10 Most Hateable Doctor Who Characters
As the Twelfth Doctor probably said, "Hate is always foolish – unless it's directed at this lot."
In his regeneration speech, the Twelfth Doctor observed that "hate is always foolish." And while those are certainly inspiring words to live by, we're just not there yet, especially when you consider the shower of hateable Doctor Who characters we've encountered over the past 60 years.
And we don't mean characters you love to hate either. Yes, Davros is a xenophobic and genocidal maniac, but he's exceptional value for money. Adric is punchably smug and irritating, but after more than 40 years, we can chalk it up to youthful insecurity.
We're talking about characters who are completely and utterly irredeemably terrible. Characters so annoying that you can't understand why the Doctor wants to save their lives. Characters so vile that you're bitterly disappointed when they don't get their comeuppance. Characters so awful that you punch the air when they get bumped off at the end.
Yes, "hate is always foolish", but these Doctor Who characters make a pretty good case for "hate is sometimes wise, actually."
But no, seriously, we're not talking about Adric. Adam Mitchell on the other hand...
10. Fenton
We've all known people like Fenton, who are so confident about their perspective on the world, despite knowing absolutely nothing about it. The absolute worst person to be put in charge of overseeing community service, Fenton is wretched throughout the Series 8 episode Flatline.
It's an incredible performance by Christopher Fairbank, who really brings out the toxicity of Fenton's character. He belittles Rigsy's artwork, and delights in ordering him to paint over his graffiti. The need for artistic expression is as alien a concept to Fenton as the Boneless themselves, and in fact, his mind is so staggeringly closed that the psychic paper doesn't work on him due to his lack of imagination.
The fact that someone as small-minded and petty as Fenton was able to survive without having his mind changed is quite unique in Doctor Who, and it's notable that he's one of the few characters the Doctor regrets saving.
Twelve may have had some sharper edges at first, but it's hard to deny that much better and redeemable people died over the course of Flatline.