|
|
Post by nucleusofswarm on Oct 24, 2020 1:38:41 GMT
So it's often easy to make fun of them, but they wouldn't be such an integral component of the franchise if they weren't effective. Thusly, which monster do you actually find genuinely terrifying?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2020 3:52:11 GMT
Sutekh from Pyramids of Mars is definitely up there for nearly being able to obliterate the Earth while trapped inside his prison.
He shows no fealty, no gratitude, nothing to the people who serve or free him (deliberately or accidentally). He destroys the two Scarman brothers by having them turn on one another. And if the Doctor had been less aware of the nature of Time, he and Sarah would have been unaware that only then, in that exact moment of causation, would they have been able to defeat him. They don't even kill him, they only succeed in trapping him. The Faction Paradox stories go even further with his personality -- he's not only omnicidal, but a rampant paranoiac. Uncomfortable with even the very concept that there is something beyond his control (hence all the fuss in the Osirian Court).
Had everything gone to plan, the Doctor would have been trapped in the pyramid with him for the rest of their respective lives. Essentially living as Sutekh's plaything to unravel neuron-by-neuron and cell-by-cell. Vivisection as recreation.
An insanely dangerous being.
|
|
|
|
Post by Sir Wearer of Hats on Oct 24, 2020 4:25:19 GMT
The game “Edge of Time” reinforced the idea that the Weeping Angels are I need to stop swearing terrifying.
|
|
|
|
Post by muckypup on Oct 24, 2020 7:42:21 GMT
Nick Briggs
.....sorry
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2020 10:49:27 GMT
The Mara. Despite it's eventual appearance being diluted by budget, the concept of the creature is terrifying. A creature that exists in the mind, the 'dark places of the inside', gets stronger the more its victims believe in it. It's like being told not to look behind you - the first thing you do is look behind you! And knowing that your fear of the creature brings it another step closer into physical form is, I think, truly the stuff of nightmare.
The same, to a lesser extent, is true about the idea of the Virus Nucleus, also a casualty of budget. Yet, a virulent, cruel disease (I think we're all familiar with t hat at the moment) assuming a physical form and a sense of corporeal power is very scary.
|
|
|
|
Post by grinch on Oct 24, 2020 11:13:36 GMT
I’ve always found the Cybermen a truly terrifying concept. The idea that in our desperate attempts of survival we end up replacing ourselves piece by piece until we lose our humanity, our very soul even is a frankly terrifying idea. Perhaps the fact that such an idea is almost an inevitability is what makes them frightening in my eyes. They’re almost tragic in a way. Not as if they’d care about such emotions as pity though. They had those surgically removed and dulled whatever is left through drugs and cybernetics.
|
|
|
|
Post by mark687 on Oct 24, 2020 11:28:13 GMT
Amy and Clara on an "I'm in the right rant" only half joking,
Regards
mark687
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2020 14:54:52 GMT
I am not going to the lengths of digging it out and scanning & attaching the cartoon image, but Tim Quinn & Dicky Howett did a full page impression of the most frightening Doctor Who Monster Ever, in their 1987 'Fun Book'. Basically, as I remember it, the Doctors usual foes looked on in horror and face palm hiding the terrible image, of a vary large, alien looking BBC Director of Programming monster hoisting up old Sixie by the scruff of the neck and ripping out his backbone/spine..... Quite the metaphor and hey! Its a kids book too! Anyone else remember it?  |
|
|
|
Post by timegirl on Oct 24, 2020 19:25:43 GMT
Gas Mask zombies from The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances! I first saw The Empty Child when I was about 11 years old and and the transformation scene scared me so much I didn’t watch DW again until my early twenties!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2020 19:46:50 GMT
Gas Mask zombies from The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances! I first saw The Empty Child when I was about 11 years old and and the transformation scene scared me so much I didn’t watch DW again until my early twenties! I thought at the time "Brilliant!" Good old fashioned Doctor Who horror! I was disappointed the following week when they toned it down visually on the recap for the start of ep2. Poor Victor Meldrew. "I don't believe it!" indeed. That, Dalek & The Unquiet Dead persuaded me that Doctor Who really was back. Its something the show manages to get away with whilst still being OK for the family. Mainly because it strictly avoids copy cat violence and manages still to touch an instinctive nerve for the nightmarish, but in very short bursts, with a reassuring safety net of the Doctor.
Addendum: Regards my own nomination. I now seem to recall it may have been an illustration in DWM at the time (1986) by another artist. Can anyone shed light on it or which issue it was? I still have them all but they are all filed away in lever arch files in an old chest. |
|
|
|
Post by tuigirl on Oct 25, 2020 11:59:21 GMT
There are quite a few monsters that are definitely pretty scary on paper. The concept of the monster in "Listen" is pretty creepy. The Wirrn with their alien parasitic vibe. And of course the Angels in "Blink". However, I am with Colin Baker on that one, as soon as you figure out the Angel's MO (and just do winking), they become manageable...  On paper, the cybermen are also pure nightmare fuel. It is just the execution that is often lacking. This is why I loved the Cybermen in this year's series 12 so much- they were genuinely creepy. This is why I was disappointed by the resolution.... Also, the psychic mummy monks taking over earth... they appeared as near omnipotent unbeatable villains. The solution however was a bit of a letdown. I am quite partial to the Rutans in Fang Rock- that is a fantastic atmospheric and creepy serial. Just the visual of the Rutan is a bit.... basic. I still hope the Rutans come back in the new series and get a face-lift! If we look at Big Finish, no "monster" has sent as many shivers down my spine as the War Master. He definitely is in a league of his own. And of course, there is the Doctor. When the Doctor looses it and becomes consumed by rage... it is REALLY creepy. The punishment of the Family of Blood left a huge impression on my when I first saw it and it changed my whole mental image of the Doctor (which was still very fresh at that point!). It is just such a measure of severity and cruelty that does not sit well with a perceived "hero". I think it is one of the reasons I started to like Doctor Who, because he is not a perfect hero, but also hides a dark side. This makes for an interesting character with lots of internal conflict potential. |
|
|
|
Post by Jeedai on Oct 29, 2020 3:48:03 GMT
Mary Whitehouse.
|
|
|
|
Post by polly on Oct 29, 2020 22:54:02 GMT
The Weeping Angels, great concept for a monster. Nearly Lovecraftian.
Also, whatever that thing from Midnight is, even though it was just the once appearance.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2020 23:02:48 GMT
If this abomination is not one of the scariest things in Doctor Who then I don't know what is... I wouldn't want to find him at the end of my bed anyway!  |
|
|
|
Post by grinch on Oct 29, 2020 23:03:06 GMT
The Weeping Angels, great concept for a monster. Nearly Lovecraftian. Also, whatever that thing from Midnight is, even though it was just the once appearance. Most definitely with regards to the Weeping Angels. It’s why I was never keen on the idea that Class would eventually explore their planet of origin. And I hope that stays that way. I rather like the idea of them being almost mythical creatures in the Whoniverse. A bedtime story if you will to frighten small children. |
|
|
|
Post by polly on Oct 30, 2020 1:56:55 GMT
The Weeping Angels, great concept for a monster. Nearly Lovecraftian. Also, whatever that thing from Midnight is, even though it was just the once appearance. Most definitely with regards to the Weeping Angels. It’s why I was never keen on the idea that Class would eventually explore their planet of origin. And I hope that stays that way. I rather like the idea of them being almost mythical creatures in the Whoniverse. A bedtime story if you will to frighten small children. I hadn't heard of that, but it's an awful idea. That's one mystery that should never be solved. |
|
|
|
Post by rran on Oct 30, 2020 8:47:55 GMT
My top 5 from the creepiest to the least will be-
1. Weeping Angels (hands down winners)
2. That thing from "Midnight"
3. Vashta Nerada
4. Those emoji-robot things from "Smile"
5. The monster from Satan's pit
|
|
|
|
Post by slithe on Oct 31, 2020 9:12:37 GMT
The Cybermen (Mondas version) - scary in the sense that their origins are plausible. Those early Cybermen look like the first plastic surgery patients after WWI (the bandages and gaping holes in the face) and it is easy to believe that modern medicine would do everything to ensure survival - but at what cost. This is powerfully shown with Bill and the hospital. There's something about those Mondasian versions that make them very effective as a terror.
The Kellar Machine (Mind of Evil) - a parasite that feeds on fear and makes people face it. There's some wonderful ideas in the early episodes of that story - the scientist drowning in a dry room and the Doctor having to face his fears. Pity that idea has not been carried any further.
|
|
|
|
Post by slithe on Oct 31, 2020 9:14:08 GMT
Finally, the Nestenes. In the 1970s, the world was just getting into plastic. The Brigs comment in Terror of the Autons about a lot of plastic is quite frightening... I know Russell T Davies decided to emulate the classic 'dummies and shop window' approach for Rose, but the idea of bringing plastic to life (as realised in Terror of the Autons) is one that is equally scary. I wish Holmes and Hinchcliffe had revisited this idea with the Fourth Doctor...
|
|
|
|
Post by johnhurtdoctor on Oct 31, 2020 10:07:40 GMT
|
|
