Top 10 Terrifying Monsters of Doctor Who

As creator of an apparently endless army of emotionless cyborg aliens, Davros has terrified generations of Who fans. The Daleks are easily the most famous of the Doctor’s foes, and their robotic refrains are a nightmare soundtrack to some of the Time Lord’s tensest battles. Their scare factor has waned slightly with time, but Davros remains as creepy a commander in chief as you could ever wish to meet. Withered with immense age and barely alive, he’s best recognised by a single cybernetic eye smack in the middle of his forehead.

DW writers are famed for turning even the most mundane aspects of life into something potentially savage. In this case, it’s shadows. Described by the Doctor as ‘piranhas of the air’, Vashta Nerada are tiny specs of dust… But when they swarm together they can instantly melt flesh and kill people. Featured prominently in the fourth series episode, “Silence in the Library”, the only way to deal with an infestation is to stay within the light. Which is easier said than done when you’re surrounded by rows and rows of ancient, towering bookshelves.

You might think that a face like this is difficult to forget, but that’s exactly the power that The Silence possesses. With a look inspired by Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”, The Silence is a religious order which has plagued humanity for centuries. But everyone’s oblivious because it’s impossible to remember them. With electrokinetic powers and the ability to reduce anyone to ash at a moment’s notice, the Silence have supposedly engineered all of human history without us realising. Which means you might’ve already seen them today. Maybe they’re right behind you, right now.

As a rule, anything which worries the Doctor is something worth worrying about. And this thing had David Tennant very concerned. When the Doctor visits the resort planet ‘Midnight’, a shuttle trip is scuppered by a break down and the emergence of a bodiless entity which repeats everything anyone says. What sounds like an annoying playground game becomes very frightening very quickly, and hysteria descends on the Doctor’s travelling group. With Leslie Sharp playing a perfectly possessed passenger, things get real weird when the entity begins predicting what the Doctor says next.

Even the Doctor has nightmares, and in the penultimate episode of series nine he’s forced to face them on repeat. Still reeling from Clara’s death, Peter Capaldi’s ‘Twelve’ is transported to an isolated castle where, in a trippy turn of events, he suffers life on loop for two billion years. The Veil, a hooded embodiment of the Doctor’s greatest fears, relentlessly pursues him throughout the ordeal. It’s not quick or especially violent, but it never quits. Ghostly appearances aside, being endlessly followed by whatever scares you most is top level terrifying.

In classic Who fashion, this series eight outing features a famous story rewritten with time travel. The Foretold is villain of the piece, laying waste to a futuristic version of the Orient Express, while the Doctor is tasked with working out why, how and who’s next. But this mummy-esque monster can only be seen by the soon-to-be-dead. Essentially a 66-second death sentence, it’s rotting, bandaged body is the last thing you’ll ever witness. Place a tension-building timer bottom left of our screens and heart-rates have rarely been so high.

To one of David Tennant’s most iconic TARDIS adventures, and a fight against The Devil himself. The Beast dwells at the centre of an impossibly old planet, raging to be set upon the universe. And while its form remains unknown for much of this two-parter, it infiltrates a deep space exploration crew, possessing a crew-member and a legion of Ood. Tennant’s tenth Time Lord does get a glimpse of the monster itself however, for a fiery face-off and an epic speech. Brought to life by Gabriel Woolf’s booming vocals, The Beast brought Satan to Saturday night TV.

Next we travel to mid-Blitz London, but the air raids aren’t the only concern for worried residents. The Empty Child is a ghostly, gas mask-wearing figure, forever looking for its ‘mummy’. In terms of danger and aggression, the Doctor has faced plenty more troublesome adversaries in his time. But this character is one of the most harrowing in the show’s history. And, as nanogenes work to replicate the look, the eeriest of armies is created. Special mention for Captain Jack Harkness; this was his first trip with the Doctor, and he didn’t run a mile afterwards.

If you can’t trust the water, then what can you trust? This 2009 special sees the Tenth Doctor visit Earth’s first Martian colony in 2059 during a fixed point in time in which it explodes. The catalyst for this cataclysm? The water source. A contagious virus known as The Flood gradually infects the crew, turning everyone into saturated, zombie-like creatures. Their cracked faces and watery complexion combined with a crazed look and evolving intelligence makes for a monster even the Doctor cannot defeat, no matter how far he bends the rules.

Almost as old as the universe itself, the Weeping Angels take today’s terrifying crown even though they rarely kill their victims. That would be a waste of time energy. Instead, they transport their targets to the past, leaving them to live out their existence elsewhere. And nothing is deadlier, stealthier or more disturbing than an Angel in pursuit. Time-locked as statues whenever they’re observed, turn away for a millisecond and they’re at your throat. The Angels aren’t the Doctor’s only statuesque enemy, but they’re hands down the scariest. Just ask the 1930s New York tourist board.