Doctor Who Enemies

When Steven Moffat made his latest Doctor Who contribution with "Silence in the Library," Who fans were blown away. Those same fans were nothing short of ecstatic when BBC announced that Moffat would be replacing Russel T. Davies as the show's head writer. Moffat's villains were always a good deal darker and more complex than those of the other writers. The Silence, in my opinion, is the pinnacle of that complexity.

The Silence is a group of mysterious beings who lead a religious order that seems to be bent on one thing: destroying the Doctor. Unlike the other villains of the show, however, the Silence actually have a very good reason for doing so. SPOILER ALERT: They have been occupants of earth for as long as humans, and yet no one remembers ever seeing them. That is because the Silence possess an uncanny ability to make everyone who sees them instantly forget about having done so. There could be one standing right behind you. You've already turned around, seen him, screamed, forgotten and gone back to reading this articles like nothing's ever happened.

Another of Moffat's incredible creations, the Weeping Angels work amazingly well as a Doctor Who enemy because they are something out of everyday life. You've seen them kneeling over graves at the cemetery. You've seen them in those outdoor statue and antique shops. What you didn't know then is that these are far more than just statues. In fact, they are inter-dimensional hunters and predators with the perfect defense mechanism. They have the ability to “quantum-lock.” Simply put, any time anyone observes them, they turn to solid rock. As such, the only way to survive an angel assault is to stare directly at them and not blink.

These creatures move unfathomably fast, so one blink may be all that separates you from being another unfortunate victim of the angels. These hunters do not want the Doctor dead, they simply hunt to survive. If the Doctor happens to be one of the items on the menu, he will be hunted just like everyone else.

This is a faceless fear, first introduced in the episode "Silence in the Library." Unlike the many other Doctor Who enemies, there was no way to fight it or to protect yourself from it. The only sure way out was to run. During the course of the episode, the Doctor tried many different tactics to fight the Vashta Nerada, but all ended in failure.

These creatures travel in dark swarms through the air. Their appearance resembles shadows, and they have learned to use that feature as a disguise in order to sneak up on unsuspecting prey. They work like piranhas, attacking in swarms and stripping their victims to the bone in fractions of a second. Unlike piranhas, these creatures are very intelligent. They are even able to inhabit and operate a space suit in order to make it walk in a human-like fashion, as well as communicate. These shadowy beings typically live and hunt in forests. According to the Doctor, they are the reason humans and other creatures have a seemingly-irrational fear of the dark, and yes, they also live on Earth.

These cyborg menaces have been plaguing the Doctor and his companions since the very early days of the show. There are many different types, but they can most easily be split into two distinct varieties.

The first are the Mondas Cybermen and, as their name suggests, these are the former inhabitants of Earth's twin planet, Mondas. Due to environmental factors, these almost-humans were forced to undergo cyber-conversion and become the first of the Cybermen. The second type of Cybermen are created on Earth by a corporation called Cybus Industries. The company's owner is dying of a deadly disease and simply wishes to live forever

The one thing that does unite all types of Cybermen is the fact that they are devoid of emotion. They view emotions as a weakness and work to eradicate them when performing their “upgrading” techniques on humans and humanoids. Their end goal is to upgrade everything they can into a new cyber-legion. The one person they could never seem to upgrade, due to certain incompatibilities, is the Doctor.