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Classic Monsters[]
Thals[]
The other race native to Skaro. In the Thousand Year War, they fought against the Kaleds before the Kaleds, well their chief science officer Davros, ended the war by turning his people into the Daleks.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Blond, blue-eyed, well-toned warriors as opposed to the disgusting squids that are the Daleks.
- Heel Face Turn: They were once as brutal as the Kaleds but they eventually became pacifists.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: They last appeared in "Planet of the Daleks" with no mention of what's become of them since the Last Great Time War. Considering that Skaro has been destroyed a few times, the odds don't seem to be in favour of the Thals.
Sensorites[]
A telepathic race of humanoids that sought to protect their home planet, the Sense Sphere, from annexation by the Earth Empire in the 28th century.
- Weaksauce Weakness: They're very susceptible to dark and loud noises.
Ice Warriors[]
Played by: Bernard Bresslaw, Roger Jones and and Michael Attwell (1967); Tony Harwood (1967-69); Sonny Caldinez (1967-74); Steve Peters and Graham Leaman (1969); Alan Bennion (1969-74) |
A race of reptilian aliens who come from Mars, the Ice Warriors were the third species of big bads in Doctor Who — resulting in several appearances throughout the Second and Third Doctor eras... but they basically vanished with the end of the Third Doctor's run on the show in 1974 (around the time that space probes in Real Life proved Mars to be barren). Efforts have been made to bring them back from time to time — but the final attempt was scheduled to be in the 1990 season of Doctor Who... and with the series canned/put on hiatus in 1989.
They did eventually get nods in "The Christmas Invasion" and "The Waters Of Mars" (though the former was a little more subtle) before eventually returning to the screen in 2013.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Before they vanished, these guys were the third biggest alien villains for the Second and Third Doctors.
- God Save Us From the Queen: Iraxxa.
- Heel Face Turn: Their first two serials have them as the villains, but since Jon Pertwee's first brush with them they've alternated between friends and foes (one of them even became a companion in the Expanded Universe).
- Last of Their Kind: Since Mars is somewhat inhospitable to them after some unspeakable event in their past, it's a little hard for the species to continue - especially when they keep getting wiped out whenever they encounter the Doctor.
- To make matters worse, the Expanded Universe puts the Doctor essentially at fault for said unspeakable event. Whoops.
- Monster Lord: Their leaders are smaller, slimmer and less heavily-armoured than the usual soldiers. They are often referred to in fanon as "Ice Lords", although this is never used in on-screen dialogue.
- Proud Warrior Race
- Subverted in the Virgin New Adventures novel The Dying Days where the Ice Warriors encountered there claim to be this but are psychotic monsters.
- Put on a Bus: They've basically vanished since 1974...
- Long Bus Trip: ...and came back in 2013.
- The Reptilians
- Super Soldier
Dominators[]
A race of conquerors who employ the Quarks in their conquest of various planets in the universe. The Second Doctor ran across them, and blew up their ship, on the planet Dulkis. Their servants, the Quarks, were another attempt to create a monster that would replaced the Daleks.
- Galactic Conqueror
- Higher-Tech Species: One ship, with two Dominators and only a few Quarks was enough to conquer Dulkis.
- Mecha-Mooks: The Quarks.
- Smug Super: The Seventh and Tenth Doctors mention this about them.
Krotons[]
A race of crystalline alines who just might be the weirdest designed aliens in all of Doctor Who. One of the last attempts to create a monster that could have replaced the Daleks as the Big Bad of the show.
- Beware the Silly Ones: As shown in the Eighth Doctor Adventures, a single Kroton is able to destroy a whole Dalek saucer.
- Mechanical Lifeforms: Technically. They also incorporate crystals and energy into their biology.
Autons[]
Played by: Hugh Burden (1970), Hamilton Dyce (1970), Noel Clarke (2005), Marcus O'Donovan (2010), David Fynn (2010), Clive Wood (2010), Arthur Darvill (2010) |
The Autons are evil living plastic servitors that are controlled by the squid-like Nestene Consciousness. Their best known trick is posing as shop dummies and bursting out of high-street windows, although their second appearance had them trying to kill people in increasingly bizarre ways. They don't need to be humanoid, either; any seemingly inanimate plastic object will do--chairs, toys, even a trash can. The Consciousness can also create more sophisticated "facsimiles" (referred to as "Nestene Duplicates" in the new series) that perfectly mimic the appearance of others... and may even believe their own cover story.
- Animate Inanimate Object: So long as it's made of plastic, the Nestenes can bring it to life and kill people with it.
- Arm Cannon: Well, hand cannon.
- Hive Mind
- Manchurian Agent
- Murderous Mannequin
Nestene Consciousness[]
Rose: And this living plastic, what's it got against us? |
Nestene voiced by: Nicholas Briggs (2005) |
The actual mind behind the Autons. After a couple of stabs at invading Earth in the Third Doctor's era, they returned in 2005 out of sheer desperation, having lost their 'protein planets' in a certain off-screen War.
- Combat Tentacles: They nearly throttled the Doctor in "Spearhead from Space"
- Eldritch Abomination: According to the expanded universe, the Nestene Consciousness is the offspring of Shub-Niggurath, an actual Lovecraftian creation.
- Hive Mind
- Starfish Aliens: Whenever it (they?) takes a physical form, it's a decidedly weird one. Sometimes it's a space-squid, sometimes it's just a vat of talking molten plastic.
Homo reptilians (Silurians and Sea Devils)[]
We are the last of our people. |
Silurians voiced by: Peter Halliday (1970) |
A bunch of intelligent creatures that evolved during the age of dinosaurs, the Silurians and Sea Devils are somehow part of the same species (one land-based, the other aquatic) that decided to go into hibernation upon hearing their world was under threat of destruction on the surface. It wasn't; the disaster never happened, but their disappearance cleared the way for humans to take over as the dominant sentient lifeform. Eons later, they awake, and fight the upstarts (read:us) for control of Earth. It never ends well. The twenty-first-century series gave the Silurians a very heavy redesign, with only two eyes, a more generally humanoid appearance (their battle armour has a mask that looks closer to the original face), and a Multipurpose, venomous tongue.
- The Assimilator: The warrior caste of Sea Devils can, at least when they're tadpoles, burrow into a human head and transform the host into a Sea Devil.
- Berserk Button: They are the rulers of the Earth. Not the humans and dinosaurs ruled nothing thank you very much.
- Extra Eyes: The Silurians have a third eye, which glows when they exercise psychic powers (in their first appearance) or when they talk (in their second). It has, however, utterly vanished in the new series, which introduced the warrior caste. Those with three eyes are the scholar caste.
- Forgot About His Powers: Both races fled underground to avoid the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. This is despite the fact that EU media paints them as having been an unfathomably advanced society capable of interstellar travel and lots of other fantastical things. Why they couldn't have destroyed the meteor is never made clear.
- Last of Their Kind: Pretty much every named Silurian in the episodes they show up in will make this claim. It was more understandable in the original series (and subsequent expanded universe tales), where it was literally a few dozen at best who survived. When a captive Silurian tries to claim this on the Doctor in the new series, he shuts her down pretty quickly.
- Multipurpose Tongue: Useful both for defending oneself and...um...
- Non-Mammal Mammaries: Well... the modern ones have them, anyhow.
- Rage Helm: Their faceplates are organic in appearance, and could easily be mistaken as a real (albeit scarier) face.
- Red Scare: Warriors of the Deep is largely ham-fisted with Cold War metaphors up the wazoo. The Silurians were also a metaphor for the Soviets at the time, according to Word of God. The Sea Devils may have been this as well, but it doesn't seem as likely.
- The Reptilians
- Superior Species: The smugness of both races rivals that of the Time Lords.
- Taxonomic Term Confusion: Homo Reptilia? Considering the Homo genus is mammalian.
- Technical Pacifist: The Silurians in Warriors of the Deep claim they're fighting a defensive war.
- Of course in their first two stories they have no qualms about killing humans, and the new-series Homo Reptilia have an actual soldier class to do the fighting.
- The warrior caste in the new series seems to be made up of the female Silurians, which is actually pretty clever since in real life lizards the females are more aggressive and territorial.
- We Are Everywhere: In contrast to the disorganized Silurians, the Sea Devils have organized their colonies effectively and quietly schemed for world conquest.
Sontarans[]
Sontar HA! Sontar HA! Sontar HA! |
Played by: Kevin Lindsay (1973-75), Stuart Fell and Derek Deadman (1978), Tim Raynham and Clinton Greyn (1985), Christopher Ryan (2008, 2010), Dan Starkey (2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014) |
A race of the ultimate soldiers, the Sontarans are a clone race that live for war. Humanoid in appearance, the Sontarans are short, stocky, and insanely strong. They also look somewhat like potatoes, for some reason. If they show up, the plot is somehow tied to their never ending war against the Rutans (a race of... intergalactic jellyfish). Arguably the third most popular alien race of the franchise, behind the Daleks and Cybermen.
- Asskicking Equals Authority: Those in power? They fought their way up there.
- Attack Its Weak Point: The "probic vent" on the back of a Sontaran's neck is their only weakness.
- The Sontarans, characteristically, don't consider it a weakness since it forces them to always face their enemies.
- Author Appeal: Their entire creation was to appeal to author Robert Holmes (one of the best writers on the show, ever) and his distaste of militarism and colonialism. Also a bit of a Take That against America at times, according to some people.
- Badass Boast: They tend to do this.
- Bald of Awesome / Bald of Evil: In equal amounts.
- Blue and Orange Morality: Their values system resembles that of Ancient Sparta. To wit: "I hope someday to meet you in the glory of battle, where I shall crush the life from your worthless human form" is apparently a high compliment.
- Combat Medic: Considered a Fate Worse Than Death by them for obvious reasons. (That's not to say they can't be good at it, though.)
- Genius Bruiser: They don't posses the raw intelligence or knowledge of the Daleks or Cybermen, but underestimate their cunning at your own peril-they're quite subtle and farsighted if need be.
- Faux Affably Evil: For all their violent, militaristic ways, they are unfailingly well-mannered to anyone they aren't currently engaged in killing.
- Strax from "A Good Man Goes to War" is much more affable than most of his species, partly because of his time spent as a medic having made him less single minded and Ax Crazy than most of his species
- Honor Before Reason: As they don't see death on the battlefield as a particularly bad outcome, they aren't opposed to giving their enemies a sporting chance... usually.
- Large Ham: They are well known for their bombastic speeches and "come at me, bro" attitude, which accounts for much of their popularity.
- Lawful Stupid Chaotic Stupid: Played utterly straight in that if you challenge a Sontaran to a contest... any contest... they have to take that challenge. This weakness has actually made them a favorite of many authors.
- Subverted in "The Two Doctors" when a Sontaran tells the Doctor that he doesn't need to accept his challenge to an honorable duel because the Doctor isn't a Sontaran, and is thus below him.
- One-Gender Race: To the point that the first Sontaran we meet mistakes Sarah Jane for a member of a different species to male humans. They are a clone race with their progenitor being a very militaristic general with a huge ego.
- Proud Warrior Race Guys: The Doctor Who representatives of the trope.
- Sociopathic Soldier: They live for war. They die for war. And God help you if you get in their way or fight back.
- Subverted in A Good Man Goes To War by Strax the Combat Medic - the 'sociopath' side of this trope is apparently not a fixed racial trait, but something resulting from a lack of perspective.
- Super Soldier: They are this trope.
- Younger Than They Look: We eventually learn, 38 years after their initial appearance, that due to being war-happy clones, they consider 12 years to be a pretty good run.
Zygons[]
Played by: John Woodnutt (1975), Ian Marter (1975), Lillias Walker (1975), Malcolm Stoddard (2008), Tim Brooke-Taylor (2008) |
The Zygons were a race of metamorphic humanoids. Their home planet, Zygor, was destroyed in the early days of the Last Great Time War and now they seek a new one. Earth might be quite a good spot. Considered the best monsters on the show by David Tennant.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Subverted. Most Zygons are perfectly reasonable beings, despite their monstrous appearance, and simply want to live in peace.
- The Cameo: In "Attack of the Graske".
- Organic Technology
- Poisonous Person: As the Tenth Doctor has really checked, they have venom sacs in their tongues.
Rutans[]
Played by: Colin Douglas (1977), Emilia Fox (2011) |
The Rutans (or Rutan Host) were a race of amorphous green blobs who waged war with the Sontarans.
- Arch Enemy: To the Sontarans.
- Electric Jellyfish
- Face Stealer: the Rutan dissects the first two lighthouse operators in order to learn enough human physiology to take the form of Reuben for the final two episodes. Later victims it just kills.
- Insignificant Little Blue Planet: the Doctor is quite surprised by the Rutan's interest in Earth. It turns out to be fairly mild.
Fourth Doctor: Why invade an obscure planet like Earth? It's of no value to you. |
- Kill'Em All
- Sickly Green Glow
- Voluntary Shapeshifting with great effort.
Revival series monsters[]
The Slitheen family [1][]
Victory should be naked!
—Jocrassa Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen
|
Played[2] and voiced by: Annette Badland, David Verrey, Rupert Vansittart, Eric Potts and Steve Spiers (2005) |
The first recurring aliens original to the revitalized Doctor Who franchise, the Slitheen are basically a family of Used Car Dealers and Con Men. IN SPACE! Their family hails from the planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius, where pretty much most of the family has been sentenced to death for being rather annoying and kinda evil. Unlike most alien baddies, they're a crime family, not an Always Chaotic Evil species — the other Raxacoricofallapatorians are, according to the Doctor, rather peaceful. While they mainly only showed up during the Ninth Doctor's tenure (and an unidentified Raxacoricofallapatorian cameoing at the end of the Tenth's), the Slitheen also made it over to The Sarah Jane Adventures. Perhaps the most unique feature about the Slitheen is their habit of skinning humans and using said skins as disguises.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: They're made of calcium, able to smell fear and pheromones produced by humans, they can expel poison through their fingernails or their breath...
- Hannibal Lecture: In "Boom Town" one of them was trapped in the TARDIS and she tried to guilt him into letting her go with typical deconstruction. Jack told him not to answer back, "its what she wants."
- Egomaniac Hunter: The family Slitheen seems to be this, and the entire species seems to do this as well.
- Evil Plan: The family Slitheen seems to be rather good at this in concept. It's just that they don't count on the Doctor showing up. Or Sarah Jane Smith.
- The Family That Slays Together
- Fat Bastard: The actors portraying the "human forms" of the Slitheen tend to be similar to this, as the Slitheen have to compact themselves to fit into humanish forms. And still look huge.
- Gasshole
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: They really like hunting humans.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To the Zygons.
- Toilet Humor: The best way to spot a disguised Slitheen? They fart. A lot.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Vinegar. Go figure.
Roboforms[]
Played by: Paul Kasey (2005-06), George Cottle (2005) |
Roboforms were scavengers who travelled alongside invaders who took anything on the planet of value to them before the main threat arrived.
- Bad Santa: A whole brass band of them, complete with weaponized instruments.
- The Cameo: In "The Pandorica Opens".
- The Dreaded: Not because of their actual fighting ability, or lack thereof, but because they always indicate that something deadly is not far behind.
- Instrument of Murder: The Roboform wield brass instruments that double as weapons, including a trombone-flamethrower.
Sycorax[]
Played by: Sean Gilder (2005) |
The Sycorax were a superstitious race of warriors. They had skeletal faces.
- The Cameo: In "The End of Time" and "The Pandorica Opens".
- Historical In-Joke: The Doctor feeding Shakespeare his own lines. Specifically, it resolves the Brick Joke of the Sycorax set up in "The Christmas Invasion"; Sycorax is a witch mentioned in The Tempest, and where Shakespeare got the name is a bit of an academic mystery — as far as anyone can find she's not a figure from mythology, and if it's a Meaningful Name it's far from obvious what the meaning is. "The Christmas Invasion" used it as the name of an alien species, with no explanation/comment, and this episode has Shakespeare hear the Doctor talking about them and likes the sound of it.
Ood[]
The circle must be broken, so that we can sing. |
Voiced by: Silas Carson (2006-10) |
A race of telepathic humanoids native to the Ood Sphere (which is in the same region of space as the Sense Sphere). They were used as slaves during the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire, until they were liberated by the Doctor, Donna and a spy for the Friends of the Ood.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: They're born with secondary brains in their hands. The company that enslaved them cuts them off to make them docile.
- Butt Monkey: If an Ood shows up, count on it being another Ood that the Doctor failed to save.
- Cthulhumanoid
- Dark Is Not Evil: Despite their monstrous appearance, the Ood are peaceful and gentle (fighting for their own freedom notwithstanding).
- Happiness in Slavery: Via lobotomy.
- Hive Mind
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: When they were controlled by the Beast. And later again when the Ood Brain managed to reach out and make the Ood take revenge against their human captors.
- Slave Race
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To the Sensorites. They even come from the same star system.
- Weak-Willed: In addition to their status as Slave Race, the Ood seem to be particularly susceptible to possession by outside entities.
- Explained by the Doctor by the fact that they're born with their brains in their hands. With such a glaring evolutionary weakness, they have no choice but to trust everything simply as a survival mechanism.
- We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future
Judoon[]
FO! SHO! RO! KO! BLO! |
Voiced by: Nicholas Briggs (2007-10, 2020) |
The law enforcement arm of the Shadow Proclamation, Judoons look like bipedal rhinos in Badass Biker gear. They are extremely fond of rules and regulations, as seen in The Sarah Jane Adventures, and a bit thick.
- Badass Biker: Just the outfits, not the rebellion.
- By-The-Book Cop
- The Dragon: As a whole, for the Shadow Proclamation.
- Guttural Growler
- Hell-Bent for Leather
- Judge, Jury, and Executioner: "Justice is swift."
- Lawful Stupid Chaotic Stupid: If they weren't so phenomenally stupid, they probably wouldn't even need to be enemies. They just keep killing people through negligence... or out of annoyance.
- Moral Myopia: Interfere with them in any way? Execution. But they'll still blow up any planet to make their job slightly easier.
- Perpetual Frowner
- Rhino Rampage
- Space Police: Though technically they're a private security force for hire.
- Trigger Happy: Especially in The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Weeping Angels[]
In the sight of any living thing they literally turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. 'Course, a stone can't kill you either, but then you turn your head away. Then you blink, and oh, yes it can!
—Tenth Doctor
|
"Beware lest a statue slay you."
—Thus Spake Zarathustra
|
"Voiced" in a manner of speaking by David Atkins as Angel Bob (2010) |
Quantum-locked creatures so ancient, even the Doctor doesn't know where they come from. As long as they are being observed, the Angels turn to stone. The "Weeping" in their name comes from their habit of holding their hands over their eyes so as not to accidentally see each other. But as soon as they are unobserved, they move with Super Speed to overtake their prey. If need be, they'll transport their victims back through time and then feed on their lives spent in the past. If they're not feeling quite so creative, they'll just snap their victim's neck like a twig. One of the creepiest aliens in the history of the series.
- Affably Evil: Even the Doctor notes that living out the rest of your life in a different time period isn't that bad. Even when stealing people's voices/brains, they use them to speak in an eerily polite manner.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Though their usual method of "killing" isn't all that bad, they only employ it because that is how they feed. In their second appearance they find another, better source of nourishment...and proceed to act like the sadistic psychopaths that they are--snapping necks, playing mind games, and ripping out vocal cords. Why?
For fun, sir. |
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Creatures of the abstract. They turn to stone when anyone is looking. Ultimate defence mechanism.
- Creepy Changing Statue
- Eldritch Abomination: It is implied that they are, in fact, sapient ideas which have come to life to kill people. It doesn't help that ideas of them (photos, visual memory) literally can come to life to kill people.
- Evil Laugh: Is not even recognizable as laughter, so much as horrible screeching.
- Fate Worse Than Death: Not in their first appearance, where they "kill you nicely" and get enthusiastic testimonials from their victims. But played dead straight in their second, where while they kill most of their victims, they partially reanimate Sacred Bob into a mouthpiece for the Angels.
- For the Evulz: The reason they give for making Amy Pond count down to her own death.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: In "The Time of Angels", where "an image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel".
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Doctor tricks them into looking at each other, freezing them forever.
- In their second appearance, they try to draw energy from one of the omnipresent 'cracks in the universe' to become a universe-devouring army of death. This backfires badly on them. The crack is 'the end of the universe' and releases time energy which wipes anything it consumes out of existence. They drain all of the power from the ship to try and escape... which switches off the artificial gravity, resulting in them all being hurled into the crack and erased from time.
- Light Flicker Teleportation
- Light Is Not Good: They look like statues of angels.
- Made of Iron: Though the obvious logic would just be to smash them into dust as stone statues, they are a lot tougher than statues should be. A group of soldiers unloading on them doesn't even scratch them.
- You can't kill a stone. They probably are not true stone, or being quantum-locked makes their stone form harder than diamond.
- Nobody Here but Us Statues
- Offscreen Teleportation: Their explicit super-power.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The actual name of the species, if there is one, is unknown.
- Scare Chord: Their Leitmotif.
- Soft Spoken Sadist: The one time the Angels have a voice to communicate with the Doctor, one of them (using the voice of a man it had savagely killed) told the Doctor that they were making Amy count-down from ten to her own death...for fun.
- Super Speed: They need only the time it takes to blink to dart forward and slay their victim.
- Taken for Granite: Whatever they are in their natural state, they turn to stone if looked upon.
Vashta Nerada[]
These are our forests. They are our meat. |
Also known as "The Shadows that Eat the Flesh", the Vashta Nerada are tiny scavengers that hide in the shadows, any shadows, before consuming their prey. They are found on every world, including Earth.
- Darkness Equals Death: If you enter a shadow that the Vashta Nerada occupies, you will be devoured.
- Living Shadow: Trope Namer. A swarm of Vashta Nerada looks like a dark shadow moving across the ground. They can even form the shape of a humanoid of shadow to animate spacesuits.
- Primal Fear: The species is implied to be the reason that many species have a natural fear of the dark.
- Stripped to the Bone: When they devour humans and a chicken leg, all they leave are bare bones.
- The Swarm: They're thousands of microscopic carnivores working in unison.
- Zombie Gait: It's not like space suits are designed to be piloted by swarms of thousands of miniscule creatures that ate the previous occupant.
The Silence[]
This world is ours. We have ruled it since the wheel and the fire. We have no need of weapons. |
Played by: Marnix Van Den Broeke (2011) |
The leaders and faces (creepy, creepy faces) of a religious order called "the Order of the Silence", these aliens are the Big Bads of series 5 and 6. In the same vein as the Weeping Angels, you're never safe if you're not looking at the Silence, but for a different reason: as soon as you look away from a Silent, you forget you ever saw it.
- Alien Invasion: The invasion is long over. They've been controlling the planet for the last 10,000 years.
- Amnesia Danger: They cause it.
- Badass Boast: See the above quote. Immediately subverted when the one saying it gets shot just to prove him wrong.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: You have to admit, those suits are pretty stylish even on nightmarish aliens.
- Big Bad: One of, if not the most dangerous of the Doctors' enemies, enough that they've effectively eclipsed the Daleks. In a rather unique example, they indirectly caused the majority of problems in series 5, but didn't make their first on-screen debut until the premiere of series 6.
- Outdone by the Daleks in The Time of the Doctor where it's revealed that they oppose the Daleks. Killing the Doctor was just so he wouldn't push the Daleks to be scared and more dangerous.
- Ceiling Cling: They sleep hanging upside down. In packs.
- Four-Fingered Hands
- Gambit Roulette: Their plans to kill the Doctor are always incredibly convoluted and extreme. But given who they're dealing with...you can kinda understand.
- Their initial plan involves using post hypnotic suggestion and subterfuge to convince all the Doctor's enemies that he will destroy the universe, and to stop him they have to build the ultimate prison, the Pandorica. They also set it up so this ultimate prison will have a restoration field that will stop anyone in the prison from dying, and also happens to be a way to restart the universe if it should be destroyed. They then use a lower level time machine to sneak a member of their race aboard the TARDIS, wait till the Doctor has been sealed in the Pandorica, and then proceed to destroy the universe by blowing up the TARDIS. At this point they expect the Doctor to use the Pandorica and the exploding TARDIS to reboot the universe, which will save everyone but trap him in the void between realities in the process. And if any part of this plan hadn't worked, they'd have blown up the entire universe for good, the exact thing they're apparently trying to kill the Doctor to prevent. Unfortunately for their planning, The Doctor ends up using some interesting Clap Your Hands If You Believe magic from his Touched by Vorlons companion to escape.
- Their second plan involves stealing one of the Doctor's companions and her unborn child, then replacing the companion with a programmable flesh avatar to prevent the doctor from realizing the kidnapping. After that they begin genetically modifying the unborn child, who was conceived on the TARDIS, to be a human Time Lord (as opposed to a Galifreyan one). Then, after first surviving an assault by the Doctor himself to save the child when it's born, they transport her from the far future to 1960s america, where they used post hypnotic suggestion again to cause the moon landing. This is so the humans develop a space suit they can use to keep the child healthy and alive, and they can train her to kill the Doctor. Then, after the child manages to escape, and decides she doesn't want to kill the Doctor, and then saves his life, they keep tabs on her for several thousand years (thanks to her time traveling with the Doctor). At which point, they wait till she graduates from university to put her back in the space suit they developed in the 1960s, time travel her back to 2011 Utah, and put the suit on auto-pilot to force her to shoot the Doctor when he arrives there. Along the way the Silence are nearly wiped out by the Doctor and end up creating another universe ending time paradox when the child tries to resist shooting the Doctor. And after all that, The Doctor uses a fairly simple Tricked-Out Time gambit to survive getting shot.
- Glass Cannon: They can easily disintegrated people and break through thick glass and heavy doors, but they're not Immune to Bullets.
- The Greys: Pretty much. According to Word of God, the idea is that stories of alien abduction by The Greys, among other things, represent half-retained memories of the Silence when on occasion people don't quite forget everything.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Doctor drives them off Earth by tricking one of their own into ordering the entire human race to kill them on sight.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: Partially. We have no idea why they destroyed reality in series five, but they want the Doctor dead because they fear what will happen if he's allowed to reach a certain planet and be forced to answer the oldest question in the universe: Doctor Who?.
- Also, the viewer initially gets the impression that they want "Silence to Fall" across the Universe, but in reality, they want The Doctor's silence to fall, in death.
- Kick the Dog: The first time we get a real scene with a Silent, it blasts a woman to death in front of Amy for no real reason, providing this little pleasant exchange.
Amy: "Why did you kill her?" |
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Their power. Also, Shock and Awe.
- Turns out this is so you can confess your sins to them and forget about it afterwards.
- The Men in Black: According to Word of God, one of the inspirations for them.
- Nightmare Face
Amy: You're really ugly. Has anyone ever told you that? |
- Oh Crap: Upon realizing that the Doctor just turned their own tactics against them, and now all humans are going to start killing them on sight.
- Omnicidal Maniac: They're the ones responsible for destroying the TARDIS and the universe on June 26, 2010. Silence will fall.
- Let's put this into perspective. If you make the Daleks try to prevent your victory, you've earned the title.
- And who's to say the destruction of reality was their ultimate goal from this.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: "The Silence" is actually the name of their Religion of Evil, rather than the species.
- Psycho Electro
- Psychological Horror
- Religion of Evil: Subverted. They are briefly presented as such, but they actually consider themselves the guardians of history, and will simply act to destroy things they perceive as an unacceptable threat to the future. Then it's revealed that their religion is not evil at all. It's just militant.
- Shock and Awe: Their only way of killing someone in person.
- "The Wedding of River Song" reveals that they can only manipulate existing sources of electricity to create their lightning weapon, so they can be prevented from using it by being insulated from electricity sources.
- It's powerful enough to stop a Cyberman dead in its tracks.
- Shout-Out: Could very well be a shout-out to another well-dressed psychological horror. According to Word of God, they were visually inspired by the famous painting The Scream.
- The Spook: The entire race is made up Spooks.
- Squishy Wizard: As they rely on their psychic powers, their manipulations and sometimes lightning, they don't even bother to carry weapons. Fighting openly for them basically means lining up to be butchered.
- Sssssnaketalk
- Super Not-Drowning Skills: They seem perfectly fine when immersed in liquid for long periods in "The Wedding of River Song".
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: As revealed in The Time of the Doctor, by killing the Doctor they aimed to prevent him from reaching Trenzalore and remove the threat of a second Time War.
- Wham! Line: "You should kill us all on sight." Not when they say it, but when it is used against them!
- Wipe That Smile Off Your Face: They've got eyes. That's about it in the facial feature department.
- Well, sometimes they open their mouths, and it is reminiscent of The Scream.
Gangers[]
It's us or them. |
Played by: Karen Gillan, Harrison Mortimer, Madison Mortimer, Marshall Lancaster, Mark Bonnar, Sarah Smart, Raquel Cassidy, Leon Vickers and Matt Smith (2011) |
The Gangers were a clone race created by humans from an artificially created organic substance called the Flesh.
Gangers were primarily created so workers who had extremely dangerous jobs could work without body harm or death. The actual subject is "mindlinked" to a Ganger body and their conciousness is basically injected into it. If a Ganger is destroyed or gets mortally wounded, another Ganger is created for the consciousness to inhabit. Well, that's how it's supposed to work, at least. In the episode they initially appear in, a glitch in the program causes the originals' minds to go back to their body...with a replica of all their memories and personalities still in the Gangers, turning them into perfect replicas of them at that moment (mentally, at least). They immediately understand what has happened, and plot to escape the base, not particularly caring if the originals get killed in the process (after all, they aren't actually different. At all).
- Acting for Two
- And I Must Scream: The partially melted down Gangers. Rotting but fully alive and conscious.
- Body Horror: The rotting Gangers — partially melted but still conscious. And eyes in one of the walls, made of more living Flesh.
- Chekhov's Gun: In "A Good Man Goes to War".
- Cloning Blues
- Continuity Nod: In "The Almost People", one decommisioned Ganger resembles 9/10th Doctor villainess Cassandra.
- They also seem to be "forced-growth clones" like Chip.
- Deadly Euphemism: Gangers, being considered implements, are not killed but "decommissioned." Justified-ish in that the originals don't consider them alive to begin with.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences
- Glamour Failure
- Go Mad From the Revelation: Ganger!Jennifer completely loses it thanks to all her memories of being 'decommissioned'.
- Hive Mind: The two Doctors manage to act as if they were still occupying the same skull. Which, in a way, they are. Both being essentially exactly the same person, it would make sense that they would know exactly what the other was thinking. And the fact that Time Lords are telepathic couldn't have hurt, either.
- In-Series Nickname: The TARDIS team seem to have dubbed them "Flesh Avatars".
- Meaningful Name: "Ganger" comes from both "doppelgänger" (a duplicate of a person) and "ganger" (a menial labourer assigned to a large work gang, i.e. on old-fashioned railroads).
- Nightmare Face: An incomplete Ganger.
- Replacement Goldfish: Two of the original humans are killed and their gangers resume their lives for them.
- Rubber Man: The Gangers.
- Shapeshifting Squick
- Spot the Imposter
- Tomato in the Mirror
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The Gangers are designed to be expendable — their purpose is to mine the acid, a horribly dangerous job, without putting humans at risk. Naturally, they aren't happy about this.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Or, Your Daughter is in Another Body, Rory.