Doctor Who Just Confirmed Daleks Aren’t the Show’s Worst Monsters

Daleks have been at the core of Doctor Who for over six decades as one of the Doctor’s most frequent and formidable adversaries, but The War Between the Land and the Sea just revealed another monster is even worse. As the first official Doctor Who spinoff of the modern era, The War Between the Land and the Sea has thankfully been a return to form for the Whoniverse. The spinoff explores the reemergence of the Sea Devils—renamed Homo Aqua—who reveal their existence and wage war against humanity to reclaim the world that was once their own.

Homo Aquan are classic Doctor Who villains, and have become some of the Doctor’s most frequent enemies since making their debut in 1972’s “The Sea Devils” opposite the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee). The Sea Devils are among some of Doctor Who’s most notable monsters, alongside the likes of the Cybermen, the Sontarans, the Master, and, of course, the Daleks. The War Between the Land and the Sea, however, has expanded on the Homo Aqua society, civilization, and mythology, making them far more empathetic and reasonable, and establishing a different monster as one of the Whoniverse’s worst.

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Humans Are the Villains in The War Between the Land and the Sea

In The War Between the Land and the Sea, Homo Aqua are, in fact, not the antagonists, but humans themselves fill this role. While the Homo Aqua have indeed thrown all the pollution and trash in the world’s oceans back onto the land, this was in an act of retaliation after decades of having their home polluted by humans. Homo Aqua hope to bring back an environmental balance to the Earth, and are putting humans in their place—despite the human characters’ reluctance to advance plans to clean up the world.

Along with the primary storyline unfolding between human Barclay (Russell Tovey) and Homo Aqua Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), an undercurrent of geopolitical tension and interpersonal drama among the human supporting characters has also been explored. The British Prime Minister (Vincent Franklin) has teamed up with nefarious politicians, generals, and billionaires to advance plan for a mysterious “severance” (no relation to the popular Apple TV series), while even Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), the commander-in-chief of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT), has also made some questionable decisions in the face of this global emergency.

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7 Doctor Who Spinoffs We Want After The War Between the Land and the Sea

The most antagonist actions done by humans in The War Between the Land and the Sea have been seen in the most recent episodes, “The Deep” and “The Witch of the Waterfall.” At the end of “The Deep,” Ted Campbell (William Gaminara), who worked for the mysterious “Initiative,” detonate a bomb in the Homo Aquan lair, intending to wipe them out at the expense of most of the human ambassadorial team. United States General Oscar Gunsberg (Stewart Alexander) has also shown his desire to commit genocide against the Homo Aquan, proving humans are Doctor Who and its spinoffs’ worst monsters.

Humans Have Been Doctor Who’s Most Terrifying Monsters For Decades (Since the Very Start)

The War Between the Land and the Sea is not the first time humans have posed the largest threat in Doctor Who’s 62-year history. In fact, humans have been the primary antagonist of many Doctor Who stories, even dating back to the very first serial of the first season of Doctor Who, titled “An Unearthly Child.” After the First Doctor (William Hartnell) and Susan (Carole Ann Ford) brought Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) onto the TARDIS, they traveled to Palaeolithic times and crossed paths with a prehistoric tribe.

Some members of this tribe, specifically Kal (Jeremy Young) and Za (Derek Newark), were battling each other to make fire and become the leader of the group. They go to extreme lengths to do this, including kidnapping the Doctor and his new team. They posed little threat, but in the 62 years since this 1963 serial, humans have only grown in power, influence, and threat, and have often disappointed the Doctor more than any other species. Countless classic stories featured humans as the villains, and this has continued in the modern age following the 2005 revival of Doctor Who.

Since 2005, episodes such as “Dalek,” “Army of Ghosts,” “The Lazarus Experiment,” “42,” “Planet of the Ood,” “The Unicorn and the Wasp,” “Midnight,” “The Beast Below,” “The Rebel Flesh,” “Kill the Moon,” “Thin Ice,” “Oxygen,” “73 Yards,” “Dot and Bubble,” and more have all featured humans as the antagonists. Ever since being introduced as Doctor Who’s first monster back in 1963, humans have only become more and more terrifying. This has all come to a head in The War Between the Land and the Sea, where humans may be on the verge of committing heinous crimes against the Homo Aqua, but we’ll have to wait for the finale, “The End of the War,” to see how it all concludes.

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