10 Smartest Villain Plans In Doctor Who
Some Doctor Who villains are far more cunning than others...
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00:00 When you stand back and look at Doctor Who, the majority of the villains weren't all
00:03 powerful beings. They're scavengers, taking advantage of whatever's to hand to make
00:08 the most of a bad situation. Maybe that makes them smart, maybe that makes them lazy, but
00:13 whichever way you look at it, you'd be hard pressed to find a scheme that wouldn't have
00:16 succeeded if it wasn't for the Doctor's intervention.
00:20 Pretty much every villain the Doctor has fought would have got away with it if it wasn't
00:24 for the Doctor or their companion saving the day. And some of them had some pretty smarty
00:28 pants plans that we're genuinely impressed by.
00:31 And so, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhoCulture, here with the 10 smartest villain
00:36 plans in Doctor Who.
00:38 10. 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. That's the tactic Matron Cephalia under the alias
00:51 Miss Foster took when she was tasked 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
01:07 babies. It's the one plan on this list that, in fairness, might have actually benefited
01:11 humanity under more agreeable conditions. Even the Doctor eventually admits that, as
01:15 a diet plan, it sort of works. It's just a saying that using a level 5 planet for breeding
01:20 is against galactic law.
01:22 Besides, Miss Foster had her eyes on much more than just weight loss. Ultimately, she
01:26 planned to conduct emergency pathogenesis, a process by which human hair, bones, and
01:31 organs can also be converted, leaving nothing left. The Doctor was able to put a stop to
01:36 this scheme by hacking the Adipose computer, but there was nothing he could do about the
01:40 Adipose that had already been bred, other than let them live, which means that, to quote
01:44 the Doctor himself, Miss Foster's plan sort of worked.
01:48 9. 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. Frontier in Space most definitely falls into
02:02 the latter category.
02:03 In the 26th century, humans and draconians are able to exist alongside each other, but
02:09 allegations of attacks on each other's territory are rife, heightening tensions between the
02:13 two species. The real culprit? The Commissioner of Sirius Four, otherwise known as The Master,
02:19 who is using a hypnosound machine to disguise ogrons as humans and draconians, with the
02:24 intention of provoking a full-scale war. As revealed at the serial's end, this is part
02:29 of a larger plan to pave the way for 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. In fact, Frontier in Space marks Roger Delgado's final appearance
02:44 in the show, as he would 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. But as things stand, this is definitely his most ambitious.
02:59 8. The Ravagers in Flux The Ravagers, otherwise known as Swarm and
03:04 Azure, were the overarching antagonists of Series 13, and for a while, we were constantly
03:09 in the dark about their true motives. But if you stand back and look at it, their plan,
03:14 though technically complex, is actually pretty simple. Swarm and Azure are the ultimate scavengers.
03:20 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? By using Division's most powerful weapons
03:28 against it. After building a psychotemporal bridge capable
03:32 of reaching Division's base, the pair are able to complete the first part of their plan,
03:37 doing away with Head Honcho Tecteun. But their ultimate goal is to do away with all physical
03:42 things in the universe. And how? By hijacking the Flux to create endless destruction, and
03:47 then using time to replay that destruction in an endless loop. If the Doctor hadn't
03:52 managed to in turn hijack the Flux against them, the Ravagers would have succeeded, with
03:57 devastating results for the entire universe.
04:00 7. Scaroth in City of Death Scaroth, last of the Jaggeroth, is a textbook
04:06 example of making the most of a bad situation. When his ship exploded in prehistoric Earth,
04:11 he was flung into the Time Vortex and split into 12 splinters of himself, scattered across
04:17 Earth's history. Scaroth's twelfth incarnation found himself
04:20 in Paris 1979, a period where, obviously, time travel had not yet developed. However,
04:26 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. These could then
04:44 be sold in 1979 to make a quick buck. In the end, Scaroth's ultimate plan, to
04:49 go back in time and prevent his ship from exploding, was sabotaged. But his plan was
04:53 very smart, and he was successful in one regard. When most copies of the Mona Lisa are destroyed
04:58 in a fire, including the original, the only copy left is one of Scaroth's fakes. So,
05:04 in a sense, we've got him to thank for the fact that the painting still exists today.
05:08 6. 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. But
05:24 one thing that hadn't changed was the Master's knack for a good old evil plan.
05:28 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.
05:41 Of course, the truth was a lot darker. In reality, this mystery location was the Nether
05:45 Sphere, a cloud-based depository to which mines were uploaded and then downloaded into
05:51 new Cybermen bodies. Missy's ultimate aim? To gift this new army of Cybermen to the Doctor
05:57 as a birthday present.
05:59 But there's more. How did the Doctor become embroiled in Missy's plan? Through his companion
06:03 Clara, whose partner Danny was killed in a hit and run. Might Missy have been the one
06:08 driving the car to ensure the whole chain of events was set in motion? It's not the
06:12 most unlikely headcanon.
06:13 5. Davros in Revelation of the Daleks
06:17 Missy wasn't the only one to take advantage of dead bodies. In fact, the Doctor's other
06:21 nemesis Davros got there first, fashioning a new race of Daleks from the dead. And having
06:27 established himself as the head of Funeral Parlour Tranquil Repose, he was perfectly
06:31 placed to do so.
06:32 This wasn't the only string to Davros' bow, however. Ever resourceful, he used the
06:37 remains of these, well, remains, to create a revolutionary new food source for a famine-ridden
06:43 galaxy. This, in turn, bolstered his reputation as the philanthropic Great Healer, which enabled
06:49 him 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. Unlike Missy, however, his aims were more traditional - to conquer the
07:01 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
07:12 on trial - a goal they managed to achieve. In the commotion, he lost his surviving hand,
07:17 hence why the Davros of the Revival series has a metal gauntlet.
07:21 4. 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. The average person spends one third of their life sleeping. Rasmussen
07:34 sought to do something about this, and he succeeded. His Morpheus Pods, named after
07:39 the God of Dreams, were capable of concentrating a month of sleep into five minutes, enabling
07:45 its user to spend more time awake. They were loved by some and hated by others, but you
07:50 can't deny that, at least in principle, it's not a bad idea.
07:53 But there was a catch. When we sleep, dust builds up in the corner of our eyes. The more
07:57 time we spend asleep, the more this dust builds up, and the electronic signal transmitted
08:02 by the Morpheus Pods had the unfortunate catch of giving this dust sentience, creating carnivorous
08:07 sandmen. Which is kinda gross when you think about it. I mean, the sleepy dust in your
08:11 eyes making creatures? Grim. The Doctor managed to destroy the Morpheus
08:15 Pods which hadn't yet been distributed, and sought to destroy all those that had. But
08:20 Rasmussen, being a genius, had one more trick up his sleeve - a video recording into which
08:24 the Morpheus signal was encoded, infecting anyone who watched it. And not just any video
08:30 recording, but the very episode of Doctor Who we'd all just witnessed. Does anyone
08:34 else feel like they need to rub their eyes now?
08:37 Number 3 - Rassilon in The Five Doctors As one of the founders of Time Lord Society,
08:42 it was important that Rassilon maintained his position. So he designed a test, the Game
08:47 of Rassilon, for anyone who sought to usurp him. And in fairness, it worked. The challenge?
08:53 To reach Rassilon's tomb in the Death Zone on Gallifrey. The reward? The Ring of Rassilon,
08:58 which bestows immortality upon its wearer. At least, this is what fellow Time Lord Barusa
09:03 understood the Game of Rassilon to be. But there was a catch. A riddle hidden in plain
09:07 sight inscribed on an obelisk in the tomb. "To lose is to win, and he who wins shall
09:13 lose." Though that clearly sounds like a warning,
09:16 Barusa doesn't care one bit, as he discovers the Ring of Rassilon does indeed grant its
09:21 wearer immortality, albeit not in the form of perpetual regeneration, but perpetual imprisonment,
09:27 as a mummified face on the side of Rassilon's 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.
09:39 Number 2 - 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. But forget
09:47 about the flatulence, and you're left with a surprisingly canny, watertight 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. It
10:02 all begins with that iconic shot of a spaceship scuffing the side of Big Ben before landing
10:06 in the Thames. Its pilot? A spacesuit-clad pig, designed to distract from the real aliens
10:12 while they establish themselves at the heart of the British government. Their goal? To
10:16 incite enough panic to initiate a third world war, reducing the Earth to smithereens which
10:21 can then be sold on the black market. Meanwhile, they can escape in their spaceship, conveniently
10:26 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'd seen in the show up to this point. It's never going
10:37 to be the thing the Slitheen are best remembered for, but that doesn't stop it from being
10:41 a genuinely brilliant plan.
10:43 1. The Monks in The Monk Trilogy
10:47 The Monks are, without a doubt, the most duplicitous race to ever stage an invasion of Earth. For
10:52 one thing, they had a lot of practice, using a highly sophisticated simulation of the planet
10:57 to determine the optimum time and place to strike. For another, they rule not through
11:01 force but through a contract of consent. Once they've secured that consent by, for example,
11:07 posing as saviours in the face of a genuine natural catastrophe and framing their dominion
11:11 as the least worst option, 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. For a time, it
11:28 seems even the Doctor has fallen under their spell. Ultimately, Bill is able to corrupt
11:32 the Monks' propaganda with memories of her mother, but if it wasn't for that, their
11:36 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. It's surely only a matter
11:46 of time before they just strike again.
11:48 And that concludes our list. If you think we missed any, then do let us know in the
11:52 comments below, and while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe, and
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11:59 to Twitter and follow us there, and Instagram as well. I've been Ellie, with WhoCulture,
12:03 and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.