The Best Doctor Who Speeches Ever Given in the Show

The Doctor may occasionally resort to blowing everything up to solve their problems, but when possible, they prefer to win the day without bloodshed, and that usually comes in the form of some grand speech. It simply wouldn’t be Doctor Who without our hero standing tall and making a grand statement with an overabundance of emotion.

Unsurprisingly, the show has seen plenty of great ones since the 2005 revival, and we’re going to talk about the ones we keep going back to rewatch over and over.

Emergency Program One – The Parting of the Ways

It’s often said that in drama, the thing that’s most likely to make the audience cry is a character holding back their emotions, rather than actually crying themselves. Here the Doctor sends Rose away to live a normal life because the alternative is sending her to death, and despite being a slightly cold recording of a message left long ago, you can feel the pain behind the Doctor’s decision as he tells her to leave the TARDIS to die.

Then of course it peaks when that facade drops away and the Doctor tells his companion, with a smile, to live a fantastic life. Simple and effective in bringing the tears.

“Sometimes, even I can’t win” – The Haunting of Villa Diodati

One of the biggest criticisms of Jodie’s time in the TARDIS is that her stories often lacked the drama and weightier moments that most other Doctors got to sink their teeth into. This is the one time Whittaker’s Doctor got a big moment like that and it’s proof that there should’ve been more of it because it’s brilliant.

With all of her companions telling her that she’s about to make the wrong decision, she stands her ground and you can see the frustration of the countless times the Doctor has had to make decisions like this in the past. She’s firm with them, but not mean, while still asserting herself as the only authority in the room who has any say on the matter. It’s easily Whittaker’s best acting moment in this role and we wish we could’ve seen more of it.

“Look me up” – Forest of the Dead

Sometimes it doesn’t take several paragraphs of words to make a speech epic. In just a few lines the Doctor looks like the biggest badass in the universe while threatening a creature that could devour him in an instant.

The sorrow over losing yet another of his party while in the Library is clear in his voice before switching into a position of power, leveraging the fact that he’s in a location featuring all the knowledge of the universe and tells his foe simply to “look me up”. It’s such a great moment that shows how the Doctor can still be a cool hero despite being largely against violence.

“Got a problem with that?” - Voyage of the Damned

There have been a fair few versions of the “I’m the Doctor and I’m great,” speech in the show’s history, but this is undoubtedly the most memorable. It’s a little bit narcissistic of the Doctor to list all of these random facts about himself, but it absolutely works, asserting himself as the leader of his band of survivors while looking cool doing it. Perhaps the only downside is that it was so good that the BBC put it in every trailer for the show for ages.

The Turn of the Earth – Rose

In the very first episode of the 2005 series, the showrunners had a difficult question to answer: how do you explain who the Doctor is to someone who’s never heard of the show before? Their answer was this speech, and what an answer it was.

In just a quick paragraph of dialogue, the Doctor’s intelligence, wit, and mystery are all conveyed perfectly, leaving enough hanging that we’re desperate to learn more. It gives us a glimpse of how enormous the Doctor’s universe is, using a simple feeling that most of us will have felt at some point when trying to comprehend our place in it.

A Story – The Rings of Akhaten

This is one of the more iconic speeches in the show’s history, and it’s a shame that it doesn’t come at the climax of a better episode. Matt Smith’s Doctor was one known for going on a bit, and this is one time that it came out perfectly, with the Doctor willingly talking about everything he’s gone through in his long life – something he doesn’t do very often.

The backing track of The Long Song helps those emotions bubble to the surface while you watch it, and the old wisened man behind the young eyes really shines through.

Change – The Time of the Doctor

A regeneration scene is one of the most important any incarnation of the Doctor has to go through, and a big memorable speech like this is a great way to go out.

Often these scenes work better when the Doctor still has a companion to bounce off (see also, Nine trying to keep Rose calm while he’s literally dying), and this speech comes off all the better for the fact that he’s talking to someone he cares about, rather than just waxing lyrical into the ether.

What is actually said about change gives the moment of regeneration the reverence it deserves while also bringing comfort to the audience about a necessary part of life. It sends off one of the most talkative versions of the Doctor in the best way possible.

“How many seconds in eternity?” – Heaven Sent

Heaven Sent is without a doubt one of the greatest episodes of anything ever to air on TV, and this time-looped interrogation of what it means to grieve is topped off with this simple yet beautiful story that makes you feel the weight of so much time passing.

We see only 45 minutes of the Doctor’s time trapped in the confession dial, but this story intercut with the many loops of the Doctor slowly punching through this diamond wall impresses upon you how monumental his task is.

It even tells us a lot about how the Doctor views the concept of time, and how he is able to weaponize it against his foes, as he gleefully finishes the story. “You must think that’s a hell of a long time. Personally, I think that’s a hell of a bird.”

“Where I Fall” – The Doctor Falls

It’s often been said that Peter Capaldi is perhaps the best actor to have ever played the Doctor, and whether you agree with that or not, moments like this can certainly convince you.

After this version of the Doctor spent so long struggling with their own morality, as well as that of the people closest to them, this speech in their final adventure – spoken to their greatest enemy – is the perfect encapsulation of who the Doctor is deep down. Moreso than that, it’s what motivates them to keep going through their seemingly eternal life, and what truly makes them a hero in our eyes.

That mantra of doing the right thing “without witness, without reward,” is at the heart of what makes this character one that fans have kept coming back to for 60 years.

“I. AM. TALKING!” – The Pandorica Opens

Sometimes it’s just great to make the Doctor look like a badass, and no moment does that better than this.

Faced with every creature that’s ever hated him floating in warships above his head, he makes one speech, one gambit, to save his life and buy himself more time, and it’s one of the most epic moments in the show’s history. Reminding all of these monsters of how many times he’s beaten them, as well as how many times they’ve fought each other, manipulating everyone around him to his benefit in a way that feels heroic instead of insidious.

What’s absolutely genius about it though, is how different it feels on a repeat viewing, knowing that actually this whole thing is a trap and the Doctor giving all his foes that speech is just confirming to them that their plan is working.

“I’m coming to get you” – Bad Wolf

Eccestone’s Ninth Doctor was always at his best when confronted with the Daleks. This is the version of the character who is fresh off the back of the Time War, after ending it by doing the worst thing he has ever or will ever do. Aside from the scars of war, simply looking at this army of Daleks and seeing that what he did to end the war was all for naught brings a fire to his eyes that makes for an intense scene like this.

The Daleks have calculated a perfect plan to kidnap Rose and keep the Doctor at bay, and yet despite all that the Doctor just stands up and says no. He slowly rises from despair into hate-fuelled triumph declaring he’s going to win, and when the Daleks point out his lack of plan he throws it back in their face. Yet his kind nature still shines through, and the last thing he does is reassure Rose that “I’m coming to get you,” in one of the show’s best cliffhangers ever.

War – The Zygon Inversion

Plenty of people – fictional and real – have given plenty of “war is bad” speeches throughout history, and it’s no surprise that Doctor Who gave one a go at some point. This episode pulls everything into the perfect place, as the Doctor stands between two people both ready to start a war at the press of a button, and forces our hero to convince them that they’re both wrong.

Capaldi once again pulls out an incredible performance as he decries, not necessarily the horrors of war itself, but the rationale of the people who start them, and most importantly does it in a way that only this character can. Yes, real wars are never this simple to solve, but speeches like this in a show like Doctor Who that constantly preaches the idea of “there’s always another way,” help us understand and communicate our feelings on these matters, and make us more able to stand up and say enough is enough.