When one’s a centuries-old entity who travels through space and time in a ship disguised as an antique phone box, your sense of embarrassment or shame often is thrown out the window. Few Doctors were as bombastic and ecstatic as David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor, though.
This roguish adventurer of a Doctor was known for his goofy grin and hunger for adventure and wonder. Although he was more human than many, his alien side often showed up in moments of silliness as well as horror. Here are the Tenth Doctor’s most shameless moments.
A Naked Meta Crisis
Technically this isn’t a moment from the official Tenth Doctor, but it is a clone of him who is still played by David Tennant. We’ll include it for that reason alone. For some reason, both this iteration and his following version had a tendency to be nude.
Grown from the severed hand of the Tenth Doctor, the Meta Crisis iteration fo the timelord was born of both timelord and human DNA. When he appeared though, as Donna astutely observes, he pops out completely nude without an ounce of shame.
Marrying Elizabeth I
Once again, these younger Doctors always lean to the romantic side. While the Eleventh Doctor was often a bit more oblivious to it, Ten was certainly more aware. Out of all of the iterations of the timelord, he might have been the one with the most romantic escapades.
One of his most shameless, however, was marrying none other than the Virgin Queen herself: Queen Elizabeth I. During the event of The Day of the Doctor, Ten married the Queen and ghosted her, only to run into her again in his past, during the events of The Shakespeare Code.
Confronting The Clockwork Androids
The Doctor is one to always be in control, manipulating situations to suit his own needs better. Rarely, if ever, do we see The Doctor let loose, let alone get drunk. In The Girl in the Fireplace, however, The Doctor went up against a dangerous band on androids after parting with the French Aristocracy.
After the band of clockwork droids captured Mickey and Rose, The Doctor enters the room off his rocker, wearing his signature blue and brown tie on his head, sunglasses, and rambling on about the benefits of bananas. Luckily, he overcomes the droids through sheer wit, but it is still an outrageous moment from this Doctor’s run.
TARDIS Beeper Lock
The Doctor is no stranger to pride. When he wants to show off for a companion, friend, or stranger, he is certainly not shy about it. This one interaction between himself and an Ood during the opening moments of The End of Time Part I embody this perfectly.
When he first arrives, the Ood has an important message to share with him, but the Doctor is too busy making small talk. He shows off the brand new car lock beeper he has installed on the TARDIS, thinking its the coolest thing in the world (when in reality he’s a stalling dork).
Don’t You Think She Looks Tired?
The following selections are all shameless for the worst reasons. For all of his lighthearted jokes and such, this iteration of the timelord had some of the darkest moments of shameless coldness imaginable.
After the events of The Christmas Invasion, Harriet Jones, Prime Minister, orders Torchwood to shoot down the Sycorax craft. As revenge, he utilizes the systematic sexism towards female politicians with six words: “Don’t you think she looks tired?” While what Jones did was beyond cruel and unnecessary, the Doctor matched it.
Timelord Victorious
Until multiple revisions, this era of Doctor Who was defined by the idea of fixed and unfixed points in time. Fixed moments stood as unmoveable points in time that can’t be altered, often centering around a remarkable tragedy.
Ten stood indifferent to these laws of time during The Waters of Mars, becoming the Timelord Victorious and interfering with the fates of this Mars base team. In doing so, he lost all shame and guilt of the Time War, replacing it with victory and revenge.
The Punishment of the Family of Blood
Another shameless and cruel moment from the Tenth Doctor was how he implemented punishment against the Family of Blood. After he regained his Timelord consciousness, The Doctor tortured and entrapped these villains in some of the worst ways possible.
This was a defining trait of this Doctor. Since the very beginning, he was an individual that never, ever gave second chances, punishing anyone who went back on their word or was beyond saving. But, it also left his own soul up for debate, as the punishments were often even crueler than the crimes.
I Don’t Want To Go
In the saddest moment of this entire Doctor’s tenure, Ten finally said goodbye. Righ before regenerating, as the music swelled to a crescendo, the camera zoomed into his face as he mutters the now infamous lines: “I don’t want to go.”
It was at this moment where he was his most vulnerable and shameless. All the tough exterior, he tried to keep up since the cause of his death had fallen away. In these final seconds, Ten couldn’t help but show his true colors.
I’m The Doctor
The Doctor is known for his triumphant speeches throughout the revival. In moments of despair or crises, he often swoops in for the answer. Although the situation and stakes had felt higher before, this moment from The Voyage of the Damned is one of the best.
When all seemed chaotic, and without leadership, Ten gave this rousing speech proclaiming his true identity and role, immediately winning over the crowds aboard the Titanic. It remains one of the quintessential moments from his whole run and one that shows him unabashedly owning who he is.
Sycorax Introduction
Perhaps no better sequence better personifies the Tenth Doctor’s tendency to be utter shameless than his official introduction in The Chrismas Invasion. From the moment he triumphantly enters all the way to when he scares them off with nothing but words, this entire sequence is the best.
When he is verbally sparring against the leader of the Sycorax, he is goofing around the whole time, then he shows his darker side when he kills the leader for betraying their truce. The entire finale embodies nearly every side of this Doctor.
