Doctor Who: 10 Greatest Villains From The Moffat Era So Far
10. Madame Kovarian (Series 6)
A former member of the Church of the Papal Mainframe who became obsessed with silencing the Doctor to ensure he couldnt unleash Gallifrey on the universe, Kovarian received a mixed reaction from viewers. She was hindered by an underdeveloped sense of what her motivations were, since fans didnt discover her full backstory until The Time of the Doctor, two years after her final appearance. So, with such a downside, why is she on this list? Put simply, her unbridled hated for the Doctor meant that she still managed to be menacing and mysterious. Any character obsessed with destroying the protagonist is bound to be somewhat interesting, even if their reasons arent fully explained, and the way that Frances Barber captures the characters despising is a huge part of this. Furthermore, she manages to be one step ahead of the Doctor nearly all the time, tricking him not once but twice with a Ganger before escaping with Baby River. In fact, she only loses because she gets too clever for her own good and her schemes backfire. Creating River helped to save the Doctor numerous times instead of resulting in his demise and expecting the Silence to let her live when they tried to kill the good guys via the medium of eyepatch electrocution was rather hubristic. Most importantly, Kovarian is a worthwhile villain because of the effect she has on the Doctors companions. She destroys Amy and Rorys lives by taking their child from them and has a huge influence on River that Professor Song takes a while to clamber out from. All this is just incidental to her overriding plan but the indifference adds to the villainy. Being able to hurt the Doctors friends while hes going all out to protect them is not something just any bad guy can do and it shows that Kovarian is a more effective antagonist than she is usually given credit for.
