Doctor Who: 10 Worst NuWho Villains

9. General Cobb/The Hath (The Doctor's Daughter)

Doctor Who The Abzorbaloff
BBC

The Doctor's Daughter has a lot going on. As well as the core idea laid out by the title - which could probably sustain a two-parter all by itself - there's the usual band of disposable side characters, a pointless Martha Jones subplot, and two warring factions that each fill the episode's "villain" slot at different points.

The episode tries to squeeze all of this into a lean 45-minute runtime, but there simply isn't enough room to develop everything fully, and as a result, those two warring factions - the humans led by General Cobb, and the alien Hath - fail to make a splash.

When the Hath are serving as villains, they're nothing more than gun-toting goons in rubber suits, with no unique or interesting abilities to distinguish them from ordinary humans - other than the way they look. Speaking of this look - purple and orange skin with a large breathing apparatus stuck to their faces - it comes across as unintentionally comical, ensuring that they don't feel threatening in the slightest.

As for Cobb, he's that stereotypical "grumpy old soldier" that we've seen a million times before, chasing the Doctor down corridors and barking all his lines like an angry little dog, but always feeling slightly pathetic and unimposing.

Doctor Who The Doctor's Daughter General Cobb
BBC

You could argue that there isn't meant to be a true villain here, and you might be right. However, the episode clearly wants us to feel that the Doctor is under pressure from all sides, but when that pressure is used so sparingly and so ineffectively, it's hard to feel like there's any danger in the story whatsoever.

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WhoCulture Channel Manager/Doctor Who Editor at WhatCulture. Can confirm that bow ties are cool.