"You see, Doctor, you're my intellectual equal. Almost. I have too few worthy opponents. When they've gone I always miss them."
Of the massive cast of monsters, aliens and other assorted characters in the decades-long famous series, Doctor Who and its various related works, these geniuses make their mark for the impressive charm and ruthless guile.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
open/close all folders
Recurring characters
- The Master, as the Doctor's Arch-Enemy, is one of his most tenacious and brilliant foes as demonstrated by various incarnations:
- The "UNIT Years" Master is a suave, refined and always impeccably polite villainous Time Lord who wastes no time establishing himself as a Worthy Opponent to the Doctor. During his tenure the UNIT Years Master devises multiple ingenious plans, effortlessly taking control of other villainous factions sometimes without them even realising it. Managing to manipulates entire wars and attempts to hold the galaxy hostage to control it, even after being sent to prison the UNIT Years Master tricks a warden into allowing him to contact the undersea Sea Devils so he may begin an invasion from the ocean and make himself Earth's ruler. The UNIT Years Master constantly keeps the Doctor on the edge of his toes, acknowledged by the heroic Time Lord as his greatest rival, and once his dearest friend. When moments away from controlling the Doomsday Weapon and having seemly won he sincerely offers the Doctor the opportunity to jointly rule the universe together. Coming within a hair's width of ultimate power multiple times and always recovering from each set back, he is more than a match for the Doctor's best and for his part the UNIT Years Master seems to love matching wits with the Doctor, showcasing his extreme ruthlessness and genius in the process.
- The "Tremas" Master came to be after a dying Master manipulated all of Gallifrey and Traken alike, before stealing the body of a Trakenite scientist. Just as ruthlessly brilliant as his previous incarnation, the Tremas Master is even more flamboyant and elegant, manipulating the Doctor into helping him stop a wave of energy that threatens the universe, only to betray the Doctor and lead him to his death while seeking to blackmail reality itself into accepting him as its sovereign. After the Doctor regenerates into his fifth incarnation, the Tremas Master immediately springs a pair of nigh-impossible to escape traps nearly destroying his enemy. Escaping seemingly certain death multiple times, the Tremas Master returns with new, brilliant schemes again and again in his pursuit of power and to "undermine the key civilisations of the universe", using a shapeshifting robot to prevent the signing of the Magna Carta, attempting to rescue the first five incarnations of Doctor on behalf the Time Lords only to turn on them to gain the power of Rassilon, and even being the puppet master to King Arthur in the past as Merlin. Even more charming and deadly than his previous incarnation, the Tremas Master repeatedly shows why he is the Doctor's greatest nemesis.
- The "Mistress", aka "Missy", is a darkly hilarious Master with a love for petticoats and tea parties. Wanting to prove to the Doctor that they are not so different and re-befriend him, Missy captures the deceased minds of humanity to upgrade them into Cybermen while convincing the wealthy that the dead can feel so they give her their bodies to use in the perfection of the Cybermen. Missy plans to give them as an army to the Doctor to allow him to gain all the victories he wants in return for their friendship restarting with her forcing him to make a decision lest the Earth be destroyed by Cybermen. Even in defeat, Missy simply calmly teleports out disguising it as a vaporization to fake her death. Missy returns later and helps Clara Oswald in her quest to save the Doctor from Davros by using various tricks up her sleeve. Eventually wishing to reform, Missy helps the Doctor stop an invasion of an alien race known as the Monks and helps save his crew from Ice Warriors on Mars. At the end having become disgusted at her younger self "Harold Saxon" and his evil, Missy tricks him into a hug so as to stab him in the back and force a regeneration into her. Missy ultimately wants to return to fight by the Doctor's side and knows that ultimately that this is what her life has been leading up to.
- "River Song", born Melody Pond, is a mysterious woman from the Doctor's future who turns out to be the daughter of Amy Pond and Rory Williams and the Doctor's wife. Raised to kill the Doctor, River later saves his life and when the Silence attempt to force her hand again, she instead alters a fixed point in time to spare him, even as it nearly destroys the universe. Faking the Doctor's death, River is incarcerated for his supposed murder and from her prison cell escapes each night to assist him in fighting all kinds of supernatural threats and staying one step ahead of their opponents through her wits and schemes. Witnessing the death of her parents, River spends 24 years on the planet Darillium before encountering a past version of the Doctor who does not know her and is fighting another alien threat. She sacrifices her life to save both the Doctor and the thousands of people stored inside a computer system, and even after her death, River's archived consciousness continues aiding the Doctor on his perilous adventures with her quick thinking and advice.
- Madame Vastra is a Silurian living among humans during the 19th century in Victorian London, and a member of the Paternoster Gang. After being prematurely awakened by construction workers, Vastra goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge for her sisters who were accidentally killed, before being convinced to stop by the Doctor. Instead integrating into human society, Vastra marries her human maid, Jenny Flint, while taking up a job as a consulting detective for Scotland Yard, often eating the criminals she caught. As an ally of the Doctor, Vastra's cunning proved useful against many occasions: helping the Doctor secure control over Demon's Run and figuring out how Melody Pond came to have Time Lord DNA. Her manipulative nature also extends to her allies, with Vastra using mind games to ultimately aid them, helping to pull the Doctor out of his depression, tricking Clara into going into a trance by dousing a letter in soporific, and using the Doctor's own psychic-link to put him into a healing sleep. Vastra proves herself an irreplaceable ally of the Doctor, every bit as ruthless as she is brilliant.
Classic series
- Third Doctor:
- "The Ambassadors of Death": Reegan is a polite, dry-witted career criminal and mercenary hired by General Carrington to implement his plan, who proves to be far smarter and more capable than his employer. Abducting the alien ambassadors, Reegan kills two of his men with their radiation and dumps the bodies with false papers, framing foreign spies for the kidnapping. Luring Liz out with a fake message Reegan kidnaps her and when later ordered to kill the Doctor, Reegan pegs a weak link in conspiracy and tricks him into setting off a bomb hoping to take them both out. Implementing every step of Carrington's plan, Reegan successful forces the ambassadors to carry out attacks then escape before anyone can react. Attempting to stop the Doctor getting into space, Reegan sneaks into the space centre posing as an engineer, disables everyone in his way, sabotages the rocket and escapes before anyone notices. Then upon his return he manages to successfully kidnap the Doctor from right under Unit's noses. Reegan reveals he plans to abandon Carrington, and instead use the aliens to perform robberies, as between his strategic brilliance and their raw power no one on earth could stop them robbing even Fort Knox or the Bank of England.
- "Invasion of the Dinosaurs":
- Sir Charles Grover is an extremely affable minister in the British government who plans to create a new world free from humanity's pollution. Helping to co-ordinate an evacuation of London by having his right-hand man Whitaker send in dinosaurs to clear the population. Grover convinces the best and brightest of humanity to follow him into bunkers while making them think it's instead a colonization trip to another planet. Instead, Grover plans to journey with them into the prehistoric era and create a new perfect world. Grover constantly covers himself from any problems such as framing the Doctor as the Dinosaur summoner or kidnapping Sarah Jane Smith to bring her to his side. Determined to bring about a utopia even at the cost of resetting all of humanity, Grover proves to be one of the most charming of the Doctor's foes.
- Professor Whitaker is the right-hand man of Sir Charles Grover and a brilliant scientist who invented time travel technology. Whitaker sends dinosaurs into London to clear it of people to allow Grover to be able to create his utopia. Ruthless when it comes to dealing with threats, Whitaker manipulates Mike Yates into setting up the near death of the Doctor via T-Rex and later plays as a victim to bring the doctor to an area where the transport is occurring to frame him as the Dinosaur summoner. Even when captured, Whitaker is able to escape and then tries to jettison the creation of the new world by resetting the old one being defeated only by seconds.
- Fourth Doctor:
- "The Stones of Blood": Cessiar of Diplos is an intergalactic professional criminal and possibly an agent of the Black Guardian. Arrested for numerous crimes, including stealing the Key to Time's third segment of and three Orgi, she manages to take control of the ship and escapes to Earth. Using her advanced tech and manipulative skills, Cessair tricked the Celts into worshiping her as the Callieach and training the Orgi to obey her. Using multiple invented identities for four thousand years she retains absolute power over her fiefdom. In the present she continues to rule the area from behind the scenes using a sect of modern druids. Warned the Doctor is coming, Cessiar orders the druids to dispose of him and taking his form she lures Romana to a cliff's edge and pushes her off. Using the Orgi to wipe out the druids when they fail, Cessiar traps Romana and after giving the Doctor a chance to leave her be, lures him onto the prison ship then traps him with the Orgi. Her plan only failing due to the Megara's intervention, Cessair manipulates them, coming within a hair's breadth of having them kill the Doctor.
- "The Androids of Tara": Count Grendel of Gracht is a ingenious, powerful Aristocrat who will stop at nothing to become King of Tara. Drugging his mens' wine, Grendel kidnaps Prince Reynant to ensure he will miss his coronation, forfeiting his right to the throne. Having his soldiers replace the Imperial Palace guards and his agents infiltrate the crowds to make it appear the people support his claim, Grendel ensures the Archimandrite will have to choose him, preparing to fake reluctance to win over the other nobles. Foiled by the Doctor and an android duplicate of the Prince, despite his android assassin backup plan also failing, Grendel nevertheless manages postpone the coronation and nearly manages to kill the Doctor. When Romana escapes his clutches, Grendel personally rides into Reynant's base with the flag of truce and destroys the duplicate of Reynart before recapturing Romana and escaping. Forcing Romana to impersonate Princess Strella, Grendel tricks the Archimandrite into believing Reynant is dying and wants to marry before it's too late, planning to afterwards marry her and become king. Defeated after a lengthy duel with the Doctor, Grendel dives into his moat and manages to swim to safety, escaping into the night.
Revival series
- Tenth Doctor:
- Dalek Caan is the second leader of the The Cult of Skaro and a skilled master manipulator. Caan helps to manipulate Mr. Diagoras into organizing the creation of the Empire State Building to help create new Dalek Hybrids. When his master Sec starts to have a change of heart, Caan secretly launches a coup against him and supplants him as leader of the cult while preparing to invade New York having changed the formula to turn the hybrids 100% Dalek. Caan later escapes and saves Davros from the Time War in order to rebuild his kind. Upon witnessing the Time stream, Caan witnesses all the evil of his species and sets about destroying them for good to atone for what he did. Playing as a Laughing Mad prophet, Caan manipulates Davros into his undoing and secretly manipulates the timelines into ensuring the creation of the "Meta-Crisis Doctor" and Doctor Donna who could stop Davros' omnicidal intentions. Manipulating the Meta-Crisis Doctor into wiping out Dalek Kind, Caan succeeds at everything he wanted and is fine with dying aboard the ship in complete dignity.
- "Planet of the Ood": The Ood Brain is the conduit for the Ood's telepathic network, that will commandeer Oodkind in dire times, with its main representative being Ood Sigma. After the Ood were enslaved by humanity, for 200 years the Ood Brain was left helpless and unable to act. The Ood Brain finally got its chance for revenge when a human Ood activist lowered the telepathic force-field and started the Ood Rebellion. The Ood Brain transmitted a Hate Plague to all Ood in range which afflicted them with "Red-eye", turning the usually peaceful Ood murderous and vengeful. The Red-eyed Ood began killing the humans they once served, going from discreet murders to escalating into all out war. Eventually only Ood Sigma remains, where he feigns loyalty to Klineman Halpen, preparing him for the ultimate punishment of transforming him into an Ood by secretly feeding him Ood graft. With the root cause of Ood enslavement neutralized, the Doctor assisted in "breaking the circle" of the telepathic force-field, reestablishing the Ood Brain's connection and freeing Oodkind from enslavement.
- "The Sontaran Stratagem" & "The Poison Sky": General Staal "The Undefeated" is a Sontaran General who wants to win a 50,000 year long war with a rival species known as the Rutans. Staal manipulates Luke Rattigan into helping him design an automobile system called ATMOS, which will release poison gas into the atmosphere, while creating human clone soldiers that will be used as weapons to win the war. Staal lures in several UNIT soldiers to be hypnotized before having them capture and sedate Martha Jones, creating a clone of her to infiltrate UNIT and hinder their efforts by disabling a nuclear missile. When the Doctor ends up foiling Staal's plan, Staal simply resorts to the basic Sontaran invasion stratagem which will serve as an act of victory. Staal is undeterred from the Doctor threatening to blow up the Sontaran ship, happily chanting as if daring the Doctor to abandon his morals.
- "Planet of the Dead": Lady Christina de Souza is a burglar who steals more for excitement than for money. After stealing an artifact from a museum, she escapes in a bus that ends up driving through a wormhole and being stranded on an alien planet. Christina quickly establishes herself as the leader of the group of stranded passengers while staying the most composed and levelheaded out of the group, and she persuades everyone into using teamwork to survive and return to their homeworld. She teams up with the Doctor, exhibiting herself as an equal partner and risking her life by wenching down a pit to retrieve anti-gravity clamps that will get the damaged bus working again after cleverly figuring out how the Tritovores—a couple of aliens who are also stranded on the planet—ended up on the planet too. She eventually sacrifices the stolen artifact to help the Doctor use it to get the bus back to Earth.
- Eleventh Doctor:
- "The Time of Angels" & "Flesh and Stone": The Weeping Angel nicknamed "Angel Bob" orchestrates a plan to resuscitate its malnourished kin, by posing as an ordinary statue until it was onboard the Byzanitum, a starship with a temporal core, then causing the ship to crash so its brethren could feed off the energy. When the Doctor and the Church investigate, the angel poses as a benign recording before reaching out of the screen and locking Amy inside the room, imprinting itself on Amy's mind to manipulate her. The angel then hunts the clerics, by stealing their voices to lure others in. Establishing radio contact with the Doctor, Angel Bob manages to demoralize him and his friends by pretending to be Bob and playing mindgames on Amy. With all the angels rejuvenated, they pursue the Doctor into the Byzantium intending to feed on the crack in time, before realizing the danger it posed, to which Angel Bob tries to convince the Doctor to sacrifice himself to close it.
- "Cold War": Grand Marshall Skaldak is the greatest hero that Mars and its Ice Warriors have ever known. Skaldak was imprisoned in ice before the episode begins and released during the episode aboard a Soviet submarine. The submarine crew promptly attacks him, leading him to declare war on the planet after losing all hope of his species still existing with revenge being now all he has. Skaldak secretly gets out of his armour while imprisoned in the boiling room and uses it as a decoy to fool everyone into letting him out. Escaping, he then learns enough information to know how to defeat humanity by using the nukes onboard the submarine to turn the cold war hot. Skaldak is able to effortlessly outmaneuver the other characters while also showing them genuine philosophical respect. Eventually being seconds away from achieving his goal of launching the nukes, Skaldak only loses after being convinced to choose forgiveness and empathy instead and leave in peace.
- Twelfth Doctor:
- "Mummy on the Orient Express": Gus is a mysterious Artificial Intelligence being who wants to capture an ancient creature known as the Foretold. Gus figures out an effective method of summoning it onto trains, and he forces the passengers to solve its origins and weaknesses before wiping out all of them to destroy witnesses. Gus disguises a laboratory as a train modeled after the Orient Express and lures several passengers onto it, including the Doctor and his companion Clara, once again with the intention of forcing them to help him assess and capture the Foretold. When the Doctor stops to call Clara, Gus forces him to get back to work by wiping out the entire kitchen staff. Once the Doctor finally figures out the Foretold's origins, Gus thanks the passengers for their efforts before attempting to drain oxygen from them. To prevent the Doctor from hacking into his system, Gus blows up the entire train, effectively getting away with his crimes. Cunning, resourceful, amiable, and ruthless at the same time, Gus is clearly one of the more competent villains in the series
- "The Return of Doctor Mysterio": Dr. Sim is the leader of the Shoal of the Winter Harmony, a species that replace the brains of hosts with themselves. He plans to colonise the Earth, having replaced many important figures and intends to do so to the World Leaders. Sim oversees the construction of Harmony Shoal buildings, capable of withstanding four atomic bombs, in all of the capital cities of the world. He intends to destroy New York city with a spaceship rigged to explode, so that only the Harmony Shoal building would remain standing, making the World Leaders take refuge inside said buildings where they would be easy targets, a plan that even impresses the Doctor. Sim is only defeated due to the intervention of Grant Gordon / The Ghost, after which he evades capture by swapping vessels with one of the UNIT soldiers sent to apprehend him.
