10 Doctor Who Endings That Get Worse The More You Think About Them

As a floppy-haired old man once said, I hate endings

And maybe he was talking about these ones. I'm Ellie for Who Culture, and these are 10 Doctor Who endings that get worse the more you think about them

Number 10. The Devil's Chord After we see the Doctor do musical battle with Maestro and silence the god of music

we're then treated, if that's the right word, to a big song and dance number featuring the cast of the episode

It's a nice idea and all, and the production itself is slick, But why? It's not like we had any other musical numbers throughout this episode

nor in Doctor Who itself. There's zero setup for it, and it just sort of happens

As a result, this all-singing, all-dancing burst of song feels very, very jarring

and very, very weird. An explanation for why this happened can be found in a cut line of dialogue

in which the Doctor explains to Ruby that, quote, music is flooding back in and everything's going

to be strange for ten minutes. And while that solves that part of the problem

the bigger problem remains that this was an incredibly divisive ending, and even those that did like it still thought it was a bit bizarre

In hindsight, we now know that, like all the fourth wall breaks, this was one of many random moments in RTD2 that would go unexplained

And looking back, we can probably now quite rightly say that this was only thrown in there for the content

rather than it being right for the story. Number nine, It Takes You Away

It Takes You Away is a classic example of a rough ending

overshadowing what is otherwise a pretty great episode of Doctor Who. During the story, we see the Doctor and her fam find their way into an alternate universe

where it appears that people's loved ones have returned from the grave. This presents Graham with a dilemma

Stay in this world where he can live with grace despite knowing it's not real, or return to reality

It's extremely effective and beautifully portrayed, with this idyllic reality containing a constant undercurrent of menace throughout

not to mention the literal undercurrent of menace in the form of the anti-zone

giving us some of the best character work of the 13th Doctor's era. The episode then takes a sharp turn off a cliff

and becomes even more surreal and a lot more nonsensical when the Doctor has a conversation with a frog sat on a chair

It feels more Monty Python sketch than Doctor Who and was widely mocked upon the episode's broadcast in 2018

It's such a shame because this scene now dominates the episode's reputation

rather than the pretty great episode leading up to it. You can see what they were going for but it just didn't work

with the decision to give the frog Grace's voice equally as strange as the decision to have a talking frog in the first place

Would it have looked better as a CGI creature? Well, I can't possibly say

But what I can say is that It Takes You Away will always be remembered as the one with the talking frog

Number 8. Last of the Time Lords Series finales can be tricky to nail

You've got to wrap up your arcs, have the heroes find a way to defeat the big villain

deliver a solid individual episode, and maybe even set up the next series

all in a tight 45-minute episode. Easier said than done. Last of the Time Lords actually almost does stick the landing

Having the Doctor's plan be to defeat the Master with words and hope, rather than a super-duper special magic gun

is actually brilliant. And even more, it's Martha who executes this plan

giving her more agency than many other companions and showing why she has always deserved to travel with the Doctor So far so good But all this goodwill quickly falls apart when you see David Tennant turn from a wrinkly little CGI goblin to a floating blue wizard that has since affectionately been

dubbed by fans Space Jesus. That big ol' reset button is then hit, effectively undoing all the

drama and consequences seen in the previous two episodes. What was the point in any of it? It all

feels very convenient and just an easy way to re-establish the status quo, which is a criticism

that can be leveled at most Russell T. Davis finales, to be fair. But this one is more egregious

than most. And hilariously, nobody ever addresses the fact that the entire world still saw the

president assassinated on live TV. So I guess none of it mattered in the first place

7. Kill the Moon Any companion who travels with the Doctor should be able to prove they can stand without them

and they're not just along for the ride. But it can be a fine line to toe

This works best in a scenario where the Doctor is unable to help and the companion has to rise to the occasion to save the day

much like Last of the Time Lords. It's somewhat less effective when the Doctor just abandons his best friend

because he doesn't really feel like helping out this time. While this does lead to the fantastic scene

where Clara gives Twelve a good dressing down about the trauma he put her through

you can't help but feel it destroys a bit of our faith in the Doctor along with Clara's

He's meant to be our hero that will always have our back, but now we can't help but look at him and wonder if it's all just a big game to him

But that's not the worst bit, and honestly it's not even that bad compared to what comes next

When the Doctor casually mentions, The moon is an egg. What? What

What? So every time we've seen the moon before this, it was an egg

When we see the werewolf transformation in Tooth and Claw, that was the doing of an egg

In Smith and Jones, all those people who got transported to the moon were in fact having a breakdown on the shell of a giant egg

and the entire climax of Day of the Moon centres around Neil Armstrong walking on a great big egg

It's strange and weird and every other synonym you can think of, stretching Doctor Who's pseudoscience to its breaking point

and making you not even want to think about the rest of the episode, let alone re-watch it

6. Revolution of the Daleks The Dalek's stories were a high point of 13's era

showing us new versions of the show's oldest and most classic monster, and once again proving why they take the top spot of Arch Nemesis

The problems with Revolution of the Daleks come when the writers suddenly realise they only had 10 minutes of screen time left

and still had to say bye-byes to Captain Jack, Ryan and Graham

After an exciting return for Jack in Fugitive of the Jadoon and a fun prison break sequence at the start of this episode

it was nice to see him and the Doctor share a nice heartfelt goodbye

as these long-time friends part ways again. Oh, wait. Sorry, no, no, no

What we actually got was a rushed voiceover of Jack having already left off screen

as he calls the Doctor to let her know what he's up to next. Alrighty then

But while Ryan and Graham do actually get an emotional exit from the TARDIS

it's then somewhat sullied by an unfathomably clunky final scene where Ryan's all but forgotten dyspraxia

which was introduced all the way back in his first episode as a huge storyline for him

returns in a half-hearted attempt to bring things full circle before he falls off his bike and a laughable hologram of grace appears before their eyes

Ah well at least she wasn a frog this time What weird about this ending is that it was very nearly the end of the 13th Doctor era as a whole with the COVID pandemic almost preventing Series 13 from going ahead Viewed through that lens it becomes even more distressing and funny

that potentially the last thing we saw from Doctor Who for quite some time was this

Number 5. Closing Time It says a lot about how well the Cybermen were used in the 11th Doctor's era

but their greatest appearance was as an arm on the floor. Outside of turning them into super speedy Iron Man knockoffs

their biggest indignity came during the climax of Closing Time, where they were defeated by the immense power of a baby crying

And no, we're not talking about James Corden. Who knew that all it took to overcome cyber conversion was hearing your kid upset

This terrifying process that strips you of all feeling and emotion, turning you into a cold killing machine trapped in a metal body

can all be avoided if you simply just don't really feel like it

Reducing one of the Doctor's oldest and most iconic enemies to this, getting beaten by the power of love

was incredibly cheap and just really damn frustrating. Thematically, it makes sense as a moment where Craig overcomes his fears

of not being a good enough dad and rises to the occasion. But this is a perfect example of why story logic should always trump emotional logic

Because all you've done is damage the Cybermen, and nobody really likes this episode anyway

And don't even get me started on Eleven screaming, Daddy's coming home. Just, just, let's not go there

Number four, Orphan 55. What's worse than a fantastic episode that falls at the last hurdle

I'll tell you what. An episode that is hard to watch the entire way through and then manages to

squeeze in one last kick in the teeth before the credits roll. Doctor Who is at its best when the

Doctor delivers a powerful speech that sticks with us for years to come. But you can't just

have any old speech and automatically generate an all-timer moment. The Doctor's final speech in

Orphan 55 is a perfect example of this, as while it might have sounded all right on paper and

and there's nothing inherently wrong with the core sentiment, in execution it comes across as patronising and way too on the nose

At the time, this was a big criticism of the Chibnall era as a whole

and this was one of the worst examples, like you were being hit with a sledgehammer rather than being told an organic story

Over the years, it hasn't exactly aged well either, and the clip itself has been downvoted into oblivion on YouTube

It wasn't helped by the terrible episode surrounding it, to be fair, nor the bizarre laughable thumb-sucking finale that preceded it

And then, just for a final bit of missing the mark entirely, the cut to a roaring dreg as the Doctor mentions what humans could become

gives us one last eye roll to go out on. Lovely. Number 3, Lover Monsters

Sometimes, an ending is just a bit of a disappointment after an otherwise solid episode

and we all collectively move on with our coffee-drinking, AI-slop-tolerating lives. Other times, an ending is so bad

that it completely outshines the whole episode and makes everyone forget about every single other redeeming factor

instead acting as if the entire episode was the worst thing they've ever seen

and an insult to Doctor Who and television itself. Which, to be fair, this one kind of is

That said, I challenge any of you to actually re-watch Love and Monsters

and still tell me that the whole episode is terrible. There's actually a lot to like about this episode

from Linda coming together in their admiration of the Doctor a true love letter to fandom and community to the wider exploration of what happens to the people the Doctor leaves behind The problems really do overshadow all the nice moments here though

when we devolve into a chubby green alien running down the street with no clothes on

I mean, there's a reason Peter Kay cites this episode as one of his career low points

The cherry on top of the letdown Sunday is a truly cringey joke

about Elton's relationship with a paving slab. Nothing more really needs to be said here, though, does it

You all knew this one would be on the list, so here it is, in all of its buttock-faced glory

Number 2. The Reality War They say that time heals all wounds, but there hasn't been nearly enough time to take the sting off of this one

It's always sad when we have to say goodbye to a Doctor actor. As the beating hearts of the show, they define their eras

and there's always that level of uncertainty about who will take their place

But it's also usually a bittersweet goodbye, as they have completed their arcs

and walk off into that yellow, glowy sunset with a big heartfelt farewell

Except for this one, which was a last-minute rush job after Shuti Gatwa decided to leave the role

after production of the episode had already been completed. Nobody's really to blame here because it was a difficult situation

and everybody did what they thought was best. But that doesn't stop it being frustrating

Just as it felt like Gatwa was really coming into his own as the 15th Doctor

he was gone. Plus, with Season 2 improving on Season 1, there was also reason to hope that season three would be even better

So to have that snatched away leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. This is less about the actual content of the ending itself

and more about what could have been. The more you think about it, the path to season three and a natural exit for the 15th Doctor

would certainly have been preferable to a curtailed era and an 18-month wait for the next episode

And number one, Flesh and Stone. The ending of Flesh and Stone puts a bum note

on a story that is otherwise near perfect. It's not that the final few minutes are absolutely atrocious

it's that they're much worse than everything that came before, and as a result, they're mainly what the story is remembered for

We just spent two episodes enjoying the return of both the Weeping Angels

and, River Song, the best character, and getting some deliciously wibbly-wobbly development of the Cracks in Time arc

but things quickly begin to unravel with the unusual decision to show the Weeping Angels moving

It's difficult to imagine that the man who created the Angels as such a terrifying and mysterious force

would actually write a scene that nullifies them so much. But, well, there it is

We then move to Amy's bedroom for a nice quiet scene to end the episode

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait. She tries to cop off with the doctor

the night before her wedding? What's worse is that the scene doesn't even end

with Amy coming to her senses after a confused moment of weakness, which might have redeemed it somewhat

Seriously, Moffat, your innuendos are bad enough. You don't need to jump the shark like this

Moffat has admitted that he doesn't like this scene, and I've never met anyone that actually does

which tells you all you need to know. It's quite uncomfortable to watch in hindsight

especially knowing the full trajectory of the Amy and Rory arc. You know what

River clearly had the right idea by exiting the episode just before the end

And that concludes our list. If you think we missed a perfect example

then do let us know in the comments down below. In the meantime, I've been Ellie for Who Culture

and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties