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The Best...Doctor Who monster

Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor with a Sea Devil
  • Posted at 1:13pm
  • 30 January 2007
  • by NickGriffiths-RT
  • 11 comments

As contentious issues go, this must be right up there with "Marmite is lovely", "David Dickinson is naturally orange" and "I can assure you, that was my winning lottery ticket".

Most people would pick that most iconic of Doctor Who monsters, the Daleks. But they would be wrong. (Told you it was going to be contentious.)

Trundling around on castors, banging on about ruling the universe while noticeably never managing to do so, pronouncing things in syllables - "Doc-tor!", "Ex-ter-min-ate!", "My, what a pre-tty em-broi-dered kit-ten!" - as if swotting for their GCSE English. Opposable thumbs? These guys don't even have opposable sink plungers! As manual dexterity goes, the Daleks can unblock a drain. But they can't play Kerplunk.

Of course, they still look great and, having no arms or legs, fail to resemble a bloke in a rubber suit - but scary? Do me a favour. (Nip downstairs and make us a cuppa.)

Cybermen are the obvious second choice. They look great, too, though you could often spot some recognisably un-alien costume portion - a diving suit here, a cricket glove there - painted silver on older versions, which marred the effect. Meanwhile, the new Cybermen, while slinky, were so easily outgunned by the Daleks that you started to feel sorry for them. And their leader was in Only Fools and Horses.

Then there was the Loch Ness Monster (from Tom Baker's Terror of the Zygons, 1975), which looked like a glove puppet a small child had knocked up using two gobstoppers, four lolly sticks and a hamster named Nigel. Though the production people often worked miracles using major ingenuity, sometimes the budget and time constraints made genius impossible.

So what is the best Doctor Who monster?

For this, viewer, there are three main criteria: it has to look inhuman; it can't feature any recognisable everyday item from the 20th century (eg a sink plunger); and it has to be so scary that you trail wee to the next place you visit.

For purity's sake, CGI monsters are inadmissible. So I'm left with two:

Hmm. The Zygons looked like giant orange foetuses being attacked by an octopus, which is laudable... But after deliberating for far too long, when I could have been out planting trees instead, the winner is: the Sea Devil.

* The Sea Devils (from The Sea Devils - see what they did there? - starring Jon Pertwee, 1972)

* The Zygons (also from Baker's Terror of the Zygons, proof that for every down there is an up)

To make them seem unnaturally tall, the actor wore the headpiece on top of his own head and looked out of the neck. They were lopping great things that seemed to be covered in seaweed, boasting this terrifying tadpole head with bulging eyes. And they killed people with a large torch.

Inspired, bonkers - and terrifying. The best Doctor Who monster ever. Probably.

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Comments

  • Posted on 18 August 2009
  • at 4:11pm
  • by Eric

The Jagorafess was fun; and the giant demon in the bowels of that planet in orbit around the black hole was pretty good as a scarer. But I still do love the Daleks, from the very first to the very latest.

But wasn't anyone scared by the very first "monsters", i.e. the cavemen? I certainly was.

But the scariest, scariest thing of all was the original theme music and spooky screen images.

  • Posted on 13 August 2009
  • at 7:31pm
  • by ilovetoffie

got to be the weeping angels it was the only episode of doctor who that gave me a nightmare

  • Posted on 06 July 2008
  • at 9:44pm
  • by HelenHackworthy-RT

We recently conducted a survey here on RadioTimes.com to find the scariest monster in Doctor Who - here's how you voted:

http://www.radiotimes.com/doctor-who-scariest-monster

  • Posted on 06 July 2008
  • at 3:07pm
  • by Nicola

i think that the daleks or the absorbalof are the best monsters i like the weeping angels in blink too

  • Posted on 28 June 2008
  • at 8:24pm
  • by Immi

Got to be the weeping angels. They gave me nightmares. My dad too!

  • Posted on 25 April 2008
  • at 11:25pm
  • by JohnChant

The reviewer who says the Autons has picked the biggest scare factor, as far as I'm concerned. I still found them so with the opening story of new series one. They are so normal, and, in that respect beat all the other creations of the writers and modellers. I, too, can picture them acting in our everyday world exactly as they do in the stories.

The worst monster ever was the creation that was judged winner of a competition for children. The absorbing man was such a poor specimen the Doctor zapped it like a mosquito in nothing flat when he did turn up. Making that episode which was filmed side by side with another but did not feature the main character of the show until the very end was an insult to the viewer. It did not deserve a place in the DVDs of the show.

How could that story be a part of the same series that featured the 'girl in the fireplace' which I think might have been the best story ever. I can't see any of the other actors who have played the Doctor being able to carry that one off in the same way as David Tennant. The robot 'villains' there were spectacular as well. I hope they come back in some other story as they were so well designed and their motives were honourable even if their programming was at fault.

  • Posted on 02 April 2008
  • at 8:37pm
  • by dudette1812

no way! the best doctor who monster was the weeping angels in the episode blink. the only ep of doctor who that made me scared.

  • Posted on 09 October 2007
  • at 2:24pm
  • by lawsw6

You're obviously too young to remember... The Ice Warriors... lisping frozen vikings... very scary...

  • Posted on 17 March 2007
  • at 12:14pm
  • by Peter Grehan

Dismissing the Daleks, based purely on their looks sort of misses the point. There can be no doubt that the Daleks were influenced by the cyborg Martians in 'War of The Worlds' and the subterranean Morlocks from 'The Time Machine. Both of these were in turn influenced by Darwinian evolution theory which displaced us from that special position in the order of things, suggesting that we might devolve into lesser life-forms or be out evolved by other life-forms. It also played on our recurring fear of becoming more machine like than the machines we create. Terry Nation added a modern twist to these fears, at the height of the 'Cold War', by suggesting that our evolution could be contaminated and derailled by the real threat of nuclear fall-out. In addition he painted a picture of high tech Nazis justifying every inhuman act simply because they have the power to do so. Are we so different today? Maybe that's their most frightening aspect?

  • Posted on 11 February 2007
  • at 9:01pm
  • by Paul Sheehan

For me, the most disturbing monster or alien, if you can count them as either, would be the original autons from Spearhead in Space in 1970. They were, in my opinion, without a doubt scarier then the modern counterparts from the first episode of the revived series in 2005. I can imagine the image of hordes of wax dummies lurching through the steets of London would have put a generation off window shopping for life!

Of the new series for me the best monster is Empress of Rachnoss from the 2007 Christmas special. A superbly realised make-up job and a tremendous performance by Sarah Parrish.

  • Posted on 30 January 2007
  • at 4:34pm
  • by Soxer123

And how about the worst monster? I reckon it has to be the one made of oversized Bassetts Liquorice Allsorts.

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