Doctor Who: 10 Great Villains Who Were Badly Wasted

5. The Vashta Nerada

Another Moffat story, 'Silence in the Library'/'Forest of the Dead' is easily two of the finest Doctor Who episodes of the revival. The chemistry between Alex Kingston and David Tennant is great, the layered storytelling is excellent, and the conclusion pays off all those ingenious little mysteries we wondered about. But what about the Vashta Nerada? They were fantastic for many reasons, but partly because they were real; they exist on Earth, the Doctor said. While the Doctor was getting to know his wife however, these creatures were lurking in the dark, waiting to attack when they'd stopped arguing; it was all great, but the flesh-eating shadows were only a footnote in the story. This is a creature that had potential to be as iconic as the Weeping Angels: why hasn't Moffat brought them back? It would certainly work if a whole episode focussed on their threat; are we really never going to see them again? It just seems like Moffat wasted one of his greatest villains on being a sub-plot in a romance.