10 Doctor Who Villains Who SHOULD Return

9. The Great Vampires

Doctor Who the Headless Monks
BBC

Doctor Who has gone down the bloodsucker route a few times in the past, most recently in 2010's The Vampires Of Venice. But arguably the show's best vampire story is State Of Decay, a Fourth Doctor serial from 1980.

The villain of this story is a trio of vampires called The Three Who Rule. Once humans, they were transformed into creatures of the night by a mythical beast, the King Vampire, who is leader of the Great Vampire species.

Bringing back the Great Vampires and the King Vampire would be a good idea for two main reasons. Firstly, we didn't get to see much of the King Vampire in State Of Decay - a result of Doctor Who's limited budget and primitive effects technology - so he needs a lot more fleshing out. Granted, he did die at the end of the story, but this is Doctor Who. Death doesn't have to mean anything if the writers don't want it to.

And secondly, a more important reason to bring these vampires back is because they're one of the Time Lords' most ancient enemies.

In State Of Decay, the Doctor describes a Gallifreyan legend in which the Time Lords fought the Great Vampires in a devastating war. In the end, the Time Lords won this war, by using bow ships to pierce the vampires' hearts.

There's an interesting story to be told here about the Doctor and the few remaining Great Vampires, survivors of the centuries-old rivalry between their two races. Doctor Who lore is incredibly rich, and the show doesn't delve into it as much as it should - but the Great Vampires would be a perfect opportunity to do just that.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.