10 Lies About Doctor Who You Probably Believe

6. The Daleks Were The Show's First Villains

Doctor Who Eleventh Doctor Sonic Screwdriver
BBC Studios

As we’ve already established, not everything you read about the Daleks is true.

They’ve been around for nearly as long as Doctor Who itself, and as such, there's a perception among more casual viewers that they were the first villains the Doctor ever faced.

But while the Daleks were the first Doctor Who monster, they weren’t the first Doctor Who antagonist.

That unfortunate distinction belongs to Kal the caveman, a character from the very first Doctor Who story, An Unearthly Child.

Kal’s goal was simple: to make fire, and thus prove himself as a worthy leader for the Tribe of Gum. Too bad, then, that one of the first things the Doctor did upon arriving on Stone Age Earth was to light his pipe (and yes, you have read that right: the Doctor did indeed once own, and smoke, a pipe).

Along the way, Kal murders the kindly cavewoman Old Mother – but justice is served when he is, himself, killed by fellow caveman Za.

He’s not the most iconic or groundbreaking villain, but Kal was just as deadly a threat as the Daleks in those early days, and deserves to be remembered as such.

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