I found the very first programmes of Doctor Who (early sixties) terrifying. Even the music was scary (We weren't used to that type of synthetic stuff) It was rather reminiscent of 'Quatermass and The Pit' or 'The Trollenberg Terror' transmitted in the late fifties.

Some of the vocabulary has made its way into our everyday language.
One hears quite often the word 'tardis' used to describe a house which looks small on the outside but is very large inside.