10 Smartest Villain Plans In TV Shows

4. Into The Timeline - The Great Intelligence (Doctor Who)

petyr baelish
BBC Studios

In his many thousands of years saving the universe from alien nasties, The Doctor has amassed plenty of enemies.

They've all tried and failed many times to take him down, with one of the most inventive plots against him coming from the mind of Richard E. Grant.

First introduced in the 2012 Christmas special, Grant's version of The Great Intelligence becomes the main antagonist for the seventh series of the revived Who. He gains access to the Doctor's timestream via his grave on the planet Trenzalore, jumping inside of it to undo all of his past victories.

It's one thing to beat The Doctor one time. Plenty of villains have done it, but he's always bounced back in one way or another. What better to stop the Time Lord from returning than by making sure he never did anything good in the first place?

The Great Intelligence's plan wreaks havoc with history, until he is eventually stopped by Clara. Even though he was unsuccessful in his endeavours, The Great Intelligence still came up with one of the most original and devastating strategies to take down the Universe's greatest saviour.

That would explain his name.

Contributor
Contributor

Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.