Nothing's ever going to be scarier than the Weeping Angels. I never generally get scared of things in fiction (some of the scenes from 'Nailin' Palin' notably excepted), not even Silent Hill, or any of that - but those angels creep me THE FUCK OUT. Stays still while you look at it, moves only when you can't see it? A work of imaginitive genius, for sure, but my fuck...no.
Definitely the weeping angels. It sounds stupid but I can't watch any of the weeping angels episodes (Blink, The Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone) without being paranoid about blinking or looking over my shoulder quite a few times.
my choice was going to be weeping angels OBVIOUSLY
they were scary when encroaching, but they didn't actually kill you, they just transported you through time, so there was less of a danger element
whereas the Empty child was creepy as fuckington
*listening to a tape with "are you my mummy?" on it, playing over and over again*
"there's one here"
"how do you know"
"the tape stopped ages ago"
*the sound of "are you my mummy?" continues
Definatly the weeping angels, just beacuse the first time i watched blink it was on my own in my dark room. I also find things that seem everyday much scarier than the big monsters, they are just so much more relatable.
Gonna go with empty child, sure the weeping angels are scary but just a bit overdone, the empty child is just....ah...Satan is scary aswell but I'm more scared he'll kill me then I am of him.
The angels are freaking scary. I mean, they look pretty creepy as it is but then they can only attack you when you're not looking. They could at any time be sneaking up on you without you knowing and there's no way you can escape them because you can only run as far as you can see them before they come for you again. Also, the image of an angel becomes an angel? If you take that seriously then everytime an angel walks past a window, it creates a copy of itself in the reflection. Not to mention that it could take over your mind if you look at it... and if you don't look at it then you're also fucked. I had trouble sleeping after I saw the blink episode and there's not many things that scare me like that.
And when I think about it, the Daleks can be pretty terrifying, esp in that episode(s) where the fucking STOLE THE EARTH along with several other planets.
The Cybermen can be pretty frightening too. My disappointment with them though is it seems that in this season/series/whatever they've begun ripping off the Borg. C'mon guys, stick to your own catch phrases.
The weeping angels were scary, until they were ruined in the new series...
I take it the 'empty child' were the kids with the gas masks calling everyone mummy, because that's what I voted for.
What's with the poll being devoted entirely to the 2000s+ series? You seriously need to change the poll before it can be at all representative - you've skipped the first 35 years of the show!
It depends on whether you are talking about the monsters at their scariest, or as they've become. The Daleks were pretty awesome in the early 60s, but have become mundane since then. But nothing has come close to the same cultural impact and terror that they had at the time, (though part of that was due to their role in the through-plot of the early seasons). Similarly, the early Cybermen were downright erie - there's a reason why those villains became 'classics', but they've been re-used to death since then. BUT the weeping angels and other 'new' villains will go through the same process, so it's only fair to judge them against the Daleks/Cybermen at their height, rather than as they are now.
Having said all that, I'd actually say the very first appearance of the Nestene (maybe also their 2nd appearance, which happened to coincide with the Master's debut during the 3rd doctor's run). Russel Davies used them mainly for laughs when they appeared in the first episode of the new series, though last year's season finale (with Moffatt writing) showed how the plastic-inhabiting beings can be pretty awesome. But they worked a lot better in black and white for some reason, especially with the whole 'manequins coming alive' thing, which was NOT played for laughs when first done in the late 60s. The black-and-white scene of the manequins coming to life, strangling shoppers and hobbling down the London streets was utterly iconic of the 'horror' side of Doctor Who back in the original run.
So, definitely the Nestene (or The Autons as they're called when in 'mannequin dummy form') circa late 60s.
Vashta Narada; the darkness, all darkness, is trying to eat you. They hold a special place for me being the first episode that really got me into Dr. Who.
But I find no-one has yet mentioned the clockwork machines, can't remember much about that episode apart from it was in 18/19th C. France and one of the machines hid under the bed... couldn't sleep for weeks..
Classic Series Daleks, Classic Series Cybermen, Sea Devils, that chair that eats you, Classic Series autons, those giant maggots, the original Master etc.
Classic Series monsters> everything else.
Seriously guys there is more to DW than the stuff you've been watching for the last five years...
I knew Weeping Angels would be a huge part of the votes. Those things are made of Grade SSS+ High Octane Nightmare Fuel. The Vashta Narada would be a close second, and Satan from the Satan Pit would be third.
Let's just say that Steven Moffat feeds on our fear, as he gave us two of those creatures.
I will go the weeping angels. "Blink" was an excellent episode, that was genuinely frightening when I first saw it.
Unfortunately, when they brought them back last season, they weren't nearly as scary. Perhaps it's because they had already used them so they were less scary, but I also think that they delved more into explaining them and giving them a greater backstory. That kind of killed the mystery that is the intention of horror in my opinion. It's been said before, the things you don't know are scarier than the things you do know. It applied for the weeping angels as well.
Yeah...they were big block of fibreglass, but they were way scarier than anything in new Doctor Who.
Also, I liked the furry things from Inferno...that story was unrelentingly bleak. At least in part this was because the Doctor didn't dismiss the alternaitve universe people as being less important than "real" people, like they do in most things, seeing people die was traumatic and gets referenced in a later story.
supermariner said:
whereas the Empty child was creepy as fuckington
*listening to a tape with "are you my mummy?" on it, playing over and over again*
"there's one here"
"how do you know"
"the tape stopped ages ago"
*the sound of "are you my mummy?" continues
Unfortunately, Moffat used the exact same thing in the one with the rather silly clockwork robots, and something very similar the one in the library.
Likewise, the Weeping Angels were scary the first time, but got very OtT and silly when they were brought back.
Azrael the Cat said:
What's with the poll being devoted entirely to the 2000s+ series? You seriously need to change the poll before it can be at all representative - you've skipped the first 35 years of the show!
It depends on whether you are talking about the monsters at their scariest, or as they've become. The Daleks were pretty awesome in the early 60s, but have become mundane since then. But nothing has come close to the same cultural impact and terror that they had at the time, (though part of that was due to their role in the through-plot of the early seasons). Similarly, the early Cybermen were downright erie - there's a reason why those villains became 'classics', but they've been re-used to death since then. BUT the weeping angels and other 'new' villains will go through the same process, so it's only fair to judge them against the Daleks/Cybermen at their height, rather than as they are now.
Having said all that, I'd actually say the very first appearance of the Nestene (maybe also their 2nd appearance, which happened to coincide with the Master's debut during the 3rd doctor's run). Russel Davies used them mainly for laughs when they appeared in the first episode of the new series, though last year's season finale (with Moffatt writing) showed how the plastic-inhabiting beings can be pretty awesome. But they worked a lot better in black and white for some reason, especially with the whole 'manequins coming alive' thing, which was NOT played for laughs when first done in the late 60s. The black-and-white scene of the manequins coming to life, strangling shoppers and hobbling down the London streets was utterly iconic of the 'horror' side of Doctor Who back in the original run.
So, definitely the Nestene (or The Autons as they're called when in 'mannequin dummy form') circa late 60s.
Yeah, they knew how to make scary monsters way back when. The 2nd Auton story (Terror of the Autons) got ALOT of complaints about toys coming alive and strangling you, and police officers being alien monsters in disguise.
freakyalex said:
Yes, but are, say, the Marca scarier than the Angels? No, they aren't. There's more to Doctor Who than the stuff you watched from 63-89.
The Macra? As I recall, the monsters looked unconvincing, but they did have the whole 1984esque thing going on, hiding behind the scenes, making everyone watch cheerful TV shows about how wonderful everything is, with recorded messages playing "Everything is fine, you are happy, you are not suspicious of anything. There are no such things as Macra men." while you sleep.
Weeping angels, the idea that if you look into their eyes they can turn you into them... the aspect of they move when you cant see them... they is just something innately scary about the unseen, it plays on that primal fear. Also after watching it i could have sworn that the angel in my yard moved... total mindfuck that kept going...
Also my favorite episodes are Blink and Impossible Planet/Satan Pit... IP/SP where just innately scary, really all about the atmosphere.
Edit: Now i have to track down that episode where the Doctor locks the mother in a black hole, the daughter in mirrors, and the rest of the family in other places... does anyone know what the name of that episode is? This thread reminded me of that.
It also reminded me that the scariest monster is The Doctor...
Edit 2: Family of Blood... duh its on the list even... Although they never scared me, the end of the episode scared the hell out of me.
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