4. The Adipose from Partners in Crime
I'm including this one under duress (you hear me, Erick?) because I'm not entirely convinced the Adipose can really be considered a "monster" in the truest sense of the word. I mean,
look at 'em! They're small and cute and made
entirely of fat, just like a kitten! (OK, not entirely like a kitten, but you get the point.) Off the top of my head, I can't think of another Doctor Who monster who's been made into a plush toy and actually
deserved to be made into a plush toy. Though I suppose that's the point: as
monsters, the Adipose don't seem to work on paper, do they? They don't kill deliberately; they don't menace anybody; they even wave as they go by. And yet, they're made out of
our fat, meaning that a human being had to
die to create one. Or several, depending on how much of a porker the human was to begin with. That's a scary concept, especially to those of us who are more than a little overweight (and since I'm writing this in the United States, that's a lot of "us" I'm talking about). And somehow, the Adipose are even more frightening
because they don't mean to harm us - in fact, they don't even know of our existence once they've popped out of what's left of us. The Nanny in that episode is far more of a traditional villain, so when she gets offed, you barely feel it - but watching Donna wave at fat at the end causes some conflicting feelings because...well, didn't these little devils cause a lot of death, after all? And come to think of it, it's ten times worse in Turn Left, when there's no Doctor around to stop close to the entire population of the U.S. from dissolving into cute little plush toys. Shudder.