Top 5 Doctor Who Villains

A lot of you are more than likely aware that Doctor Who has a vastly rich universe, featuring some of the most imaginative villains.

This article is a hope to give a very biased view on the Top 5 Doctor Who Villains of All Time.

At number 5, in our Top 5 Doctor Who Villains, are the Sea Devils. First appearing under the reign of the charming and suave 3rd Doctor (Jon Pertwee), the Sea Devils were an instant classic villain.

These creatures only appeared twice in the classic series, and have not appeared at all in the new series (yet!) but I am sure they will see a return one day.

The Sea Devils were a race of sea dwelling amphibious reptiles that ruled the seas during prehistoric times.

The Doctor first defeated them while working for U.N.I.T during his time exiled to Earth. The Sea Devils had returned to the surface, hoping to rid Earth of the primitive humans, to once again claim their ruling over the oceans.

The second time the Doctor encountered them, they were working with the Silurians (who ruled the Earth in prehistoric times) to attack a naval base and again attempt to reclaim their planet.

The Sea Devils, in some ways are a very mysterious race, as we learn very little about them during their time on screen. They are long overdue a return, perhaps Steven Moffat, the new producer of the new Doctor Who series will have a go at fleshing them out in a future episode.

The Sontarans are a war like race that first made their appearance again in Jon Pertwee's era in the episode The Time Warrior.

They make it into number 4 in our Top 5 Doctor Who Villains despite their two dimensional portrayals on screen.

The Sontarans are (during most of the Doctor's lifetime) at war against a mysterious race called The Rutans. The Doctor usually encounters the Sontarans while they are trying to exploit humans in some way to learn more about war.

Six Doctors in total have met or fought the Sontarans in the television series. The third Doctor encountered them first, having already heard of them in some previous unrecorded adventure.

The Sontarans make it into this Top 5 Doctor Who Villains because they always get the Doctor doing what he does best - taking the higher moral ground.

Number 3 in our Top 5 Doctor Who Villains are the "emotionless" Cybermen.

They made their first iconic appearance during a time of major change in Doctor Who. Their first appearance marked the last appearance for the first Doctor - William Hartnell.

It was during the Doctors first battle with the Cybermen that the adventures in the TARDIS was starting to really take its toll on the Doctor and he was forced to regenerate for the first time.

The Cybermen were originally from Earth's "twin planet" that had drifted out of our solar system many years ago. The inhabitants of this planet - called Mondas - were similar to humans in many ways, except they were far more advanced than us humans by having the ability to replace limbs and body parts with cybernetic improvements as and when they got too weak or damaged.

Eventually the people of Mondas became so dependant on these cybernetic changes, that they ended up replacing every part of themselves with a full cybernetic body, thus the Cybermen were born.

Over time, these Mondasian's removed all weaknesses from their thought, eradicating all emotions. After remove all emotion, they focused on only one thing - survival.

Unfortunately, over time the producers and writers of Doctor Who all had their own ideas of how to improve or update the Cybermen, and because of that at times they seem very emotional, a good example being in the story Revenge of the Cybermen. In that story, they are portrayed again as emotionless robots but they seem more bent on the emotional response of revenge than perhaps we should be comfortable with!

The Cybermen make it to number 3 in the Top 5 Doctor Who Villains because they will always offer excitement and high sense of wonder to any child that watches them.

The Daleks, number 2 in our Top 5 Doctor Who Villains line up, really need no introduction.

They have been major icons in the United Kingdom ever since their first appearance in 1963. The little black pepper-pots were a major success for their creator Terry Nation and also a wonderful achievement as the first ever monster featured on Doctor Who.

Doctor Who was originally intended to be a strictly educational TV show, so to include such science fiction elements was seen by some as a huge departure from the original shows remit.

Thankfully, for fans of the show, the Daleks were a great sign of how wondrous the worlds of Doctor Who can be.

The Daleks were unique because it was less obvious that they were just people in costumes. There were a lot of humanoid races in Doctor Who throughout the shows runs and The Daleks are one of the few races that don't look like weird humans.

This was a key factor in their success, and also, as people grew tired of them, in their downfall. Plenty of jokes would surface about the fact that the way to best a Dalek is by running up a flight of stairs. Of course this was addressed in later episodes of the show when they gained the ability to "hover" up staircases in dramatic cliffhanger inducing style.

The Daleks have appeared in numerous episodes of Doctor Who. There have been some outstanding episodes, and some poor episodes.

One of their notably best appearances comes from the new series, in the episode simply titled Dalek. In this episode, the Daleks are returned to their former glory of being all powerful and a major threat to the human race. Utilising Christopher Eccleston's excellent acting ability, the episode hypes up the possibility of one lone Dalek being as big a threat to the human race as any full scale invasion.

Although again falling into the "joke" category, due to their constant disappearing-reappearing acts in the recent new series, the Daleks remain one of the most iconic and instantly recognisable Doctor Who villain.

Straight in at number 1 of the Top 5 Doctor Who Villains are the subtle yet very scary Weeping Angels. The Weeping Angels are unique on this list for having only ever appeared in one episode - Blink.

The Weeping Angels, at first glance, are your simple common or garden angel statue. What makes them so scary, is the way in which they "get you". When they attack, they only move when you are not looking at them. This is how the episode gets its name. If you blink, they'll move closer to you.

This gimmick creates amazing tension and really makes them the stand out number 1 Doctor Who Villain of all time.

Let me know your Top 5 Doctor Who Villains. Where has this list gone wrong? Did I make a huge mistake in not including the Doctor's arch nemesis The Master? Feel free to leave a comment with your top 5.