Doctor Who: 27 Times the Humans Saved the Day (and Sometimes Lost Their Lives)
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Even all-powerful Time Lords need backup sometimes. On Doctor Who, the Time Lord Victorious that calls himself the Doctor has made a habit of picking up humans that are ordinary.
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He shows them the universe and all the good, bad, and ugly things it can hold. All the while, he tries to protect them as best as he can.
The relationship has its benefits. Sometimes, the Doctor's human companions save him and the world. They pick up on things he doesn't, refuse to let him die, and sometimes make the hard choices for him.
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As enlightening as it can be to travel with the Doctor, it's always dangerous, and sometimes the humans he encounters lose their lives aiding in his quest.
Here are 27 times the humans on Team Tardis saved the day.
1. Rory Williams Creates a Paradox
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While he was running he realized the only way out was to die, again. Standing on the top of the building he asked Amy to push him off sure that he'll come back to life. (He'd done it before.)
She couldn't do it, so she got up on the ledge with him, and they jumped together.
2. River Song Dies in the Library
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When the audience first meets her on Doctor Who Season 4 Episode 8, "Silence in the Library," we learn that she has a whole future with the Doctor and she's not going to give that up.
So she takes the Doctor's place and saves him. But that's not the end of the story. Since the Doctor knows that this is going to happen he figures he found a way to save her life, which he did...with his sonic screwdriver. River Song's mind now lives in a computer filled with every book ever written.
3. Clara Breaks Up "The Hyrbid"
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Clara's pulse should have started again when they left Gallifrey, but it hasn't. That means that time isn't healing and her death is a fixed point that the universe counts on happening. The entire scenario is further complicated by the realization that Clara and the Doctor, together, make up the creature known as The Hybrid. And together, they threaten all of time and space. Using the sonic glasses Clara reverses the polarity on a neural blocker, which will cause one of them to lose their memory of the other.
Ultimately, the Doctor forgets Clara, but using the stolen Tardis she's able to bring him to Nevada, return his Tardis to him, and say goodbye in the guise of a diner waitress.
4. Martha Jones Saves the World with a Story
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Martha escaped but said that she would be back. During that time, she traveled the world telling people the story of The Doctor. Her long game culminated when she was recaptured by The Master exactly a year later, and the people she told the story to all thought the same word at the same time breaking a neural link.
That word was "Doctor."
5. Danny Pink Leads an Army of Cybermen
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Danny Pink, Clara's boyfriend who died in a car crash an episode earlier, didn't delete his emotions which left him outside of the hive mind of cybermen.
When the Doctor passed him a bracelet Missy intended as a cyber-controller, he was able to lead the army of Cybermen into the clouds where they burned. A bittersweet end to Danny Pink.
6. Oswin Helps The Doctor Escape the Asylum
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7. Rose Looks Into the Heart of the Tardis
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8. Astrid Takes Down Max Capricorn
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But Astrid Peth, a waitress on the cruise liner, was able to use a forklift to push the entire casing into the storm drive. The problem was, it took the forklift she was driving along with it and she fell in too.
This action allowed the Doctor to save the Titanic, but Astrid and other passengers paid a pretty high price.
9. Jackie Gives the Doctor Some Tea
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10. Amy Saves a Star Whale
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11. Mickey Fires a Missile at the Slitheen
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Not bad for a character who would later think of himself as "the tin dog."
12. Pete Tyler Stops the Paradox
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But not even the father of a time traveler can outrun death. The car that was supposed to hit Pete kept appearing, seemingly out of nowhere, and circling the church. Pete realized that he had to die, and after an emotional goodbye to Jackie and the grown-up Rose who saved him, he left the church and stepped in front of the car causing the paradox eaters to vanish.
13. Clara Saves Akhaten
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She presents the god with "the most important leaf in human history." The leaf that blew into her dad's face, causing him to meet her mom, and which he used when he proposed. She presents it as not just the past but an entire future that never got lived. The idea of an infinite number of days and memories is enough to sate the god and save Akhaten.
14. Sarah Jane Talks The Doctor Down
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It turns out the school is run by Krillitanes, who are in disguise as teachers and using the school to crack a theory of everything that would allow them to control space and time. The Krillitanes offer to share the information with the Doctor, and he appears to consider it. That is until Sarah Jane intervenes.
With a few simple words she's able to sway the Doctor away from siding with the Krillitanes and the team starts to fight against them.
15. Donna Noble Turns Left
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Rose was able to travel from another parallel world and convince this version of Donna that she could save the Doctor just by turning her car in a different direction. The alternate universe Donna gets sent back in time to that day and runs to save herself, eventually throwing herself in front of a car when she realizes she won't reach her past self in time.
The world gets reset and we're able to pick up with The Doctor and Donna where we left them having a nice outing. (At least, for the moment.)
16. Bill's Memory Stops the Monks
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Bill Potts isn't willing to let him take that risk and does it herself. (Partly because she's responsible for this mess in the first place.) The monks still had one more card to play though and started attempting to hijack Bill's memories, rewriting them as they're broadcasted.
The happy accident came in the form of Bill's mom, a memory Bill created based on photos the Doctor gave her during Doctor Who Season 10 Episode 1, "The Pilot." The pure, uncorrupted image was enough to break the lie and force the Monks to retreat.
17. Nancy Claims Jamie As Her Son
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The problem, the child was wearing a gas mask and the nanogenes thought that was normal. Using him as a blueprint they continued to go around Britain "fixing" people the same way. Eventually, the Doctor convinced Nancy to come clean with the truth, that she was Jaime's mother, the nanogenes were able to recognize the parent DNA and fix Jaime.
With the help of a software patch from the Doctor, the others are able to be fixed as well. In short, everybody lives.
18. The Hostess Throws Sky Out the Airlock
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19. Mickey Causes a Cyberman Meltdown
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20. Melody Pond Ressurects the Doctor
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Since River was conceived in the time vortex she's a human with some Time Lord DNA and has the ability to regenerate. After finding out about the future she apparently has with the Doctor she conjures up the rest of her regeneration energy to bring him back to life.
It's later revealed that this cost River all her future regenerations. Which explains how she died in the library in Season 4.
21. Donna Stops the Wasp
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When the Doctor and Donna caught up with her, Donna was able to grab the firestone and throw it into the lake. Without realizing it, they had become a part of the mystery of Agatha Christie's disappearance. In the morning her car would be found on the side of the lake and a few days later, thanks to a time machine, Agatha would turn up at a hotel in Harrogate.
22. Sally and Larry Save the Tardis
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23. Pete Saves Rose from The Void
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Facing both the Cybermen and the Daleks the Doctor and Rose had to close a breach between worlds. In order to get rid of the aliens though, they had to open the crack wider at first, putting them in danger because they were covered in "void stuff" from traveling to parallel worlds.
While attempting to help the Doctor, Rose almost fell into the void, but her dad from another universe was able to intervene quickly and catch her and transport her to the parallel world right before the breach closed. This separated the Doctor and Rose forever, but also gave us that reunion on Doctor Who Season 4 Episode 13, "Journey's End."
24. Amy Remembers the Doctor
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When time got rebooted Amy found herself waking up on the morning of her wedding to Rory Williams, but she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something missing. That something was her imaginary friend.
To everyone's astonishment, she interrupts the toasts she shouted at the sky, "Raggedy man, I remember you, and you are late for my wedding!" After which, the Tardis and the Doctor appeared in the middle of the dance floor, and all of her guests (Rory included) amazed that they could forget The Doctor.
25. Clara Enters the Doctor's Timestream
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Clara has a way to save them all, and that's to repair the timeline by stepping through the timestream. Doing so means that the time winds would tear her apart so there would be hundreds of versions of her throughout history. Ensuring that she's in Victorian London and the Dalek asylum to save him.
26. River Changes a Fixed Point
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Fixed points aren't to be messed with, so of course, the result was for the timeline to go all wonky and happen all at once. While time said the Doctor had to die on the beach, it didn't say he had to stay dead. The borrowed time gave the Doctor the chance to borrow the Tesselector and cheat death.
27. The Companions Tow Earth Home
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