10 Doctor Who Villains With Terrifying Abilities
8. Possess Humans... And Then Eat Them (The Eight Legs)
Whether it's Lord Of The Rings or Harry Potter, giant spiders are always going to be freaky as hell, and Doctor Who's Eight Legs are no exception to that rule.
Well, if we're honest, the practical spider effects haven't aged too gracefully, but putting the onscreen execution of the creatures to one side, their behaviour and abilities are definitely the stuff of nightmares.
"Eight Legs" is the name given to this race of humongous spiders, first seen in the Third Doctor's final serial, Planet Of The Spiders. Unlike the giant spiders featured in NuWho's Arachnids In The UK, the Eight Legs are not simply ordinary wall-crawlers with a size bump - they're alien in nature, something that's reflected in their powers.
They have a certain level of psychic ability, able to teleport, communicate via telepathy, and, most disturbingly of all, possess humans - but that's not even the worst bit. While they're perfectly okay with dining on sheep to keep themselves fed, they're actually said to prefer the flesh of human beings, a revelation that a webbed-up Sarah Jane Smith, understandably, reacts to with absolute horror.
Combine the telepathy with the people-munching, and the Eight Legs could quite easily possess you, before bringing you back to their lair for a snack - and you would be powerless to resist.