10 Recurring Doctor Who Villains, Ranked By Most Appearances

Summary

• The Master, a fellow Gallifreyan, is one of the villains who has appeared opposite the Doctor the most.
• Daleks, feared by the Doctor, aim to destroy everything deemed imperfect and have advanced tech.
• Sontarans live for war, taking things literally, and reproduce through cloning.

Doctor Who has introduced countless enemies throughout the series, but it takes a rare villain to come back for more after facing the Doctor. When the show began in 1963, it took time before beginning to explore more ambitious alien enemies and rivals for the Doctor and his companions to face. The series frequently focused on historical settings, or creating new and unusual aliens who could challenge the Doctor, which meant that very few enemies ever returned on more than one occasion.

Each serial story would focus on a new place, with new villains to fight, and as time went on, the Doctor and his companions would change as well. With a show that revolves so much around changing and featuring new stories and talent, it takes a special villain to warrant including them in multiple adventures. Whether the modern series looks back in the archives to include a nostalgic villain, or if the enemy is so incredibly iconic, there are a handful of villains that Doctor Who showrunners bring back, and that the Doctor has met many times throughout his adventures.

10 Zygons

4 Unique Serials

The Zygons first appeared in a classic Doctor Who story, “Terror of the Zygons” where they challenge the Fourth Doctor. The shapeshifting aliens were gathered around Loch Ness, where they used the legendary monster of the Loch as a weapon. The Zygons then returned in modern Who for several different stories where their species brokers a partnership with the human race. Largely, the Zygons have not presented a great threat to the Doctor, but they are interesting and complex as a species.

9 Autons

5 Unique Serials

Jon Pertwee’s debut adventure as the Doctor saw him fighting the terrifying Autons. Which made it all the more fitting, that when the show was revived in 2005, Christopher Eccleston would face the same foe in his first adventure. The Autons are a linked psychic consciousness controlled by a body known as the Nestene. These creatures then control things like shop dummies to fight and capture humans or anyone else who may present a threat to their survival. The Autons are a powerful rival due to their ability to be everywhere, but the Doctor always finds a way out.

8 Silurians

9 Unique Serials

The Silurians are one of the first creatures who appear to have a drastically different appearance between the classic and modern versions of the series. These reptilian subterranean creatures are native to the Earth, and in many ways, they possess advanced technology and knowledge. The Silurians recognized threats against Earth such as asteroids and weather changes, and so they moved underground and entered an induced hibernation. The change in appearance is explained as the creatures having evolved and changed shape, but in many ways, the Silurians are the same as always and more like humans than their appearance may suggest.

7 Ice Warriors

9 Unique Serials

Another race of people that are fairly close to the Earth, the Ice Warriors, hail from Mars. The Ice Warriors appear to be a brutish race, and in any encounter with the Doctor, they have the upper hand in sheer physical strength. However, they are not the most intelligent race, and the Doctor is frequently able to outwit them. They also tend to work with other species, operating as a kind of muscle for hire, which only furthers the idea that they struggle to think and act for themselves.

6 Davros

9 Unique Serials

Sharing the same number of appearances as the Ice Warriors and the Silurians, but making a much more lasting impression, the Doctor’s bitter rival Davros has appeared in nine separate stories. Davros hails from a race of people caught in a civil war for the planet Skaro. The Kaleds and the Thals were rivals, despite looking and behaving similarly. But Davros sought to bring an end to the war with his invention, the Daleks. However, the Daleks viewed both Kaleds and Thals as inferior, and so they ultimately destroyed both before moving on to the rest of the galaxy.

5 Weeping Angels

12 Unique Serials

The Weeping Angels are a distinctly new breed of monsters in Doctor Who, first appearing in “Blink” where they sent David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor and Martha back in time. The Angels feed on time and potential lifetimes that are manipulated and lost. When they touch a person, they can transport them far back in time, and while they can’t move when they are watched, their incredible speed and psychic powers more than make up for it. The Angels are one of the most terrifying villains of the modern era, and will likely stand out alongside the Doctor’s most popular villains.

4 Sontarans

15 Unique Serials

Sontarans are an unusual race of people, bearing a striking resemblance to a potato. These short warriors take things extremely literally and live for war and bloodshed. As a result, their way of life is built around battling, and things like romantic relationships are not practiced by the Sontarans, who reproduce through cloning. Their numbers and their bloodlust make them challenging enemies, but with a simple strike to the hole in the back of their armored suits, the Sontarans can easily be incapacitated. Having appeared in all eras of Doctor Who, they are a significant part of the show.

3 Cybermen

21 Unique Serials

Getting into the real contenders for most frequent appearances, the Cybermen are one of the few things that strike fear into the hearts of the Doctor. The Cybermen were once human beings. Although they do mainly exist in alternate versions of the Earth, they are, biologically speaking, humans. Created by a dying man, John Lumos, who sought a way to advance human evolution at his own pace, the cold, mechanical killers have removed all emotion to become soulless creatures that possess only one objective; to upgrade the world.

2 Daleks

27 Unique Serials

The Daleks, as mentioned previously, are a race of creatures born out of war, and seeking the utter destruction of anything they deem less than perfect. Like the Cybermen, the Daleks have no emotions, aside from hatred, rage, and anger. The Daleks have incredibly advanced technology that easily makes them the single race of creatures that scare the Doctor the most. However, in early designs, the Daleks did possess a fatal flaw in that they could not go upstairs. However, the Daleks continue to experiment and evolve in ways that make them even more terrifying with each new appearance.

1 The Master

41 Unique Serials

However, the enemy that has appeared opposite the Doctor the most is another member of his race. The Master has a long history with the Doctor. While they were once friends, their motivations are drastically different, and they are unable to coexist peacefully. The Master has spent significant time around the Third Doctor while he was trapped on Earth, as well as when the Twelfth Doctor imprisoned them. But even outside those appearances, the Master continuously finds the Doctor at different points in Doctor Who, when the Doctor frequently dismantles his nefarious plans.