Doctor Who: 10 Cheapest NuWho Enemies

When Doctor Who returned to TV in 2005, it banished the Classic Series' reputation for wonky special effects and low production values forever. The brand used to be mocked everywhere by the likes of Spike Milligan and Fry & Laurie. Now it took pride of place on the Beeb's Saturday night schedule and the comedians, from Simon Pegg to Peter Kay, were lining up to take part.

However, despite the show's capacity to wow being greatly increased, it remains a modest offering by Hollywood standards. Digital technology has made hordes of rampaging Daleks easier to realise, but the adventures are still all shot on video, and there are tight budgets that have to be stuck to. The protracted scheduling of Series 6 and 7 were dictated as much by what was in the coffers as by dramatic effect.

This article calls out 10 weird, wild and downright entertaining examples of corner-cutting in the universe of NuWho. Time Lords from Eccleston to Capaldi have all had their demons to face, and some of them have been put together for a few quid at very short notice. So, open a can of discount lager, or pour a glass of your local supermarket's cheapest wine, and enjoy a tour of the good Doctor's frugal homegrown horrors.

David Tennant's Tenth Gallifreyan arrived amongst a mass of killer baubles and narky Sycoraxes in the yuletide treat that was 2005's The Christmas Invasion. Yet while spectacular sights, such as the TARDIS crash landing on a council estate and a bloodthirsty-looking alien race, were in abundance, other aspects of the episode left less of an impression.

True, the climactic swordfight between the Doctor and the Sycorax leader had all the tension of two drunks slapping each other with rolled-up newspapers on a park bench, but an unmistakably festive threat becomes the introductory entry on this ragtag rundown. 

The Santa Robots were a stroll in the positronic park for the production team. Simply dress an actor as a department store Father Christmas and shove a novelty mask on his face. Oh, and give him a lethal trumpet. The simple but marginally effective trick was repeated in The Runaway Bride, where once again the marauding mechanoids played support to a more expensive adversary.