Aliens on Doctor Who you'd like to see again

[Christopher]

???
As far as televised content goes, they only have ten appearances across the entire franchise, and six of those were just brief cameos with less than a minute screentime per episode. Of the remaining four, they only had a meaningful part of the plot for three if them, Smith and Jones, Fugitive of the Judoon and SJA's Prisoner of the Judoon.

I think that's kind of the point -- that they're pretty much a one-joke species (or two jokes, the authoritarian policing and the language with only one vowel), so it didn't take long to wear out their potential.

Although, I dunno, you could maybe have something if a story took them seriously as an allegory for police abuse of power, law & order as an excuse for fascism, etc.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Daleks at home sounds like a sitcom.

 

[Christopher]

Daleks at home sounds like a sitcom.

I meant more like on Skaro or whatever planet they're based on, when they're not out invading planets or blowing things up. Or, heck, what they do on their ships while in transit between battles. If "Daleks conquer and destroy," if that's their only basis for existence, then what, if anything, do they do with their time in situations where there isn't anyone currently available to conquer or destroy?

But then, I just remembered reading a claim that there's a large percentage of humans who have no interior monologue, who don't put their thoughts into words but just react to things more abstractly. Maybe that's what Daleks are like -- when they're not actively doing things, they just sit there and seethe in their unending rage.

 

[Starkers]

I think that's kind of the point -- that they're pretty much a one-joke species (or two jokes, the authoritarian policing and the language with only one vowel), so it didn't take long to wear out their potential.

Although, I dunno, you could maybe have something if a story took them seriously as an allegory for police abuse of power, law & order as an excuse for fascism, etc.

The one positive with the Judoon at least, much like the Ice Warriors, is that they can be villains or good guys, they can be lawful good as often as they're lawful evil, though realistically they're lawful neutral I guess.

The downside is giving them personality, you can give individual Ice Warriors a personality, hell we've even seen individual Daleks and Cybermen have character, we've yet to see that with a Judoon and how you'd even do that without sacrificing the "Yo, Bo, Ko, Fo!" humour element I'm not sure.

Even if you don't they're a useful police allegory to keep in your back pocket, whether they're used to arrest the Doctor, or to take a bad guy the doctor has defeated into custody.

Obviously they're nominally based on Mega City Judges, but so far we haven't encountered the Judoon version of Judge Dredd, and if they could pull it off a recurring Judoon Dredd could be a great character to have popping up every other season.

 

[Starkers]

It's not exactly canon, nor is it really very good, but it does feature the Sontarans and the Rutans in the same story.

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Man I haven't watched that since the 90s I don't think, might give it another go given it's on YouTube and frankly could can never have too much Jan Chappell

 

[Christopher]

The one positive with the Judoon at least, much like the Ice Warriors, is that they can be villains or good guys, they can be lawful good as often as they're lawful evil, though realistically they're lawful neutral I guess.

I think "good guys" is a stretch; more like uneasy allies at best. They're "mercenary police," which basically just means they're for sale to the highest bidder. At best, like Captain Tybo in "Prisoner of the Judoon," they're just mindlessly enforcing a rigid set of rules, your classic banality-of-evil enablers of an authoritarian system. At worst, the Judoon are bullies using the law as an excuse to dominate others.

 

[The Wormhole]

The downside is giving them personality, you can give individual Ice Warriors a personality, hell we've even seen individual Daleks and Cybermen have character, we've yet to see that with a Judoon and how you'd even do that without sacrificing the "Yo, Bo, Ko, Fo!" humour element I'm not sure.

The novel Judgment of the Judoon actually did a pretty good job developing its lead Judoon character. Granted it much of it was the trope of the stern and serious alien becomes a source of unintentional humor, but I enjoyed the book all the same.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

I don't know if they're considered aliens, but how about the Yeti or the killer Seaweed, both from Troughton's tenure.

 

[Christopher]

I don't know if they're considered aliens, but how about the Yeti or the killer Seaweed, both from Troughton's tenure.

Yeti are robots, although there are real Earth-native Yeti that they're based on. It might be interesting to see a story about the real Yeti without the Great Intelligence being involved, maybe something to do with saving the endangered species from being hunted or exploited by some malevolent group, human or otherwise.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

How about the vampires in 'State of Decay' or the Tharils from 'Warrior's Gate'?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Alpha Centaurans.

 

[matthunter]

Alpha Centaurans.

Showed up again during the Twelfth Doctor story Empress of Mars. Well, one very specific one. The only one we've actually ever met.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Showed up again during the Twelfth Doctor story Empress of Mars. Well, one very specific one. The only one we've actually ever met.

Just on a screen and in close up.

 

[Qonundrum]

I don't know if they're considered aliens, but how about the Yeti or the killer Seaweed, both from Troughton's tenure.

Not much they can really do with them? At least the Daleks looked cool and that's part of the reason that reuse of old monsters have a greater chance of being successful.

The Yeti quickly lost their point. Their first story reveals them as robots, controlled by The Great Intelligence, seemingly devised to blend into their surroundings - partially to make reconnaissance easier, and for sneak attacks. In "The Web of Fear", their visage only begs questions about the Great Intelligence's motivations - especially as we see on screen a Yeti changing its form... then later a gaggle of them... when they invade, do they kill by looking cuddlesy-cute?

Didn't the 11th Doctor have a story involving the Great Intelligence, sans Yeti, and had a namedrop to Androzani because, when in doubt, always reference a far better story?

The killer seaweed had no explanation (that I recall), but I'll just assume it's like The Green Death and due to the refinery chemicals caused a funky mutation, and it's not a malevolent force in orbit controlling Earth biological life (which isn't terribly great and a couple shades different to the Great Intelligence anyhow, but is still comparatively better than the lame "chemical dribbled in water now it's sentient killer seaweed"). It's now easy to understand why their origin remained unaddressed. Still, like Seaquest DSV, how far can you go with the idea of killer seaweed and play it straight? You know the moment they're used as a joke, any sense of threat (and suspension of disbelief) will wither.

 

[Qonundrum]

Yeti are robots, although there are real Earth-native Yeti that they're based on. It might be interesting to see a story about the real Yeti without the Great Intelligence being involved, maybe something to do with saving the endangered species from being hunted or exploited by some malevolent group, human or otherwise.

There's a thought, the Great Intelligence landed in Earth, made robots in the form of Yeti, killed off a lot of the real ones but nobody noticed.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

I think there was a bit of a missed opportunity with either Capaldi or Whittaker to mention Salamander and the events of the Troughton serial 'Enemy of the World'; seeing as that serial was set in 2018 and their tenure's overlapped with what was supposedly happening in the world at that time. Some things like the World Zones Authority, hovercars and weather control could probably be handwaved in some way. But it still would have been fun for there to be a news report on the television about Salamander and his weather control device and the Doctor reacting to it.

 

[Christopher]

I think there was a bit of a missed opportunity with either Capaldi or Whittaker to mention Salamander and the events of the Troughton serial 'Enemy of the World'; seeing as that serial was set in 2018 and their tenure's overlapped with what was supposedly happening in the world at that time. Some things like the World Zones Authority, hovercars and weather control could probably be handwaved in some way. But it still would have been fun for there to be a news report on the television about Salamander and his weather control device and the Doctor reacting to it.

We were also supposed to have sent a crewed mission to Mars in the '70s-'80s (wherever you choose to put the UNIT era), as well as numerous other differences between the classic series's portrayals of the near future and the way it actually turned out. The assumption is apparently that the Time War rewrote history, so that the "current" version of the early 21st century has overwritten the "old" one.

 

[FredH]

We were also supposed to have sent a crewed mission to Mars in the '70s-'80s (wherever you choose to put the UNIT era), as well as numerous other differences between the classic series's portrayals of the near future and the way it actually turned out. The assumption is apparently that the Time War rewrote history, so that the "current" version of the early 21st century has overwritten the "old" one.

In recent years, I’ve imagined that in the post-Time War, mostly Gallifrey-less universe, time is constantly being rewritten by whatever innumerable time-active powers/travelers are out there, with history always capable of changing between one TARDIS-stop and the next. So the Moon in “The Moonbase” can be the one that the Apollo missions landed on, despite it having been destroyed earlier in the century in “Kill the Moon”.

 

[Christopher]

In recent years, I’ve imagined that in the post-Time War, mostly Gallifrey-less universe, time is constantly being rewritten by whatever innumerable time-active powers/travelers are out there, with history always capable of changing between one TARDIS-stop and the next. So the Moon in “The Moonbase” can be the one that the Apollo missions landed on, despite it having been destroyed earlier in the century in “Kill the Moon”.

I think that's pretty much what the show itself has established, that time is more mutable without the Time Lords. It was first made explicit at the start of the Moffat era, when it was established that nobody remembered things like the Cyber King stomping through Victorian London (or whenever that was). Which, of course, was Moffat's way of freeing himself of the bits of RTD baggage he didn't want to deal with. But RTD has embraced the mutable timeline with a vengeance since his return ("mavity," stepping on butterflies, etc.).

 

[jaime]

Planet of the Cheetah people at the height of its civilisation. An Aztecs style story for the Doctor, and maybe he tries to cheat its fate, but is doomed to failure. Ends with him dropping a lone changing inhabitant and some kitlings on a different world in hope they *survive* and do better. Twist reveals he did save the civilisation, but the kitlings and lone old person he saved become what we know as the Cheetah World. Bonus points for getting Lisa Bowerman in, and a cameo from Sophie as Ace. Throw in a revelation that Mags from Greatest Show helped Ace learn to tame what was left of her Cheetah side (an idea from a novel I was writing set in Camden back in the day when the books had a slush pile, just before the series came back) for added late McCoy era callbacks in a relevant way, and it could be good.

Maybe wait for another Doctor though, I think it would have suited Ecclestone and Capaldi best, maybe Smith at a push. Not so much the others. Maybe, maybe, Whittaker and Yaz.