Most of Matt Smith’s top 10 Doctor Who moments that we have covered were at least partially comical in nature. Our next choice, and in fact the next couple, are going to be more dramatic.
After having the years-long mystery of “The Doctor’s greatest secret that must never be revealed,” we discovered in the season 7 finale that the greatest secret wasn’t his name, or the question Doctor Who?; rather, it was a hidden incarnation who didn’t have the name of the Doctor.
It was really a double-whammy of an episode. We started out thinking that we were just going to get an explanation as to why Clara was “The Impossible Girl.” The reality was that we not only learned how the Doctor and Clara’s lives constantly intersected, but that Clara sacrificed her life for the Doctor. In turn, the Doctor finally gets to save the constantly dying Clara, but that wasn’t the end of the story.
As if the emotional height wasn’t high enough, in the final moments of the finale we were introduced to what is widely assumed to be a regeneration that occurred between the eighth and ninth Doctors. This regeneration, played by John Hurt, is likely the Time Lord responsible for the genocide and destruction of the Time War. Presumably, he did this under the name of The Oncoming Storm, The Destroyer of Worlds, or something along those lines of names that River Song rattled off in “A Good Man Goes to War.”
The last five minutes of the episode have Matt Smith running an emotional minefield ranging from desperation, to joy, to loathing.
The highlight of the episode is essentially the Doctor talking to himself. Matt Smith handles his end of the conversation with barely contained rage coupled with utter self-loathing.
The Doctor: My name, my real name, that is not the point. The name I chose is the Doctor. The name you choose, it’s like, it’s like a promise you make. He’s the one who broke the promise. {Clara collapses} Clara? Clara! He is my secret.
The Unnamed Time Lord: What I did, I did without choice.
The Doctor: I know.
The Unnamed Time Lord: In the name of peace and sanity.
The Doctor: But not in the name of the Doctor.
This ending dialogue has lead to countless speculation as to what is in store for the 50th anniversary, and the Christmas special before Matt Smith says his final good-bye.