Not every monster has access to the Daleks' talent agent...
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00:00The Doctor has faced a great deal of terrifying foes throughout their travels.
00:04Given the vast expanse of all of time and space, it's incredibly surprising when the
00:09Doctor bumps into those foes again.
00:10Looking through the prism of a long-running television drama that has to attract audiences,
00:15it becomes a lot clearer as to why big hitters like the Daleks, Cybermen, and the Master
00:20all regularly return to ruin the Doctor's day.
00:23The Daleks practically secured Doctor Who's longevity the minute they waved a sucker arm
00:28in Barbara's face way back in 1963, and writers and showrunners repeatedly return to the Daleks
00:34nearly six decades later.
00:37Some monsters and villains don't get as lucky as the Daleks and the Master, however.
00:41It's not for lack of trying.
00:42The Sea Devils, for example, were a huge part of the cultural memory of 1970s Doctor Who.
00:48The Zygons from 1975's Tom Baker serial captured the imagination of a young David Tennant,
00:54but they didn't return to the series until 2013.
00:57And then there are monsters even unluckier than that, those who are clearly brilliant,
01:02but have, to date, never returned to the TV series.
01:06So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with Who Culture, here with 10 Doctor Who Villains
01:10You're Surprised Only Appeared Once.
01:1310.
01:14Fenric
01:15Fenric and the Doctor have a long history with each other.
01:18First appearing in the seventh Doctor classic, The Curse of Fenric, he was the original evil
01:23from the dawn of time.
01:25An earlier incarnation of the Doctor and Fenric first met in 3rd century Constantinople, where
01:29the Doctor defeated the Intelligence in a game of chess and imprisoned him in a flask.
01:34From his prison, Fenric manipulated the seventh Doctor's timeline in order to free himself
01:38from his prison.
01:39The Doctor and Ace eventually defeated Fenric once more, but the old evil played a big role
01:44in the seventh Doctor's big finish series of audios.
01:47Fenric was intrinsically linked to the legendary Cartmel Master Plan that would suggest the
01:52Doctor was more than a Time Lord.
01:54With that in mind, it wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility for Fenric to have
01:57been defeated by Joe Martin's Fugitive Doctor in The Employ of Division, or by another of
02:03the Timeless Doctors.
02:04Whichever Doctor defeated him first, it's surely time for another rematch.
02:08If only so the Doctor's last important chess game wasn't that awful one from Nightmare
02:12in Silver.
02:149.
02:15Eternals
02:16Enlightenment is one of the best Peter Davison serials.
02:19Taking place during an intergalactic yacht race, it introduces the Eternals as god-like
02:23beings that play games with dispensable human pawns for prizes.
02:27The Doctor is rightly horrified, and his confrontation with Stryker gives Davison some of his best
02:33material in the role.
02:34The Eternals have been mentioned in passing throughout the new series, but haven't yet
02:38made a return.
02:39Or at least, not explicitly.
02:41In the 13th Doctor Adventure Can You Hear Me?, the TARDIS team come up against Zelen,
02:46who can manifest people's fears and do weird things with his fingers.
02:49He tricks the Doctor into freeing his lover R'Kaia, but is of course eventually defeated.
02:54While not explicitly referenced as Eternals on screen, a tie-in story entitled The Guide
03:00to the Dark Times was published in the official Doctor Who Annual 2021.
03:05Written by River Song, it outlines the history of the mythical Dark Times, and suggests that
03:09Zelen and R'Kaia were Eternals.
03:11Regardless of whether this was the intention of the original script, a Doctor Who story
03:15that tackles gods who treat human beings as toys would be fantastic.
03:19It's a regular fallback plot across the Star Trek series, so isn't it about time
03:24that the Doctor had their own queue?
03:268.
03:27Skarrison
03:28The Zygons finally returned to Doctor Who in the 2010s, but when they did, their pet
03:33Skarrison was nowhere to be found.
03:36In their original story, Terror of the Zygons, this terrifying creature was key to the story.
03:41The Skarrison was revealed to be the actual Loch Ness Monster, and the Zygons themselves
03:45survived on the creature's milk.
03:47Loch Ness Monster Milk.
03:49A product that even the Scottish Tourist Board wouldn't even consider marketing.
03:53The realisation of the Skarrison on screen was one of those notoriously ropey Doctor
03:58Who monsters, so it's perhaps unsurprising that the Skarrison hasn't yet made an appearance
04:03in the new series.
04:04After all, it hardly fits with the Zygon invasion in Version's political allegory of terrorism
04:09and immigration.
04:11However, if Legend of the Sea Devils can reinvent the Murka as a terrifying sea creature, then
04:15they can do the same for the Skarrison.
04:17Perhaps a period adventure set around the time of the first Nessie sighting, where curious
04:21scientists accidentally awaken the Zygons under the Loch a few decades early.
04:26Scotland is all too rarely visited in Doctor Who, so it's about time that it paid Nessie
04:31the Skarrison a visit.
04:337.
04:34Axons
04:35The John Pertwee serial The Claws of Axos is a bit of an underrated classic.
04:39It's the first story by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, who would go on to co-create K-9 and
04:44tackle some very timely concerns around energy.
04:48With the world facing an energy crisis, alien visitors land in the English home counties
04:53to offer clean, renewable energy to humanity.
04:56Of course, their gift comes at a price, and soon the Doctor has to team up with the Master
04:59to avert their dastardly plans, trapping them inside a time loop.
05:03The Axons are still stuck in that time loop on screen, though they've occasionally escaped
05:08to wreak havoc in two Big Finish audios, the second of which is to be released later
05:12this year.
05:13As humanity continues to discuss the financial and environmental costs of fuel, surely the
05:18Axons are primed for a comeback.
05:21It would surely be a foolish endeavour for the Axons to try the same grift twice, but
05:25humanity's never been great at learning from their history.
05:28It would take the Doctor to pop in and save us from our own errors once more.
05:31They're an incredibly striking looking creation, though, sort of psychedelic golden gods.
05:36Their true form, all orange tendrils, would later be repainted to become crinoids, but
05:41more on those later.
05:436.
05:44Gods of Ragnarok
05:45In The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, the Doctor and Ace visit the Psychic Circus, which has
05:50been taken over by the Ancient Gods of Ragnarok.
05:53These ancient beings crave entertainment and wear those in their employ down, demanding
05:58endless entertainment and new and more exciting and thrilling acts each time.
06:03The gods were clearly a metaphor for those higher up in the BBC at the time, when Doctor
06:07Who was on the way out.
06:08However, from a contemporary perspective, aren't they also a metaphor for the endless
06:12stream of TV talent shows?
06:14It's so crazy that during Russell T Davies' first era, when Doctor Who was regularly pitted
06:19against shows like Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor, that he never considered
06:23writing a satire of those shows.
06:25Given how willing everyone was to play along with the reality show satire in Doctor Who's
06:29very first season, it's strange that they never attempted it.
06:32But then maybe that's why, the worry that to have a Greatest Show in the Galaxy sequel
06:36would be too similar to Bad Wolf.
06:38So it's a good job RTD's coming back, then.
06:425.
06:43Rootans
06:44The Sontarans' mortal enemies may look like balls of snot, but they're deadly shapeshifters
06:49with plenty of unrealised potential.
06:52While they've been name-checked in the new series, they've never actually appeared
06:55in an episode.
06:56However, they have appeared in multiple comic strips, novels, fan films, and even video
07:01games.
07:02It's perhaps the Rootans' jellyfish-like appearance that has barred them from returning
07:05to the series after The Horror of Fang Rock.
07:08How to effectively realise their appearance without being totally embarrassing probably
07:12makes Doctor Who's practical and visual effects team wake up in a cold sweat.
07:16However, the Rootans are shapeshifters.
07:19The Horror of Fang Rock is essentially John Carpenter's The Thing in a lighthouse.
07:23No one's sure who's who as this deadly alien works their murderous way through the
07:27inhabitants of the lighthouse as they assess the strategic importance of planet Earth.
07:32While The Zygon Invasion slash Inversion has already done the shapeshifting political thriller,
07:37there's surely plenty of scope for another shapeshifter story in modern Doctor Who.
07:41Or perhaps given Flux's epic space battles, the time is right to finally see what a Sontaran
07:47and Rootan war actually looks like.
07:494.
07:50The Wirren
07:52Bill Moffat and Russell T Davies have both sang the praises of the Ark in Space over
07:55the years, so it's odd that there's never been a sequel.
07:58Perhaps they felt the pressure of following a story that has such a lauded position in
08:02the canon.
08:03It's a shame, because the Wirren are suitably horrifying creations that could be realised
08:07to great effect with modern visual effects.
08:09The Wirren are human-sized insect creatures that breed by using cattle species to grow
08:14their eggs.
08:15In the Ark in Space, this is the crew of the Nerva Beacon, and is portrayed to horrifying
08:20effect with some of the most creative use of green bubble wrap that you'll ever see.
08:24It's so effective that a recent Bruce Willis film called Breach has practically the same
08:28plot, but couldn't come close to matching the horror, despite the slightly more advanced
08:33effects work and a higher age rating.
08:35Maybe this is key to why the Wirren haven't yet returned to the series, as any Doctor
08:39Who production team is wary of recreating the alchemy of those early Tom Baker stories.
08:44Regardless, these creepy-crawlies are long overdue a return.
08:483.
08:50Everyone forgets that the fourth episode is actually a bit rubbish, but Pyramids of Mars
08:55is a stone-cold Doctor Who classic.
08:57It pits the Doctor against an Egyptian god imprisoned on Mars, and introduces the Asyrans,
09:03god-like aliens in the Doctor Who universe.
09:05There have been demonic aliens introduced in the third Doctor era, but here was the
09:09show tackling the gods themselves.
09:12Sutek has never returned to the TV series, but one of his relations travelled with the
09:1610th Doctor in the comics.
09:17Gabriel Wolfe, who played Sutek in Pyramids of Mars, has returned to the series, playing
09:22the voice of the Beast in The Impossible Planet slash The Satan Pit.
09:26To date, however, no Sutek.
09:28Having the Doctor take on an Egyptian god would be an epic season finale, so it's
09:32strange that it's not happened yet.
09:34Now that the MCU is making Egyptology cool again with their Moon Knight series, maybe
09:39the 14th Doctor will be taking on the Asyrans in a future episode.
09:44It would certainly push the show in a much-needed new direction, away from the alien invasion
09:48plots that have become overly familiar.
09:512.
09:52The Dream Lord
09:53Arguably, the Dream Lord is the Valiard, the embodiment of the Doctor's worst impulses.
09:58However, his genesis is different, the product of spores that find their way into the TARDIS
10:03systems.
10:04The Dark Doctor is an incredibly compelling concept, so much so that the Matt Smith era
10:09tried it again with much less success in Neil Gaiman's difficult second story, Nightmare
10:15in Silver.
10:16It's odd that the Dream Lord hasn't returned in the series, there certainly appeared to
10:18be unfinished business at the end of Amy's Choice.
10:21The availability of Toby Jones needn't be a problem either, as you could have a different
10:25Dream Lord for each Doctor actor.
10:27We've had opportunities for the Doctor actors to play darker versions of themselves over
10:31the years since Amy's Choice, but nothing that's captured the Doctor's self-loathing
10:36and anxiety.
10:37It's strange that a story like Can You Hear Me, which was all about mental health, didn't
10:42the Dream Lord as the embodiment of the Doctor's own anxieties and mental health concerns.
10:47Perhaps the introduction of the Fugitive Doctor put a page to that idea, so for now, the Dream
10:52Lord is still out there, waiting.
10:541.
10:55The Crinoid
10:56The Seeds of Doom is an absolute cracker of a Tom Baker story.
10:59It begins by riffing on the Thing from Another World, long before John Carpenter and Kurt
11:04Russell did to great acclaim in 1982.
11:07After the Doctor and Sarah's Antarctic sojourn, they return to the UK to stop unhinged millionaire
11:12Harrison Chase from playing in his Green Cathedral and unleashing the terrifying crinoid upon
11:18the world.
11:19The crinoid are a great creation by Zygon creator Robert Banks Stewart.
11:24Carnivorous plant life that consume animal life, their pods can transform other beings
11:28into plant life too, prompting the Doctor to recall that on planets where the crinoid
11:32take root, all animal life cease to exist.
11:36The crinoid have dug their tendrils into various bits of Doctor Who spin-off media,
11:40but haven't yet returned to the series.
11:42As plant-based diets have become increasingly popular in recent years, and with the return
11:46of Russell T Davies to the show, the time is surely right for a crinoid return.
11:52It's in RTD's wheelhouse to use an old Doctor Who monster to comment on our contemporary
11:56society, and a story about plants that eat humans feels relevant at a time where we're
12:00all questioning our impact on nature.
12:03And that concludes our list.
12:05If you have any other suggestions, then do let us know in the comments below.
12:08And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification
12:11bell.
12:12Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, at WhoCulture, and I can be found across various
12:17social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
12:19I've been Ellie with WhoCulture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye sweeties.