The iconic British Sci-Fi TV show Doctor Who is home to many terrifying and downright deadly villains. From the haunting Weeping Angels to the ever-so-deadly Daleks, there is no shortage of awesome yet scary villains in the Doctor Who franchise. Rebooting in the early 2000s, Doctor Who has become one of the best TV shows of all time, seeing many great actors play the part, like Jodie Whitaker, Matt Smith, and David Tennant, just to name a few.
Update September 29, 2023: With the recent release of Doctor Who‘s 60th Anniversary trailer being released and the confirmation of the villainous Toymaker, this article has been updated with even more great Doctor Who villains in preparation for the anticipated specials.
With that, the modern era of Doctor Who has given fans some amazing antagonists and even made returning villains so much scarier. The Doctor has a rogue’s gallery that can rival that of Batman or Spider-Man for the greatest of all time. With classic foe, The Toymaker set to make his long-awaited return to the show in the upcoming 60th Anniversary Specials, now seems like a good time to take a look back at the best villains from the modern era of Doctor Who.
13 The Sontarans
Potato-headed warmongers, The Sontarans, were actually a staple of the classic series. After making their debut in 1974’s “The Time Warrior,” they appeared in three further stories during the show’s original run before making the transition to the modern era in series four, two-parter “The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky”.
A clone race, all Sontarans look almost identical and are notable for their dome-shaped heads, three-fingered hands, and diminutive stature, as well as their Achilles heel, a vent on the back of their neck. Hailing from the planet Sontar, they are warriors born to fight and take great pleasure in engaging in battle while being fearless of death. Following their initial return, the Sontarans made a number of cameos in the modern series, where they were often treated as comic relief. This is particularly notable with the recurring character of Strax. However, in series 13, they were brought back with a new design and were once again treated like the ruthless villains they are.
12 The Beast
It doesn’t get much more villainous than the Devil himself. In the series two episodes, “The Impossible Planet” and “The Stan Pit”, the Tenth Doctor and Rose travel to a small planet orbiting a black hole where a human colony is drilling into the planet’s core and where a malevolent force is possessing a slave race known as the Ood.
After making his way down into the pit, the Doctor discovers that the planet is a prison for The Beast, who is essentially the basis for Satan in Christianity. With his ability to possess and manipulate other beings, including one of the crew members called Toby, The Beast proved himself to be an intelligent and devious opponent for The Doctor.
11 The Ood
Technically, The Ood themselves are not villains. In fact, they’re quite the opposite. The spaghetti-mouthed aliens are a peaceful and gentle race who live to serve humans and who have a low-level telepathic ability. However, The Ood have proven to be easily susceptible to outside malevolent forces, such as the aforementioned Beast, who hack The Ood’s telepathic field to have possession over them. Once they have been possessed, the Ood can become violent or even rabid, using their spherical translation device as a weapon.
After debuting in “The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit”, the Ood went on to be the main focus of the series four episode, “Planet of the Ood”, which gave further information about their backstory. During the Tenth Doctor’s final episodes, it is revealed that The Ood have become emancipated from slavery and has progressed into an intelligent civilization. Though they may naturally be docile, the fact that they can be so easily corrupted makes The Ood a scary villain.
10 The Flood
2009 special, “The Waters of Mars” is an example of Doctor Who at its best. Darker than most episodes of the modern era, it saw the Tenth Doctor traveling to Mars in the year 2059, where he faces a moral dilemma upon realizing that if he saves the human colony from being infected by an extraterrestrial virus, he will alter the course of human history.
The virus itself is known as The Flood and is transmitted through water. Upon infecting a human host, the virus causes them to convulse and spasm before turning them into zombie-like creatures that exude water from their hands and mouths. Coming into contact with just one drop of infected water is enough to turn you into one of them. Nightmarish in appearance and seemingly unstoppable, The Flood is one of the scariest and most underrated villains in all of Doctor Who.
9 The Midnight Entity
The Midnight Entity is a bit of an anomaly. Appearing in the series four-bottle episode, “Midnight”, neither the characters nor the audience ever actually see it, and, therefore, we have no idea what it looks like. Furthermore, we never learn what its actual name is or what its true intentions are. In the episode, The Doctor takes an excursion on a small touring vehicle to the planet Midnight, where an unseen force takes possession of one of the passengers.
At first, the entity repeats every word uttered by the other passengers before going on to copy only The Doctor’s words. As it grows in strength, the entity begins to speak at the same time as The Doctor before taking his words entirely. “Midnight” is a stand-out episode that acts as a great exploration of the negative ways in which people can react to fear. It’s enhanced by a truly terrifying villain that is all the more scary because it is never shown; the idea of it is scary enough.
8 Family of Blood
The Family of Blood caused the Doctor to do what no one thought The Doctor would ever do: run and hide. The family are beings who chased the Doctor across time and space for his near-immortality. This caused the Doctor to forget about who he was and take on his alter ego, John Smith, and form a happy and somewhat peaceful life as Mr. Smith, getting married and having a child.
It isn’t long, however, when the family tracks down and captures the Doctor, where he is forced to remember who he is. This destroys the family and gives them exactly what they want, immortality, but not how they wanted it. Giving each member their own form of evil torturous punishment is one of the Doctor’s darkest moments.
7 The Silence
First appearing in the season six premiere, “The Impossible Astronaut”, The Silence made a powerful introduction by killing the Doctor and shocking fans everywhere. With a ghastly appearance, long fingers, and a black suit, The Silence have a horrifying and nightmarish appearance that has stuck in fans’ minds ever since they burst onto the screen. These Doctor Who villains continued to haunt the Doctor throughout the rest of season six. They again appeared in the 11th Doctor’s final episode before his regeneration to help him fight against an onslaught of attacks from The Daleks, Cybermen, and The Weeping Angels.
6 Vashta Nerada
As one of the scariest Doctor Who villains, The Vashta Nerada made their debut in the haunting episode “The Silence in the Library”, where we learn that these carnivorous creatures can stalk their prey by disguising themselves as shadows. The best way to describe these creatures is to compare them to Piranhas. “The piranhas’s of the air” devour the flesh of any living thing, leaving nothing but bone in their wake. Perhaps the scariest thing of all, is that the terrifying swarm of these flesh-eating creatures are hidden on every planet, even Earth. Remember, “count the shadows”.
5 Zygons
Although the Zygons may not be very scary to some, they are still undoubtedly iconic and are responsible for some of the best moments and episodes in the modern era of Doctor Who. The Zygons are tall, orange creatures surrounded in suckers, very similar to an Octopus. However, what makes The Zygons stand out from the rest of Doctor Who’s stacked rogues gallery is that these creatures can shape-shift into anyone, as well as mimic their voice. The Zygons are the main antagonist of one of Doctor Who’s best episodes and brought three brilliant Doctors together on screen.
4 Weeping Angels
There isn’t much we need to say about these terrifying villains because there is a big chance you have not only heard about them but have also had nightmares of them. The Weeping Angels are horrifying stone statues that have a pretty scary design, but the real fear is how these creatures move and kill their prey. They move when out of sight, and every time one blinks, The Angels will move closer and closer until they have you in their grasp.
Once touched by an Angel, the unfortunate victim is sent back in time when they must live the rest of their lives in a different time period. Essentially, they kill you by making you live. Making their debut in “Blink”, one of Doctor Who’s best and undeniably scariest episodes, The Weeping Angels immediately cemented themselves as great villains that fans were desperate to see again.
3 Cybermen
The Cybermen have been a mainstay in the Doctor Who franchise ever since their debut in the original run of Doctor Who, which started back in 1963. Once the show got revived in 2005, fans were anxiously waiting for The Cybermen to pop up and enslave the human race while tormenting the Doctor. The Cybermen are emotionless robots from another world that constantly change their design, becoming more powerful and upgrading every time we see them.
The main ambition for the Cybermen is to build a bigger army, enslaving the human race by placing their bodies inside the robots and stripping them of all emotion and any semblance of their past lives. The sound of their voices as they chant “Delete” when killing their victims who don’t comply sends shivers down every fan’s spine.
2 Daleks
What villain is more iconic than the Daleks? None. The Daleks have been the antagonist to the Doctor more times than we can count, sporting a brilliant design, as well as raspy robot voices and incredibly deadly weapons. These robots have plagued the Doctor for centuries, and no matter how many times we see them, we still get equally excited and terrified as when we first encountered them. Similarly, the Daleks have been responsible for some of the Doctor’s most tragic moments, exterminating the majority of Earth, as well as killing the Doctor. Not many of the Doctor’s villains can say that.
1 The Master
While perhaps not the most immediately iconic villain on the list, no villain in the franchise is more cunning or mischievous than The Master. As a fellow Time Lord, The Master has constantly tried to torment and destroy the Doctor. He’s taken over Earth many a time, giving the Doctor a Cyberman army, and more recently, in the brilliant special “The Power of The Doctor,” brought the Daleks and The Cybermen together to take down the Doctor, and eventually allowing The Master to turn himself into the Doctor.
The Master, like the Doctor, has regenerated many times, and in the modern era of the franchise, that mantle has been played by many, including John Simm, Michelle Gomez, Derek Jacobi, and more recently, Sacha Dhawan, with each installment bringing something new to the role and all delivering stellar performances.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
