10. The Villains
Let's start with an easy one. And before I start, I'm not talking about monsters (I'll come that shortly) - I'm talking about the fantastic villains that the Fourth Doctor faced over his seven years on TV. Ruthless experimenter of humans, Sontaran Commander Styre. (The Sontaran Experiment) Frankenstein-like Solon and evil Timelord legend Morbius. (The excellent Brain of Morbius) The megalomaniac Chase. (The Seeds Of Doom) The deadly Mandragora. (The much overlooked Masque of Mandragora). The time travelling warlord Weng Chiang and the villainous Magnus Creel (Talons of Weng Chiang). The seed of all evil; the Fendahleen. (The Image of the Fendahl) And the mysterious Scaroth, the last of the Jagaroth (City Of Death). I fully recommend watching every one of those stories listed if you want to know more. For me, there are three great villains of the Fourth Doctor's era.
(i) The Master His return in the brilliant The Deadly Assassin was shocking. A decaying, Skeletor-like shade of his former self, this Master was ready to destroy the Doctor and everyone on Gallifrey, just to gain new life. He wasn't the charming, ruthless Master of the Third Doctor's era. He was now a hideous monster, pulling the strings from the shadows to exact his plans. His return in Tom Baker's final series was even more unexpected. Finally succeeding in gaining a new life (possessing poor Nyssa's father before wiping out her home planet), his actions led to the Fourth Doctor's regeneration. But its that first reveal in The Deadly Assassin that stands out as one of the best moments of the Fourth Doctors era.
(ii) Davros Genesis Of The Daleks is deserving of its high listing in any top ten Doctor Who episode list. Why? Because we got to the see the creation of the Daleks and the monster that created them. Davros was never as good as his was in this first appearance. Cold and calculating, he chooses to wipe out his own people (The Kaleds) to enact his plans. He slaughters anyone who stands in his way. But he's not a screaming maniac...at least not in this story. He provides an intellectual equal to the Doctor...perhaps for the first time since the original Master appeared. Davros is terrifying, not just because of how he looks or his creation of the Daleks...but because he cares for nothing except his goals. Life means nothing to him. He is perhaps the most anti-Doctor character ever envisioned on screen. His best moment? Torturing the Doctor to gain knowledge of future Dalek defeats in an attempt to change history
(iii) Sutekh An Egyptian God. A Vengeful alien. The devil. Sutekh is all three. A villain of such malevolence, he can crush the Doctor and wipe out humanity with ease. There couldnt be any better villain in Doctor Who history for me than Sutekh the Destroyer, the destroyer of all things. In The Pyramids of Mars, Sutekh kills and reanimates the hapless Professor Scarman, ordering him to construct Osiran robots (mummies) that kill everything that stand in their path, as they build a rocket to free Sutekh from his prison on Mars. Its a plan that will result in the destruction of everything on Earth, as a trip in the Tardis to an alternate 1980 proves. To kill Sutekh, the Doctor had to create a temporal trap, forcing this enemy now free, into a time tunnel 10,000 years in the future. Sutekhs best moment? Crushing the Doctor with his very will. There is no doubt as to how terrible this mighty god really is