Doctor Who: 10 Villains The Doctor Couldn't Defeat

7. The Valeyard (The Ultimate Foe)

Doctor Who Vashta Nerada
BBC

In the series-long story Trial of a Time Lord, the Sixth Doctor's greatest foe is the legal system, with the character being put on trial by the High Council of Time Lords.

But a more specific thorn in his side is the Valeyard, who represents the prosecution counsel. The Valeyard really wants to ruin the Doctor's day - at one point, he suggests that the death penalty should be used as a punishment, because he's a dick - and this massive hate-boner persists throughout the entirety of the series, culminating in a face-to-face final showdown between the two characters.

This results in the Valeyard being presumed dead, after he's hit with an energy surge during the final moments of the serial The Ultimate Foe. The Doctor assumes all is well, and flies off in the TARDIS, ready for a fresh adventure. But then, at the very end of the story, the Valeyard is shown to be alive and well, laughing into the camera.

He hasn't returned in a televised story since then, but he's out there somewhere. And let's face it, he's probably up to no good.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.