10 Categoric Reasons Why Doctor Who Is The Best Show Ever

8. The Iconic Villains

The greater the villains, the greater the hero. It's a no brainer, right? And when it comes to Doctor Who, the most iconic name on the bestiary is, obviously, the Daleks. What other TV series can boast with such an easily recognisable race of destructive pepperpots? Other shows have iconic villains too (d'oh!), a lot of which are bent on Universe domination and keen on exterminating other life forms. But there are two main reasons why the Daleks stand out (and no, their Nazi-like origins is not one of them, although it could be the third!). Firstly, they're as old as the show itself and look more or less the same (save for a few colour twitches), behave the same and their voice acting follows the same idea. Unlike the Cybermen who get a makeover every time they reemerge, the Daleks have the same frightening core concept that no misguided writer can take away. Whether absent for a few seasons or overused in others, they'll always be there, etched into the shows fabric... Plus, what iconic villains do you know that are so, well... inhuman? When designing evil aliens, robots and mythical creatures, most of them turn out anthropomorphic. There's a good reason for that, too, as the human brain may have difficulty in accepting or even imagining things that are too different from its human exterior or other familiar animals. While there are exceptions, the Daleks obviously stand out in their "iconicness". So don't just praise Terry Nation for being the one who penned the Daleks, save some for the brilliant BBC designer, Raymond Cusick, who never even received the royalties he deserved, unfortunately. Of course, Daleks aren't the only awesome baddies of Doctor Who. The Cybermen and the Master have probably become just as popular, shortly followed by Weeping Angels, Sontarans, Silence, Silurians, Ice Warriors... oh, the list just goes on and on. The finest recent additions that come to mind are the Teller and the Boneless.