Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor has had to face one of the most terrifying villains in Doctor Who history.... Chris Chibnall AKA Chibs AKA The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
Just kidding of course! (mostly). I do think it’s worth a discussion of the villains of the Chibnall era so far though. So strap in!!
Series 11
Tim Shaw
Tzim-Sha is the first villain the all-new TARDIS “fam” face off against. A threatening, imposing true-sci-fi figure with sort of ice-powers and a classic growls monster voice, he’s not a bad choice for a starting villain. He’s even got a gross Doctor Who gimmick, collecting his victims’ teeth as trophies to keep... in his face. He somewhat loses his threat by being mockingly referred to as Tim Shaw the whole time.
Tim Shaw is also the series finale villain where he is... less effective. Timmy is in fact defeated by Graham shooting him in the toe. All because he couldn’t resist the urge to dramatically stretch his arm out towards Ryan while hissing. What a finale.
I’d like to make an obscure comparison here to the X-Men villain Ord of the Breakworld. Ord was introduced as the villain of Joss Whedon’s first story in Astonishing X-Men as an imposing new villain. There were elements of humour as he was clearly an idiot but also a genuine threat who caused the X-Men great pain. Much like Tim Shaw, who was at least partially responsible for Grace’s death.
Whedon’s X-Men finale brings Ord back but as disgraced comic relief largely, with the main threat being the rest of the Breakworld’s people who were still genuine threats. Ord redeemed himself in a heroic sacrifice at the end to save his world from its evil ruler. This is not how Doctor Who handled Timmy’s grand return.
Tim Shaw comes back as easily defeated incompetent comic relief but as the main villain of the finale, pretending he’s still a threat. The rest of his race The Stenza never appear. Which is odd.
The opening episode establishes the Stenza are taking people from planets they hunt on to keep cryogenically frozen as trophies. The second episode shows us a planet devastated by them to such an extent it is literally now known as Desolation. Sounds like a reckoning is coming now the Doctor knows about them, right? Sounds like the set up for a pretty epic finale, right? Apparently not to Chibnall since they’re never mentioned again.
The Stenza have a lot of potential with a cool design, and memorable gimmicks. Without the mockery of Tim Shaw’s name and incompetence and need to cheat to win, we have a pretty great threat. Unfortunately all we actually have is Tim Shaw.
Grade: B-
The Remnants
Episode 2 gives us The Remnants. I’d love to say something insightful about them but I can’t. They’re flappy floating tea towels that love a chat and promptly get set on fire. Villains of the year, they are not.
Grade: F
Krasko
Krasko is a racist. There’s not much to him but there doesn’t need to be. The focus of Rosa is on the woman her self and all the better for it. Krasko serves his purpose perfectly. He’s a mass murderer from the future who can’t kill anymore so is making subtle changes to history to change the future for his own vague but racist goals. He’s a solid antagonist, and the prevention of his ability to kill is a great device which allows for a brilliant confrontation with the Doctor.
Grade: B+
Spiders
Arachnids in the UK is a simple story with a simple premise. Big scary Spiders being big and scary. Except they’re just not that scary. There’s a nice set up but as soon as we’re all in the infested hotel, everything loses momentum, stops having the slightest bit of interest, and just generally disappoints. There’s nothing clever about the spiders, why they’re here, what they can do, or what they want. And they’re explicably defeated by being locked in a room with Ryan’s phone listening to Grime. What a great new tourist attraction for Sheffield.
Grade: F
Pting
The Pting is Chibnall’s attempt to create his very own Baby Yoda. RTD managed it with the Adipose. Chibnall might have pulled it off it he’d managed a better story. Despite some strong characters and guest stars, there just isn’t much of a plot, or enough for anyone to do adding up to an unmemorable episode. It’s fun but it’s not leaving anyone desperate to buy Pting merchandise (which felt like the main aim of the episode).
You’re better off watching Lilo and Stitch.
Grade: C-
Manish
Despite attempts to distract us with the coolest looking aliens in Series 11, the Thijarians, the villain of Demons of the Punjab is Manish.
Manish is an ordinary human living through the partition of India who’s been radicalised, even though his big brother can’t accept this. It’s painfully obvious except it’s Doctor Who so we’re expecting big scary alien monsters to be behind it all. It’s good to be reminded sometimes humans are the biggest monsters of all. Especially once they start wearing hats.
Manish is, unfortunately, also a little brat. To be really effective, he needed to be likeable so the broken relationship of two brothers mattered to us. Instead we just hate him. He does get bonus points for his evil hat though.
Grade: B+
Charlie
Hey look, it’s another evil human behind it all. Any chance of some actual monsters Chibs? Next week? Okay.
Charlie is the janitor at Kerblam. Except he’s actually a cyberterrorist in disguise, hacking Kerblam Men to send out exploding bubble wrap to customers so the company will stop replacing humans with machines. Damn, even just writing that sentence was compelling.
Charlie is likeable and sweet as one of the team for the episode, with his bumbling crush on Kira (the best character in Series 11 who deserved so much more - Big Finish give her a spin off already!). He’s believable as the villain who believes he’s right at the end. In short, he’s great.
Kerblam! Is sort of like Planet of the Ood but 4000 times better. In Planet of the Ood, the Ood workforce are “going wrong” (red eye) and shockingly it turns out the evil corporation who keep slaves are evil and the Ood are the good guys. Shocking. Who could have guessed slavery was wrong.
in Kerblam!, the robotic workforce is going wrong, and the company boss looks dodgy but it’s actually the janitor. Now that is an actual twist. The issue of Amazon-like companies and how they treat their workforce is actually dealt with interestingly and with nuance rather than a sledgehammer to the face while RTD screams slavery is wrong at you.
In Planet of the Ood, the reveal that the chief scientist is a “Friends of the Ood” terrorist is pretty much pointless and has little to no effect on the story. In Kerblam!, the reveal that Charlie is a terrorist is the payoff and is worth the wait.
Grade: A+
Kerblam Men ITSTHAKERBLAMMAN!!!! Ahem. Sorry. What I meant to say was the Kerblam Men are pretty awesome.
Like the Ood they’re introduced as the creature of the week. We’re made to think they’re evil then find out they’re actually harmless and nice except when controlled by evil forces like Satan himself or a cleaner named Charlie.
They’re a super cool design. They’re an awful lot of fun. They fit the episode perfectly. Have I mentioned I love Kerblam!?
Grade: A*
The Morax
Ayyy! Finally an actual villain. The Morax are aliens imprisoned in a tree until that tree is cut down and they start taking over corpses through the mud. Not to be confused with The Lorax who also hangs around trees. That makes them sound cooler than they are.
There’s a nice build up then they pop up for about 14 seconds at the end, with a growly generic monster voice before the Doctor puts on a hat, runs up a hill, and slaps them back into the tree without exactly zero difficulty.
Worth the wait? I’m going to go with no.
Grade: D
The Solitract
A sentient mirror universe that just wants to be part of ours but will destroy us if we ever touch? That sounds like a brilliant idea?
How will we realise it on screen? An unconvincing frog puppet? And we’re back at No thanks.
Grade: F
Ribbons
Ribbons of the Seven Stomachs is a... um... person? Living in the mirror tunnel that connects a Norwegian Fjord to The Solitract. His hobbies include demanding “Tubulars” from strangers and attempting not to be eaten by flesh eating moths.
He is strangely compelling in his ridiculousness and I’m not going to lie: I sort of love him. Even if he does make no sense and add nothing.
Grade: B
Recon Dalek
The New Year’s Special very subtly actually gives Series 11 a RESOLUTION. It also gives it a Dalek. The Daleks appeared at the start of Series 9, sharing the screen with Davros and Missy, but then there was a year off before Series 10, they got barely more than a cameo in S10, then there was another year off before S11 which promised no returning monsters. So it’s been a long wait for a proper Dalek story.
Chibnall goes back to the ‘Dalek’ formula of just one Dalek to allow it to be competent and scary. He justifies this by declaring it’s a special Recon Dalek so is totally rad and can do anything he wants it to because reasons. He also gives us Dalek action while making us wait for Dalek action by just having the creature for the first half and introducing the terrifying idea of young women being possessed by Nick Briggs. Sorry I meant Daleks.
The Dalek gives the 13th Doctor her first real threat with an epic confrontation and a real personal vendetta on both sides. The junkyard Dalek look has some strong points and some... less strong. The skinny middle looks ridiculous but the rest is pretty cool.
As you would expect, a Dalek is a big step up for the Chibnall era villains, and finally Daleks feel like a threat again. Let’s hope they still do when they come back two years later for a Revolution.
Grade: A+
Series 12
Series 11 suffered from an underwhelming villains problem on the whole. The new year’s day special started to fix the problem with its Dalek. Series 12 thankfully continues the upwards trend.
The Master
Series 12’s main villain is Chibnall’s new incarnation of The Master. I’ve spoken about him a lot in other posts but I’ll repeat here: he’s the perfect counterpart to Whittaker’s Doctor.
Introduced as ‘O’ in the series opener, he’s instantly charismatic and likeable. Then the episode ends with the reveal of his true identity, and it is the best scene of the entire Chibnall era so far. It’s television perfection.
The Master is a manic, impish maniac - somewhere between broken and pathetic, and sadistic and in complete control. He seems to channel a sort of Jim Carrey energy, particularly when dancing around Gallifrey.
Like Tim Shaw, he’s the villain of the opener and the finale. Unlike Timmy, he delivers on his promises at the start of the series and gets bigger and badder and better for the finale. Without a doubt, the best villain of Chibnall’s Who and one of the best of the entire show. He better be back in Series 13.
Grade: A**
The Kasaavin
The Kasaavin are an invading army of light from another dimension, allied with the Master and Daniel Barton. They are terrifying, effective and a really good place to start the series. Except...
They make no sense. They’re here to... turn humanity into hard drives? Which means something or other? They’ve made Barton 7% non-human somehow for no good reason. They can change to any texture they want but settle quite quickly on glowing light. They take their forms “to mock us.” Sounds spooky and scary. Means zilch.
I think the Kasaavin are great but could we please have some explanation. A little development after the Master showed up wouldn’t have hurt anyone. Except Chibnall apparently.
Grade: B+
Barton
The Chibnall show seems so far to have a much better handle on writing human villains than alien monsters judging by Series 11. The Series 12 opener gives us a bit of both as the Kasaavin are allied with Vor CEO Daniel Barton.
Lenny Henry is outstanding and plays him perfectly. The writing is a little less than outstanding. Barton used to be a spy apparently? But this never comes up again or affects the plot in anyway.
His motivation appears to be that he doesn’t get on with his mum. Now I may be wrong, but ending your own species seems a bit of an overreaction to your mother not accepting your Facebook friend requests.
Now if I were Chris Chibnall writing Spyfall, I would also lose interest in anything else once The Master showed up so fair enough. Especially if I’d seen any of Sacha Dhawan’s performance. But I’m not a professional writer in charge of possibly the most popular science fiction tv show ever (suck it Star Trek) so....
A lot of people comment that he gets away at the end - there is a lack of resolution there but I’m 80% certain Chibnall is going back to him.
Grade: B-
The Dregs
Orphan 55 is an appalling, unforgiveable mess. The Dregs, on the rare occasion they make sense though, are actually quite cool and scary.
I would point out that the second episode of S11 had monsters called The Remnants and The Dregs is pretty much a less cool way of saying exactly the same thing.
The Dregs fill the criteria for a monster fine but add nothing more really. Compared to pretty much everything else in the episode though they’re a huge triumph. Compared to other episodes... meh.
Also do they share the same dentist as The Hoix?
Grade: B-
The Skithra
The Empress of the Racnoss is back in episode- wait. That’s not the Racnoss? Really?
The Queen of the Skithra is basically the Empress of the Racnoss but played by Rani from the Sarah Jane Adventures and with only two legs.
The darker colours and the less ridiculous design are a big help even though the voice is still annoying. We can actually take the Skithra seriously unlike the Racnoss. The Queen also has better henchman than the Empress. I’ll take menacing scorpions and zombie men over “Lance is funny“ any day.
The idea of them as malevolent scavengers is also compelling and they feel like RTD era villains except, you know, better than the RTD era villain they actually are. I’m not crying out for a comeback but all in all, I actually like them quite a lot.
Grade: A-
Judoon
The Judoon are back. This time, I’m not trying to be funny - it is actually them. And I love what they’ve done with their hair.
They’re pretty much the same old Judoon we remember so there’s not a huge amount to say except I still love them.
Grade: A+
Gat
Gat is the Gallifreyan hunting the Doctor in Fugitive of the Judoon. Like pretty much all Time Lords who’s first name isn’t “The” or “Rassilon” she’s pretty one-dimensional. But she’s aided by a compelling performance and plot and serves her role as antagonistic foil to the Doctor(s) perfectly. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of her and finding out more of her backstory but I won’t be heartbroken if we don’t.
Grade: A-
Suki
The villain of Praxeus was who now? I honestly had to google it to check and that tells you everything you need to know about Suki.
Nothing. You need to know nothing about Suki.
Grade: F
Zellin
If I was Samuel L. Jackson, I would describe Zellin as one spooky motherf- anyway....
Zellin is very creepy with his fingers and has a chilling presence. He unfortunetely namedrops the Celestial Toymaker who has much more concept to him and makes you realise Zellin is a bit of an underdeveloped nothing who goes out like a chump at the end. A classic Chibnall move. A for effort though I guess.
Grade: B-
Rakaya
If you thought the problem with Chibnall villains so far is they had far too much screen time and development then I have got the villain for you.
Rakaya is Zellin’s number one woman and she’s evil. There is nothing more to her and you will get no more than 4 minutes of her on your screen.
Grade: F
Tahira’s nightmare creatures
Unmemorable? Generic? Not even named? Adding nothing to the plot, much like the character who dreamed them up, except a giant teeth-ex-machina to quickly chop off the ending of an episode that is barely halfway through it’s plot but 98% through its runtime?
These are all fair ways to describe the barely existent monsters in Can You Hear Me? (yes I can hear you, Clem Fandango).
Grade: F
Ashad
Now the Daleks have had a fair few notable named Daleks with heaps of personality - Sec and the rest of the Cult of Skaro, Rusty, Oswin. Chibnall makes the bold decision to name a Cyberman.
Ashad is many things. The holder of a last minute plot device called the death particle. The inspiration for Frankenstein’s monster. A moron.
He’s also a surprisingly great character though. His conversion went wrong and was left unfinished, leaving some personality for a verbal sparring session or two with the Doctor, and giving him a cool unique design. He’s a zealot who wholeheartedly believes in the Cybermen cause which is a brilliant idea we haven’t seen before. Even John Lumic didn’t want to convert himself if he could avoid it.
Ashad would have made a fantastic finale villain if his time in the episode hadn’t been cut SHORT by The Master (I’m hilarious). But like I said he was a moron so obviously the Master was going to kill him and steal the Cyberium. Such potential. Such stupidity.
Grade: A
The Cybermen
The final entry on the list - Chibnall’s last shot at greatness in Series 12. He’s done well on the Daleks and the Master, but what about the Cybermen?
The new design is great. Bit of new and bit of classic. The sense of threat in Ascension of the Cybermen is mostly great. The flying heads are stupid but we’ll let him off.
Now I love The Timeless Children as a Master story. As a Cybermen story... not so much. It appears the metal men are still destined to be second rate henchman for the Master. The Cyber-Masters are cool but an epic Cybermen finale as we were promised, this is not.
To be fair, Chibnall has established his version of the Cybermen are going to be pretty great to play with, and may or may not entirely wipe out humanity. So big points there. He just doesn’t bother to actually use them once he’s established them. Any chance of a stand-alone Cyber-story in Series 13?
Grade: A-
So what have we learnt?
There’s no such thing as a good Dalek? No Clara please don’t slap me!
Chibnall has shown, particularly in Series 12, the writing team is capable of coming up with some pretty great threats - human, monster and alien. However the vast majority are underused, underdeveloped, and underwhelming. if your big bad can be beaten in the last 30 seconds without too much difficulty, nobody’s going to take them seriously. And nobody’s ever going to take Tim Shaw seriously no matter what you do.
Series 13 wish list:
More of The Master. He’s your biggest success Chibs. Use him.
More of The Cybermen. Do your Cybs justice. Series 12 didn’t. More individual Cybermen like Ashad wouldn’t be a bad way to go either
The Stenza. Can’t quite believe I just wrote that. But they need some resolution. The Doctor definitely owes them a fall.
More updated redesigns and reinvention of classic monsters. Daleks, Cybermen and The Master have all been your greatest hits. Go further. Sontarans are confirmed for S13 and would be my first choice. My next choice would be Ice Warriors as nobody except Mark Gatiss has tackled them yet.
More development and screen time. Episodes like The Witchfinders and Can You Hear Me? Could have been great if they were two parters. Go that way if you need to, but please find a way to give them more development
Less rushed endings. Pulling something out of the Doctor’s pocket 2 minutes before the credits is not an acceptable way for a good villain to be defeated
NO FROG PUPPETS.
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