In Anticipation Of Celestial Toymaker: 5 Best One-Off Doctor Who Villains Of Modern Era
Doctor Who is not just about giant collective enemies.
The third Doctor Who 60th anniversary special is mere hours away and Whovians are getting ready to have the time of their lives.
While not much is known about the plot of the upcoming episodes, titled The Giggle, it will reportedly be wonderfully bizarre and feature the return of the Doctor's old adversary, the Celestial Toymaker, this time portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris.
The Celestial Toymaker is a sinister character who likes to play childish games with his victims. The prize is freedom. But the Toymaker's game is never fair. He hates to lose, so cheating is his modus operandi.
We can't wait to see what Russell T Davies has come up with for the specials' Big Bad and how Harris will play it. In the meantime, let's remember what other New Who standalone villains made an impression that's still burned into our brains. It's not all about the Cybermen and the Master, after all.
1. The Dream Lord
Appearance: S5E7 Amy's Choice
Actor: Toby Jones
The Dream Lord had no power in the real world, but the way he trapped the TARDIS trio in dreams and manipulated them was a masterpiece of evil. The reveal that he was actually the manifestation of the Doctor's dark side made the character so much deeper and more frightening. We have no greater enemy than ourselves, do we?
2. The Midnight Entity
Appearance: S4E10 Midnight
Actress: Lesley Sharp
Midnight is a jewel of the modern era of Doctor Who. Though its monster, an entity that lives on the planet Midnight, has never shown its true form except as a dark shadow, it is one of the scariest villains in the entire series.
Not only is it extremely adoptive, but it can steal a person's voice through gradual copying and essentially become them, triggering our primal fear of the unknown.
3. Son Of Mine
Appearance: S3E8&9 Human Nature/The Family Of Blood
Actor: Harry Lloyd
All members of the Family of Blood are wonderfully creepy and morbid. These disembodied beings who possess people's bodies to gain the Doctor's immortality have given us many chills. But the most spine-chilling and iconic of the group is definitely Son Of Mine, with his permanently fixed smirk on the face.
4. The Beast
Appearance: S2E8&9 The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit
Actors: Will Thorp, Gabriel Woolf (voice)
A demon imprisoned in the center of Krop Tor and possessing the hive mind of the Ood, is genuinely terrifying. The fact that he existed before the creation of the Doctor's universe and inspired the depiction of the Devil in different cultures only adds to our primal fear and is a truly mind-blowing concept to play with.
5. Metaltron
Appearance: S1E6 Dalek
Voice Actor: Nicholas Briggs
Ok, we didn't plan to include Daleks in this list, but the story of Metaltron aka The Lone Dalek aka The Object in Van Statten's collection remains the best Dalek arc in the revival, and probably the entire series.
His storyline with the Ninth and Rose shows that there's a lot more to the Daleks than just putting 'Exterminate' on repeat.