The history of Doctor Who is littered with unpleasant individuals from across all of time and space. From grotesque mad scientists to demented cyborg pirates, the Doctor’s gallery of rogues is unmatched.

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Sometimes, these hideous villains aren’t robotic cyborgs or ethereal gods, though. More often than not, they’re human. Flesh and blood, driven by greed, power, or sheer insanity. Mere mortals who have dreams of grandeur that, unfortunately, involve the suffering of others. Here are some of the best (or perhaps, worst) human monsters the Time Lord has had to face over the centuries.

10 Helen A (The Happiness Patrol, 1988)

1 Helen A

A not-so-subtle allegory for Margaret Thatcher (who was in power at the time of this story’s broadcast), Helen A is the ruler of a colony on Terra Alpha. Building factories for drone workers (forbidden from entering the city) and mercilessly killing anybody who doesn’t look like they’re having fun, she is a terrifying and all-too-familiar threat.

Ruling not by love or appreciation but through fear, nobody dared to challenge Helen A until the Doctor and Ace arrived on the scene. Cue the sound of empires toppling.

9 Henry van Statten (Dalek, 2005)

2 Henry Van Statten

The concept of money crops up time and again in Doctor Who history, and it’s almost always bad. This is never clearer than with billionaire Henry Van Statten, a collector of alien technology who just happens to come by a living Dalek.

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Callous and cold, Van Statten has no remorse for anyone other than himself and has no problem wiping the minds of his employees or, indeed, sacrificing them for his own survival and the protection of his purged treasures.

8 Tobias Vaughn (The Invasion, 1968)

3 Tobias Vaughn

Tobias Vaughn is one of a long line of people who have tried to forge an alliance with a deadly alien race. He’s charming, charismatic, and fiercely intelligent.

Vaughn’s particular Faustian Pact involves the Cybermen, who wish to invade the Earth so that they can convert humanity. Vaughn knows that the emotionless metal men can’t be trusted. His plan is to allow them to take control on his behalf so that he can overthrow them and claim the power for himself. Of course, it doesn’t end well…

7 Krasko (Rosa, 2018)

4 Krasko

Krasko is a different sort of nasty. He's a villain whose opinions and values (or lack of them) strike an all-too-familiar note in the current climate.

A mass murderer of over 2000 people, Krasko’s main driving force is racism. Imprisoned in the 52nd century, he manages to escape back to 1955 Alabama to alter the course of history, hoping to hinder and eliminate the black rights movement completely. Fortunately, his task is a complete failure.

6 Professor Zaroff (The Underwater Menace, 1967)

5 Zaroff

Professor Zaroff is the ultimate mad scientist. He hid deep under the city of Atlantis, driven by a desire for ultimate power: that of being the one to destroy the world.

Completely insane, Zaroff is willing to sacrifice his own life in order to prove that his experiment is a success. This alone makes him extremely dangerous and wildly unpredictable. Once he worked himself up into a particularly mad frenzy, he enthusiastically declared: “Nothing in the world can stop me now!”

5 Winifred Gillyflower (The Crimson Horror, 2013)

6 Gillyflower

A prize-winning chemist, Winifred Gillyflower also happens to be, in the Doctor’s words, “nuts.” She forged a symbiotic partnership with an alien leech (nicknamed Mr. Sweet), who helped her develop a poison that would wipe out the majority of humanity.

As cold and callous as any other villain on this list, Gillyflower is particularly indifferent to her daughter, whom she describes as being “of no consequence.” Ruthless, manipulative, and utterly psychotic.

4 Harrison Chase (The Seeds of Doom, 1976)

7 Harrison Chase

“I could play all day in my green cathedral,” says millionaire botanist Harrison Chase, churning out bizarre sounds on his synthesizer for the benefit of the many plants in his collection. His love for flora goes far beyond musical compositions, though, as he risks everything to get his hands on a dangerous seed pod from space.

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Chase is a cold, callous man who struggles to relate to his fellow humans. He’s more in tune with his beloved plants - a catalyst that causes all hell to break loose when he unleashes a terrifying krynoid onto the world.

3 Jack Roberston (Arachnids In the UK, 2018; Revolution of the Daleks, 2021)

8 Jack Robertson

Another multi-millionaire on the list, Jack Roberston was an American businessman whose empire included the creation of some very luxurious hotels. The parallels between himself and a certain former US President are not coincidental.

Ruthless and driven by money (and power), Jack had no problem building some of his hotels on dangerously toxic dumping grounds, which resulted in a VERY large arachnid problem. Later on, he attempted to join forces with the Daleks and, in a surprising move, actually survived the experience.

2 The Chief Caretaker (Paradise Towers, 1987)

9 Chief Caretaker

The Chief Caretaker is in charge of Paradise Towers, a once beautiful habitat that had fallen to ruin. As well as trying to extinguish the various groups of Kangs that patrol the corridors of the tower block, he also has a deadly secret in his basement...

He has the living brain of the Tower’s architect Kroagnon hidden away and feeds it anything he can find, including his fellow Caretakers. Obsessed with keeping Paradise Towers clean and slowly losing his grip on his own sanity, the Chief Caretaker is one of the Doctor’s more colorful villains.

1 Tlotoxl (The Aztecs, 1964)

10 Tlotoxl

Tlotoxl was an Aztec High Priest of Sacrifice whose lust for blood made him the perfect man for the job.

He is distrustful of Barbara’s claim that she is the Goddess Yetaxa and goes to great lengths to undermine and expose the TARDIS crew. He attempts to poison Barbara and tries to sabotage a duel between Ian and Aztec warrior Ixta. Tlotoxl never receives a comeuppance for his foul deeds – reinforcing the story’s message that history should not be tampered with.

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