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

The Cybermen are a very mixed bag. In concept, they’re one of the most terrifying foes in Who, leaning into a body horror aspect that is otherwise mostly untouched by the show. Unfortunately, the writers frequently forget about this and turn them into stompy robots instead. When done right, though, these cyborgs are creepy as hell.

Created from humans, cut up and forced into a metal suit that inhibits emotions, The Cybermen have always been at their best when you can see their humanoid components more clearly, and in no design has this been better executed than with the originals: The Mondasian Cybermen.

Making a single appearance in NuWho in World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls, these guys make a splash and a half in what might be the best Cybermen story of all time, reinstating what made them so scary when they first arrived in The Tenth Planet all those years ago. It’s all perfect: The stretched fabric over the face, the humanoid hands, the sing song, almost auto-tuned voice, not to mention the fact that they kill off Twelve and both his companions. Special mention also has to go to the scene in which a nurse tends to a Cyberman who is calling out in pain and begging for death, only for it to later be revealed that all she’d done was turn its volume down.

It’s a shame in a way that these villains, that are pretty dark in concept, are stuck in a family show, and we only really got to see them realised fully when the age rating for the show briefly jumped to 12 instead of PG. Here’s to hoping we see this again.