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Metro
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
The 7 most disturbing Doctor Who episodes of all time
For six decades now, Doctor Who has disturbed and delighted audiences around the world with terrifying tales of evil aliens and malicious monsters. From devious Daleks to sinister Cybermen, the Whoniverse is crawling (sometimes literally) with horrors beyond most people's imagining. Yet the question is, what are the most disturbing Doctor Who episodes? Well, there are plenty of chilling tales from the Tardis that have forced audiences to hide behind the sofa. There are stories like The Satan Pit, The Ark in Space, and who could forget Blink? Honestly, I could spend days curating this list, so to make things easier, I've done things a little differently I've limited myself to the revived era (starting in 2005) and chosen one story (some of these are two-parters) from each Doctor's run. That means there's one entry for every Doctor from the Ninth to the Fifteenth, so you get as comprehensive a list as possible. Wake up to find news on your TV shows in your inbox every morning with Metro's TV Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your show in the link we'll send you so we can get TV news tailored to you. So what are you waiting for? Here are the seven most disturbing Doctor Who episodes! The first truly scary episode of the revival era, this two-part story sees the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and Rose (Billie Piper) track a mysterious ship through time to London during The Blitz. While there, however, the pair learn there are things far more dangerous than German bombs awaiting them as a strange gas mask-wearing child prowls the ruins of the city, desperately searching for his mummy. There's a long history of body horror in the Whoniverse, but this was the first episode to marry those old ideas with modern effects. This leads to arguably the most chilling scene in all of Christopher Eccleston's run, where Doctor Constantine (Richard Wilson) painfully vomits up a gas mask as he loses his mind and body to the Empty Child's strange curse. Combine that with a genuinely creepy atmosphere, a razor-sharp script from Steven Moffat and some superb acting, and you've a recipe for a truly sinister story. Is it any wonder these two episodes won a 2006 Hugo Award? Only the Tenth Doctor (or any of the Doctor's incarnations, actually) could go on the sci-fi equivalent of a coach trip and end up in a life-or-death situation. Yes, it might sound ridiculous, but this terrifying tale sees the Last of the Time Lords go on a solo adventure where he comes face to face with an impossible creature that slowly turns a coach-load of tourists against the Doctor (David Tennant). People may be surprised to see I've listed Midnight here and not Blink, but honestly, I think this is the scarier story. Why? Well, Midnight is a story where the Doctor's most powerful weapons, his wit, words and wonderful brain are all turned against him. As the mysterious creature grows in power, it takes more and more of him, leaving him an empty husk. It's only through sheer dumb luck that he manages to save the day, and it's a story that demonstrates in a universe full of Daleks, Cybermen, and Weeping Angels, there's no creature more dangerous than a frightened human. An underrated gem, The Girl Who Waited begins with the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith), Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) and Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) landing on the resort world of Apalapucia. What should be a relaxing break becomes a nightmare, though, when Amy is trapped in a faster time stream and the Doctor and Rory are forced to watch Amy grow older and older with no way to help her. What makes The Girl Who Waited such a disturbing episode isn't its villain or the monster. It's that it uses time travel to tell a really effective story about Amy's fears and anxieties while exploring a moral dilemma that even the Doctor can't talk his way out of. Indeed, the final moments of the episode, where our hero betrays and kills Amy (although not the one we know… it's all a bit timey wimey), is one of the darkest moments in the series' history. When the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi), Master (Michelle Gomez) and Bill (Pearl Mackie) investigate a distress call in deep space, they discover a ship trapped in the event horizon of a black hole. That might sound dangerous enough, but things take an even darker turn when the crew gun down Bill, and she's taken away by mysterious patients who claim they heal Bill… more than that, they can make her better than new, whether she likes it or not. I'll be honest, I never found the new Cybermen that scary. They looked too much like robots, so it was easy to think of them as cybernetic automata. This two-parter, however, exposes the sheer horror of Cyber conversion by letting you see the human under the steel, a powerful and terrifying reminder that Cybermen are people who have had their humanity ripped away from them. This, coupled with the revelation that the Cybermen are and always have been the Mondasians (and potentially humanity's) ultimate destiny, is such a horrifying reveal that it gives me chills just thinking about it. The Power of the Doctor is the Thirteenth Doctor's (Jodie Whittaker) final story and sees The Daleks, The Cybermen and Rasputin (yes, really) team up to defeat the Doctor once and for all. Okay, I thought long and hard about which of Jodie's episodes to include, and it really came down to two episodes: this and Village of the Angels. Ultimately, though, I decided that there' something far more disturbing about this story for one specific reason. You see, so often the Doctor's enemies just want the Time Lord dead… or as dead as an immortal alien can be. Here, though, the plan is to change the Doctor permanently by forcing her to regenerate into The Master, effectively trapping them in their own body for all eternity. That's such a horrifying thought to have – not to mention the subtext of a man taking a woman's body without her permission – that I thought it had to be included on this list even if it's not as 'scary' as the other stories I chose to include here. After Donna (Catherine Tate) spills coffee on the Tardis controls, she and the Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant… again) are flung to the edge of the universe, where they encounter an abandoned ship. As the duo explore the mysterious vessel, however, they quickly learn the ship might not be as abandoned as they thought. Wild Blue Yonder is a deliberately weird episode that makes brilliant use of the uncanny to unsettle viewers and leave them reaching for a sofa cushion to hide behind. Arguably, though, what makes this episode so effective is that we learn almost nothing about the 'Not-Things' that haunt the ship, with even the normally borderline omniscient Doctor baffled by where they came from and what they wanted. After all, what's scarier than the unknown? When the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) accidentally steps inside a fairy circle, he mysteriously disappears, leaving his companion Ruby (Millie Gibson) all alone. Well, not quite all alone. More Trending Everywhere Ruby goes, she's followed by a strange woman who's always 73 yards away and seems to terrify anyone who talks to her. The Fifteenth Doctor's era leaned into the supernatural and mystical more than other seasons of New Who. It's fitting then that its scariest episode is effectively an old-fashioned ghost story that relies more on an unsettling atmosphere and haunting visuals than big, bombastic scares to frighten you. Doctor Who is available to stream now on BBC iPlayer. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. View More » MORE: Major stars and Hollywood icons who've appeared in Casualty from Tom Hiddleston to Kate Winslet MORE: Doctor Who legend takes swipe at 'grumpy old fans' of BBC series MORE: Ncuti Gatwa reveals real reason why he was replaced at Eurovision 2025
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
How To Make Your First Two Seconds Count
Speaker at Business Conference with Public Presentations. Audience at the conference hall. ... More Entrepreneurship club. Malcolm Gladwell spent 288 pages of his international bestseller Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking discussing what he calls 'those first two seconds' of how people make snap judgments based on first impressions—validating the maxim, 'First impressions last.' Unfortunately, what most presenters do in those first two seconds creates a negative impression. Presenters, like all human beings under stress, experience a jolt of adrenaline. Those first two seconds are stressful to even the most experienced presenters, including yours truly, even after a decades-long career as a coach. This adrenaline rush is also known as 'The Fight or Flight Reaction,' a series of innate involuntary physical responses that enable an organism to manage stress. One of those responses is for the eyes to scan the immediate area for signs of danger. In prehistoric terms, the eyes are driven to become hyperalert to a potential attack by saber-toothed tiger. In a presentation, that scan is perceived by any audience as shifty-eyed. Would you or anyone do business with someone you perceive as shifty-eyed? This prejudicial judgement is imprinted in all human beings at birth. A team of British and Italian scientists conducted a study of newborns that concluded, 'human infants prefer to look at faces that engage them in mutual gaze and that, from an early age, healthy babies show enhanced neural processing of direct gaze. The exceptionally early sensitivity to mutual gaze demonstrated in these studies is arguably the major foundation for the later development of social skills.' The conventional solution is to make eye contact. An additional convention is to make eye contact with everyone in the audience, all of which results in rapid scanning. However, scanning is the opposite of eye contact. But those first two seconds are also known as the 'throat clearing moment,' and most presenters use that moment to start with an amenable welcoming statement. 'Good afternoon. Thank you for taking the time to…' and then go on to cite the event. You can use this moment to let your eyes do what your adrenaline is driving them to do, scan the room. No one can possibly view that behavior as shifty-eyed because as William Shakespeare had Hamlet say, you will have 'Suit(ed) the action to the words, the word to the action.' That sweeping action accompanying your gracious words will appear appropriate and courteous to your audience. By making that involuntary scan purposeful, you will no longer appear furtive. Once you've scanned the room, your Fight or Flight system will be satisfied that you are aware of the escape routes and will diminish the need to scan. That's when you can begin to make eye contact, but now you can do so with one person at a time. Analogously, the U.S. Army understands the natural inclination of the eyes to scan an environment. In a manual on night firing, a challenge for vision, they recommend that, before focusing on a target, a soldier should scan 'from right to left or from left to right using a slow, regular scanning movement' because it 'enables soldiers to overcome many of the physiological limitations of their eyes and reduce the visual illusions that so often confuse them.'
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
If you want promotion, show us…: Amazon has a new rule for employees in its smart home department
employees working in the company's smart-home division must now demonstrate how they use artificial intelligence tools to qualify for promotions, according to a new policy announced by Ring founder Jamie Siminoff. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The requirement affects workers at Amazon's RBKS organization , which includes Ring security cameras, Blink devices, Key delivery service, and Sidewalk wireless network. The policy, effective in the third quarter of 2025, mandates that promotion applicants detail their AI usage and provide examples of projects with measurable outcomes. Managers must additionally prove they've accomplished "more with less" using AI technology while reducing or maintaining current headcount levels. Ring CEO asks the department embrace AI-driven performance metrics Siminoff's directive aligns with broader industry trends as major technology companies integrate AI proficiency into employee evaluations. Shopify announced in April that managers must demonstrate AI cannot perform a role before making new hires, while Microsoft has begun evaluating some employees based on their use of internal AI tools, Business Insider reported. The policy comes two months after Siminoff returned to Amazon following a two-year absence, replacing former RBKS division leader Liz Hamren. His return coincides with CEO Andy Jassy's push to restore Amazon's startup culture and embrace efficiency-driven practices. In an email to staff obtained by Business Insider, Siminoff emphasized the policy aims to reward "innovative thinking" and reinforce speed and efficiency—core elements of Jassy's current vision for the company. "We are reimagining Ring from the ground up with AI first," Siminoff wrote, describing the initiative as having "the same energy and potential to revolutionize how we do neighborhood safety." Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Amazon pushes workforce efficiency through AI adoption The new promotion requirements represent part of Siminoff's broader push for AI integration within RBKS operations. Since June, he has encouraged employees to use AI tools at least once daily to boost productivity levels. Amazon CEO Jassy previously indicated that AI implementation would reduce the company's workforce due to improved operational efficiency. The RBKS policy specifically requires employees to describe how they've used generative AI or other AI technologies to enhance customer experience or increase operational efficiency when applying for advancement opportunities. A Ring spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider the promotion initiative applies exclusively to RBKS employees and does not extend company-wide.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Need a promotion at Amazon? Show your AI skills first
An internal email stated that employees are also required to attach or cite specific AI projects they have worked on, along with measurable outcomes. Managers must also report how AI tools were leveraged at work to boost productivity at scale, which could potentially reduce the company's headcount. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Amazon has reportedly made it a requirement for employees in several units, including smart home security brands Ring and Blink, to demonstrate their use of artificial intelligence (AI) when applying for promotions.A Business Insider report on Thursday revealed that Jamie Siminoff , the founder of Ring, announced that promotion applications within the organisation must include data on employees' AI usage at internal email stated that employees are also required to attach or cite specific AI projects they have worked on, along with measurable must also report how AI tools were leveraged at work to boost productivity at scale, which could potentially reduce the company's headcount.A Ring spokesperson clarified in the report that these changes currently apply only to Amazon's RBKS employees (Ring, Blink, Key, and Services), not to the rest of the rejoined Amazon in April after a two-year hiatus, with a mission to promote 'innovative thinking' and enhance speed and efficiency in the his return, Siminoff hinted at plans to leverage AI and innovation. 'The AI transformation happening right now is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and I think we're super well positioned with helpful and practical AI features like Smart Video Search. It's just the start here—we're just scratching the surface of what we can do with AI—and I look forward to digging into this with the team even more,' he also shared his vision after his return to the company. 'Invention is my true passion—I love looking at what we can invent for our neighbors, which is what I've always called our customers.''I tend not think in terms of, 'in X years, we're going to build this.' Instead, I try to think about finite truths,' he founded fourteen years ago by Siminoff, is best known for inventing the video doorbell—a device that lets homeowners see, hear, and speak to visitors remotely using live video and two-way audio via a also oversees other Amazon units such as Blink, the in-home and in-garage delivery service Amazon Key, and the Sidewalk team, which extends the range and connectivity of smart devices like AI becomes deeply integrated across industries, some tech leaders are pushing the boundaries. Last month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees that AI would gradually reduce the corporate workforce as more AI tools and agents are deployed throughout note did not outline which teams or roles would be affected. Amazon employs over 1.56 million people globally. Earlier this year, the ecommerce major said it plans to cut 14,000 managerial positions globally by early 2025 as part of a broader effort to reduce costs and improve operational the last two years, large technology players have been acquiring AI startups for their technology teams. Microsoft paid $650 million in a licensing deal to Inflection AI, whose cofounder Mustafa Suleyman is now heading Microsoft AI. In a similar licensing deal, Amazon hired AI startup Adept cofounder David Luan and others who joined Amazon's AGI May, ET reported that Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski and Zoom's Eric Yuan are among the first to experiment with AI versions of themselves for public-facing Klarna, an AI-powered avatar of Siemiatkowski handled most of the fintech firm's recent earnings call — with only subtle giveaways, such as a slightly out-of-sync voice, hinting that it wasn't the real CEO.
Daily Record
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Record
Amazon slashes 'brilliant' video doorbell to £28.99 in limited-time deal
The Blink Doorbell camera is currently £28.99 - down from £49.99 for a limited time Video doorbells have become more affordable and highly efficient, serving as a security camera for the home while Brits are not around. For those seeking a bargain without wanting to commit fully, Amazon has an offer that might pique interest. The Blink Doorbell camera is currently priced at £28.99, reduced from £49.99 for a limited period - a deal well worth considering at this price point. The device enables shoppers to answer their door from anywhere using their smartphone, thanks to its 1080p HD day and infrared night video capabilities, along with two-way audio. Blink boasts of long-lasting battery life, customised alerts, and privacy settings. For those concerned about installation, it can be set up within minutes using the two included AA lithium batteries and then connected to Wi-Fi via the app. The newly designed internal battery seal also offers an IP54 weather resistance rating to withstand the unpredictable British weather. Unlike Ring, Blink allows users to store clips and videos on a separate device without a subscription, although a subscription option is available for purchase. Grab the Blink video doorbell for £28.99 £49.99 £28.99 Amazon GET DEAL Product Description For those wanting some alternatives, there's the Ring Battery Video Doorbell for £79.99. It comes with extremely quick set-up within five minutes and high-definition video recording. There's also the Arlo video doorbell that comes in for a slightly more expensive £95.99 - and it comes with 2K cameras and person/package detection. Customers are singing the praises of the Blink doorbell in their reviews. One buyer commented: "Now, I'm all for keeping an eye on the doorstep, especially with the little ones running about. This Blink Video Doorbell does just the trick, and it doesn't need any wires, which is a bonus for those of us who aren't keen on DIY. "Setting it up was fairly straightforward, though it took a few tries to get the hang of it. First, you pop in the batteries and connect the Sync Module 2 to your Wi-Fi. Then, you download the Blink app, create an account, and add the doorbell and module. The app guides you through the rest, which is basically scanning QR codes and following on-screen instructions. "The picture quality is decent, even in the evenings. I can clearly see who's at the door, even if they're lurking in the shadows. The two-way talk feature is handy too – I can tell the postie where to leave a parcel, or have a quick chat with the neighbours without having to open the door." Nevertheless, some customers have raised concerns about battery longevity. One purchaser noted: "Great piece of kit that works really well with the other blink products I have, as well as Alexa. "My issue is battery life. I have had it for two months and four days, and I am about to change the batteries for the second time. I'm not sure if this is just mine, but it is slightly annoying. The listing says long battery life, but it really isn't."
