8 Doctor Who Villains NOT Improved In The Reboot
Who's afraid of a little lonely Dalek? No one! And that's the problem!
Doctor Who has been giving us sleepless nights for close to sixty years, thanks to the plethora of terrifying beasties that have been popping up on-screen, causing us to pop behind the couch until they've passed. The classic era received tonnes of complaints over its violence and more adult depiction of monsters, despite the budget being far lower than the modern iteration of the show.
Having said that, the revived Doctor Who has introduced some truly unique and frightening monsters to the canon. However, it hasn't always been amazing at representing the earlier era of Who in its ranks, particularly when it comes to showcasing older aliens. While the Cybermen, Daleks and Sontaarans have come out largely unscathed (with notable exceptions), other alien races have not been so lucky.
Early episodes of the revival are now proof that too much CGI does not equal quality, with some cases becoming more obvious examples than others. Yes, we're looking at you, oh big puddle of plastic under the Thames. There may be some contentious choices here on this list, so read on to see which of the returning foes were handled well in Doctor Who.
8. Nestene Consciousness
This entry comes down to, unfortunately, the revived Doctor Who attempting to run before it could walk. The choice to render the Nestene Consciousness entirely in CGI severely hampered the impact that it would have on audiences. Even the Autons themselves, while played by actors in mannequin suits, appeared less threatening by the time the Ninth Doctor encountered them.
When the Third Doctor came face to tentacle with the Nestene, the low budget of the 1970s was actually aided by 'less is more' storytelling. When the Doctor and Liz Shaw attempted to destroy the creature, their weapon malfunctioned and the next thing the audience knew, the Doctor was being wrapped up and strangled by the being. While no one is arguing that the tentacle didn't look like an Art Attack project, they were at least in the same room as the actors. The same cannot be said for the 'updated' version.
In Rose, the Nestene hiding under London is a huge, CGI mess. It was designed to resemble something like lava, though it never truly hits the mark. This, combined with some unfortunately shoddy CGI effects between Mickey Smith and a dustbin, let the opening episode down.
However, to be fair, it was the very first episode of the new series, so we won't judge them too harshly.