Doctor Who's new monsters are the scariest since The Silence

Note: This article contains major spoilers for the third episode of Doctor Who series 12.

For a show that's so deeply rooted in sci-fi, Doctor Who sure does enjoy playing around with horror. In fact, young kids who stay up to watch it famously stay up for hours after too, terrified by the show's more unsettling creatures.

Recent seasons, however, haven't upped the teatime scare factor quite as much as Steven Moffat did back in his earlier runs, and arguably, Doctor Who hasn't featured a truly terrifying villain since The Silence fell (ahem) in 2013. That's all set to change now, though, with the latest episode in series 12, 'Orphan 55'.

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Written by Ed Hime, the third instalment in Doctor Who's latest season follows our heroes on their trip to Tranquility Spa, a seemingly perfect getaway which – surprise, surprise! –holds a number of deadly secrets.

Jodie Whittaker, Doctor Who, series 12, episode 3

BBC

Chief among these is that this destination is actually located on Earth, but not as we know it. In this "possible future", humanity has been destroyed by the devastating impact of climate change and horrific creatures known as Dregs now roam the planet.

Although they don't possess psychic abilities like The Silence, these new aliens make up for that with brute strength and a scary design reminiscent of the Xenomorphs seen in Alien.

Even species like the Daleks and Cybermen can be reasoned with to a very small degree, but the Dregs are just a mindless whirlwind of teeth and rage hellbent on destroying everything in their path.

While The Silence force their victims to forget what's happened, it's doubtful you'll ever forget the first time you meet a Dreg – assuming, of course, that you survive the ordeal.

Director Lee Haven Jones leans heavily into cinematic horror influences throughout this episode to emphasise these scares, deliberately channelling the Alien franchise further thanks to the claustrophobic way he shoots each scene.

The cast and crew were teasing a scary new menace for quite some time prior to season 12. Jodie Whittaker even admitted to us personally that she "bricked it" while filming some of the new episodes, and now that 'Orphan 55' has arrived, it's easy to see why.

doctor who series 12 episode 2, jodie whittaker

Ben Blackall//BBC

When asked how he comes up with these creature designs, Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall recently explained how he revisits older monsters for inspiration:

"What you work with is, you go back and you remember classic episodes of Doctor Who and think about what really works, what really scares us, what can we do within the framework? How scary can we be?" he said.

"It's a family show but what you realise is that the show has always pushed the boundaries on that. And it has been incredibly scary, and people love to be scared. We created a lot of new monsters and threats last year, and this year we’ve got even more."

Of course, this week's episode is likely to reignite conversations surrounding the show's time slot and whether Doctor Who is too scary for children, but it's like Moffat himself once said:

"Children like to be scared – like on a ghost train or a rollercoaster. They have always told each other ghost stories in the dark."

If that's true, then young Doctor Who fans are really going to love the Dreg.

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David Opie

After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.

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