They’re species that are so utterly ridiculous, or so blatant a play for a certain market segment, that they deserve to be crushed by someone dropping a Sontaran Sphere on them.
I dont mean to be a wowser, but there are some species Id like to see slip into the void and never reappear again in Doctor Who. Theyre species that are so utterly ridiculous, or so blatant a play for a certain market segment, that they deserve to be crushed by someone dropping a Sontaran Sphere on them. In fact, I think they add so little to the Doctor Who universe, that if there were a crack in the universe nearby, I personally would push every last member of their species through it. Does that sound a little too vindictive? I find it hard to tell through my Dalek eyestalk. And dont worry, next time Ill pick out four species who I think should reappear at some point in the future.
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Adipose
For me, Adipose represented the Ewok moment of Doctor Who, being nothing more than a shameless attempt to create an alien that would look so adorable, that kids everywhere would want to buy the fluffy soft toy of it. I get that one of the BBCs primary sources of income from Doctor Who is from the merchandise it sells, but lets face it Ewoks were the bane of George Lucas existence for years. It wasnt until he created Jar Jar Binks that Star Wars fans found something to hate more than Ewoks. Not that anyone would accuse Doctor Who of trying to be as serious a science fiction franchise as Star Wars, but there are lines that shouldnt be crossed. And with the Adipose, Russell T Davies just threw a whole lot of gelatinous, fatty tissue all over that line. I mean living blobs of fat... really?
The Rutan Host
Speaking of gelatinous blobs, if I want a green ball of slime with a personality, Ill call Ghostbusters. Thankfully, the Rutans have been limited to canonical appearances in the Fourth Doctors The Horror of Fang Rock and the video game The Gunpowder Plot, but that doesnt stop the fact that they existed in the first place. Im all for shape shifters in science fiction to some extent Time Lords are shape shifters but the Rutans just dont do it for me. Theyre just giant, bad tempered, green jelly fish. Its almost like the BBC special effects department had a lazy day and dumped some lime flavoured jelly on the ground and said Voila! Its a Rutan! The only redeeming feature of the Rutans is that in The Gunpowder Plot, they have been shown to be a little more plausible in terms of the overall concept, especially with regards to their locomotion. That being said, Id more than happy if Steven Moffat decided the Rutans had been wiped out by the Sontarans and their remains used as wax to polish their armour.
Raxacoricofallapatorians
Better known for the Slitheen family, the Raxacoricofallapatorians are on par with the Adipose for absurd looking aliens. As a rule, any alien that looks remotely like the offspring from the Tellytubbies drunken one night stand with Uncle Tipsy Wipsy in Chernobyl is probably not a good idea. Were meant to believe these guys are ruthless criminal families. Instead I can only picture them getting homicidal if Laa-Laa turned down their mating advances. Throw in the issue that they have a gas problem when disguising as humans as a point of humour in a story, and youre skating on thin ice in my books. I mean really, fart jokes? One of the hallmarks of Doctor Who is that it has such a strong appeal to children because it treats them as an audience with a certain amount of maturity. Resorting to toilet humour for an antagonist significantly lowered the scriptwriting bar.
Movellans
Remember the species that were deadlocked in a war with the Daleks? Check out the Fourth Doctors Destiny of the Daleks. The Movellans, allegedly a superior android species, had one fairly major design flaw their batteries were located on their belts. Making it extremely easy for people to pick-pocket and disable them. That these could also be easily reprogrammed to make them obey your commands rendered the Movellans as perhaps the most useless adversaries ever invented. Well not really, but they just seemed a little too easy for the Doctor to defeat. Also, the Movellans seemed oddly slow and fragile throughout the entire story. For a species that were in a war with the Daleks, they never really displayed much urgency about finding out what the Daleks were up to, or stopping their plot once discovered. That a bunch of escaped slaves easily overpowered the Movellans and stole their ship left you questioning how the Daleks hadnt simply squashed them. Non-canonical novels try to ret-con this by suggesting the Movellans were created by the Daleks, and the war with them was a ruse. For me, however, that just highlights why were better off without them. Any species from over the years which have earned your wrath?