10 Doctor Who Villains You're Surprised Only Appeared Once

The Doctor has faced a great deal of terrifying foes throughout their travels. Given the vast expanse of all of time and space, it's incredibly surprising when the Doctor bumps into those foes again.

Looking through the prism of a long-running television drama that has to attract audiences, it becomes a lot clearer as to why big hitters like the Daleks, Cybermen, and the Master all regularly return to ruin the Doctor's day. The Daleks practically secured Doctor Who's longevity the minute they waved a sucker arm in Barbara's face way back in 1963. Writers and showrunners repeatedly return to the Daleks nearly six decades later. Some monsters and villains don't get as lucky as the Daleks or the Master, however.

It's not for lack of trying. The Sea Devils for example, were a huge part of the cultural memory of 1970s Doctor Who, but have only appeared in the series three times. In 1972, 1984, and 2022 respectively. The Zygons from 1975's Tom Baker serial captured the imagination of a young David Tennant but they didn't return to the series until 2013. And then there are monsters even unluckier than that, those who are clearly brilliant, but have (to date) never returned to the TV series.

Fenric and the Doctor have a long history with each other. First appearing in the Seventh Doctor classic 'The Curse of Fenric', he was the original evil from the dawn of time. An earlier incarnation of the Doctor and Fenric first met in 3rd century Constantinople, where the Doctor defeated the intelligence in a game of chess and imprisoned him in a flask.

From his prison, Fenric manipulated the Seventh Doctor's timeline in order to free himself from his prison. The Doctor and Ace eventually defeated Fenric once more, but the old evil played a big role in the Seventh Doctor's Big Finish series of audios. Fenric was intrinsically linked to the legendary Cartmel Masterplan that would suggest the Doctor was more than a Time Lord.

With that in mind, it wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility for Fenric to have been defeated by Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor in the employ of Division, or by another of the Timeless Doctors. Whichever Doctor defeated him first, it's surely time for another rematch. If only so that the Doctor's last important chess game wasn't that awful one from Nightmare in Silver. Justice for chess!