his own age; add to this Word of God has confirmed the Doctor is far older than he states. Still, the concept of the Doctor losing track of his age is a Tear Jerker in and of itself. Because of the life he chose he can't even have such a simple luxury as celebrating a birthday- all the time travel means he doesn't even know when it is, let alone the precise number. Not to mention anyone who would know is long dead.
  • A special award for breaking hearts has to go to composer Murray Gold. Just go listen to "Doomsday", or "This is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home". You'll understand.
    • Donna's flashback music that plays both in "Turn Left" and "Journey's End"
      • That's "The Rueful Fate of Donna Noble".
      • Vale Decem.
  • The very, very end of Voyage of the Damned. (It's an incredibly death-filled and tragic episode, with all of the deaths being heroic sacrifices. And just when you think your heart's been broken enough, a screen displays "In memory of Verity Lambert OBE, 1935-2007". Cue the waterworks. It happens again with The Waters of Mars, which is dedicated in the memory of Barry Letts. Damnit, producers, stop dedicating the really tragic episodes to people!
    • One name: Lis Sladen.
    • Considering how Sarah Jane is more or less The Quintessential Companion, you can't possibly imagine how badly the fandom needed series 6 to start and help ease the hurt. And then Moffat gave us an episode that kills the Doctor in the first ten minutes.
      • Although it would have been nice if they'd done an on-screen caption for Nicholas Courtney as well. It was rather upsetting that they didn't.
      • Instead The Wedding of River Song has the Doctor's telephone call during which he learns of the Brig's death.
  • It's always a Tear Jerker for Whovians when an actor who played the Doctor, one of his companions, or some other popular character on the show has died. The very first such death was Roger Delgado's, the original Master, who was killed in a car crash in 1973, cutting his time as the Master tragically short.
    • Other such deaths have included William Hartnell (1975), Ian Marter (1986), Patrick Troughton (1987), Jacqueline Hill (1993), Jon Pertwee (1996), Michael Craze (1998), and Anthony Ainley (2004).
    • 2011 was an exceptionally sad year, as we lost both Nicholas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen within two months of each other. Both had 2 of the longest periods of any actor as a regular on the show, both managed to transcend even these impressive runs, appearing again and again as these characters to the point where they were regarded as 2 of the most iconic characters in the series' entire history, both had acted together in these roles less than a year earlier on The Sarah Jane Adventures, and both died of cancer.
  • The music, especially from the time of the Eleventh Doctor. The tracks "Melody Pond", 36 Years" and "Forgiven" are of particular note.


Audio

  • Big Finish went Serial Escalation and gave Adric a second Heroic Sacrifice death in "The Boy That Time Forgot." The sacrifice itself is more of a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming (done in a flashback at the very end where Adric uses the last of his life energy to rescue the TARDIS and pass on the mantle of lonely-orphan-boy-companion to Thomas Brewster), but the scene before his death is absolutely heartwrenching. Nearly 30 years since his on-screen death, all the fan-hate, all the trauma he's been through, and we're left with the audio-spurred image of a dying old man in an armchair by a window, watching the Victorian London spring roll in, and singing mathematics to the insects in the walls. This isn't Alas, Poor Scrappy anymore, it's just..."alas poor..." *weeps*
    • Also, his last words in the audio echo the reverse of his last words in the show. Where "Earthshock" ends with the remorseful "Now I'll never know if I was right," Big Finish gives him the triumphant "I did it, Doctor! I managed to find it!"
  • The source material "Dalek" is based off, "Jubilee," has it's fair share of tear jerking scenes as well. Special mention must go to when Evelyn finds out what happens to the Doctor who saved the world back in 1903. He's been imprisoned in the Tower of London for 100 years, and had to bear witness to him losing his Evelyn, his legs, and his sanity. Honestly, his reminiscing about how if he closes his eyes, he can travel through time and space...*sob* .

Parallel!Sixth Doctor: I wish you were Evelyn, you know. Just so I could say sorry. For failing you. for letting you die.
Evelyn: It wasn't your fault! All this, it's not your faul-
Parallel!Sixth Doctor: Just so you could forgive me. I could bear my imprisonment if I knew that.
Evelyn: Doctor, I forgive you. Of course I do! You're my dearest friend! Still the best thing that's ever happened to me! The places you've taken me, the wonders you've shared...I know that whatever happened to me along the way, even death, it was worth it.
Parallel!Sixth Doctor: ...thank you my dear.

  • "The Glorious Revolution:" Long after getting his memories erased, Jamie is visited by a Time Lord who restores them temporarily in order to get information on a disturbance in time. Initially, Jamie is angry that the Time Lords would erase his memories without asking. At the end of the audio, the Time Lord offers to let Jamie keep his memories permanently. After some consideration, Jamie decides to forget the Doctor again, because remembering him and the adventures they had would make living a normal life too hard.
  • Anyone for "Death in Blackpool"? Lucie tells the Doctor she's staying on Earth and gives him back the parabolic diverter—by extention rejecting his offer to come back to her if ever she calls.

Lucie: You're the Doctor. You're brilliant. And it was great, I mean really bleedin' great. And ... Well ... that's how I want to remember it. That's how I want to remember you.
Doctor: So I'm just a memory now.
Lucie: Yeah. The best memory I've got.
The Doctor rises, walks to the TARDIS, and leaves without another word.

  • Charley's last adventure with the Eighth Doctor, "The Girl Who Never Was", ends on a similarly depressing note. The Doctor loses all memory of their "last lap of glory", not realising that Charley has been stranded on a desert island some-when and believing that she had simply stormed off after a botched attempt at a proper farewell. The bitterness in his voice after reading the note Charley had left for him earlier just says it all, really.

Hotel Receptionist: Sir? Are you alright? Doctor?
Doctor: I'm fine. Here, you can bin that.
Hotel Receptionist: Sir? Are you leaving? Sir?
Doctor: You work in a hotel. You should know. Everybody leaves.

  • The scene from "Spare Parts" with the description of a Christmas tree on Mondas. Yes, the Cybermen homeworld. It Makes Sense in Context, and it is sad.
    • And poor Cyber-Yvonne crying, in that machine voice... The whole thing really, when you get the sense that no, there's no hope for the people of Mondas.
  • The entirety of "Lucie Miller". The whole damn thing is one long case of Kick the Dog for everyone involved, but especially poor Lucie herself. she contracts a plague while on holiday with Alex in Thailand, that leaves her blind in one eye and dependent on leg braces to walk. Interwoven through the episode is a kind of Apocalyptic Log she's recording for the Doctor, and it's absolutely heartbreaking. Sheridan Smith deserves some kind of award for that one.
    • And then It Got Worse in "To the Death". Both she and Alex die, while the Doctor's helpless to save them and has to actually watch. Unsurprisingly, he hits some Heroic BSOD, and by the end of the audio is completely broken. Listening to him rewind and replay Lucie's log is just heartbreaking.
      • He doesn't just replay it. He mimicks having a conversation with her, pausing the recording each time she comments about what he might say in this hypothetical situation, and quoting the dialogue himself. It's a conversation about accepting Lucie back aboard the TARDIS as his companion.
      • The Monk himself may warrant a mention as well what with his monologue to Tamsin after the Daleks have killed her and everything is crashing around his ears. "You see, I was the one who brought the Dalek plague to Earth. Simple, really. I just materialised my TARDIS, popped the vial out through the door, closed the door, went forward three years and rematerialised when the plague had burnt itself out. When it had ... done its work. And you ... were none the wiser, my dear. You were none the wiser. I thought I could lie to you and forgive myself. I was wrong."
  • Going back an incarnation, the Seventh Doctor story "A Death in the Family" has its share of depressing bits, being the culmination of a plot arc that in and of itself was a tearjerker. Ace and Hex's individual reactions to the Doctor's death hit hard (even without their sudden separation across centuries and space). Ace's especially, as she spends huge amounts of time and money fighting to bring the Doctor back from the dead; once she finally realises it isn't possible, she has a complete, hysterical, sobbing breakdown and it isn't pretty. But the death of Evelyn at the end is a killer, as she essentially narrates it herself. "As the lights grew faint around her and the Word Lord paced the shrinking room in silence, Evelyn Rossiter sat quietly without fear, thinking about her friend the Doctor. Her Doctor, with his bright coat and bravado, and all their wonderful adventures together in time and space."


Comic

  • There was once an absolutely heartbreaking DWM strip with the Doctor landing on a planet with his grandchildren John and Gillian and discovering all creativity had faded. Following the traces, he finds a tyrant obsessed with being the single holder of the beings that provide the planet's inhabitants with imagination and creativity. Defeating him easily, he releases all of the tiny beings and leaves a hero having reformed the bad guy and returned happiness with no blood, no darkness, no evil. Then it's revealed that the entire story was a dream of the Eighth Doctor, who briefly laments that not all stories can end like that, and hoping for the day he'll be able to live in an Universe where such endings are possible.
    • And then you recall that he still has yet to go into the Time War...
  • "The World Shapers," written by Grant Morrison for DWM: The Sixth Doctor, Peri, and Frobisher need the assistance of the Doctor's former companion Jamie, so they travel back to Scotland to get him. Except the TARDIS overshoots their destination by forty years, and in the interim Jamie has become an old man and the village crank. The Doctor takes him on board the TARDIS anyway, and later on in the story Jamie sacrifices himself in order to stop the Cybermen from ever existing. And then we find out that Jamie's sacrifice was in vain, as some Time Lords show up and refuse to stop the Cybermen--you see, the Time Lords don't mind the Cybermen killing innocents over millions of years, since (unlike the Daleks) the Cybermen will apparently one day Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence. Given what we later find out about the Time Lords in "The End Of Time", you get both a Funny Aneurysm Moment and a Shoot the Shaggy Dog moment all rolled into one.


Books

  • There's a somewhat unexpected Tear Jerker at the end of the Doctor Who novel The Glamour Chase: Rory was talking about how unfair it was that Shell Shock sufferers of older times didn't get proper treatment or understanding, the Doctor spontaneously hugs him, telling him how important that compassion is... Then on the very next page he makes a throwaway comment about going to Rio and we realize what's going to happen to Rory next...
  • The book Slipback (based on the radio programme from the 80s) was divided into two parts. The first part did not feature the Doctor or his companion at all and told a bizarre story of a starship captain whose hypochondria was so severe that his body could actually physically create diseases. It ends with the captain manifesting the most deadly communicable disease in the universe. His long-suffering first-mate realizes that if he doesn't stop him, the captain will infect (and therefore kill) everybody on the planet they're heading towards, as well as anyone leaving that planet for somewhere else—resulting in, potentially, a galaxy-wide pandemic. To stop this from happening, the first-mate kills the captain and sets his body on fire, then, realizing that he's probably already infected himself, leaps into the fire as well. In describing the final moments of the first-mate's life, the final sentence says, "He died the way he had lived, in confusion and pain, not really understanding anything."
  • The novels have always been darker, but the writers for the Eighth Doctor Adventures simply seem bent on destroying their hero. The Eighth Doctor is thrown in prison, tortured, emotionally abused and Catch 22'd to levels that would drive most people insane, and the better novels note the fact that yes, there are sequels. By time of the first "Gallifrey" arc his fear of confinement has reached phobia levels.


Behind the scenes

  • Colin Baker's never-ending enthusiasm for the show, despite all he had to put up with. When he finally got to play the role of his dreams, most of his own suggestions for the role were trashed, most of the stories were badly written and considered to be overly violent, and the show was placed on hiatus for 18 months. When a new season was finally produced, Michael Grade (who happened to be shagging Colin's wife at the time), pinned the blame for the show's troubles on Colin, even though none of them were his fault, and had him sacked from the role. Even after all that, Colin remains enthusiastic about his time as the Doctor, still finds it in his heart to appear at conventions, and is said to be 'the nicest actor to play the Doctor'.
  1. ↑ fans are split on if he was telling the truth and was embarrassed, or if it was Susan's and he can't bear thinking about her too hard
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