Possibly it was late and they were tired and…oh wait, I think I may be projecting…
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Some great answers so far. There are just so many in DW. I note that a lot of these answers are (quite rightly) about reveals of characters or identities. These are obviously important, but I also love those (a bit like the one mentioned above by @Mindfog in Enlightenment) where the twist is the reveal that the rules of the story are very different to those that we initially thought. One of my favourites in this regard would have to be The Stones of Blood. From the moment we are transported to the hyperspace ship, everything changes (no, not in a Torchwood way!) and the story takes a wonderfully creative lurch into weird territory. I simple adore moments like this!
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I’ve really struggled to think of any Doctor Who twists. The classic series never managed it mainly due to me already knowing most of the ‘twists’ before I watched the story. I’m trying to think if there were any from Season 26 which was the first one I saw ‘live’.
I’m not sure the modern series has done it either apart from the few that have been mentioned - all 13, John Hurt, Sutekh but none of them made my jaw drop in the same way twists outside of Doctor Who often do (like the twist in Episode 4 of Nightsleeper which had me jumping off the sofa; or the villain reveal in Wreck-it-Ralph). Audio does manage it - Phantasmagoria Episode 3 and Dust Breeding Episode 2, for example - but overall my twists and turns quota rarely comes from Doctor Who.
And also, I don’t think I count something like the Doctors appearing in Power as a ‘twist’. A surprise, for sure, but a twist, to me, is where the plot throws in a new element or takes a sharp turn that completely changes how you view the story.
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I LOVE those moments, but also agree with you in a sense. There are twists in audience expectations (which kind of covers these moments) and then there are twists that change the rules of the story radically (as with Enlightenment or The Stones of Blood).
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There are some lines in the Big Finish story The Union that reference the numbering getting problematic later on in the Doctor’s life.
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Just thought of a pretty major plot reveal that I think would qualify as a twist. How about the end of The Pandorica Opens? All the Doctor’s grandstanding has been for nothing. It’s all been a trap (but not the trap he thought it was). Rory is an auton. Amy is killed… by RORY (or so it appears)! And then, next episode, everything changes. Instead of the ancient grandeur of Stonehenge and the ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ aesthetic of the Underhenge, we’re into a massive story told primarily in one small location (a museum) that is utterly different to the previous episode’s setting.
This has always been one of my favourite finale stories.
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You tease, because you know how much I love these two!
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Skip the next time trailer at the end of Eaters of Light then.
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Oh, I skip every next time trailer.
A surprising number of them have spoilers for the next episode (looking at you Boom Town)
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Ah, sure, in your personal experience (mine too, I guess). I would think that the end of The Tenth Planet, when the Doctor turned into an entirely different actor, was quite the twist at the time. (I don’t know how much it had been advertised ahead of the event, but no matter how much it may have been, I’m sure some of the kiddies did not know it was coming.)
I can only imagine how it would be if I got to see that happen without knowing it was coming.
These days, it’s so freaking hard to keep any information quiet ahead of airing, it’s gotta be near impossible to keep any real whoppers from being known before they happen. Which is a real shame.
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This reminds me of the shock I felt when I saw Eccleston regenerate into Tennant at the end of Parting of the Ways. This was back in 2005/2006 when Doctor Who was first on in Finland and I had never heard of the show and didn’t know the basics at the time - so it was a big twist moment for me even if it wasn’t for the vast majority of British viewers at the time.
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Along similar lines, the end of War Games with the introduction of the Time Lords, the loss of Zoe and Jamie, and the sending to Earth.
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Deadpool and Wolverine managed this to perfection and then some! 
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Say no more…I might see that movie someday.
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The slow realization of what the doctors plan is in the audio story “ a death in the family” is absolutely harrowing and one of the best yet cruelest twists in the series, same can be said about the novel love and war! Poor ace both times!
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Haven’t listened to that audio yet but reminds me of the harrowing sense of dread I felt during Creatures of Beauty as I put the pieces together that it was unintentionally partly the doctor’s fault that an entire planet was polluted with carcinogenic chemicals, dooming all life to a slow and painful extinction and then the added horror of whether or not the doctor is aware of it and if nyssa has also figured it out despite the Doctor lying to her
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This is a superb example. All elements that we take for granted today, but it must have been a big shock to the system at the time.
Moreover, I think The War Games is so clever as a story. 10 episodes long and yet it is remarkably successful at adding a twist or a new development pretty much every episode, keeping the story moving and feeling fresh throughout. It still surprises me with how well it works.
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The fact that the Doctor has the best of intentions and yet, through sheer deviousness, carelessness, through high-handedness or simply alien morality (that bigger picture referred to by the Fourth Doctor in stories like Genesis of the Daleks and Pyramids of Mars), sometimes can do terrible things. The impact may be individual (robbing Donna of her own agency at the end of Journey’s End and threatening the same with Clara in Hell Bent) or damaging to entire societies (Creatures of Beauty - thanks for pointing this one out @Daximili or The Face of Evil).
Such a compelling character.
Yowzer, I love this show! 
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I’m yet to listen to creatures of beauty! Don’t worry I didn’t unblur the spoilers but I love these types of stories! Super excited to check it out!
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