10 Smartest Villain Plans In Doctor Who
Some Doctor Who villains are far more cunning than others...
Transcript
00:00 When you stand back and look at Doctor Who, the majority of the villains weren't all
00:03 powerful beings.
00:04 They're scavengers, taking advantage of whatever's at hand to make the most of a
00:08 bad situation.
00:10 Maybe that makes them smart, maybe that makes them lazy, but whichever way you look at it,
00:14 you'd be hard pressed to find a scheme that wouldn't have succeeded if it wasn't for
00:18 the Doctor's intervention.
00:20 Pretty much every villain the Doctor has fought would have got away with it if it wasn't
00:23 for the Doctor or their companion saving the day.
00:26 And some of them had some pretty smarty pants plans that we're genuinely impressed by.
00:31 And so, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with Who Culture, here with the 10 smartest villain
00:36 plans in Doctor Who.
00:38 10.
00:39 Miss Foster in Partners in Crime
00:42 One surefire way to invade without resistance is to trick the population into thinking you're
00:47 offering them something they want.
00:48 That's the tactic Matron Cephalia, under the alias Miss Foster, took when she was tasked
00:53 with finding a new breeding world for the Adipose.
00:56 She capitalised on 21st century Britain's obsession with weight loss by distributing
01:01 a too-good-to-be-true diet pill, which, when activated, turned excess human fat into Adipose
01:06 babies.
01:07 It's the one plan on this list that, in fairness, might have actually benefited humanity under
01:12 more agreeable conditions.
01:14 Even the Doctor eventually admits that, as a diet plan, it sort of works.
01:17 It's just a saying that using a level 5 planet for breeding is against galactic law.
01:21 Besides, Miss Foster had her eyes on much more than just weight loss.
01:25 Ultimately, she planned to conduct emergency pathogenesis, a process by which human hair,
01:30 bones, and organs can also be converted, leaving nothing left.
01:35 The Doctor was able to put a stop to this scheme by hacking the Adipose computer, but
01:38 there was nothing he could do about the Adipose that had already been bred, other than let
01:42 them live, which means that, to quote the Doctor himself, Miss Foster's plan sort of
01:47 worked.
01:48 9.
01:49 The Master in Frontier in Space
01:52 The first Master, brought to life so brilliantly by Roger Delgado, had his fair share of evil
01:57 schemes, from the bonkers to the brilliant.
01:59 Frontier in Space most definitely falls into the latter category.
02:03 In the 26th century, humans and draconians are able to exist alongside each other, but
02:08 allegations of attacks on each other's territory are rife, heightening tensions between the
02:13 two species.
02:14 The real culprit? The Commissioner of Sirius Four, otherwise known as The Master, who is
02:19 using a hypnosound machine to disguise ogrons as humans and draconians, with the intention
02:25 of provoking a full-scale war.
02:27 As revealed at the serial's end, this is part of a larger plan to pave the way for
02:31 a Dalek invasion.
02:33 Unfortunately, we never got to see the end result of this invasion, nor how The Master's
02:38 alliance with the Daleks ended.
02:40 In fact, Frontier in Space marks Roger Delgado's final appearance in the show, as he would
02:45 tragically pass away shortly after the story first broadcast.
02:49 Had he been around to feature in the following season, we might have seen an even more audacious
02:53 scheme from this Master.
02:55 But as things stand, this is definitely his most ambitious.
02:58 8.
02:59 The Ravagers in Flux
03:02 The Ravagers, otherwise known as Swarm and Azure, were the overarching antagonists of
03:06 Series 13, and for a while, we were constantly in the dark about their true motives.
03:11 But if you stand back and look at it, their plan, though technically complex, is actually
03:16 pretty simple.
03:17 Swarm and Azure are the ultimate scavengers.
03:19 Their initial aim is revenge against the Doctor and Division for imprisoning them all those
03:24 years ago, and how do they go about doing this?
03:26 By using Division's most powerful weapons against it.
03:30 After building a psychotemporal bridge capable of reaching Division's base, the pair are
03:34 able to complete the first part of their plan, doing away with Head Honcho Tectean.
03:39 But their ultimate goal is to do away with all physical things in the universe.
03:43 And how?
03:44 By hijacking the Flux to create endless destruction, and then using time to replay that destruction
03:50 in an endless loop.
03:51 If the Doctor hadn't managed to in turn hijack the Flux against them, the Ravagers would
03:55 have succeeded, with devastating results for the entire universe.
04:00 7.
04:01 Scaroth in City of Death
04:03 Scaroth, last of the Jagaroth, is a textbook example of making the most of a bad situation.
04:09 When his ship exploded in prehistoric Earth, he was flung into the Time Vortex and split
04:14 into twelve splinters of himself, scattered across Earth's history.
04:18 Scaroth's twelfth incarnation found himself in Paris 1979, a period where, obviously,
04:23 time travel had not yet developed.
04:25 However, there was nothing to stop him developing it prematurely by conducting his own experiments.
04:30 There was just one problem; time travel experiments aren't cheap.
04:34 Fortunately, one of Scaroth's splinters, Captain Tencredi, was a contemporary of Leonardo
04:39 da Vinci, who he persuaded to paint a further six copies of the Mona Lisa.
04:44 These could then be sold in 1979 to make a quick buck.
04:47 In the end, Scaroth's ultimate plan, to go back in time and prevent his ship from
04:50 exploding, was sabotaged.
04:52 But his plan was very smart, and he was successful in one regard.
04:56 When most copies of the Mona Lisa are destroyed in a fire, including the original, the only
05:01 copy left is one of Scaroth's fakes.
05:04 So in a sense, we've got him to thank for the fact that the painting still exists today.
05:08 6.
05:09 Missy in Darkwater and Death in Heaven
05:12 The Master's regeneration into a woman was the single biggest change to the character
05:17 in their then 43 year history, as reflected by their temporary name change to Missy.
05:23 But one thing that hadn't changed was the Master's knack for a good old evil plan.
05:27 They'd always enjoyed playing the long game, but Missy took it to the extreme, establishing
05:32 herself as a god-like figure and picking up the Doctor's departed friends in a series
05:36 of cameos across Series 8, apparently set in Heaven.
05:40 Of course, the truth was a lot darker.
05:43 In reality, this mystery location was the Nether Sphere, a cloud-based depository to
05:48 which mines were uploaded and then downloaded into new Cyberman bodies.
05:52 Missy's ultimate aim?
05:54 To gift this new army of Cybermen to the Doctor as a birthday present.
05:59 But there's more.
06:00 How did the Doctor become embroiled in Missy's plan?
06:02 Through his companion Clara, whose partner Danny was killed in a hit and run.
06:07 Might Missy have been the one driving the car to ensure the whole chain of events was
06:10 set in motion?
06:11 It's not the most unlikely, headcanon.
06:13 5.
06:14 Davros in Revelation of the Daleks
06:17 Missy wasn't the only one to take advantage of dead bodies.
06:20 In fact, the Doctor's other nemesis Davros got there first, fashioning a new race of
06:25 Daleks from the dead.
06:26 And having established himself as the head of funeral parlour Tranquil Repose, he was
06:30 perfectly placed to do so.
06:32 This wasn't the only string to Davros' bow, however.
06:35 Ever resourceful, he used the remains of these, well, remains, to create a revolutionary new
06:40 food source for a famine-ridden galaxy.
06:43 This in turn bolstered his reputation as the philanthropic Great Healer, which enabled him
06:49 to continue his experiments unnoticed.
06:52 Like Missy, Davros used one of the Doctor's friends to lure him to his lair, the late
06:56 Arthur Stengos.
06:57 Unlike Missy, however, his aims were more traditional - to conquer the universe.
07:02 What he hadn't counted on was two of Tranquil Repose's staff allying themselves with the
07:07 rival renegade faction of Daleks who were intent on recapturing Davros and putting him
07:11 on trial, a goal they managed to achieve.
07:14 In the commotion, he lost his surviving hand, hence why the Davros of the Revival series
07:19 has a metal gauntlet.
07:20 4.
07:21 Rasmussen - In Sleep No More
07:24 Like Miss Foster, Professor Gagan Rasmussen came up with a solution to one of humanity's
07:29 biggest bugbears - sleep.
07:31 The average person spends one third of their life sleeping.
07:34 Rasmussen sought to do something about this, and he succeeded.
07:38 His Morpheus Pods, named after the God of Dreams, were capable of concentrating a month
07:42 of sleep into five minutes, enabling its user to spend more time awake.
07:47 They were loved by some and hated by others, but you can't deny that, at least in principle,
07:52 it's not a bad idea.
07:53 But there was a catch.
07:54 When we sleep, dust builds up in the corner of our eyes.
07:57 The more time we spend asleep, the more this dust builds up, and the electronic signal
08:01 transmitted by the Morpheus Pods had the unfortunate catch of giving this dust sentience, creating
08:06 carnivorous sandmen.
08:08 Which is kinda gross when you think about it.
08:10 I mean, the sleepy dust in your eyes making creatures?
08:12 Grim.
08:13 The Doctor managed to destroy the Morpheus Pods which hadn't yet been distributed,
08:17 and sought to destroy all those that had.
08:19 But Rasmussen, being a genius, had one more trick up his sleeve - a video recording into
08:24 which the Morpheus signal was encoded, infecting anyone who watched it.
08:29 And not just any video recording, but the very episode of Doctor Who we'd all just
08:33 witnessed.
08:34 Does anyone else feel like they need to rub their eyes now?
08:36 3.
08:37 Rassilon in The Five Doctors
08:40 As one of the founders of Time Lord society, it was important that Rassilon maintained
08:44 his position.
08:45 So he designed a test, the Game of Rassilon, for anyone who sought to usurp him.
08:50 And in fairness, it worked.
08:52 The challenge?
08:53 To reach Rassilon's tomb in the Death Zone on Gallifrey.
08:56 The reward?
08:57 The Ring of Rassilon which bestows immortality upon its wearer.
09:01 At least this is what fellow Time Lord Barusa understood the Game of Rassilon to be.
09:04 But there was a catch.
09:05 A riddle hidden in plain sight, inscribed on an obelisk in the tomb.
09:10 To lose is to win, and he who wins shall lose.
09:13 Though that clearly sounds like a warning, Barusa doesn't care one bit, as he discovers
09:18 the Ring of Rassilon does indeed grant its wearer immortality, albeit not in the form
09:23 of perpetual regeneration, but perpetual imprisonment, as a mummified face on the side of Rassilon's
09:29 sarcophagus.
09:30 It is quite different to the other plans on this list, since the Doctor was quite happy
09:34 to stand back and let it reach fruition, but no less ingenious.
09:38 2.
09:39 The Slitheen in Aliens of London and World War 3
09:43 Let's face it, the Slitheen are remembered for one thing, and one thing only.
09:47 But forget about the flatulence, and you're left with a surprisingly canny, watertight
09:51 plan.
09:52 This was 21st Century Who's first fully-fledged alien invasion, and showrunner Russell T.
09:57 Davis certainly pulled out all the stops, coming up with something truly special.
10:01 It all begins with that iconic shot of a spaceship scuffing the side of Big Ben before landing
10:06 in the Thames.
10:07 Its pilot?
10:08 A spacesuit-clad pig, designed to distract from the real aliens while they establish
10:13 themselves at the heart of the British government.
10:15 Their goal?
10:16 To incite enough panic to initiate a third world war, reducing the Earth to smithereens
10:21 which can then be sold on the black market.
10:23 Meanwhile, they can escape in their spaceship, conveniently parked at the bottom of the Thames.
10:28 Staging a fake alien invasion in order to further your own is a frankly genius move,
10:33 and quite unlike anything we've seen in the show up to this point.
10:36 It's never going to be the thing the Slitheen are best remembered for, but that doesn't
10:40 stop it from being a genuinely brilliant plan.
10:43 1.
10:44 The Monks in The Monk Trilogy The Monks are, without a doubt, the most duplicitous
10:49 race to ever stage an invasion of Earth.
10:51 For one thing, they had a lot of practice, using a highly sophisticated simulation of
10:56 the planet to determine the optimum time and place to strike.
11:00 For another, they rule not through force, but through a contract of consent.
11:04 Once they've secured that consent, by for example posing as saviours in the face of
11:08 a genuine natural catastrophe and framing their dominion as the least worst option,
11:12 there's no going back.
11:14 The Monks had used this strategy to conquer a multitude of planets, and Earth was no exception,
11:19 the catastrophe in question being the accidental creation of a deadly bacteria.
11:23 Fast forward six months and they've subjugated the planet's population.
11:27 For a time, it seems even the Doctor has fallen under their spell.
11:30 Ultimately though, Bill is able to corrupt the Monks' propaganda with memories of her
11:34 mother, but if it wasn't for that, their reign might never have ended.
11:38 What's more, unlike most villains on this list, the Monks escaped with their lives,
11:42 and arguably in a stronger position than they were in before.
11:45 It's surely only a matter of time before they just strike again.
11:48 And that concludes our list.
11:49 If you think we missed any, then do let us know in the comments below, and while you're
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12:01 I've been Ellie, with WhoCulture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye,