Original artwork, not a still
Just this once, everybody lives!
— Doctor Who ‧ 2005
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
For a Doctor who has just come out of the Time War, this is the rare day when nobody has to die, and he almost cannot believe it. Christopher Eccleston plays it as pure joy, the dancing, grinning side of a man who normally loses. The line became shorthand for the series' hope, and later Doctors and fans keep reaching for it when a story ends happily.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Doctor WhoShow the scene
In "The Doctor Dances" (BBC One, 28 May 2005, written by Steven Moffat), the concluding half of the Blitz two-parter, London in 1941 is being overrun by gas-masked people who all ask for their mummy. The Ninth Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack Harkness find the cause: a crashed ambulance ship whose medical nanogenes were activated to repair a dead child and went wrong, copying the damage to everyone they touched. Once the Doctor realises the child's real mother, Nancy, is the key, the nanogenes are reprogrammed. He flings them at the crowd and celebrates, and the victims are all healed, a missing leg growing back.
Sources (1)
- Tardis Data Core: The Doctor Dances (TV story)Infobox and PlotReference checked
Context reviewed
