[Spoilers!] Virtually every episode features some new alien race or beastie that the Doctor and his companions must overcome, and this season is no exception.
Episode 0: “The Christmas Invasion” (Russell T. Davies): In this episode, the Doctor is out, recovering from the regeneration, and Mickey and Rose must first defend the Doctor from Santa robots, which are just the forerunners of the “real threat”: Earth is threatened by the Sycorax, a Klingon-esque race that wants to enslave half the population, or it will kill roughly a third.
Episode 1: “New Earth” (Russell T. Davies): The Doctor and Rose travel to New Earth, and enter a hospital staffed by Cat-nuns, the Sisters of Plenitude, who are artificially creating humans to test their cures. After they are cured and liberated, they become the new humans. The Doctor and Rose also re-encounter the Face of Boe, and Lady Cassandra O’Brien.
Episode 2: “Tooth and Claw” (Russell T. Davies): Werewolves! Ok, really it is a “lupine wavelength haemovariform,” an alien entity that infects humans through bites, has an aversion to mistletoe, and likely infects the royal family through Queen Victoria.
Episode 3: “School Reunion” (Toby Whithouse): Krillitanes have taken over a school and fed the students Krillitane oil to make them smart enough to decode the “Skasis Paradigm,” a theory of everything.
Episode 4: “The Girl in the Fireplace” (Steven Moffat): Ok, no beasts here, but droids that mistakenly believe that their 37 year-old ship, Madame de Pompadour, needs the brain of the historical Madame de Pompadour when she reaches 37.
Episodes 5 & 6: “Rise of the Cybermen”/”The Age of Steel” (Tom MacRae): The Doctor, Rose and Mickey Smith are cast into a parallel universe and face off against John Lumic and his creations, the Cybermen. Cybermen take many forms over the years, as they are classic Dr. Who nemeses, first seen opposite the 1st and 2nd Doctors (William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, respectively) in The Tenth Planet (1966).
Episode 7: “The Idiot’s Lantern” (Mark Gatiss): An entity calling itself “the Wire,” has converted itself to electrical form, and wishes to use televisions to consume minds (and faces), hoping to rebuild its body.
Episodes 8 & 9: “The Impossible Planet”/”The Satan Pit” (Matt Jones): The Doctor and Rose arrive on a planet orbiting a black hole, and encounter a contingent of humans trying to drill to the center of the planet and unravel its mystery with the help of their subservient aliens, the Ood. The Doctor also encounters “the Beast,” which is thought to be the origin of myths of evil incarnate, Satan, etc. While “the Beast’s” body is kept on the planet, its consciousness might be able to escape if it finds a host.
Episode 10: “Love & Monsters” (Russell T. Davies): A bit of a one-off, this episode is told through the video diary of Elton Pope, who has had a couple of encounters with the Doctor. Elton finds a group of like-minded people on-line and forms the group LINDA (London Investigation ‘N’ Detective Agency) to investigate the Doctor. This group is largely ineffectual, and devolves into other interests, until they are taken over by Victor Kennedy, who we later learn is a creature called an Abzorbaloff, which absorbs people into its body, and desires to absorb the doctor.
Episode 11: “Fear Her” (Matthew Graham): The Doctor and Rose land in London just prior to the 2012 Olympic games, and discover a number of children have apparently been abducted. They find out that a girl named Chloe Webber has been possessed by an alien called an Isolus, which is trapping the children in her pictures because it is lonely.
Episodes 12 & 13: “Army of Ghosts”/”Doomsday” (Russell T. Davies): Initially appearing as “Ghosts,” we eventually learn that the Earth is being invaded by the Cybermen–the same ones from the parallel universe in episodes 5 & 6. Of course, the Cybermen can only manage this by following a Void ship, piloted by four Daleks comprising the Cult of Skaro, a small band tasked with improving the Dalek species. These Dalek have captured Time Lord technology, a Genesis Ark, which turns out to be a space-time prison containing millions of Dalek, and thus begins a battle between Dalek and Cybermen, with humans caught in the crossfire.
In the spirit of the new format, I’ll take comments and suggestions before revealing my favorites.
In Series 1, I chose interaction with the Doctor over classic creatures, most dangerous and most frequently appearing. That might or might not work here. Let me know what you think the criteria should be in the comments.
