10 Terrifying Doctor Who Monsters That Had Us Hiding Behind The Sofa

Yes, these are scarier than the Angels.

If you’ll allow your scribe to briefly break character, I’d like to share a story about a young lad of eight, back in 2005. Whilst enjoying his ham sandwich and Wagon Wheel, his interest was piqued by a show his mother was watching. It was just some show that had been on years ago, that his mum had watched as a kid. The boy was in equal parts enthralled and terrified, he’d never seen anything like it before - it scared him very much, but he loved it. He had nightmares for months about the show, but despite this, he couldn’t stop thinking about the show, and come Christmas Day that year, he was sat in front of his TV, waiting for The Christmas Invasion. He was beginning a journey into a rabbit hole that went considerably deeper than he might have imagined at the time…

The show was, of course, Doctor Who, and that very first episode, which played on his mind for many months, was The Empty Child…

Personal experience and bias aside, most fans would agree that the Gas Mask Zombies are bloody creepy. Yes, it isn’t difficult to make a gas mark scary, those things are creepy, but the fear factor with these monsters is truly down to Jamie’s delivery of that iconic ‘Muuuummy’ - spine-tingling to this day…

And then let’s not forget the main source of your scribe’s childhood nightmare fuel, the scene in which Doctor Constantine transforms into one of the zombies. The CGI has not aged well at all, but regardless, the atmosphere of this scene is enough to put the jeebies up most people. I still can’t look at Richard Wilson’s face the same way, and this was seventeen years ago. The first season of Merlin was rough going…

If these monsters hadn’t haunted a certain child, this article most likely wouldn’t exist, and that is why they’re number one. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.