Rob Hull
Rob HullWe are pleased to welcome Special Correspondent Tom Connair to our staff. Here is his first post.
The newest season of Doctor Who has begun, and it’s promised by head writer Steven Moffat and the cast to be “the scariest yet.” That’s a tall order considering the wide variety of ghastlies that the Doctor and his companions have encountered so far. With the much-anticipated premiere having just aired, here’s a chronological rundown of some of the most spine-tingling moments and monsters of recent Who adventures…
ONE: The Dead walk the streets of London (The Unquiet Dead) – Series 1, Episode 3
When the revamped show returned to television screens in 2005, the jumps and scares began immediately. In the first and second episodes we were introduced to numerous threats, including the emotionless killers made of plastic, the Autons, and the cold-hearted Cassandra, last of the human race. But things didn’t become genuinely creepy until “The Unquiet Dead.” A sinister force is animating the corpses of the recently dead in Victorian-era London. Fortunately, the Doctor and Rose are on the case, and they’re assisted by a gent named Charles Dickens.
TWO: The Sycorax Invasion (The Christmas Invasion) – Christmas Special 2005
It’s Christmas Day, 2005, and an alien ship hovers over London. Onboard are the evil Sycorax. Their desire: immediate dominion of Earth and enslavement of the human race. Their threat: they will use their hypnotic power to cause 1/3 of the world’s population, already under their control, to commit suicide, if their demands are not met.
THREE: Lycanthrope on the Loose (Tooth and Claw) – Series 2, Episode 2
It looks like a werewolf, but it’s not. Actually an alien that resembled the lycanthrope of popular folklore, but the classification is a minor quibble; the sight of this over-sized, fur-covered, fanged monstrosity will instill fear in you all the same and have you running for your life.
FOUR: The Cybermen are Reborn. (Rise of the Cybermen &Age of Steel) – Series 2, Episodes 5 & 6
The super-rich, half-mad industrialist John Lumic fashions himself the perfect robotic workforce. The only necessary component not readily available: human brains. Lumic hires goons to ‘vanish’ teen runaways and the less fortunate, but once the ranks of Lumic’s robot army begin to swell, all humans are fair game to the Cybermen. Being a victim of the Cybermen is described by the Doctor as being “sort of like an organ donor, except there’s a lot more screaming.”
FIVE: Encountering Satan (The Impossible Planet & The Satan Pit) – Series 2, Episodes 8 &9
In the far future, the biggest of the big bads has been imprisoned by greater, mysterious forces inside a distant asteroid, held in place by the gravity of a black hole. But the Prince of Evil has an escape plan in motion. The Doctor and Rose arrive on this space-rock to discover a crew of astronauts, recently set-down and beginning to mine precious minerals. Little do they know what they are about to unleash from the depths…
SIX: The Empress of the Racnoss (The Runaway Bride) – Christmas Special 2006
This huge arachnid, with her blood-red skin, thick as armor, and ten limbs, each coming to sharp points (perfect for impaling) seems born from a nightmare. Her actual place of origin, however, was the oldest and darkest corner of space. She chose to visit Earth because it was time for her children to hatch. Racnoss young spawn in huge numbers, and come into existence ravenously hungry. Care to guess what their food source will be?
SEVEN: The Lazarus Monster attacks! (The Lazarus Experiment) – Series 3, Episode 6
Professor Richard Lazarus was a scientist experimenting with human longevity. After building a machine to reverse the aging process, he uses himself as the first human test subject. He emerges from the machine thirty years younger. The experiment is a success… temporarily. Soon, dormant genes in his DNA run amuck, transforming him into a horrifying mutant: a giant scorpion-like creature with a taste for human flesh.
EIGHT: The Weeping Angels (Blink) – Series 3, Episode 10
These statues are simply that… until you take your eyes off them. Once out of eyesight, they can move quickly, sometimes silently, or sometimes with stone grinding noises. Their intentions, however, are always malevolent. Their touch can cause their prey to be instantly transported to another place or time. If these super-strong creatures are feeling more sinister, as they were in the episode “Flesh and Stone,” victims suffer and die with broken necks from the Angels cold, stone hands.
NINE: Horror on Mars (The Waters of Mars) – November Special 2009
The year: 2059. The place: the Martian colony, Bowie Base One, a small scientific settlement. A mysterious life form calling itself the Flood, begins possessing the scientists one by one, turning each into zombie-like beings who spew water from their mouths. This water, just a single drop of it, is enough to visit the same fate on those not yet infected. This life form has a greater goal than assimilating the entire Mars colony; it has set its sights on the big, blue world from which the scientists originally hail: the planet Earth.
TEN: Amy Pond Meets Prisoner Zero (The Eleventh Hour) – Series 5, Episode 1
Both ironic and creepy, Prisoner Zero lived in Amy Pond’s house for twelve years before they first come eye to eye. Prisoner Zero escaped from an extra-dimensional prison through a crack in time, finding itself in Amy’s home. It hid and it waited. It sometimes ventured out into the town, using its shape-changing abilities to pose as other townspeople, laying a plan to insure it would remain forever free from captivity.
ELEVEN: The Vampires of Venice (The Vampires of Venice) – Series 5, Episode 6
Something is not quite right in 16th century Venice. The city gates have been shut, a defense against the quickly-spreading Plague. But within the town, desiccated corpses are discovered. The Doctor traces this evil to the House of Calvierri, an exclusive school for young women. The Doctor soon learns that these young women cast no reflection in mirrors, and when choosing to do, bare horrific fangs. The inhabitants of the House of Calvierri will now stop at nothing to insure the Doctor can not reveal their secret…
TWELVE: The Doctor’s greatest nemesis: the iconic Dalek. (Dalek) – Series 1, Episode 6
Their robotic appearance is actually an armored shell which houses a genetically manipulated life-form inside. In the presence of any other non-Dalek, they’re most likely to bark in their chilling, electronic voices “Exterminate!” The Ninth Doctor, finding himself in the same room as a Dalek, turned, ran, and pounded on the exit door, begging for escape. If a Dalek instills that much fear in a Time Lord, you know it’s trouble.
What horrors, old or new, will the new series bring? Be careful about wanting to know, Whovian, you just might find out.
UPDATE: Now we know. SILENCE HAS FALLEN!
