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

Flesh eating shadows. Vashta Nerada are such a simple concept, but utilised so effectively in their one appearance in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead. Capitalising on humanity’s almost universal fear of the dark, these creatures don’t hide in every shadow, but in any shadow, and that’s a terrifying thought, as is the fact that they can strip the human body down to a skeleton in less than a second. The addition of data ghosting, which caused the consciousness to live on briefly after death, was simply genius, and the first use of this, where we listen to Miss Evangalista’s mind break down slowly, is truly haunting.

Unfortunately, the data ghosting concept has diminishing returns as the story continues, and this is the reason these shadow piranhas aren’t higher up this list. Instead of listening to a decaying mind go into shutdown as their reanimated corpses shuffle on, the rest of the victims of Vashta Nerada repeat the last thing they said before they died. This reliance on monsters needing a catchphrase is an issue in the RTD era, and in this case, it’s a waste of a really creepy concept - having this walking cadaver repeat “Hey, who turned out the lights?” really undermines it’s spookiness, and borders on goofy. It’s a shame.