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A romantic gesture can be something simple. Taking someone out for dinner, buying them flowers, a small act to show someone that you love them. While Doctor Who is full of romantic gestures, they tend to be turned up to a cosmic scale!
From guarding a box for 2000 years to accidentally fracturing the entirety of space and time, here are eight great romantic gestures in Doctor Who.
Trapped on the Gamestation, surrounded by Daleks, the Doctor was out of options. At least he’d sent Rose home in the TARDIS, saving her from being exterminated. Not one to accept defeat, Rose was determined to get back and save the Doctor. Looking into the heart of the TARDIS, she transported herself back to the Gamestation and wiped the Daleks out. This victory didn’t come without a massive toll, the time vortex was going to burn Rose. To save her, the Doctor kissed her, absorbing the energy. Sadly, even the Doctor couldn’t survive being exposed, forcing him to regenerate.
Rose Tyler’s travels with the Doctor came to a sudden, and heart-wrenching end, when she was trapped in a parallel universe, seemingly never to be reunited with the Doctor. He was, however, able to give them a proper farewell. Using the power of a supernova, he was able to send a projection of himself through a crack between their universe. This cosmically powered call allowed Rose to finally confess her love for the Doctor. Sadly the Doctor didn’t get the chance to reply…
Rory’s resurrection as an Auton was a double-edged sword for him. On the plus side, he wasn’t dead. On the downside, and it’s a whopper of a downside, his Auton programming meant he accidentally shot his fiancé! With Amy dying in his arms, the Doctor found a solution. Locking Amy in the Pandorica would prevent her from dying. However, to heal her, it would need an external sample of her DNA. A bit awkward, as Amy wouldn’t be born for thousands of years. Not wanting any harm to come to Amy, Rory opted to guard the Pandorica. He ended up protecting it from all manner of natural and man-made disasters over the centuries. Talk about a devoted fiancé!
The Doctor dies on the shores of Lake Silencio, Utah in 1969. It’s a fixed point. It has to happen. It can’t be undone. Except, of course, the person who was meant to kill him is River Song, and she has other ideas. When she refused to kill him the man she loved - a very sweet gesture - all of time and space collapsed. The Doctor insisted that they had to put it right, but River wanted to show the Doctor that he was loved by the entire universe. With all of time out of joint, the Doctor and River finally got married. Their kiss finally put everything back as it should be.
When the Doctor, Rory and Amy found an aged Rory living in a New York hotel. The hotel is a battery farm for the Weeping Angels, where Rory will be sent back to at some in the future. Sent back to without Amy. Aghast at this being his fate, Rory decides to flee. If he can alter time, the paradox would kill the angels. Guided to the roof, Rory saw that there was only one way to escape the angels. He had to leap off the side of the building! Amy wouldn’t let him, but they decided to leap together, not wanting to live without each other.
Fortunately, the plan worked, and they survived. Their happy ending was snatched away from them as a single angel survived, and Amy was forced to choose between Rory and the Doctor. Amy followed her heart, breaking both of the Doctor’s in the process.
The Doctor had known the last time he’d meet River was on Darillium ever since they first met. On the few times they’d almost gone, he’d ducked out at the last minute. However, they couldn’t avoid it forever. After a series of misadventures, they finally ended up on Darillium. The Doctor had picked this particular planet for a reason. Even though they one a single night together, one night on Darillium is a little longer than one on Earth. It’s twenty-four years long.
At the beginning of her adventures with the Doctor, Bill met Heather. Heather had a pattern in one of her eyes that looked like a star and was tragically turned into a liquid life-form. Bill was forced to say goodbye to Heather, but after Bill had been converted into a Cyberman, Heather came back for Bill. Converting Bill into a liquid being like herself, the two of them were finally able to explore the universe together.
It seemed like the Doctor had saved the day. The antidote to Praxeus was ready to be distributed, loaded into a ship whose autopilot could safely take it up into the Earth’s atmosphere. But, when the autopilot was damaged, someone had to step in, and that person was Adam. Taking control of the ship to prove his love to his husband, Adam was ready to give his life to save the planet. As gestures go, it’s out there, and luckily the Doctor was able to step in at the last moment! Adam was saved and reunited with his husband.
Watch these and more moments on the Doctor Who YouTube channel: