10 Doctor Who Villains With Terrifying Abilities

[@buckyball2003]

I always thought the conversion into a cyberman was one of the most horrifying things to happen to someone in Doctor Who

[@kstormgeistgem461]

on a similar vein, being turned into a dalek. just basically any of them that carve away at a person to cram them into being a Non-person... one of the reasons the fnaf franchise as held people's nightmares as coin for a while now, i'd say.

[@stephaniemantle5029]

Yes!!! I've said this! Anything that strips away your humanity but keeps you alive in a way is always the worst for me. Cybermen, daleks, empty child... They get me bad

[@bleentrean5849]

The Cybermen conversion is pretty quick though, and your feelings are destroyed almost straight away.

[@burlzn04]

Same

[@mattthesilent777RED]

@@bleentrean5849 I hate the Thirteenth Doctor so much I wish she was made into a Cyberman

[@Amanda-zn7ox]

The Vashta Nerada are quite terrifying, as well. Literally lurking in the shadows, which are impossible to avoid, then strip you down into a skeleton and leaving just an echo of your consciousness for a brief moment. Though, if I'm remembering right, that last part was due to the suits River and her crew were wearing.

[@oldhatAN]

You are remembering right.

[@ak73372]

Nice pfp

[@tgiacin435]

It was the communicators on the suits

[@jordishez5517]

I was literally expecting this one to be in this video!! Literally terrifying

[@Fyreflier]

And it's not every shadow. But _any_ shadow... No way of knowing which, if any, is a safe one

[@danthemeegs8751]

Moffat underutilising the Whispermen WAS A CRIME. Finally good to give them some more recognition!

[@BrandonJPearce]

Agreed!

[@dorisweingart9250]

I dunno ive found the Angels scarier , the hats on whisperman ruined IT for me

[@alim.9801]

@@dorisweingart9250 I can see that, makes sense

[@millievariants]

I liked the whispermen because it was like they mixed the silence and the trickster (two of my favourite villains).

[@theevildalek5425]

If we’re going to have the Abzorbaloff then we have to have the Slitheen because...being killed, skinned and worn by your killer is quite dark if you ask me. Heck, they could be skinning you alive! Also in the Sarah Jane Adventures, there is a Child Slitheen who wears 2 different disguises over his appearance...meaning that in a KIDS SHOW, 2 kids were killed, skinned and worn as a disguise...Wow.

[@PlanetNateGaming]

the Slitheen kinda gave me nightmares when I was 11-12 (You can understand why)

[@user-lx1hn6lp9h]

They are the only creature in doctor who to ever scare me. I wasnt even remotely scared of the weeping angels, silence or vasta nerada but the slitheen pretti much traumatised me for a good 3-4yrs

[@gregkava1276]

@@PlanetNateGaming i thought they were cute......... its their eyes

[@PlanetNateGaming]

@@gregkava1276 the whole skin suit thing is what creeped me out LOL

[@TheSlumberingSanctuary]

I thought the skin suits were synthetically made.

[@Ourpalalex]

The Silence are the most terrifying concept to me because of how quickly you could go insane by the lost of your memories and them return each time you look at them all without them touching you. Add to that they can zap you from who knows how far away, you are rather helpless.

[@Athyxer]

You could’ve seen a silence… today!

[@ScaryBaldMan]

Great list! How about Missy from Dark Water/Death in Heaven? To be able to capture your soul, strip it of all emotions, and then shove it back into a Cyberman body made out of a corpse is pretty freaking terrifying!

[@tgiacin435]

Eh, not so much an ability, she used a matrix to download the minds of the dead

[@captainkian5249]

What about those peg dolls their ability to slowly turn a person into another peg doll at the moment of a touch is terrifying as well as the fact that the moment they touch a person they practically immobilise them so the moment they got you are doomed to become a peg doll Not to mention the peg dolls themselves are terrifying with the childish voices and giggling as they slowly hunt you down to turn you into one

[@ianmiller6040]

Night Terrors is one of my least favorite episodes for that exact reason. Not because it's a bad episode--it's great, actually--but the antagonists of the episode are completely terrifying and I have refused to watch it more than twice.

[@TheSlumberingSanctuary]

Wow, I haven't even got the guts to watch it once.

[@Helmer2]

I missed the Vashta Nerada here. A truly terrifying villain who actually can't be defeated.

[@richietribe9487]

Whispermen are underrated and underused

[@jasonapollo9916]

Absolutely terrifying villains that were just never utilised as much as they should have.

[@Michelle_Schu-blacka]

I thought The Boneless was a really good concept. I'd never considered life in two dimensions.

[@oldhatAN]

There's a book called Flatland that explores the concept of higher dimensions in a way that is both clear and interesting. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland

[@desiv1170]

The whole "looking at a Weeping Angel will get into your eyes" thing never worked for me. If that were the case, why wouldn't it have come up in the other episodes? What about all those images of the Statue of Liberty, etc... Loved the initial Weeping Angels bit. Reminded me of the hedge animals in The Shining, which also terrified me. But I didn't see the need to try to make the Angels scarier and I think it just detracted from them...

[@MrMichaelBeadle]

Completely agree. Hated the time of angels / flesh and stone when they came out, because it felt like they weren't even the same villain. I actually preferred the angels take Manhattan because it felt like they'd mostly reverted back to how they were in blink. I've since come round to time of angels / flesh and stone, but still think they were overcomplicated

[@patrickmccurry1563]

@@MrMichaelBeadle The Manhattan one was a great episode, IMO, except for that, so laughable as to be kind of angering, inclusion of the Statue Of Liberty.

[@patrickmccurry1563]

One could "fan-wank" it as an evolutionary enhancement in order to survive. I'm sure enemies got better at taking them out over the eons. But since nothing of the kind was mentioned in dialogue, we're just left with incompatible canon.

[@mil9102]

What about The Silence? Or did they make you forget to include it? 🤔

[@tday1981]

Hmm...? Who are the 'Silence'? Lol 😆

[@katarinabrunk8698]

Who? Lol 🤣

[@thatmaster1958]

I am honestly still terrified of weeping angels whenever I see an angel statue I get way to scared for any normal person

[@TheUnknownPrime]

I distinctly remember being traumatized by the first episode of Who I ever watched, 'School Reunion' those Krillitane bat creatures scared the hell out of an 11 year old me. Fast forward to 25 year old me and the Who baddies that creep me out the most are the Dustmen and that whole episode in general.

[@RaggedyDoctor11]

You missed one: Chris Chibnall’s horrifying ability to WRITE A SCRIPT

[@detarak_oonson1119]

You mean *inability*

[@william...1]

not true, look at torchwood & broadchurch

[@lynannlawson2010]

Glad that you didn’t have to deal with him. Can’t imagine what a disaster it would have been.

[@theredblade5327]

@@william...1 yeah, I honestly dont know where he went wrong with Doctor Who, since before being showrunner he also wrote some pretty alright stories for the show

[@oldhatAN]

@@theredblade5327 I suspect that it's an example of the Peter Principle in action. Chinball has reached his level of incompetence. He was promoted based on his writing success but being a good showrunner requires a different set of skills which he does not have at least to the same degree.

[@abakiswinterhaven6361]

The weeping angels, Vashta Nerada, and gas masked zombies TERRIFIED me when i was younger

[@patrickmccurry1563]

Telepathic spiders?! OMG, that explains the odd nightmare I had as a kid. I never realized it may have been connected to an episode with my favorite Doctor.

[@necromancify]

I love the fact that WhoCulture are convinced that Doctor Who is a kids show - it isn't. It never was. Just because it's 'family viewing' doesn't make it a 'kids' show; it's aimed for people of all ages, which means it has to feature more mature and complex content in order to engage with people - programmes that are designed for kids have more simplistic storylines, and nobody ever dies. In Doctor Who, death happens - Just look at Amy, Adric, Sara, and Clara as prime examples. Alien monsters are supposed to be scary, and not always in a 'man in a rubber suit' kinda way; they can do things we can't do, or sometimes can't even understand.

[@obiwankenobi687]

‘They actually killed Jenny….thankfully only for a little while’ - sums up moffats era

[@ShadOfDeth]

I don't know about anyone here but I reckon the mummy on the Orient express could have been a strong candidate for this list. It can't be stopped, bargained with and you couldn't run from it. You have no way to hide or run before it comes and kills you.

[@KingConradVI]

I think the weeping angel one was hard to explain lol, its rather complicated. Apparently by looking into the eyes of the weeping angel, Amy was able to remember what the entire angel looked like, and that image she could think in her head itself became an angel, which is scary to think that an image you imagine in your head becomes sentient.

[@cybernovadw5124]

What about sutekh, he had the ability to shread the Doctors nervous system into a million fibers, even when he was still in a paralised state and trapped in the Eye Of Horus. Trapped, weakened, but still has the ability to do that and enslave people and get them to do what you want, even a plan on how to escape. Yep Horus really should have made that secure, maybe instead of haveing a door for Proffesor scarman to stumble apon, maybe a force field, energy barrior, a simple plain brick wall so it Cant be opened. but anyway you take my point on how powerfull sutekh is, and how much more powerfull he would be if he wasnt either trapped in a pyramid or a time corridor.

[@alyssiagibbs8147]

sutekh and the beast were such incredible villains bc they both claimed to be the devil, and had the powers to match

[@MRcharlex]

I think the spiders in the eight legs are more scary than the ones in arachnids in the UK

[@TheSlumberingSanctuary]

What about the germ spiders (kill the moon)?

[@AirsoftSouthYorkshire]

what about the 9th doctor's empty child and the 11th doctor's weird doll things from the episode 'Night Terrors'

[@RH1812]

Taking the angel. That’s a euphemism right there

[@roberthicks5454]

The whisper men was part of the "great intelligence", which in itself is a bootstrap paradox. According to the g.i. it has been fighting the doctor since the very beginning when it first appeared. The doctor (according to it) defeated it multiple times without ever being aware of it. It continued to grow until it met the doctor on trenzalore, where it went into the dying tardis's core and was splintered into the doctors entire life time. Over time, it reintegrated itself to once again fight the doctor and return to the cycle. Instead of the doctor defeating it, it was the impossible girl, Clara, that defeated it by also going into the core and being splintered into the same places. The doctor then brought Clara back to herself. Since the tardis was dying as a result of the doctors death, it could only go back to the times the doctor was in before that time. Which means the whisper men can not fight the future doctors.

[@tommyhickin4669]

But the doctor isnt dead yet so cant it fight them all?

[@roberthicks5454]

@@tommyhickin4669 No, it went into the past of THAT doctors life (it was his last, SO it could not have gone into any future doctors life. It splintered to take on all of the past doctors, and there was nothing left to take on the future doctors. There is one questionable thing though. IF the doctor did not die, what happened to THAT Tardis? Was it a fixed point since the G.I used it?

[@Croftice1]

@@roberthicks5454 That whole future was erased. The planet was Trenzalore AFTER that great war (the Doctor's last battle in the Great War on the fields of Trenzalore, not to be confused with the Last Great Time War), which didn't happen in the end. In Time of the Doctor, the Doctor spends most of the time in a town called Christmas, which also is on Trenzalore - but before the great war. Just as the war is about to happen (surrounded by Daleks awaiting the return of the Time Lords, if the Doctor speaks his name), it's prevented, the Doctor never speaks his name, Time Lords go back into hiding, he regenerates and moves on. We never see Trenzalore AFTER the great battle again, because that battle didn't happen. The event was changed.

[@roberthicks5454]

@@Croftice1 The battle was not with the time lords, but the doctor himself. Over the centuries the doctor was on the planet, thousands of aliens tried to land and attack but the doctor stop them all and they laid buried. Those were the graves that you saw. Nothing lives forever not even the doctor. Knowing that if his past is erased so will Clara, the dying doctor will likely have his Tardis return to Trenzalore to die.

[@johannaonessss]

im surprised the vashta narada aren’t on here

[@frankmoniz1467]

Hmmmm, Doctor Who villains with terrifying abilities......how about Chris Chibnall, for the total obliteration of the icon, the legend, that is The Doctor. Miss Whittaker deserves so much better.

[@tadhgtraynor8732]

The most terrifying villain for me was the doll creature things from the episode night terrors. When I was a child I couldn’t sleep for over a week because of that episode. I’m pretty sure it was in series three of the reboot.

[@gregkava1276]

YES FUCKING YES THEY WERE FREAKY AF

[@Croftice1]

Series 3 of NewWho was with Tennant, the dolls were a Matt Smith episode. I think it's series 5, or 6, as it still featured Amy and Rory as companions.

[@dylanlarge11]

Doctor Who hasn't really been a kids show since the 60s. It's been aimed at all age groups from the 70s onwards.

[@utherteasdale933]

I think that it was really awful to have the dream crabs in a Christmas special. A joyous time for all the family to gather round and watch TV

[@chrisandersen5635]

But they’re delicious with some butter and lemon. Perfect for Christmas! 😊

[@GameBoothUK]

Today is the first time I realised that the window frames of the house in Blink are TARDIS blue on the outside

[@TheWatcherOnWho]

Sutekh's power and ability to destroy almost anything at will is pretty scary thinking especially when the Doctor gives Sarah an insight into his destruction. The Wirrn taking over your body and using it as a host is also terrifying and pre-dates Alien by 4 years. The Ogri sucking your blood out the moment you touch them and get stuck.

[@chuckmoore8668]

You know I have often wondered if the creator for the slinderman, took inspiration from the silence. I mean if you look at the 2 characters the similarities in their appearance is uncanny.

[@MrMichaelBeadle]

Slender Man dates back to 2009. "Silence will fall" was heard numerous times in series 5 (2010) but the Silence didn't actually make an appearance until series 6 (2011).

[@MrMichaelBeadle]

Unless The Silence appeared before 2009 and I forgot

[@shibolinemress8913]

The Whispermen look a lot like The Trickster from SJA. And where was the Midnight monster? It creeps me out even more than the Vashta Nerada.

[@trainsandscifi]

I know, it's a little late, but there are also the Beast, the House, the Monks, the Nimons and so many more.

[@JabaKi]

I miss Matt Smith's Doctor sm, i still remember when i had that head of his worst fear was the nightmare child.

[@AscendedMorphs]

I'm just surprised the dolls that turned you into wooden dolls like them didn't make this list.

[@Roadkill3333]

Mate, you forgot about the silence

[@DittoGTI]

Who?

[@solomonkane6442]

Daleks: aim for the eye stalk Sontarans: back of the neck Vashta nerada : RUN

[@jacksaunders3798]

Great list and a great presenter!

[@GoddessOfWhim2003]

not enough classic Who and i miss Rich

[@GoddessOfWhim2003]

the Midnight being, need i say more?

[@lianacordova2682]

I've been looking for this!

[@majoramoongaming9301]

I know its not a doctor who villain but can we just mention the trickster from the Sarah Jane adventures and how amazing he was. I feel he should come in the the doctor who universe sometime and play a nasty trick on the doctor or his companions

[@gregkava1276]

i never saw that but who did the trick with eleven amy and rory??? cause if it wasnt the trickster or a trickster that wouldve been a perfect episode for it

[@Croftice1]

@@gregkava1276 That's the Dream Lord, but actually just a dream caused by some space spores, it took the worst from the Doctor and interpreted it into an image of a trickster figure, the Dream Lord. And the Time Beetle from Donna's episode Turn Left, was said to be part of the Trickster's Brigade, so the Trickster kinda is in the Whoniverse (well SJA is surely part of it, as well as Torchwood and other spin offs).

[@JohnSmith-z6r]

this might just be me but i personally thought that the midnight creature was actual nightmare fuel the pure thought of your body essentially being possessed was bad enough added with the fact we never got to see a proper form of it was just spooky

[@TheWatcherOnWho]

Capaldi's first season was amazing

[@imthecheeseguy8737]

love the vid

[@Swift96]

What about The Silence? They make you forget that they were there as soon as you stop looking at them.

[@ewanohare1162]

melody pond before she became river song but after she regenerated into the form. river song is overpowered as is with her gun skills and her lipstick that can hypnotize you. now look at her when she is evil from the doctors prospective: looks like the woman your pretty sure your going to marry, knows that its your best mates kid but wants to kill you and succeeds lets face it the thought of your love one betraying you and kill you with a single kiss is terrifying not to mention the fact that its not just that one regeneration the Tardis says that its stopping regeneration meaning that its just it death. also does no-one else want to talk about the doctor repeatedly trying to regenerate on what ( at the time) he thought was his last regeneration. i mean granted it could just be a laps as the war doctor was added later but still. also whats with his power to fake regenerate now( i forget what episode but the monk one with bill)

[@PlanetNateGaming]

when you realise that the dream crabs where in a christmas episode

[@nariu7times328]

I've never thought Dr Who is a kids show ... :)

[@dylanlarge11]

The Whisper Men aren't a Monster, they are just an embodiment of the Great Intelligence.

[@billeckert6614]

....I had forgotten this was a whatculture channel until Wilbourn showed up in the ad, and of course he did the silly voices

[@sophiemeegan796]

That Surfshark ad tho… 😂

[@eldritchchaos2663]

The God Complex episode took the premise of the Backrooms 4chan thread from two years before and just fuckin RAN with it Also the fact that the Percy Jackson book series technically came up with this premise first with the clipping out of reality into an endlessly expansive, ever-shifting maze back in 2008 proves that millenia-old myths of the old world are able to be adapted into the present day and also combine with the premise of Simulation Theory, which just makes my nerd brain happy stim so much XD

[@samrussell447]

But the whisper men were barely even used, they just kind of stand behind the great intelligence the whole time

[@AlienDemonKing]

"Because they hate you having fun" UMM No try "They are smart and don't want your a data sold"

[@Athyxer]

No-one gonna mention the empty child? I mean, he can make phones start ringing, start radios and stuff. Oh, and he just has to TOUCH you and you become a zombie

[@Athyxer]

@@_MyNameIsAJ_ I guess, but he kinda is, yeah, he’s just a kid who fell victim to the particle thingies (can’t remember the name soz) but during the “empty child” episode, he is kinda a villian

[@jackvonderlehr2411]

For number six if they ate the sun, we would last for about eight minutes until everything went to hell

[@simononeill2374]

Some papers reporting the singer Ollie Alexander could very well be the next Doctor Who

[@pinktribble]

He's not just a singer...

[@MarrockV]

How long can you last if something ate the sun? About 5.5 hours.

[@Watching2909]

Can you give episode numbers of the old doctors pre ecclestone that were referenced

[@iamamoronic]

The Eight Legs: Planet of the Spiders: Season 11, Episode 5 The Mara: Kinda: Season 19, Episode 3 Snakedance: Season 20, Episode 2 The Antimatter Monster: Planet of Evil: Season 13, Episode 2

[@jamespollock6219]

Terror of the zygons that nurse scared the 5 year old me I'm 50 this year & zygons still scare me

[@mathieuleader8601]

I thought the Kassavin in the episode Spyfall was a revamped Boneless when I was the trailers for Spyfall

[@simonfarnes914]

The whisper men just look exactly like the trickster….

[@galaxycraft2454]

The Whisper Men were cool and stuff but it makes me mad no one thinks that one guy from Sarah Jane Adventures is one.

[@brianartillery]

Axos. A space dwelling parasite that can suck entire planets dry, but does so by exploiting the greed of that world's inhabitants, causing them to be the engineers of their own destruction. The Master of the World Of Fiction, who controls heroes, villains and monsters from ALL fiction in the universe. They can only speak with dialogue they were given, but a real-time print out is constantly created. If trapped there, and it is a trap, you can edit the hardcopy - so long as you don't put your name anywhere - if you do, you become part of the narrative, a fictional character, and are doomed to remain there forever.

[@shibolinemress8913]

How about the Midnight monster?

[@SerathDarklands]

You want to talk about terrifying? How about the Silence. They're memoryproof. The moment you look away, you forget they even exist.

[@TheToonMonkey]

They actually killed Jenny. Sadly only for a little while.

[@PetersonZF]

They killed her, so she was out. Oh wait, wrong channel.

[@so1opiniao]

One thing I hate about Flash and Stone is the way that the Weeping Angel started to move in the forest.

[@alyssiagibbs8147]

literally if they had just kept that out it would have been the best episode. us seeing them move defeats the entire point

[@trixnglz1871]

What about that thing that "turned ur brain into soup"?

[@wokenlunatic2849]

I wonder what happened if you took an Axe on one of The Weeping Angels (would they smash into pieces like a Statue or they be cut in half like a human)

[@Glitchynine48601]

Light eaters + Vashta Nerada = Instant death

[@theabraham8164]

What about "Insert villian that wasn't mentioned here". Just saves reading the rest of the comments.

[@varimkadas6068]

Concerning the Abzorbaloff ... Devilman's Jinmen did it better ...

[@thetimelordfat-torious2269]

So much contradictions with the weeping Angel's like the one you mentioned an image of an angel becomes an angel because theres been many people looking at photos of weeping Angel's then theirs the whole statue of liberty (not stone, made of copper)

[@reneesneed5778]

No offense but how come the master was not on this list remember when he got the power to like you use lightning and shoot it out of his hands also super strength and speed also he ate people so I saw this was a pretty scary power it should have been on the list no offense to the ones on the list though

[@wokenlunatic2849]

8:02 Indiana Jones’ worst nightmare

[@snowyowl2784]

I love this video and I love this man. What the hell.

[@keponder47]

I’ve been a Doctor Who fan since 2005 with 9, and have never considered it a children’s show. Maybe a handful of modern episodes are, but I wouldn’t let any hypothetical children of mind watch most of them alone until they were at least 13. Like X-Files or Fringe. Why give them nightmares?

[@oldhatAN]

I'm not sure I buy the idea that Doctor Who is still a kid's show. It originally aired on Saturday afternoons which is the sort of time slot I would expect for a kid's show. Now it airs in early prime time on a weekday. That's not a kid's show time slot. It's the time slot for an all ages show that is meant to appeal to adults too. The content suggests that it is least partly aimed at adults as well. I can buy that the original Doctor Who was aimed at kids. I can't buy that the new series was ever entirely aimed at kids.

[@alyssiagibbs8147]

even once it got to jon pertwee i feel like it being a kids show was a stretch. the autons from both new who and classic who gave me nightmares as a child, and made me fear plastic and mannequins lmao

[@BigFanOfManyThings]

The angels were best in ‘blink’, they shouldn’t have ruined their lore by bringing them back. I refuse to count anything from ‘flesh and stone’ onward as angel canon.

[@HittingBedrock]

What about the Veil?

[@JJ-bp1yp]

Isn't that Harry Potter

[@HittingBedrock]

@@JJ-bp1yp No lol it's the enemy of the episode heaven sent from season 9

[@Matt-gm3eu]

Family show not kids show just correcting you on that

[@AdamRawlyk]

Considering the sponsor… I’m guessing that the WiFi is gonna be on here XD

[@clarehall767]

The Silence! 😊

[@themossyslime]

what about the silance and their mind shananagans

[@virtualashez]

The Prison Ship is sorta like the Backrooms in a way....

[@dankenstein528]

I feel anyone who calls Doctor Who a kids show has never actually watched a kids show. Or, they think everything under GoT is a kids show. I wouldn't want my five year old watching Doctor Who.

[@kathleenrobinson6484]

the monsters that eat life kinda seem like a dementors rip off

[@P1utusPaints]

Why can't you pronounce Geiger? Also, the crack wasn't the main thing behind the door as we see later (in the episode or in the pandorica I don't remember) was actually a young Amy pond waiting for him

[@DrWhoFanJ]

No, the crack was the thing behind the Doctor’s door (as shown in The Time of the Doctor, his regeneration story); the Amelia room was Amy’s biggest fear!

[@imdead.weight]

no reference to the waters of mars? really? man i thought that was the most terrifying monster

[@Oliviaault123]

the adipose

[@SEgrin28]

Since when is Doctor Who a kids show?

[@thetimelordfat-torious2269]

In 1 universe anti matter comes in monster form nd turn you into a mummy in another universe they use anti matter as a fuel source and in another it is it's own universe created by an anti matter being tht can use the antimatter to wipe out the multiverse

[@chrisandersen5635]

Uhhh, the Silence??

[@Cutie_Amor]

who? |||| |||| |||

[@chrisandersen5635]

Exactly. 🤫

[@chrisandersen5635]

Exactly. 🤫

[@amanogirl1]

You like me I don’t like spiders

[@perceptionpoet4136]

It takes 8 minutes for the sun's light to reach us... By that logic If the sun disappeared right now we wouldn't know for 8 minutes and earth would freeze over in about 10 mins.... Your welcome

[@anirudh_vadrevu]

41st view.

[@adamcassels223]

Really, I got bored after my 31st.

[@Julia33066]

Lol

[@bertmchaggis]

Midnight entity