4. Half-Face Man (Deep Breath)
While brilliant in The Girl in the Fireplace, the Clockwork droids were more or less uniform robots, there to offer a lurking physical threat but not much else. So its fairly impressive that one of them manages to be one of the most interesting individual villains of the Moffat era. Part of this is visual. The Half-Face Man is unnerving to look at, seeming almost human but not quite there due to having half a face (hence the name). The costume helps, creating the appearance of the archetypal creepy Victorian gentlemen, which only adds to the uneasy feeling he generates. Part of it is Peter Fernandinos performance, matching the characters appearance and perfectly capturing the sense of a machine bordering on humanity. Hes sympathetic at times, cold and threatening at others, but always with the underlying idea of the robotic. What makes him such an effective villain is that he is driven towards the one goal - finding the promised land. Nothing else matters in this pursuit and the droids under his command have clearly done some quite horrific things, such as butchering people (and dinosaurs) for spare parts, enough to make an escape balloon out of human skin. However, what elevates him above other villains is that he can up the tension just by sitting still in his lair, which happens when the Doctor and Clara go looking for answers. He has a rather strong effect on Clara too, since shes terrified of him, but its the ability to be utterly threatening while not doing much at all that grants Half-Face Man his place at fourth.