Before 2005, Doctor Who did not spend a lot of time dwelling on matters of the heart.

Occasionally the Time Lord’s companions would fall for someone, but the central character remained virtually asexual – despite being a grandparent and therefore presumably a parent too. That’s not to say he has not had his moments though; way back in ‘The Aztecs’ (1964) he memorably got engaged to a nice lady called Cameca over a cup of cocoa.

In the modern era, love and romance are more upfront, so here are our 5 favourite romantic Doctor Who stories for you to revisit this Valentine’s Day…

 

‘A Christmas Carol’ (2010)

Seeking to fracture the ice cold heart of a lonely man and save Amy and Rory, plus a spaceship full of passengers, the Eleventh Doctor dabbles in the past of the miserly Kazran Sardick (Sir Michael Gambon).

Taking the young Kazran out on annual dates with Abigail Pettigrew (Katherine Jenkins), a girl ‘on ice’ in his father’s cellar, the pair grow close and fall in love over the years. Their happiness is not to be, however, as she is incurably ill.

Playing out like a bittersweet fairytale, this is surely Doctor Who at its most romantic and most heartbreaking too.

 

‘The Girl in the Fireplace’ (2006)

The Tenth Doctor falls for Reinette (Sophia Myles), better known as Madame du Pompadour, mistress to King Louis XV of France. He is utterly smitten, so much that he barely seems troubled when he looks to be stranded in her time.

They meet when a spaceship full of scavenging clockwork androids decide that her brain head is the perfect replacement part for their damaged ship. Of course, the temporally twisted relationship is not to be, but their heart-breaking parting it is more down to a technical malfunction than anything else.

 

‘The Wedding of River Song’ (2011)

River Song loves the Doctor so much she’s prepared to break time for him in the 2011’s Season 6 finale. In refusing to kill him at Lake Silenco as planned by her masters, she triggers a distorted universe where all of time is happening at once; Winston Churchill is the Holy Roman Emperor and Charles Dickens is on the BBC Breakfast sofa giving away titbits about his upcoming story ‘A Christmas Carol’.

In the end, it all boils down to trust and love as River marries the Doctor and looks into his eyes before they kiss.

 

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