Top 20 Greatest Doctor Who Villains
Allons-y Alonso! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most iconic antagonists and monsters to face the Doctor across time and space!
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00:00 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most iconic antagonists
00:09 and monsters to face the Doctor across time and space.
00:21 We won't be including characters that aren't directly antagonistic, like the Empty Child.
00:34 Despite their appearance, this race of terrifying-looking, Cthulhu-faced psychic beings are usually quite
00:40 placid and kind.
00:42 Unfortunately, their telepathic abilities can make them vulnerable to external manipulation.
00:50 More powerful entities in the Hooniverse have dominated one or more of their minds to turn
00:56 them against the Doctor and his allies.
01:01 The Ood are also enslaved by humans in the future.
01:05 As with any mistreated race, the Ood eventually can't take any more and violently rebel
01:11 against their oppressors.
01:12 And while their anger may be justified, it doesn't make their red-eyed rage any less
01:23 frightening.
01:26 While many of the Doctor's most famous foes are either species or individuals, the Slythene
01:32 are a family.
01:33 Specifically, a crime family from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius.
01:39 The Slythene have been trying to make a buck off humanity for centuries.
01:43 They even engineer an elaborate plan to start a nuclear war to devastate Earth and sell
01:49 the planet for profit.
01:51 The Fart Gags, while they're in their human disguises, do make them hard to take seriously.
02:04 But their true Raxacoricofallapatorian forms have an uncanny combination of baby faces
02:10 mixed with huge claws that make them surprisingly scary.
02:28 The members of this religious order are, as their name implies, entirely lacking in the
02:33 dumb department.
02:34 The cloaked beings that make up the order are somehow able to continue living without
02:39 a brain.
02:49 Allied with a futuristic military branch of the church, the Headless Monks engage in a
02:55 plan to kidnap Amy and Rory's daughter, while also attempting to kill the Doctor.
03:01 With their creepy cloaks and ominous chanting – which they somehow achieve without mouths
03:06 – they bring to mind the spectre of death.
03:09 Their ability to wrap their swords in energy and fire blasts from their hands make them
03:14 rather threatening.
03:15 Still, they're ultimately side players in their only major appearance.
03:26 Of the many malignant beings the Doctor has encountered, the Black Guardian is among the
03:31 most powerful.
03:35 The embodiment of chaos, evil and darkness, he stands forever against his opposite, the
03:41 White Guardian.
03:42 While he may be more of a behind-the-scenes villain, the Black Guardian's ambitions
03:47 have nearly won him artefacts of unimaginable power, such as the key to time and enlightenment
03:53 itself.
03:54 He's even coerced one of the Doctor's companions into acting as his spy.
04:09 Although his appearances happened years ago, the Black Guardian's machinations may have
04:14 had long-lasting consequences for the Doctor and his other enemies.
04:29 When the Doctor and Romana first encounter Count Scarlioni, he appears to be scheming
04:34 to sell supposedly counterfeit versions of the Mona Lisa.
04:38 But the Doctor soon discovers that the Count is present in multiple time periods.
04:43 Scaroth is an alien who was involved in a time vortex accident, causing different versions
04:49 of himself to be flung across Earth's history.
04:56 He's influenced human development, with the goal of eventually travelling back to
05:02 undo the explosion that caused his condition, even if it means simultaneously undoing human
05:08 existence.
05:17 Scaroth may be a one-off villain, but his unique circumstances and ability to match
05:22 wits with the Doctor make him a particularly memorable one.
05:30 The Doctor has encountered many species over the years capable of altering their appearance,
05:36 and the Zygons are among the most iconic.
05:44 A race of orange, sucker-covered beings, Zygons are best known for their ability to shapeshift
05:49 into other intelligent species.
05:52 Through their technology, they can imitate other people, though they usually need the
05:57 person in question alive for it to work.
06:05 They're also able to shoot lightning from their hands.
06:09 As creepy as they are, Zygons have been cast in a sympathetic light in recent years, with
06:14 their attempts to integrate into humanity being mostly benign.
06:18 Plus, we have them to thank for the Loch Ness Monster, probably.
06:31 Some of the best Doctor Who monsters take something innocuous and make it scary.
06:36 In this case, it's water.
06:43 When the Tenth Doctor goes to humanity's first Martian base, he arrives just as the
06:48 astronauts have discovered that they shouldn't have used ice from the planet.
06:53 Within it, a viral lifeform known as the Flood begins taking over their bodies.
07:00 The infected humans' dead-eyed expressions, cracked faces, and ability to generate water
07:06 make them visually terrifying.
07:08 While the Doctor and the astronauts manage to contain the threat, we can't help but
07:12 think about what may be lurking in our own water.
07:27 Another nuclear family of villains, the Family of Blood, are from a gaseous race.
07:36 Able to possess humans, the family is able to track the Doctor across time and space
07:41 through scent alone.
07:43 Even the Doctor turning himself human isn't enough to throw them off his trail.
07:52 The mother, father, son, and daughter of mine are all ruthless in their pursuit of what
07:58 they want – longer lives.
07:59 It's a mark of what great villains they are, that the Doctor decides to give it to
08:04 them even if they come to regret it.
08:13 This race of humanoid aliens come from the war-obsessed
08:27 Sontaran Empire.
08:28 A stocky species with incredible strength, their ranks are made up entirely of clones.
08:35 With their sole purpose in life being to wage war, they are ruthless and fearless adversaries.
08:43 Interestingly, they're able to produce a million clones every four minutes, and their
08:53 many plans have included making Earth a breeding planet.
08:57 Despite how much these militaristic aliens love to fight, they were kept out of the last
09:02 Great Time War, since neither the Daleks nor the Time Lords trusted them enough to fight
09:07 alongside them.
09:12 The famous monster's early appearances may have been lost to the BBC archives, but he's
09:25 made numerous later appearances during Matt Smith's tenure in the TARDIS.
09:30 A strange disembodied consciousness living in the void, even the Doctor wasn't sure
09:35 what the Great Intelligence actually was, only that it was evil and out to get him.
09:46 After trying to take over Victorian London with an army of snowmen, and then trying to
09:51 suck people into the Wi-Fi, his last attempt to end the Doctor was much more ambitious,
09:57 travelling into the Doctor's time stream in order to kill him thousands of times across
10:02 his history.
10:12 An obscenely powerful alien warlord, Sutek the Destroyer is the basis for the Egyptian
10:17 god Zeth.
10:22 While he may be imprisoned in a pyramid and basically immobile, the malevolent villain
10:27 still manages to use his formidable mind to dominate even the Doctor's will, with the
10:32 Time Lord only able to escape by dying temporarily.
10:37 Sutek's intimidating presence and unforgettable voice have made him a perennial favourite
10:44 antagonist for decades.
10:53 Wonder who even brought back his voice actor for another character we'll be discussing
10:57 shortly.
10:58 We still have to kneel before Sutek's might.
11:14 This unnamed creature may only appear once, but it's still one of the most horrifying
11:19 things the Doctor has ever encountered.
11:29 While on a tour bus on a supposedly uninhabitable diamond planet, the Doctor and his fellow
11:35 passengers hear a knocking sound.
11:42 The sound increases until the creature making it possesses one of the passengers and rips
11:47 off the cockpit.
11:48 This being toys with the passengers and steals the Doctor's voice right out of his mouth.
11:57 It very nearly convinces the passengers to kill the Doctor.
12:01 Can you imagine being forced to order your own murder?
12:04 This thing still sends shivers down our spines.
12:17 What other reason could there be for the doomed planet of Kroptor to endlessly orbit a black
12:23 hole, other than a devil living in its core?
12:26 A monstrous, fire-breathing humanoid supposedly from before the universe began, this entity
12:32 claimed to be the very inspiration for Satan and demonic imagery, leading to the Doctor
12:37 having an existential crisis for much of the story's climax.
12:47 More sinister was the way the telepathic mind of the beast controlled the vulnerable people
12:52 above, including Toby the creepy archaeologist and the otherwise benign Ood in their first
12:59 appearance.
13:05 He was defeated after Rose managed to throw him into the black hole itself.
13:12 Lots of people are already scared of the dark, but Doctor Who manages to make it even more
13:22 frightening.
13:23 Vashda-Nirada are swarms of microscopic predators.
13:27 These piranhas of the air live in shadows and darkness, and can strip flesh from bone
13:33 in less than a second.
13:44 The best way to escape them is to stay in the light and count how many shadows someone
13:49 is casting.
13:50 As intelligent as they are deadly, Vashda-Nirada can puppeteer their victims after death to
13:56 pursue their prey into the light, meaning nowhere is safe.
14:05 Perhaps the biggest indicator of how deadly they are is the Doctor's advice on how to
14:10 deal with them.
14:20 Taking more than a few cues from what was, at the time, the internet's most widespread
14:25 creepypasta, bringing an army of Slenderman clones to the small screen was more than some
14:31 kids could handle.
14:32 Indeed, the silence was deemed by many to be too scary for Doctor Who's family audience,
14:38 towering over their victims and making them forget they were ever there.
14:43 The TARDIS crew find themselves adorned with sinister tallies counting how many of the
14:47 Silence they've seen, but can't remember.
14:57 Every episode they appeared in was certainly a frightening watch, made worse by the fact
15:02 we didn't find out what they were until the 11th Doctor's regeneration.
15:19 What would a sci-fi series like Doctor Who be without an alien who follows in the footsteps
15:24 of Doctor Frankenstein?
15:26 Davros is responsible for the creation of the Daleks.
15:39 Davros rivals the Doctor in terms of intellect, and is among his most insane and dangerous
15:45 foes.
15:49 Once the Dalek Emperor, few others in the series can claim to have caused the loss of
15:54 trillions of lives.
16:07 Despite their antagonism towards each other, Davros considers the Doctor more of a colleague
16:12 than an enemy, since he's the closest thing Davros has to an equal.
16:31 There are two different strains of Cybermen out there.
16:34 In the Doctor's universe, they originate from Earth's long-lost twin planet, Mondus,
16:39 which drifted too far away from the sun and froze over.
16:43 In order to survive the harsh temperatures, the residents turned themselves into Cybermen.
16:48 In New Who, they generally come from Pete's World, a parallel universe created by John
16:53 Lumik as a route towards immortality.
16:57 Their obsession with upgrading all living things to fit their robotic worldview has
17:02 put them up against the Doctor numerous times, as one of their most enduring foes.
17:17 Hailed as one of the revival series' best creations, the Weeping Angels made their debut
17:22 in the spine-chilling series' three-episode "Blink", itself often claimed to be one
17:27 of the show's best-ever stories.
17:39 The frightening statues that only move when they're not being observed, made for some
17:44 tense moments and a handful of jump scares, feeding on the temporal energy left behind
17:50 after zapping their victims into the past.
17:56 The closing reveal that every statue in the world could secretly be a Weeping Angel added
18:02 a new layer of horror to these fan favourites, even if their later appearances did get increasingly
18:08 ridiculous.
18:15 You can't have the Doctor without the Daleks, and you can't have the Daleks without their
18:20 creator Davros.
18:21 Contrary to popular belief, though, the Daleks didn't appear until the second-ever serial
18:26 aptly named "The Daleks".
18:37 Since then, they've had a few showdowns with every Doctor, and remain just as weird
18:42 but deadly as always.
18:44 Their creator didn't appear until much later, not until the fourth Doctor's lauded serial
18:49 "Genesis of the Daleks", where their origins as radioactive mutants were fully explained.
19:05 Regardless of where they come from, that cone-shaped exterior and maniacal voice will always be
19:23 iconic.
19:32 The Doctor's arch-nemesis, long-time rival and frenemy, the Master has had numerous incarnations
19:41 as the evilest Time Lord in the universe.
19:48 And despite dying on-screen numerous times, with seemingly no hope for return, they always
19:54 come back.
19:55 Roger Degaldo was the first, and often cited as the best, but new-hoo versions have also
20:01 put their own spin on the iconic role.
20:10 John Simms' Master showed up as the tenth Doctor's ultimate foe on more than one occasion,
20:16 while Michelle Gomez became the first female Master, nicknamed "Missy", who had a love-hate
20:21 relationship with Twelve until meeting a grisly demise at the hands of her previous self.
20:34 Is there a Doctor Who baddie we somehow forgot?
20:37 Don't stay silent, remind us in the comments below.
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