12 times Doctor Who restored our faith in humanity

Sometimes, that works to lay bare the horrors of our world. But sometimes - just sometimes - it shows us just how brilliant simple acts of humanity can be.

So, as the world gets increasingly more terrifying at every turn, let's look back at a few times when Doctor Who made the world seem just that much better.

1. Rose holding her dad's hand

Father's Day is perhaps the most human episode of Doctor Who of all time. When faced with the possibility of going anywhere in time and space, how many of us would simply ask to see someone we've lost one more time?

The episode sees Billie Piper's Rose Tyler desperately trying to save her father Pete (Shaun Dingwall) from his inevitable death after a car accident, all but breaking time and space in the meantime. The end of the episode sees Pete realise he has to sacrifice himself and that his fate can't be averted.

However, Rose is able to change one small thing, dashing into the road to hold her dad's hand, ensuring he's not alone at the very end. Previously reflecting on that moment to RadioTimes.com, director Joe Ahearne said in 2021: "It was a much more emotional story than I think Doctor Who had been known for up to that point."

Indeed, just eight episodes into the modern era of Doctor Who, Father's Day gave us the perfect moment of humanity, paving the way for the episodes that would come.

2. That Vincent van Gogh scene

There's a reason the Vincent van Gogh scene is the most rewatched scene of all-time on the Doctor Who YouTube channel, racking up 30 million views - it's absolutely wonderful.

Written by Richard Curtis and performed by guest star Tony Curran, the scene at the end of Vincent and the Doctor follows the artist to an exhibit of his life's work at the Musée d'Orsay. Becoming emotionally overwhelmed, he hears an art curator (played by Bill Nighy) describe him as "the greatest painter of them all".

Last year, Curran looked back on the episode with RadioTimes.com, saying: "[The episode] was art, how can art affect people? Hopefully in a good way. It was the first time, actually, after that episode came out 10 years ago or whatever it was, there was a [phone] number for people living with depression or mental health issues.

"I guess, as an actor, as an artist, to entertain people, to inform people is great. But maybe, and hopefully at times, to help people is a great feeling.

"I had some people come up to me and say they were in a really dark place and that they'd thought about making some very dark decisions and they watched that episode, it made them cry and it made them contact people who [said], 'It's OK to not be OK,' as it were."

3. Anita in Joy to the World

Some of the best moments in Doctor Who come from the characters you would least expect. In the midst of the Doctor's (Ncuti Gatwa) mission in Joy to the World came a brilliant sequence involving Steph de Whalley's seemingly unremarkable hotel staffer Anita Benn.

In order to reach a certain moment in time, the Doctor has to while away an entire year, "the long way round" at the Sandringham Hotel, with Anita. And it's absolutely wonderful.

The pair live side by side for a year, making a home of the hotel and creating little traditions and rituals that only daily life can allow for. It's the most human we've seen the Doctor for a long time, and a gloriously unexpected sequence.

In fact, writer Steven Moffat previously revealed to RadioTimes.com that Anita was the result of a budget cut "because we couldn't afford to send Ncuti Gatwa around the world trying to find another hotel".

He added: "So we just turned it into a little... not exactly romance, but a sort of quasi-romance with Anita. So Anita is a budget cut, but that means in Doctor Who terms, that means Anita is one of the best things that happened." We would agree!

4. "Just this once, everybody lives!"

Yes, technically we're sort of breaking the rules here with this being the act of a Time Lord. But years of interacting with and learning from humans surely entitles the Doctor to a few very human acts.

In the midst of The Doctor Dances, the terrifying conclusion to a two-parter set in World War II, the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) decided he had seen enough death, allowing young Jamie to reunite with his mother, with the nanogenes being able to restore his DNA - saving everyone in the process.

After all the loss he's seen, it's a beautifully human moment for the Ninth Doctor: "Just this once, everybody lives!"

5. Demons of the Punjab's love story

Is there anything more human than love? Demons of the Punjab brought the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and Yaz (Mandip Gill) to northern Punjab in August 1947, seeing them get caught up in the events preceding the partition of India.

But the thread that runs through the episode is the love between Umbreen and Prem, culminating in a heartwarming wedding scene and a brilliant speech from the Doctor about love.

"You both found love with each other," the Doctor tells them. "You believed in it, you fought for it, and you waited for it."

6. The Last Centurion

Speaking of love stories... if there was ever a way to give Arthur Darvill's Rory Williams his time to shine, this was it.

After starting out as a bit of a third wheel in the TARDIS, Rory proved his love with the biggest of grand gestures - when he spent thousands of years in the guise of an Auton Roman Centurion to protect Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), leading to potentially his most badass line of the entire series: "Where. Is. My. Wife?!"

While fans might not have been convinced of Amy and Rory's love story at first, it turned into a love story for the ages, culminating in a bittersweet ending that Darvill described to RadioTimes.com as "perfect".

He told us: "I just look back on it with such fondness, and I think his arc of having to step up and being a Roman soldier and wait for 2000 years, it's such a great thing as an actor to be able to do. I'll obviously never get the chance to do anything like that ever again. I wouldn't change a thing."

Us neither.

7. Sarah Jane Smith and the Doctor's reunion

Every single Doctor and companion reunion has been absolutely brilliant - but Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) seeing the Doctor (David Tennant) again for the first time in years might just take the cake.

After all, Sarah Jane exemplifies exactly what we hope for from every Doctor Who companion - that they take all the lessons they've learnt during their travels with the Doctor forward into their life.

In the space of a few minutes in season 2's School Reunion, it's clear that Sarah Jane has done all of that and more. Plus, fans can see the genuine joy on Tennant's face as he works with an actress he clearly has admired since childhood.

8. The Doctor visits Amy and Rory for Christmas

The Doctor doesn't do house calls! Except he did that one time - because Christmas calls for a reunion.

Specifically, The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe called for a Pond family Christmas, with the Doctor finding somewhere else he could belong other than the TARDIS and a family who set the table for him every Christmas.

It's a joyful moment between Gillan and Smith, who, despite portraying one of the incarnations of the Doctor that seems the most alien, gives an intensely human performance. Merry Christmas, everyone!

9. The New Earth hospital is cured

Season 2's opening episode, New Earth, sees the Doctor officially live up to his name as he cures the patients kept prisoner by the Sisters of Plentitude.

In doing so, the Doctor and Cassandra manage to create a whole new form of human, with the Doctor declaring: "The human race just keeps on going, keeps on changing. Life will out!"

Oh yes, hope will always win out against adversity.

10. Donna convinces the Doctor to save Caecilius and his family

One of the most devastating decisions the Doctor has had to make came in The Fires of Pompeii, as he realises the volcano eruption that killed 20,000 people was a fixed point in time and could not be stopped.

Enter Donna Noble (Catherine Tate). While she has to accept that she can't stop the majority of people dying, she begs the Doctor to go back for just one person, leading him to rescue Caecilius (Peter Capaldi) and his family.

It's a devastating end to the episode, as Caecilius watches the eruption from a distance - but proof of why the Doctor always needs their human companion.

11. Yvonne Hartman retains her humanity

Just when you thought Yvonne Hartman couldn't redeem herself, she saves the day.

Amid the brutal events of Doomsday, the former head of Torchwood is converted into a Cyberman, with Jackie Tyler (Camille Coduri) narrowly avoiding the same fate.

But later, despite the conversion, it becomes clear that she's managed to hold onto a semblance of her humanity. She tells her fellow Cybermen, "You shall not pass," before destroying them and repeatedly saying, "I did my duty for Queen and country," with a tear rolling down her metal armour.

12. Martha and Planet Earth save the Doctor

Perhaps the best ever example of humanity coming together was in the season 3 finale, which reveals that Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) has been travelling the world to spread hope and, crucially, word about the Doctor and everything he's done.

By thinking of the Doctor at the same time, humanity is then able to interrupt the Master's psychic stream to free the Doctor from his imprisonment.

Take a bow, Martha Jones!

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