Over the last 62 years, the time-traveling Doctor has battled some incredible villains in Doctor Who, but these terrifying antagonists have only appeared in the long-running series once. While some of the Doctor’s most formidable enemies have recurring roles in Doctor Who, including the likes of the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Master, the Weeping Angels, and more, many of the time-traveling adventurer’s most terrifying foes have only shown up once. Having such brief appearances has usually made these antagonists even scarier, but we would love to see them return to wreak havoc in the future.
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There are countless villains from Doctor Who’s classic run between 1963 and 1989 who only made one appearance, including the Mechonoids, the Tereleptils, the Raston Warrior Robots, and more. Even several enemies from the revived series – which kicked off in 2005 – have only popped up once, such as the Gelth, the Abzorbaloff, the Family of Blood, the Dream Lord, and the list goes on. It would be great to see any of these villains return when Doctor Who eventually returns, but these three are some of the most haunting and memorable antagonists the Doctor has battled on one occasion.
3) The Beast
After the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) find themselves trapped on the distant world of Krop Tor, a planet that perennially orbits a black hole, they go toe-to-toe with an entity that claims to be from before the universe’s creation, the Beast. The Doctor theorizes that the Beast could be the source of the horned depiction of Satan and other demonic myths. Despite his body being trapped in the planet, the Beast was able to transfer his consciousness to other living beings, including the Ood and Toby Zedd (Will Thorp), which almost enabled his escape.
The Beast was only featured in the Doctor Who season 2 two-part story, “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit.” The creature itself was only seen briefly in the latter, while its intelligence possessed the Ood and Toby throughout the adventure on Krop Tor. The Doctor and Rose eventually defeated both halves of the Beast by throwing the planet into the black hole, but it would have been great to see this villain developed further. We never saw the body and consciousness as one, but this combination would have contributed to one of the Doctor’s most unstoppable enemies.
2) The Flood
Mars has been the home of some of the Doctor’s most memorable villains over the years, including the Ice Warriors, the Gandorans, War of the Worlds’ Martians, and more. None are as terrifying, however, as the Flood. This viral species, introduced in 2009’s “The Waters of Mars,” was released from a glacier by the crew of Bowie Base One, Mars’ first human colony, and consequently overtook and possessed many members of the team one-by-one. The Flood’s release directly led to the destruction of Bowie Base One and posed a significant moral dilemma for the Tenth Doctor.
One drop of the infected water from the Flood had the capacity to possess its host, which led to the demises of farmer Andy Stone (Alan Ruscoe), engineer Margaret Cain (Sharon Duncan-Brewster), physician Tarak Ital (Chook Sibtain), technician Steffi Ehrlich (Cosima Shaw), and mechanic Roman Groom (Michael Goldsmith). Ed Gold (Peter O’Brien) sacrifices himself to ensure the Flood doesn’t make it to Earth, which posed a harrowing danger. The Flood is presumably still alive on Mars, meaning it could return to wreak more havoc in the future.
1) Vashta Nerada
Described as the “piranhas of the air,” the Vashta Nerada are one of Doctor Who’s most original, interesting, and yet underdeveloped villains. The Vashta Nerada facilitated the Doctor’s first meeting with River Song (Alex Kingston), who would go on to become a pivotal character in his life, and even his wife. Their fight against the Vashta Nerada happened in the Library in 2008’s two-part spectacular, “Silence in the Library” and “Forest of the Dead,” where the microscopic swarm of flesh-eating creatures hid in the shadows and threatened the Library’s patrons, leading to them all being “saved.”
Generally, the Vashta Nerada are deemed mostly harmless by the Doctor, existing on over a billion other planets, including Earth. However, the swarms in the Library were particularly aggressive as the books housed on the planet were printed from paper taken from the trees of the Vashta Nerada’s home forest, and they wanted to take their home back. The Vashta Nerada have appeared in subsequent audio stories, but we’ve only seen them once in Doctor Who, even though they are an antagonist rich with history and truly nightmare-inducing.
Who are your favorite one-time villains in Doctor Who? Let us know in the comments!
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image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
