This post sponsored by I’m watching The Rings of Akhaten and Matt Smith’s big monologue always gets me: I saw the birth of the universe and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained. No time. No space. Just me.
Some of my other favourites are Nine’s ‘I can feel it, the turn of the Earth’ speech from Rose, and of course Seven’s ‘unlimited rice pudding!’ is iconic in Remembrance of the Daleks, but I also really love his ‘every great decision creates ripples’ pondering.
I kind of like the 11th Doctor’s speech to the Daleks in the bell tower in The Time of the Doctor.
Ending with “Love from Gallifrey boys!” and then blowing up an entire Dalek fleet was pretty cool.
Honestly I would love it if “Love from Gallifrey boys!” were his last word, the “I will always remember when the Doctor was me” speech at the end was fine but nowhere near as cool
Okay this might be more of a soliloquy than a speech, but it really is Hartnell at his A-game.
DOCTOR: My dear Steven, history sometimes gives us a terrible shock, and that is because we don’t quite fully understand. Why should we? After all, we’re all too small to realise its final pattern. Therefore don’t try and judge it from where you stand. I was right to do as I did. Yes, that I firmly believe.
(Steven leaves the Tardis without another word.)
DOCTOR: Even after all this time he cannot understand. I dare not change the course of history. Well, at least I taught him to take some precautions. He did remember to look at the scanner before he opened the doors. Now they’re all gone. All gone. None of them could understand. Not even my little Susan, or Vicki. And as for Barbara and Chatterton. Chesterton. They were all too impatient to get back to their own time. And now, Steven. Perhaps I should go home, back to my own planet. But I can’t. I can’t.
The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve, Episode 4: Bell of Doom
Beat me to it I love that one, and utilising the line flubs for characterisation, beautiful.
For another choice I love the 12th Doctor’s regneration speech. The bit about the children veers dangerously towards nonsense (though tbf the Doctor is a degree of nonsense) but giving a speech to his future self is lovely
Winning? Is that what you think it’s about? I’m not trying to win. I’m not doing this because I want to beat someone, or because I hate someone, or because, because I want to blame someone. It’s not because it’s fun and God knows it’s not because it’s easy. It’s not even because it works, because it hardly ever does. I do what I do, because it’s right! Because it’s decent! And above all, it’s kind. It’s just that. Just kind.
If I run away today, good people will die. If I stand and fight, some of them might live. Maybe not many, maybe not for long. Hey, you know, maybe there’s no point in any of this at all, but it’s the best I can do, so I’m going to do it. And I will stand here doing it till it kills me.
You’re going to die too, some day. How will that be? Have you thought about it? What would you die for? Who I am is where I stand. Where I stand, is where I fall. Stand with me. These people are terrified. Maybe we can help, a little. Why not, just at the end, just be kind?
DOCTOR: No. Colonel Manton, I want you to tell your men to run away. MANTON: You what? DOCTOR: Those words. Run away. I want you to be famous for those exact words. I want people to call you Colonel Run Away. I want children laughing outside your door, because they’ve found the house of Colonel Run Away. And, when people come to you, and ask if trying to get to me through the people I love is in any way a good idea, I want you to tell them your name. Oh, look, I’m angry. That’s new. I’m really not sure what’s going to happen now.
Oh the 10th Doctor claiming supreme moral authority when he has committed countless atrocities himself is not an aspect of the character I enjoy, but the thing is, Tennant acts his heart out and it is real difficult not to get an emotional response from it
Oh yeah no, it’s slighty undercut by the fact he very nearly killed all the sontarons last episode (and only didn’t because someone else did for him), but the emotion behind it, Tennant sells it so so well and makes you almost forget that
Gonna quote my own user here and say that Eccleston’s “I can feel it; the turn of the earth” is, I think, one of the main reasons Rose succeeds so much. He sells you EVERYTHING about the show in that two minute speech. The way they’re walking and talking until he stops and suddenly you realize the whole body of this show revolves around this person. “We’re falling through space, you and me.” It’s SO good.
Personally I’m partial to the “Basically, Run” speech in Eleventh Hour, the “War” speech in the Zygon two-parter and the Fifth Doctor’s “Well Prepared Meal” speech in Earthshock.
And how could I forget 11’s ‘we’re all just stories in the end’ speech from The Big Bang. I find that one to be so beautiful, it really sold me on Matt Smith and the Doctor
