8. Monsters That Prey On The Heart And Mind
Mirroring our modern world, the Doctors enemies have evolved from the physical to the psychological. Rather than fighting men in rubber suits the more current Doctors and their companions find themselves warring against the loss of memory and time. The silence and the weeping angels are our deepest fears the loss of self, the ravages of age - made manifest. If a reboot is to succeed the antagonists must adapt to current thinking in order to remain relatable. The iconic daleks still resonate because they were allowed to evolve. Now they are less threatening as machines of war and more as agents of conversion. It is not Oswins loss of body that is the most horrific thing in Asylum of the Daleks but the potential warping of her consciousness, the violation of her sense of self. This is a concept born out of a time when we are less likely to suffer from a warriors axe than a politicians manipulation.