As part of the current series of Doctor Who we’ve seen some new mosters like the Snowmen, Crooked Man and the upcoming Whispermen. We’ve also had the classics make their usual appearances, such as the Daleks and the Cybermen. Most interestingly was the inclusion of the Ice Warriors, Martian creatures who haven’t been seen on the show since way back during the Third Doctor’s era, and the Great Intelligence who fought the Second Doctor. It was a welcome return of almost forgotten foes and they were well updated for the modern age. It also begs the question…who else could make a return? Time to dig through the archives.
#10 – The Monk
The Doctor and The Master are currently the only two Timelords who appear on the show with any regularity. Early on in The Doctor’s adventures who also had a couple of run-ins with The Monk. Like the Doctor the Monk had stolen a Class IV TARDIS from Gallifrey after growing tired with the Timelord’s ideology of non-involvement. In fact, the Doctor inspired the Monk’s crime having stolen a TARDIS some fifty years prior. Whilst the Doctor only wanted to see the universe the Monk would meddle in time for his own amusement and to set history onto what he considered the best path.
Bringing the Monk back would do more than simply give the Doctor another Timelord to interact with (although that would be awesome) but someone with the same abilities but a different outlook. The possibilities of a time-travel battle to change history filmed in the modern era is outright fantastic, especially with a writer like Gaiman or Moffat at the helm. The Monk made two appearances during the First Doctor’s run, once solo and again working with the Daleks.
#9 – Sea Devils
The Silurians were introduced during the Third Doctor’s adventures on Earth and have been a regular feature since. Long before man walked the Earth the dominant species were Homo Reptilia, humanoid reptiles who put their entire population into stasis to protect them from the coming cataclysm that destroyed the dinosaurs, expecting to emerge and reclaim the planet far into their future. Whilst the Silurians roamed the land their ‘cousins’, the Sea Devils, controlled the seas. Appearing only as an amphibious variant on the Silurians they were not as accomplished a species, but were more savage.
With Madame Vastra the Silurians are a common sight in modern Doctor Who. Whilst the Silurians are a complex foe whose motivation is an empathetic one the Sea Devils could be played as a more terrifying enemy. Put the heroes or a group of survivors in a stranded-at-sea scenario with the Sea Devils trying to claw their way inside and we have a nightmare scenario.
#8 – Fendahl
Occasionally we get a creature who has been a part of human history with the Doctor Who only becoming aware of them when they make their play. This can be a rather disconcerting notion, that something can be lurking beneath or surface (literally in the case of the Silurians) biding their time, and never is this quite as disturbing when it came to the Fendahl. Millions of years in the past the Sol system had an unnamed planet between Mars and Jupiter on which evolution took a bad turn and produced the Fendahl. For every Fendahl Core there existed a dozen Fendahleen who would feast on the life energy of anything around them. They were so dangerous that they wiped out all life on their own planet and began feeding on each other before the Timelords stepped in and destroyed them, along with their planet and all memory of their existence.
The skull of one Fendahl Core escaped destruction and found it’s way to Earth. It resembled a human skull with a pentagram on the forehead and would be resurrected when scanned with a sonic time scan. With the Fendahleen once more draining the souls out of people it was revealed that they have manipulated the evolution of humankind to make them ideal nourishment for the alien race. Now that is an unsettling thought.
#7 – Krynoid
Whilst it’s common for the Doctor to be matched up against foes who challenge him intellectually or ethically it would be a change of pace for him to fight something that is outright relentless. When you want relentless the best option is the Krynoid – who is an intergalactic weed. Taking the form of carnivorous plants that can quickly eradicate a global population, they are all but impervious to most forms of attack. After wrecking havoc on a planet the Krynoid propel pods into the dark void of space that eventually find themselves another planet to invade. The pods can survive in any climate for thousands of years before attacking a new population.
Krynoid’s grow incredibly quick and when another creature comes within reach their would take them as a host to grow further. They have demonstrated the ability to mimic the language and movements of their hosts, and their simple psychic ability allows them control nearby plants and animals. Without the ability to reason or emphasize the Krynoid would be a change of pace for the modern Doctor.
#6 – The Celestial Toymaker
Not many Whovians have had the chance to see this foe of the First Doctor as the first three episodes of the four-part serial have been missing for several decades. Still, it sounds like the perfect character for Neil Gaiman to craft an episode around. The Celestial Toymaker is an immensely powerful and eternal creature who captures worthy opponents and sets them traps and puzzles for his own amusement. Although he only appears in one Doctor Who serial it is implied that the two have tangled with each other on more than one occasion in the past.
Although Michael Gough (best known to geeks as Alfred Pennyworth in Tim Burton’s Batman) was set to reprise the character during the Sixth Doctor’s run the episode never got pit into production. Sadly the actor has now passed on (at the age of 94 in 2011) but that doesn’t mean we can’t reprise the character. As said he would be a perfect character for Neil Gaiman to work worth.
#5 – Axos
When the Axons arrived on Earth is a rather dramatic fashion during the time of the Third Doctor they caused quite a stir. Appearing as beautiful golden humanoids they offered to exchange energy from their ship for Axonite, an element with the ability to replicate matter and solve world hunger and energy shortages. Naturally this turns out to be a ruse, and the golden creatures merely drones controlled by the true Axos: the ship itself. The Axos grow from a single celled organism into an intergalactic scavenger who seeks to drain energy from the planets it arrives on in order to continue it’s growth and quest to learn time travel.
The key here would be increasing the scale of the beast. Previously seen as only one small vessel the concept was plenty imaginative, with claws growing out of the walls of the ship to capture intruders. Using modern special effects this base could be build on to produce a haunted spaceship quite unlike any other. The Doctor and his companions would be trapped in a giant biological menace in the coldness of space, forced to compete against an environment that can change at will.
#4 – The Dæmons
It’s a strange coincidence that so many cultures around the world have similar depictions of evil. The idea of a horned, twisted ‘demon’ turns up again and again…so naturally the Doctor has an explanation. When the Master starts digging up strange artefacts from the Bronze Age it is revealed by the Third Doctor that he is trying to summon the Dæmons, an ancient, almost extinct race of aliens who were once immensely powerful and took an interest in the human race. Whenever possible they return to Earth in order to guide human evolution along a set path (with so many alien races doing this you’d wonder why they have fought amongst themselves yet – potential episode?). Whenever one of their evolutionary experiments fails they destroy it, including Atlantis.
The Dæmons never destroy people out of anger or evil. Rather they are cold and logical, acting simply out of scientific curiosity or out of the best interest of the species. By the time the Master has summoned them there is only one member of the race remaining, but he is still powerful enough to eradicate the human race. There immense level of technology is seen as humans to be magic, and their frequent visits to Earth lead to them becoming a key part of human mythology.
#3 – The Black Guardian
During the time of the Fourth Doctor the Timelord found himself summoned before the White Guardian, the anthropomorphic representation of light and goodness. The Guardian tasked him with finding and assembling the six pieces of to the Key of Time, but when the Doctor completed this quest it was revealed that he had been duped by the Black Guardian. Sometimes referred to as the Guardian of Darkness and Chaos, he is the personification of evil. After the Doctor prevented him from obtaining the Key to Time the Guardian sought revenge.
Years after their initial encounter the Guardian returned and tried to destroy the Doctor by manipulating his companions against him. He is always an extremely dangerous foe, having existed beyond the realm of time and taken a hand in creating vampires, trapping Kronos and destroyed Prometheus. His powers far excede the Doctor’s and it is only through cunning that the Doctor can keep ahead of the Guardian of Darkness. When the writers have had their fill of Daleks, Cybermen and the Master this could be the Doctor’s greatest challenge.
#2 – The Mara
Whilst most mosters in the Doctor Who universe are alien in origin the Mara lurks in the subconscious. Once it takes hold of a victim it creates nightmares during their sleep in order to feed on their fear. Suffering and madness is needed by the Mara to sustain itself, and after it delves into a persons minds and invades a culture it drives them to war in order to build it’s strength. As it grows stronger the Mara can take people over more directly, with a snake appearing on their arm.
The few appearances made by the Mara in the past have been very popular, so it’s surprising that it hasn’t been brought back yet. The unusual approach of the villain makes it a very different type of foe for the Doctor, especially the ease with which it can turn people against each other. With the new technologies available exploring a characters subconscious could take on a very different look, plus they’ve never shown what could happen if the Mara gets itself into the Doctor’s head.
#1 – Omega
Since the reboot there hasn’t been much time spent with the Timelords or the planet Gallifrey. This is in part due to the Timelords being wiped out during the Time War. If there’s one enemy they should bring back it’s the one Time Lord who’s crazier than the Doctor and the Master combined: Omega. This character was an ancient Time Lord who unravelled the mystery of time travel, propelling the Gallifreyans into becoming the powerful race they became known as. Omega’s ambition didn’t stop there, as he investigated a method of increasing the Time Lord power by exploding stars. With the universe at risk the Time Lords turned against Omega and tried to kill him by exposing him to a black hole.
Omega survived and traveled through the black hole to the anti-matter universe on the other side, which he came to rule. Although the Time Lords grew up revering the legend of Omega, the lost genius grew bitter and angry with them. Whilst he could manipulate the anti-matter universe through the power of will the radiation ate away at his physical form so he eventually became an empty shell of armor. He has grown obsessed with returning to the real universe to exact his revenge on the Time Lords. During his first attack it took the combined efforts of the First, Second and Third Doctor’s to prevent him from wiping out their entire race. How is Steven Moffat not itching to write a character like this into the show again?
