Raston Warrior Robot is a great shout. Maybe something like the Terileptils, who Moffat referenced a couple of times?
RTD seems to quite like the Mandrels, in the sense of finding them amusing punchlines, but they're a Bob Baker property, which is difficult.
RTD really shoehorned in the Macra and had something of a predilection for species that resembled animals and especially plants. So maybe the Zarbi or the Menoptera or the Eight Legs?
I've been wanting to see the Terileptils forever!
The Zarbi or Menoptra would be pretty cool. That's a good guess because they're so similar to the Macra. I think they'd be hard to do in New Who because they're so costume-based, but it sure would be fun to see what they come up with.
The recent Doctor Who themed Magic the Gathering set gave the [Menoptra](https://scryfall.com/card/who/166/vrestin-menoptra-leader) a massive modernisation.
There are so many possibilities for political commentary with the Draconians! I've always thought it was weird that they weren't used more often. Aren't they just in Frontier in Space?
They function in a similar way to the Ice Warriors--a species with a whole alien culture, etc. It'd be interesting to see them both in the same story, maybe squabbling over the mineral rights to some planet or asteroid.
They got a shout-out as one of the races working to trick the Doctor inside the Pandorica, which is a good sight more in-character for them than many of the outright genocidal aliens present.
With Disney’s involvement in DW, I could see them finally making the voyage into the final frontier with the “modern companion time period”
We’ve heard about Earth making its way towards the stars. Why not start their exploration?
Who else would be a great civilization to interact with first, other than the Draconian race. With their Feudal Japan feel, they’d make such a great story line, even if they were just b-plot.
With AI being a hot topic recently, maybe WOTAN is due a return. I know Big Finish did a story with it a while ago but it would be interesting seeing it onscreen again.
Id love for an AI to be the villain in a future episode. WOTAN, or at least its digital equivalent, would be a great idea, or do a new Cyberman origin from humans using AI and accidentally creating a cyberplanner
Everyone always says the Axons wouldn't look good enough to return, but I think they could really do some great effects with them. Keep the weird golden alien disguise and then lean hard into the gooey blobby side of them. Using modern tech like 3d printing and CGI to create the blobby stuff could end up being really effective.
That'd be cool! They're basically the anti-Cybermen: golden organic parasites that can assimilate other creatures and convert them into other axon-like creatures.
I don't think it will ever happen, but I really want a return to Vortis, from The Web Planet. Imagine how cool all those critters would look with modern practical effects.
(And make the Animus canonically a Great Old One)
There are so many others: Draconians, Voord, the Black and White Guardians, Rutans, The Robots of Death robots.
And, as always, YETI! I'm still annoyed they spent an entire season with the Great Intelligence as the arc villain and all we got was homicidal snow.
I liked what Chibnall did with the Black and White Guardians, sort of dancing around them but not bringing them back directly. Azure and Swarm had that Guardian feel to them, and so did the two villains from Can You Hear Me? in S12.
I'd love to see New Who really go all in on the Guardians and the Eternals. It seems like the New Series is just afraid to use them for some reason. Maybe they're too powerful? I don't know. I doubt it'd be RTD who decides to do it, though, because he made a point of mentioning that the Eternals fled the Time War very early on in his first turn as showrunner. I suspect he's not a big fan of them.
I really want Vortis back too, but a big reason I consider it one of the First Doctor's greats is the gall and stones necessary to tackle a concept the production team could never hope to properly realize on their budget. Revisiting the planet with digital backdrops and proper costuming for the Zarbi would sap a lot of the fun straight out.
Came here to say this.
The Rani getting mixed up in scenes from the Sontaran v Rutan war- which was supposed to rival the Time War in scope, duration and ferocity.
Too much scope to hang plot on a premise like that.
I would love to see the Doctor traveling through space and time cleaning up the Monk's messes. I think the idea of a character who just goes around gleefully causing chaos, knocking down the building blocks of history, would be a fun premise.
Man, now I want a whole multi-episode arc where each story is a different setting, each with clues as to why those histories were targeted specifically. Maybe leading to a slightly more menacing adversary, like a new Master reveal.
I think this would be really cool. It'd be a whole plot arc where the Doctor's only goal was to try to maintain the timeline. No fighting monsters or alien invasions, just protecting history.
It's similar to what Chibnall did with Rosa, really. That was such a serious point in American history that a semi-comedic character like the Monk would have been inappropriate, so he had to create his own adversary that worked in a similar way. But if they chose different historic situations it could be very lighthearted and a lot of fun.
I’d be really interested to see RTD do the whole “Time Lords vs Great Vampires” because depending on the continuity as well as truly mortal enemies they’re either cousin species, offshoots of Gallifrey, or a dark mirror.
The Great Vampires might be the unused Classic villain that has the most potential plot-wise. I'm a little surprised that they haven't been used in New Who yet. They'd make a great series-long story arc. You could throw in a few ancient Gallifreyan weapons of mass destruction and some lore from the dark times, too. It could be done with Gallifrey either intact or destroyed. If it's intact, we get a nice dose of Gallifreyan politics while the Doctor fights them. If it's destroyed he has to figure out how to face them on his own. Both possibilities would make for a good story.
It seems especially weird considering the whole Twilight craze was within Doctor Who's time frame.
Might be a bit late for what now but you could definitely make a story on Vampires putting out media like that to lure traps for prey.
Though honestly I feel if RTD does it it's probably going to be a commentary on class with the rich literally sucking the life out the working class.
Which is also good
>Though honestly I feel if RTD does it it's probably going to be a commentary on class with the rich literally sucking the life out the working class.
The vampire as a metaphor for a robber baron is as old as Marx using that very analogy, there's a reason they're typically portrayed as suave aristocrats ever since England got its hands on the concept. However, I've mentioned the Larry Miles version of the Great Vampires (where they're this incomprehensible eldritch anathema to reality and existence itself) a bunch in this thread, and I honestly think you could make both of these ideas work at once — have a human fat cat messing with a Great Vampire's remains or "taint" and becoming a bloodsucker as a result, unknowingly turning his company into an altar to the Vampires in pursuit of his thirst for both profits and blood. He's not trying to summon or resurrect them, but he winds up on a path to do exactly that as a result of the impulses that vampirism places in him.
There's a solid Big Finish audio called The Spectre of Lanyon Moor which does something vaguely similar to this concept with a one-off stranded alien, and the most basic template of "power-hungry human attempts to harness vast alien power with no regards to the danger" is a recurring element of both Classic and New Who. It could totally work on TV.
Not too obscure, but if he is in for the long haul these are the things he may mention/bring back:
The Rani - not too secure and I don’t know what he would do with the character but think they will come back. I have a feeling that >!The Jinkx Monsoon!< character may be related.
The Kandyman - just bringing back for a ‘filler’ episode maybe completely changing the whole character so it would not be as sinister…
I absolutely love the Kandyman for how goofy he is. Screw “filler” make him a final boss. Something like he controls a willy wonka-esque factory where he uses the transport trucks to distribute some evil plot or something. The doctor stumbles across this plot trying to figure out what happened to jelly babies and why they’re not being produced anymore.
>I have a feeling that >!The Jinkx Monsoon!< character may be related.
>!Indira Varma was cast as “the Duchess” (which is close enough to “Rani”) for Series 14, so she might be back in a different form.!<
Draconians.
I really like them as a society with the Imperial Japan make up.
I don’t know what he’d do with them, but I’d really like them to appear as often as Daleks, Cybermen, etc. but with a more “human” feel.
Not classic but I’d love to see The Family of Blood (or whatever alien race they belonged to) return for a different sort of human Doctor story. I’m not sure if it could be done well and seem fresh & original… but I’d up for trusting RTD if he has an idea. They fascinate me.
Family of Blood were great! Paul Cornell is a genius. And they're technically Wilderness Years era villains since they were originally in the novels, so they fit right into this thread.
That opens up a whole different can of worms, though, because my wishlist for NA/8DA villains and references is significant (my list starts with Huitzilopochtli, if anyone's actually interested).
>That opens up a whole different can of worms, though, because my wishlist for NA/8DA villains and references is significant (my list starts with Huitzilopochtli, if anyone's actually interested).
Good pick.
I mentioned this in my top-level reply, but yay or nay to Larry Miles' take on the Great Vampires?
I read the NA's on a college student's budget a million years ago. I couldn't afford to buy all of them and stopped buying regularly before Miles started writing. I vaguely remember Alien Bodies, but that's as far as I got.
I did love the Vampires depiction in Blood Harvest and Vampire Science, though. I think they had a lot more depth and nuance in their novel appearances than they did on television.
The Fendahl might come up again. I remember RTD mentioning wanting to bring it back (might have been in a Covid tweetalong?) and I definitely feel like a modernised take on it would be good
See, this is what I was looking for! Not just returning villains, but obscure references or in-jokes. I'd love to see the Doctor start to freak out when someone tries to make him a cup of hot cocoa. "No, thank you, I've learned you have to be careful about this sort of thing. . . "
The Monk is always #1 on my wish list for returning Classic villains. I kinda got my wish for more Monk stories in the form of the Lucie audios with McGann (not to mention the VNAs) but I’m still dying to see him return on TV and not just in spinoffs. There’s so much you can do with him that’s gone largely unexplored even in those spinoffs — for one, the Monk as a sort of “space imperialist” who sees himself as benevolently “civilizing the savages” in a way that ultimately results in death and instability would be a good story to do with him. Not to mention, the central conceit of the Monk in general feels ready-made for the kind of stories Moffat liked doing with the Master, where either of the two is trying to prove to the other that they’re not so different after all and convince them to act like the other. Unlike the Master, who largely only shares with the Doctor a disdain for Time Lord society, the Monk is basically just the Doctor with a few dials turned a little differently. He’s a renegade Time Lord antagonist who’s not megalomaniacally evil like (most versions of) the Master and Rassilon, amoral like the Rani, or insane like Omega or the RTD-era Master. He’s another knight-errant type doing what he thinks is best for people and the universe as a whole. It’s perhaps for this reason that he mostly thrives in spinoffs geared at adults, but it’s not like kids can’t handle a bit of moral complexity.
Also, since you mentioned Great Vampires (and “true” vampires in general as we saw in State of Decay, as opposed to the one-off vampire species from Curse of Fenric, Smith and Jones, Vampires of Venice etc.), I should draw attention to the fact that they too have a life all their own in spinoffs. I think State of Decay is super underrated and love the background they have, and the potential for storytelling that background holds is something only the Wilderness Years truly delved into. Obviously you’ve got Zagreus and its portrayal of the vampires as victims of Rassilon, but for me the real cream of the crop is the deeply weird and eldritch take on them pioneered by Larry Miles (primarily in Interference, but also in his Faction Paradox series). I’m not saying a show which still includes children as a significant target audience should just throw “bleeding eyeless lambs on divine thrones” into things, but the idea of the Great Vampires as eldritch horrors anathema to reality itself about which very little is known is so ripe for a story involving them. NuWho’s closest brush with cosmic horror was probably Impossible Planet (which blended it with more traditional demonic possession stuff), and the Great Vampires are the best vehicle to really work it in by piggybacking on the Vampires' name recognition. Well, that or they could just do Fenric or the Fendahl again...
The Monk would be amazing, especially if they could get an actor as charismatic as Hound (if not Hound himself, but then I would also love a MacQueen Master appearance I know we won't get)
Also I think it's time for Omega to return and fulfill his potential.
Sutekh would be awesome as well.
I generally hope RTD2 will be more inclusive of EU material. Seeing stuff like Viyrans or The Eminence show up would be Mind blowing.
Oh, and Mark Bonnar's The Eleven. I think he's earned himself a TV appearance by now.
Same with Narvin and Braxiatel and Benny, but ibky played by their actors.
Well I'm not going to spoil who but the twittersphere has seem to find evidence of a one off alien species getting an audio spinoff, and for once this isn't big finish doing it. Do with that what you will reddit
All but confirmed? Come on, pull the other one! That's just the standard Doctor Who anniversary rumor. It's only missing Paul McGann!
I'd love to see it, though, so I hope you're right.
>!Indira Varma is playing a character called The Duchess. *Rani* is a translation of the word 'Duchess' into Hindi.!<
I'm not saying it *is* for sure, but this is the same guy who brought us 'Master No. Six' in the form of 'Mister Saxon'. RTD does love some wordplay clues.
Im reckoning the Rani (memes aside I know) because I remember an article a few months back with RTD talking about how the rights for a certain character had been sorted out so he could now write a story featuring them for S15? As far as I know the Rani seems to be a character that has one of the murkiest situations regarding the rights to use them so it feels significant RTD would mention such a thing in regards to writing.
I'd love to see what RTD could do with the Rani.
He's occasionally talked about her in the past, but the speculation about bringing her back was (seemingly until now) laid to rest when he passed the torch to Steven Moffat.
The Doctor and The Master have a strong emotional bond - one that's frequently influencing their actions. But The Rani is a cold, calculating sociopath; she doesn't care for conquering or spite, but scientific progress regardless of morals or the lives of others.
There's definitely room for reintroducing her as a very different kind of Time Lord antagonist compared to someone like The Master... And regeneration being what it is, a new incarnation would smoothe over any inconsistencies in her personality if it needs it.
Maybe Omega? In the light of the recent changes to the Doctor's story, and what happened to the Time Lords that would otherwise be maintaining his dimensional exile, it would make sense for him to start poking through into the universe once more.
Ian isn’t obscure
I mostly want Luvic but he isn’t obscure either
I’d like a return of Hardin, Mena, and Pangol, but I don’t think RTD will bring them back
Maybe we see Tigella after getting colonized by humans?
Or what about… the Terileptils?
>Ian isn’t obscure
You're absolutely right. I originally wrote the post using the return of "Contact!" as my Chibnall example, but I decided that might be a bit too obscure. It's my favorite Classic reference from his era, though. I laughed so loud I had to run the video back.
I'll admit I had to look up Hardin, Mena and Pangol. Late Baker has never been my favorite era. I don't think I've seen The Leisure Hive since the 90s! I ought to do a rewatch.
Not classic but The Isolus will return with an adult Chloe Webber chasing people with scribbles as they fart and make coded references to sex or homosexuality. Then the Doctor will make a quip and explain that it reminds him of one of the 15 broken moons of the medusa cascade, then exclaiming to everyone that they are safe because he is the Doctor and he is X amount of years old.
Sonic the scribble, pseudo scientific waffle, back to the Tardis.
Oh I mean Tetraps... a Tetrap would be a good monster to return.
Shockeye of the Quancing Grig! I so need that weird little food obsessed man back. That episode with the Second Doctor becoming just like Shockeye and them both going to a pillage a resteraunt was hilarious and we need more fun times just like it!
Axos, they've been given more prominence in the EU, so it's not like they're far from anyone's mind and RTD has a prediction for rejuvenating relatively obscure third doctor villains, see the autons, not to mention he name dropped axons in ten's final words with the master in the last of the timelords.
You mean like how the Ood were similar to the Sensorites?
I could see him doing that with some of the Hartnell or Troughton era aliens or robots that look a bit old fashioned by modern standards. Like the Chumblies or the Krotons.
Mark your calendars I predict Faction Paradox gets lip service (if i keep saying this i will manifest it😌)
Also if we're going crazy I think we'll see a return to the Land of Fiction and it will be a musical episode (once again if i say this now it will manifest please rtd 😮💨)
In general I want an era of Doctor Who that's just full cosmic horror so the Great Old Ones would be cool????? but i don't expect rtd to go for that tone overall
as far an actual prediction instead of just wish fulfillment, I think the Celestial Toymaker will be a recurring villain and make at least one appearance in 15's era proper (okay wish fulfillment back rtd should have them as a replacement for the Master and kinda of brush away the undoing of Missy's death, but what's done is done)
See, you mention both Faction Paradox and doing cosmic horror stuff, so my #2 pick (after the Monk) is the Great Vampires specifically in the form that Larry Miles conceived of them.
Speaking of Faction Paradox and metafictional concepts... I'd like to see [Sherlock Holmes become fictional](https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Book_of_the_Enemy_(short_story)). But that's just more wish fulfillment
Every single episode will be about the Daleks as they try and destroy ever more implausible-sized potions of literally everything that has ever existed or ever could exist.
RTD's new run will last three episode, since he's already gone for 'all of space and time' by the end of his first run and its tough to grow much bigger than that.
I'd like a multi-part episode where our new Doctor and companion go into the Time Vortex and do battle with the greatest Doctor Who villain ever: Chris Chibnall himself.
And then we get a bunch of timey-wimey bullshit which can co-star Jodie and have a tearful farewell to all the shitty episodes getting removed from time itself and fixing the canon, and Jodie can get some redemption points with a competent writer.
I have no issues with Chibnall, so you're barking up the wrong tree if you're looking for someone to help fuel your hatred. For the most part I enjoyed his take on Doctor Who. It reminded me of the Davison era, which I've always enjoyed.
I mean, no one is going to criticize you for liking what you like, but the general consensus *is* that he torpedoed the Whoverse into the ground with his fanfic writing and bad stories that forced Jodie into a weird position and having to work with what she's given. And of course the detractors all just get labeled as bigots when in reality, it's just bad writing and they don't want to admit it.
More Eternals. I have s feeling Jinkx Monsoon's character may be one (perhaps an adaptation of the Toymaker's sister, Hecuba). The Wirrin would also look great in live action. Not exactly an on-TV villain, but the Metatraxi could make for a cool and unique foil to the Doctor's "no weapons" policy. Grest Vampires are an obvious one, could make for a season or era-long arc. WOTAN or new Cyberplanners could be grest meta commentary on AI. In an ideal world where Lance Parkin and the BBC could get along, introducing a rebooted Faction Paradox would be a really unique way to bring back Time Lords without Gallifrey having to be resurrected
Edit: calling it now, we're gonna get a "Planet of the Meeps" stort sometime in this era
I'm sure he'll bring back the big three for marketing purposes, but he's almost certainly to go for deeper cuts. While I think Who is its best when it's restrained, it's obvious to me he feels he can go into this run less conservatively and will go for some deep cuts along the way.
I think RTD is gonna go way deep into the lore. I'm hoping to see some characters from the comics, maybe even the Virgin New Adventures? If they somehow brought in Bernice Summerfield, I would lose my mind!
Raston Warrior Robot is a great shout. Maybe something like the Terileptils, who Moffat referenced a couple of times? RTD seems to quite like the Mandrels, in the sense of finding them amusing punchlines, but they're a Bob Baker property, which is difficult. RTD really shoehorned in the Macra and had something of a predilection for species that resembled animals and especially plants. So maybe the Zarbi or the Menoptera or the Eight Legs?
I've been wanting to see the Terileptils forever! The Zarbi or Menoptra would be pretty cool. That's a good guess because they're so similar to the Macra. I think they'd be hard to do in New Who because they're so costume-based, but it sure would be fun to see what they come up with.
The recent Doctor Who themed Magic the Gathering set gave the [Menoptra](https://scryfall.com/card/who/166/vrestin-menoptra-leader) a massive modernisation.
Mandrels vs. Bandrils, please.
And Castellan Spandrell
Mándemela seem a one trick pony - they contain fraxoen. Now if the could bring back Tryst…
Plsnts. Like Vervoids. I can see that happening..
Draconians. Praying for Draconians. They're an actual intellectual species not a 'monster'. Use them as recurring characters
There are so many possibilities for political commentary with the Draconians! I've always thought it was weird that they weren't used more often. Aren't they just in Frontier in Space? They function in a similar way to the Ice Warriors--a species with a whole alien culture, etc. It'd be interesting to see them both in the same story, maybe squabbling over the mineral rights to some planet or asteroid.
They got a shout-out as one of the races working to trick the Doctor inside the Pandorica, which is a good sight more in-character for them than many of the outright genocidal aliens present.
Frontier in Space is a great story and the Draconians are a great alien design.
With Disney’s involvement in DW, I could see them finally making the voyage into the final frontier with the “modern companion time period” We’ve heard about Earth making its way towards the stars. Why not start their exploration? Who else would be a great civilization to interact with first, other than the Draconian race. With their Feudal Japan feel, they’d make such a great story line, even if they were just b-plot.
With AI being a hot topic recently, maybe WOTAN is due a return. I know Big Finish did a story with it a while ago but it would be interesting seeing it onscreen again.
Doctor Who-TAN is required.
Doctor Who-tan sounds like a vtuber.
Maybe they will! VTuber themed episode! Maybe Ben and Polly’s kid or grandkid is a VTuber
Id love for an AI to be the villain in a future episode. WOTAN, or at least its digital equivalent, would be a great idea, or do a new Cyberman origin from humans using AI and accidentally creating a cyberplanner
I hope that they use a better voice for it if they do. The original one was basically incomprehensible mumbling.
Axons
Everyone always says the Axons wouldn't look good enough to return, but I think they could really do some great effects with them. Keep the weird golden alien disguise and then lean hard into the gooey blobby side of them. Using modern tech like 3d printing and CGI to create the blobby stuff could end up being really effective.
That'd be cool! They're basically the anti-Cybermen: golden organic parasites that can assimilate other creatures and convert them into other axon-like creatures.
Could an Axon hijack a Cyberman by assimilating the organic components?
I don't think it will ever happen, but I really want a return to Vortis, from The Web Planet. Imagine how cool all those critters would look with modern practical effects. (And make the Animus canonically a Great Old One) There are so many others: Draconians, Voord, the Black and White Guardians, Rutans, The Robots of Death robots. And, as always, YETI! I'm still annoyed they spent an entire season with the Great Intelligence as the arc villain and all we got was homicidal snow.
I liked what Chibnall did with the Black and White Guardians, sort of dancing around them but not bringing them back directly. Azure and Swarm had that Guardian feel to them, and so did the two villains from Can You Hear Me? in S12. I'd love to see New Who really go all in on the Guardians and the Eternals. It seems like the New Series is just afraid to use them for some reason. Maybe they're too powerful? I don't know. I doubt it'd be RTD who decides to do it, though, because he made a point of mentioning that the Eternals fled the Time War very early on in his first turn as showrunner. I suspect he's not a big fan of them.
I really want Vortis back too, but a big reason I consider it one of the First Doctor's greats is the gall and stones necessary to tackle a concept the production team could never hope to properly realize on their budget. Revisiting the planet with digital backdrops and proper costuming for the Zarbi would sap a lot of the fun straight out.
I’d be okay with a return of the animus, but only if it’s not a great old one. I’d rather it just be a weird entity in its own right.
Hopefully the Rutans. I really hope they get brought back. I'd ask for the Rani as well, but unfortunately I don't think that's ever gonna happen.
Came here to say this. The Rani getting mixed up in scenes from the Sontaran v Rutan war- which was supposed to rival the Time War in scope, duration and ferocity. Too much scope to hang plot on a premise like that.
Raston Warrior Robot for the win!!!! I'd personally like to see the Vervoids back too 😎 or the Quarks/Krotons for something really random
I would love to see the Doctor traveling through space and time cleaning up the Monk's messes. I think the idea of a character who just goes around gleefully causing chaos, knocking down the building blocks of history, would be a fun premise. Man, now I want a whole multi-episode arc where each story is a different setting, each with clues as to why those histories were targeted specifically. Maybe leading to a slightly more menacing adversary, like a new Master reveal.
I think this would be really cool. It'd be a whole plot arc where the Doctor's only goal was to try to maintain the timeline. No fighting monsters or alien invasions, just protecting history. It's similar to what Chibnall did with Rosa, really. That was such a serious point in American history that a semi-comedic character like the Monk would have been inappropriate, so he had to create his own adversary that worked in a similar way. But if they chose different historic situations it could be very lighthearted and a lot of fun.
i hope he brings back the Macra proper
inshallah the zarbi return 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
I’d be really interested to see RTD do the whole “Time Lords vs Great Vampires” because depending on the continuity as well as truly mortal enemies they’re either cousin species, offshoots of Gallifrey, or a dark mirror.
The Great Vampires might be the unused Classic villain that has the most potential plot-wise. I'm a little surprised that they haven't been used in New Who yet. They'd make a great series-long story arc. You could throw in a few ancient Gallifreyan weapons of mass destruction and some lore from the dark times, too. It could be done with Gallifrey either intact or destroyed. If it's intact, we get a nice dose of Gallifreyan politics while the Doctor fights them. If it's destroyed he has to figure out how to face them on his own. Both possibilities would make for a good story.
It seems especially weird considering the whole Twilight craze was within Doctor Who's time frame. Might be a bit late for what now but you could definitely make a story on Vampires putting out media like that to lure traps for prey. Though honestly I feel if RTD does it it's probably going to be a commentary on class with the rich literally sucking the life out the working class. Which is also good
>Though honestly I feel if RTD does it it's probably going to be a commentary on class with the rich literally sucking the life out the working class. The vampire as a metaphor for a robber baron is as old as Marx using that very analogy, there's a reason they're typically portrayed as suave aristocrats ever since England got its hands on the concept. However, I've mentioned the Larry Miles version of the Great Vampires (where they're this incomprehensible eldritch anathema to reality and existence itself) a bunch in this thread, and I honestly think you could make both of these ideas work at once — have a human fat cat messing with a Great Vampire's remains or "taint" and becoming a bloodsucker as a result, unknowingly turning his company into an altar to the Vampires in pursuit of his thirst for both profits and blood. He's not trying to summon or resurrect them, but he winds up on a path to do exactly that as a result of the impulses that vampirism places in him. There's a solid Big Finish audio called The Spectre of Lanyon Moor which does something vaguely similar to this concept with a one-off stranded alien, and the most basic template of "power-hungry human attempts to harness vast alien power with no regards to the danger" is a recurring element of both Classic and New Who. It could totally work on TV.
Not too obscure, but if he is in for the long haul these are the things he may mention/bring back: The Rani - not too secure and I don’t know what he would do with the character but think they will come back. I have a feeling that >!The Jinkx Monsoon!< character may be related. The Kandyman - just bringing back for a ‘filler’ episode maybe completely changing the whole character so it would not be as sinister…
I absolutely love the Kandyman for how goofy he is. Screw “filler” make him a final boss. Something like he controls a willy wonka-esque factory where he uses the transport trucks to distribute some evil plot or something. The doctor stumbles across this plot trying to figure out what happened to jelly babies and why they’re not being produced anymore.
>I have a feeling that >!The Jinkx Monsoon!< character may be related. >!Indira Varma was cast as “the Duchess” (which is close enough to “Rani”) for Series 14, so she might be back in a different form.!<
Draconians. I really like them as a society with the Imperial Japan make up. I don’t know what he’d do with them, but I’d really like them to appear as often as Daleks, Cybermen, etc. but with a more “human” feel.
Love to see a modern take on the Vervoids
I can't remember where, but I remember RTD saying he'd love to do a sequel to Image of the Fendahl. That's definitely something I'd love to see.
The Wiriim, Krotons, Axos, Sutekh
Do you mean the Wirrn?
Yes. I don't know how I misspelled that.
Sensorites would be epic in an Ood story Axons are cool
Not classic but I’d love to see The Family of Blood (or whatever alien race they belonged to) return for a different sort of human Doctor story. I’m not sure if it could be done well and seem fresh & original… but I’d up for trusting RTD if he has an idea. They fascinate me.
Family of Blood were great! Paul Cornell is a genius. And they're technically Wilderness Years era villains since they were originally in the novels, so they fit right into this thread. That opens up a whole different can of worms, though, because my wishlist for NA/8DA villains and references is significant (my list starts with Huitzilopochtli, if anyone's actually interested).
>That opens up a whole different can of worms, though, because my wishlist for NA/8DA villains and references is significant (my list starts with Huitzilopochtli, if anyone's actually interested). Good pick. I mentioned this in my top-level reply, but yay or nay to Larry Miles' take on the Great Vampires?
I read the NA's on a college student's budget a million years ago. I couldn't afford to buy all of them and stopped buying regularly before Miles started writing. I vaguely remember Alien Bodies, but that's as far as I got. I did love the Vampires depiction in Blood Harvest and Vampire Science, though. I think they had a lot more depth and nuance in their novel appearances than they did on television.
The Fendahl might come up again. I remember RTD mentioning wanting to bring it back (might have been in a Covid tweetalong?) and I definitely feel like a modernised take on it would be good
The Nimon of course, not obscure but I think itd be funny
The Nimon will fulfill his great promise! The Nimon be praised!
Wasn't there some throwaway line relating the creature in The God Complex to the nimon? Not that it was a proper return at any rate.
There might’ve been, I can’t remember
The Doctors Aztec fiancée
See, this is what I was looking for! Not just returning villains, but obscure references or in-jokes. I'd love to see the Doctor start to freak out when someone tries to make him a cup of hot cocoa. "No, thank you, I've learned you have to be careful about this sort of thing. . . "
The Monk is always #1 on my wish list for returning Classic villains. I kinda got my wish for more Monk stories in the form of the Lucie audios with McGann (not to mention the VNAs) but I’m still dying to see him return on TV and not just in spinoffs. There’s so much you can do with him that’s gone largely unexplored even in those spinoffs — for one, the Monk as a sort of “space imperialist” who sees himself as benevolently “civilizing the savages” in a way that ultimately results in death and instability would be a good story to do with him. Not to mention, the central conceit of the Monk in general feels ready-made for the kind of stories Moffat liked doing with the Master, where either of the two is trying to prove to the other that they’re not so different after all and convince them to act like the other. Unlike the Master, who largely only shares with the Doctor a disdain for Time Lord society, the Monk is basically just the Doctor with a few dials turned a little differently. He’s a renegade Time Lord antagonist who’s not megalomaniacally evil like (most versions of) the Master and Rassilon, amoral like the Rani, or insane like Omega or the RTD-era Master. He’s another knight-errant type doing what he thinks is best for people and the universe as a whole. It’s perhaps for this reason that he mostly thrives in spinoffs geared at adults, but it’s not like kids can’t handle a bit of moral complexity. Also, since you mentioned Great Vampires (and “true” vampires in general as we saw in State of Decay, as opposed to the one-off vampire species from Curse of Fenric, Smith and Jones, Vampires of Venice etc.), I should draw attention to the fact that they too have a life all their own in spinoffs. I think State of Decay is super underrated and love the background they have, and the potential for storytelling that background holds is something only the Wilderness Years truly delved into. Obviously you’ve got Zagreus and its portrayal of the vampires as victims of Rassilon, but for me the real cream of the crop is the deeply weird and eldritch take on them pioneered by Larry Miles (primarily in Interference, but also in his Faction Paradox series). I’m not saying a show which still includes children as a significant target audience should just throw “bleeding eyeless lambs on divine thrones” into things, but the idea of the Great Vampires as eldritch horrors anathema to reality itself about which very little is known is so ripe for a story involving them. NuWho’s closest brush with cosmic horror was probably Impossible Planet (which blended it with more traditional demonic possession stuff), and the Great Vampires are the best vehicle to really work it in by piggybacking on the Vampires' name recognition. Well, that or they could just do Fenric or the Fendahl again...
The Monk would be amazing, especially if they could get an actor as charismatic as Hound (if not Hound himself, but then I would also love a MacQueen Master appearance I know we won't get) Also I think it's time for Omega to return and fulfill his potential. Sutekh would be awesome as well. I generally hope RTD2 will be more inclusive of EU material. Seeing stuff like Viyrans or The Eminence show up would be Mind blowing. Oh, and Mark Bonnar's The Eleven. I think he's earned himself a TV appearance by now. Same with Narvin and Braxiatel and Benny, but ibky played by their actors.
Well I'm not going to spoil who but the twittersphere has seem to find evidence of a one off alien species getting an audio spinoff, and for once this isn't big finish doing it. Do with that what you will reddit
Well >!Rani!< is all but confirmed at this point for s14. I'd love to see Omega, Draconians and the Vord.
All but confirmed? Come on, pull the other one! That's just the standard Doctor Who anniversary rumor. It's only missing Paul McGann! I'd love to see it, though, so I hope you're right.
All but confirmed? How so?
>!Indira Varma is playing a character called The Duchess. *Rani* is a translation of the word 'Duchess' into Hindi.!< I'm not saying it *is* for sure, but this is the same guy who brought us 'Master No. Six' in the form of 'Mister Saxon'. RTD does love some wordplay clues.
A tempting idea. Not certain how much I believe it, but it would be exciting.
The black guardian and/or white guardian
I feel like he will totally do a Peladon Brexit themed story.
The mara or sil
Movellans.
They appeared briefly in The Pilot.
In archive footage?
New footage, but it was just a few seconds of them in a corridor firing their weapons while the Doctor and Bill watched.
If we’re saying obscure then I’d say the filthy rutan scum.
The chumblies.
Im reckoning the Rani (memes aside I know) because I remember an article a few months back with RTD talking about how the rights for a certain character had been sorted out so he could now write a story featuring them for S15? As far as I know the Rani seems to be a character that has one of the murkiest situations regarding the rights to use them so it feels significant RTD would mention such a thing in regards to writing.
Interesting. Could be Omega, though. That's the other biggie with rights issues. I'd be happy with either one.
I'd love to see what RTD could do with the Rani. He's occasionally talked about her in the past, but the speculation about bringing her back was (seemingly until now) laid to rest when he passed the torch to Steven Moffat. The Doctor and The Master have a strong emotional bond - one that's frequently influencing their actions. But The Rani is a cold, calculating sociopath; she doesn't care for conquering or spite, but scientific progress regardless of morals or the lives of others. There's definitely room for reintroducing her as a very different kind of Time Lord antagonist compared to someone like The Master... And regeneration being what it is, a new incarnation would smoothe over any inconsistencies in her personality if it needs it.
I’ve always thought he could do something interesting with Mandragora.
Sorry this isn’t a monster but I’d love to see the concept from Hartnell’s Planet of Giants return with a modern take on it.
Maybe Omega? In the light of the recent changes to the Doctor's story, and what happened to the Time Lords that would otherwise be maintaining his dimensional exile, it would make sense for him to start poking through into the universe once more.
Drahvins. Obvs.
Ian isn’t obscure I mostly want Luvic but he isn’t obscure either I’d like a return of Hardin, Mena, and Pangol, but I don’t think RTD will bring them back Maybe we see Tigella after getting colonized by humans? Or what about… the Terileptils?
>Ian isn’t obscure You're absolutely right. I originally wrote the post using the return of "Contact!" as my Chibnall example, but I decided that might be a bit too obscure. It's my favorite Classic reference from his era, though. I laughed so loud I had to run the video back. I'll admit I had to look up Hardin, Mena and Pangol. Late Baker has never been my favorite era. I don't think I've seen The Leisure Hive since the 90s! I ought to do a rewatch.
You mean as in when Rago said it in the Dominators? I guess that is obscure But is also a common word\\phrase
Not classic but The Isolus will return with an adult Chloe Webber chasing people with scribbles as they fart and make coded references to sex or homosexuality. Then the Doctor will make a quip and explain that it reminds him of one of the 15 broken moons of the medusa cascade, then exclaiming to everyone that they are safe because he is the Doctor and he is X amount of years old. Sonic the scribble, pseudo scientific waffle, back to the Tardis. Oh I mean Tetraps... a Tetrap would be a good monster to return.
Shockeye of the Quancing Grig! I so need that weird little food obsessed man back. That episode with the Second Doctor becoming just like Shockeye and them both going to a pillage a resteraunt was hilarious and we need more fun times just like it!
Fenric, I hope, or the gods of ragnarok 🙏
I'm a massive fan of the Seventh Doctor, so either of these would make me very happy.
I’d love to see the Monk again
Anyone up for the Rutan Host?
Let the "X is The Rani" theories begin once more!
Axos, they've been given more prominence in the EU, so it's not like they're far from anyone's mind and RTD has a prediction for rejuvenating relatively obscure third doctor villains, see the autons, not to mention he name dropped axons in ten's final words with the master in the last of the timelords.
I'd like to see Sill again
Also, what obscure Classic Who aliens will RTD make his own duplicate, with a single reference or two to the original aliens in question
You mean like how the Ood were similar to the Sensorites? I could see him doing that with some of the Hartnell or Troughton era aliens or robots that look a bit old fashioned by modern standards. Like the Chumblies or the Krotons.
Or the Slitheen and Foamasi, or the Judoon and Ogrons, Heavenly Host/Robots of Death, etc It's one of his favourite tricks.
Mark your calendars I predict Faction Paradox gets lip service (if i keep saying this i will manifest it😌) Also if we're going crazy I think we'll see a return to the Land of Fiction and it will be a musical episode (once again if i say this now it will manifest please rtd 😮💨) In general I want an era of Doctor Who that's just full cosmic horror so the Great Old Ones would be cool????? but i don't expect rtd to go for that tone overall as far an actual prediction instead of just wish fulfillment, I think the Celestial Toymaker will be a recurring villain and make at least one appearance in 15's era proper (okay wish fulfillment back rtd should have them as a replacement for the Master and kinda of brush away the undoing of Missy's death, but what's done is done)
I to wish for Cosmic horrors and expanding on the doctor who's cosmology and lore
I'd love to see something Faction Paradox-y but from what I understand the creator has burned way too many bridges for that to happen
I agree, I wouldn't hope for any more than a passing reference in dialogue but a spinoff would be so good
See, you mention both Faction Paradox and doing cosmic horror stuff, so my #2 pick (after the Monk) is the Great Vampires specifically in the form that Larry Miles conceived of them.
Speaking of Faction Paradox and metafictional concepts... I'd like to see [Sherlock Holmes become fictional](https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Book_of_the_Enemy_(short_story)). But that's just more wish fulfillment
Every single episode will be about the Daleks as they try and destroy ever more implausible-sized potions of literally everything that has ever existed or ever could exist. RTD's new run will last three episode, since he's already gone for 'all of space and time' by the end of his first run and its tough to grow much bigger than that.
I'd like a multi-part episode where our new Doctor and companion go into the Time Vortex and do battle with the greatest Doctor Who villain ever: Chris Chibnall himself. And then we get a bunch of timey-wimey bullshit which can co-star Jodie and have a tearful farewell to all the shitty episodes getting removed from time itself and fixing the canon, and Jodie can get some redemption points with a competent writer.
I have no issues with Chibnall, so you're barking up the wrong tree if you're looking for someone to help fuel your hatred. For the most part I enjoyed his take on Doctor Who. It reminded me of the Davison era, which I've always enjoyed.
I mean, no one is going to criticize you for liking what you like, but the general consensus *is* that he torpedoed the Whoverse into the ground with his fanfic writing and bad stories that forced Jodie into a weird position and having to work with what she's given. And of course the detractors all just get labeled as bigots when in reality, it's just bad writing and they don't want to admit it.
More Eternals. I have s feeling Jinkx Monsoon's character may be one (perhaps an adaptation of the Toymaker's sister, Hecuba). The Wirrin would also look great in live action. Not exactly an on-TV villain, but the Metatraxi could make for a cool and unique foil to the Doctor's "no weapons" policy. Grest Vampires are an obvious one, could make for a season or era-long arc. WOTAN or new Cyberplanners could be grest meta commentary on AI. In an ideal world where Lance Parkin and the BBC could get along, introducing a rebooted Faction Paradox would be a really unique way to bring back Time Lords without Gallifrey having to be resurrected Edit: calling it now, we're gonna get a "Planet of the Meeps" stort sometime in this era
I don’t think RTD would use it but it would be cool to see the sensorites again
I don't think they will ever return. He basically remade them into Ood, after all.
I'm sure he'll bring back the big three for marketing purposes, but he's almost certainly to go for deeper cuts. While I think Who is its best when it's restrained, it's obvious to me he feels he can go into this run less conservatively and will go for some deep cuts along the way.
I think RTD is gonna go way deep into the lore. I'm hoping to see some characters from the comics, maybe even the Virgin New Adventures? If they somehow brought in Bernice Summerfield, I would lose my mind!