Every Doctor Who Season 14 villain explained
BBC/Disney+Doctor Who Season 14 brought about a whole new band of monsters, gods, and technology all ready to turn against the Time Lord and his companion, Ruby Sunday. Here’s every Doctor Who Season 14 villain explained.
From music-stealing menaces to monsters made from the snot of talking babies (yes, really), Doctor Who Season 14 doesn’t skimp on the antagonists.
In fact, Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor had work cut out for him, and it’s perfectly possible that some of these nightmarish baddies could end up on the list of best Doctor Who villains in history.
Here’s everything you need to know about this season’s big bads, including what they want, what they look like, and how the Doctor bested them.
Episode 1: ‘Space Babies’ — The Bogeyman
BBC/Disney+What are they? The Bogeyman is a monster living in the basement of an abandoned space station that houses a baby farm. It was created by the ship’s still-function system, which took the babies’ needs very literally and created a childhood monster, so the Bogeyman is designed by nature to be frightening (which explains why even the Doctor is scared of it).
What do they want? Nothing, really, apart from having the ingrained need to scare the babies. It lives in the lower levels, crawling around and terrifying them by making frightening noises and showing up on the video monitors.
What do they look like? The Bogeyman looks like your typical childhood monster; able to quickly crawl around and climb on all fours, with a wide, gaping mouth filled with very long sharp teeth. It’s also got a gooey texture, since it was created from the babies’ recycled snot from used tissues. Gross.
How does the Doctor defeat them? He doesn’t! The Doctor quickly realizes that the Bogeyman was made from the babies, therefore he technically is one of the babies. So instead of letting Jocelyn (aka Nan-E) shoot it out into space using the airlock, he jumps inside and saves it.
The Bogeyman is the only one of his kind, much like the Doctor, so he can empathize with it and understand just how much the babies actually need it around.
Episode 2: ‘The Devil’s Chord’ — Maestro
BBC/Disney+What are they? Maestro is the child of the Toymaker, and is a god-like figure who has the ability to steal music. The Doctor and Ruby encounter Maestro in London, 1965, hanging around Abbey Road Studios. Maestro’s entry into the universe came about when an unsuspecting piano teacher played the Devil’s Chord, a collection of notes that was widely feared in the old days for its connotations.
What do they want? Put simply, Maestro wants to steal all the music left in the universe in order to create the “purest sound of all”: aeolian tones. As such, Maestro has been hunting down any humans with music in their hearts, including Ruby.
What do they look like? Although Maestro resembles a human, they can be easily spotted, thanks to their brightly-colored get-ups, extravagant makeup, and bright orange hair.
How does the Doctor defeat them? Well, technically, Paul McCartney and John Lennon defeated Maestro, thanks to the power of music. While Maestro has the Doctor and Ruby trapped in a drum and cello respectively, the Abbey Road Studios piano is thrown into the hallway, where John Lennon comes across it.
Earlier, the Doctor tried to banish Maestro by playing a reversed version of the Devil’s Chord, but he got it wrong — however, John can still see the notes hovering above the piano. When Paul joins him, they play the notes together, and it’s enough to send the Maestro back into the piano for good.
Episode 3: ‘Boom’ — Villengard Ambulances
BBC/Disney+What are they? On the war-torn planet of Kastarion 3, automatic ambulance units roam the wreckage in search of conflict that needs a response. They’re designed by Villengard, the biggest weapons manufacturer in recorded history, who supply all wars.
But these ambulance units aren’t always helpful — when they deem a patient too problematic to treat, they kill them instead, turning their remains into compacted “caskets”, a long tube made from human flesh.
What do they want? Since the ambulances are automatic, they don’t have much sentient intention, but it’s clear that their creator, Villengard, wants to keep the war going in order to continue supplying goods. When John Francis Vater attempts to shut the Villengard algorithm down, the ambulances turn against him and try to erase him from the system.
What do they look like? The ambulances are sturdy, tank-like machines that roam around on the unstable planet. They’re not as tall as a person, though they do have screens on the front that show a woman’s face, so the interface appears to be a human who talks to and diagnoses patients. But that’s not all — the woman in question is the enigmatic Susan Twist, a recurring figure throughout Season 14.
How does the Doctor defeat them? The Doctor defeats the ambulances (and Villengard) by sending John Francis Vater’s hologram into the algorithm to find evidence of deceptive warmongering from the organization. But John Francis Vater does more than that, as he ends up infiltrating the system and shutting the algorithm down completely, saving the Doctor, shutting down the landmines, and effectively ending the war.
Episode 4: ‘73 Yards’ — Roger ap Gwilliam
BBC/Disney+What are they? Roger ap Gwilliam is a very dangerous politician the Doctor warns Ruby about, telling her that he’ll one day rise to power and bring the world close to nuclear war. Ruby soon finds out that this very true, since the years pass in the episode and she soon grows older, eventually witnessing the foundations of Gwilliam’s political career. In the show, he representes the fictional Albion Party.
What do they want? Ultimately, Gwilliam yearns to become Prime Minister of the UK. After that, he intends to buy nuclear war codes and declare the UK independent from NATO, solidifying them as an outlier against other nations and inspiring all-out war.
What do they look like? Gwilliam is just an average man, so no surprises there. He’s often seen in suits, behind a podium, with dark curly hair.
How does the Doctor defeat them? Actually, it’s Ruby that leads the charge against Gwilliam in this instance. After spending years volenteering for Gwilliam’s campaign, she finally gets her chance to defeat him at a football pitch, where he’s preparing for a speech.
Ruby uses the mysterious woman who’s been stalking her to scare the daylights out of him. Tactically, she positions herself so that the woman is aligned with Gwilliam, eventually uttering the same (unknown) words that have sent everyone in Ruby’s life running away, screaming. Not even an hour later, Gwilliam is seen making a statement, announcing his resignation, shaken by fear.
Episode 5: ‘Dot and Bubble’ — Slug Monsters/Lindy Pepper-Bean
BBC/Disney+What are they? One could argue that the “villains” of Episode 5 are the giant slug monsters that slowly creep around the city of Finetime, consuming the unsuspecting residents who are hooked on their digital devices. But, as the ‘Dot and Bubble’ ending will tell you, the true villain of the episode is really Lindy Pepper-Bean.
She’s a Finetime resident who the Doctor and Ruby try to help escape, communicating via her dot and bubble device. However, when she sees them in real life at the end, it’s revealed that she’s a racist, and refuses the Doctor’s help due to the color of his skin.
What do they want? The monsters themselves want to eat those living in Finetime, and they do so by sneaking up on them and consuming them while they’re distracted with their dot and bubbles. They were created by the dot and bubbles themselves, who want all the Finetime citizens dead after having to hear them natter away about meaningless nonsense for years and years.
Lindy, meanwhile, just wants to remain in her perfect bubble, ignorant of the world around her. And, most notably, she doesn’t want the Doctor around her.
What do they look like? The monsters look a little like giant slugs. They’re slimy and gloopy, scooting around and sucking in victims through their large mouths. They’re brown and sludgy, and much larger than the average person. They also have tentacle-like appendages that help them guide the food into their mouths. Other than this, they don’t really have any discernible features — they don’t make a noise, and they don’t have faces.
Lindy is a young woman, blonde-haired and blue-eyed. She doesn’t have a hair out of place and takes great pride in her appearance. For the majority of the episode, she wears a pastel-colored skirt and jacket with fluffy sleeves.
How does the Doctor defeat them? This episode is unusual because, ultimately, the Doctor doesn’t defeat anyone. Most of the Finetime residents are eaten, with the few survivors escaping under the city and taking a boat out on the river.
When the Doctor tries to help Lindy and her friends, they judge and mock him. He pleads with them to let him help, but no dice. Ultimately, they leave, the Doctor heartbroken and infuriated that their prejudice would get in the way of his aid. It’s not a triumphant ending, by any means.
Episode 6: ‘Rogue’ — The Chuldur
BBC/Disney+What are they? The Chuldur are an alien-humanoid species who travel together as a family. They have the ability to travel through different times and locations, and can live for up to 600 years.
What do they want? They’re big on cosplay, and their ultimate plan is to literally cosplay the world to death. The Doctor finds them in 1813 England, where they’re hosting a ball to fulfill their Bridgerton fanfic desires. They inhabit the bodies of unsuspecting victims, so they can parade around in human suits and take part in the drama.
Once they’ve tackled their Bridgerton-style storyline, they want to infiltrate the Royal family, then parliament, and essentially start wars with anyone who doesn’t “look British.”
What do they look like? In their natural form, they have human-like bodies but bird heads. They’re covered in feathers, though each Chuldur appears in a slightly varied form. But don’t forget, they can inhabit a person’s body at will, so they can literally appear as anyone and everyone.
How does the Doctor defeat them? When Ruby gets caught in the tri-form trap the Doctor gets for the Chuldur family, he’s at a crossroads. He can either activate it and send them (and Ruby) into a deserted location in the galaxy where they can live in banishment, or he can save her and let them go. Ultimately, it’s Rogue who makes this decision for him.
Rogue pushes Ruby out of the way and takes her spot in the trap, stealing the remote from the Doctor as he does so. He says goodbye (telling the Doctor to come and find him) and activates it, sending himself away with the Chuldur for the greater good of mankind.
Episode 7: ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ and Episode 8: ‘Empire of Death’ — Sutekh
BBC/Disney+What are they? An ancient god-like deity who the Doctor previously encountered in ‘The Pyramids of Mars’. Also known as the destroyer of worlds, Sutekh is one heck of a bad guy, and led the Pantheon of Discord. At full power, even the Time Lords couldn’t defeat Sutekh. In this instance, he’s also known as “The One Who Waits.”
What do they want? Sutekh was only introduced in Episode 7, but his intentions were quickly revealed to be pretty on par with his nickname – he wanted to destroy worlds. It turns out, he’d been attached to the TARDIS for years and sprinkled Susan Triad throughout history. With the help of his new minion(s), he unleashed a death dust across the universe, killing almost everyone (apart from the Doctor, Ruby, and Mel.)
What do they look like? Sutekh looks a little different to when we last saw him in ‘Pyramids of Death’. Instead of being essentially a man in a mask, he now appears to the Doctor as huge dog-like creature. He’s still very much got the bling, with gold adornments and huge red eyes.
How does the Doctor defeat them? Remember the intelligent gloves the Doctor uses to save Ruby in the 2023 Christmas special? Well, he now has an intelligent rope, too! The Doctor figures the one way to save the world is to throw Sutekh back to where the came from: the Time Vortex. He and Ruby trick him enough to get close, throw the rope around his neck, and take off in the TARDIS. Sutekh is then dragged along behind them, meeting his fate – hopefully for good this time!
For more, keep up to date with Doctor Who Season 15. Or, take a look at all the best Doctor Who episodes, and keep tabs on the Doctor’s granddaughter. You can also check out even more amazing TV shows to stream this month.