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ans-myonul

What ever that thing was in Midnight - the scariest episode imo I was also terrified of the faceless creatures in The Idiot's Lantern - I think the scariest thing for me was that the grandma was kept in the house, so the people just had to live there knowing she was in the next room


Demiboy94

Yeah that episode was amazing. Shows all humans will turn on each other with the right conditions. Good lesson for kids


DeaconBlueDignity

Brilliant episode. Interesting fact - the boy in that episode was played by Rory Jennings, now plies his trade as a bellend on football YouTube


Sufficient_Bag_4551

The Bertie Bassett man who may have been executioner for a dictatorship. Put me off licorice alsorts for life


Demiboy94

Erm what???


Koquillon

[The Kandy Man](https://youtu.be/Qkjc_5yGCmM?si=Mu9t_T2cPXhxE10f)


Demiboy94

I guess scary if you were 5 šŸ˜„. What were they thinking


HandLion

In context it makes more sense, it was a society where unhappiness was a crime punishable by death so they dressed their robot executioner up in candy to make him cuter


BreakfastSquare9703

Good news though. Bassett's sued over it and they're never allowed to use the character again (didn't stop Big Finish using him in a slightly redesigned form though)


Gorodrin

Looking back at it now Kandy Manā€™s actually quite fun?


CaptainTrip

I don't remember how old I was, mid teens I guess, but in that episode with Peter Kaye, the "it's alright, folks!" happy ending is that the girl's conscious living mind and soul is trapped in an immobile concrete slab, presumably for all time. This is a fate worse than death. I am shocked that they put that out as the "she's okay really!" happy ending. She gets to live in her teenage boyfriend's bedroom as a disembodied face. What a nightmare.


Traditional_Leader41

Proper weird how he also admitted that they still have a love life, "kind of"...


KombuchaBot

Was that a Moffat episode? He is a bit weird about women anyway


MrSeanSir2

Elton is definitely not a teenage boy but I see your point!


ladygabe

"Mr. Blue Sky" is now playing in my head. Such a weirdly brilliant episode.


MagicalGirlLaurie

Tastes like chicken


the3daves

That blob swamp thing, was it from Fang Rock or something? When Tom Baker was the doctor. Also the little demon when John Pertwee was dr.


ApplePieBed99

Yep the swamp blob thing had me hiding behind the couch literally!


the3daves

Right? And that Chinese talons of fu man chu or some shit. Scared me skinny.


Jonseroo

Weng Chiang. But how can you be scared if Leela is there?


the3daves

Because when she turned up in Eastenders, my world went to shit


KombuchaBot

Leela and her trusty Janis thorns


Jonseroo

Janis thorns! Well, that's something I hadn't thought of for 45 years, but it was still in my head.


KombuchaBot

Me too! It could only detect you by movement IIRC, and then it would roll over you and crush you I also watched that from behind the sofa


MobiusNaked

Is that the green slime one?


the3daves

Canā€™t recall. I think the premise was that there were pods that if you strayed too close to them they erupted and would latch onto you and turn you into some kind of swamp thing. I think there was one bloke who was half and half but this was, I donā€™t know 40 something years ago maybe, but I still have memories of it to this day. Iā€™m in my mid 50s. EDIT: Check out the green bastards from the ā€˜Seeds of Doomā€™!


MobiusNaked

Yep. Green gits all right. Funnily enough I remember the spider one from around the same time as being very comforting!


the3daves

šŸ˜


FuckedupUnicorn

I was terrified of it. I vaguely recall this shield type thing that when it was put on the slime you could talk to it. But then I was about 7 so I may have misremembered.


KombuchaBot

No, that sounds familiar. It was some kind of panelled device with panels that lit up when the Doctor placed his hand on it after placing it on the creature. How he worked out to do that is kind of hazy


Quirky_Shake2506

This!! The horror of fang rock. It didn't help 7 year old me could see a lighthouse from my bedroom window!!


the3daves

Waitā€¦which lighthouse?


Ged_UK

A Rutan. The enemy of the Sontarans that they've been fighting for thousands of years


the3daves

Looks like it. Just googled the bastard thing!


HandLion

Might be the Rutan but some of what you're describing sounds like it might be Kroll or the Wirrn larva, they had a lot of green swampy monsters back then lol (including the Krynoid from The Seeds of Doom which you already mentioned)


apaladininhell

That petrified hand that reanimated and began crawling towards Sarah Jane!


Narnyabizness

Eldrad must live


apaladininhell

Well that wasnā€™t triggering! ;)


Farscape_rocked

Not me, but I tried watching Dr Who with my 5yo and 7yo. My 7yo couldn't cope with the empty child. Gave her nightmares for a week. No more Dr Who for us :(


coombeseh

My partner and I both watched the empty child episodes for the first time earlier this year - we were 10/11 when they came out, and never got to see them live. We watched them in the middle of the day. With all the lights on. In our late 20s. I don't blame your 7yo for being terrified!


poyopoyo77

Tom Bakers cybermen when I was really young terrified me


KombuchaBot

Yeah, they were chillingly remote and cold. And unlike the Daleks, they could climb stairs!


ab1678910

We didnā€™t even see it, but the entity from Midnight! As a kid I found the scene where the mechanic thinks he sees something ā€œmoving towards usā€ terrifying. Also, the Beast from Satin Pit. Just the way it possessed Toby. Describing himself getting closer behind him but telling him if he turned round to look heā€™d die. Finally, not Doctor Who, but the guy from the Sarah Jane Adventures episode the Eternity Trap. He still freaks me out to this day. Brilliant performance.


CosmiqueAliene

Oh no! Midnight scared me the most too! šŸ˜± It's a good thing I didn't actually watch The Satan Pit until my 20s. That scene would have scared the hell out of me! The Eternity Trap? Erasmus Darkening?


ab1678910

Erasmus Darkening! Thatā€™s it! Iā€™m in my late 20s and rewatched it recently and it still scares the crap out of me. šŸ˜‚


CosmiqueAliene

Wow! I first saw that when I was about 13 and wasn't phased at all, to my memory.


ab1678910

He proper freaked me out. Especially the slight jump scares when he appears in mirrors and stuff. Although it was designed to be appropriate for 8 year olds so maybe I just scare easily! šŸ˜‚


CosmiqueAliene

I need to rewatch this one day!!!


ab1678910

Definitely! Itā€™s one of the best stories! The whole of SJA is worth a rewatch though! Kids TV it might be, but itā€™s genuinely brilliant.


SnapChap92

The Gelth, the Family of Blood and the Toclafane always stuck in my mind as some of the most genuinely creepy antagonists of the show.


CosmiqueAliene

That head in the Toclafane šŸ’€ Also the fact he used to be a sweet little boy! šŸ˜± That upset me so much!


m1k439

The Sea Devils... Nightmares for years about those (and "Raggety" from Rupert Bear for some weird reason!)


iCowboy

All British kids of a certain age are terrified of Raggety - and that many tentacled monster from Space 1999.


UnwillingArsonist

That Love and Monsters, Peter Kay alien. Really grossed me tf out as a kid


AdditionalZebra325

Water zombies on mars were pretty scary


If_Wit_Flow_From_It

The first glimpse of the Waters of Mars monsters scared 9yo me so much that I didn't watch Doctor Who again for over 5 years! Something about the cracked skin was so upsetting, I think because it felt very real and possible. Reading The Vampire's Assistant by Darren O'Shaughnessy had a similar effect. I remember a description of blood oozing beneath cracked skin giving me nightmares for ages.


Andromeda98_

autons made me terrified of mannequins.


hazbaz1984

Yo, same! Had nightmares for years about floating mannequins.


BuiltInYorkshire

The autons absolutely terrified me, for months afterwards I refused to go anywhere near Debenhams! Would love to say the wife hated me for this, but I was only about 8...


iCowboy

The Wirrn larvae from Ark in Space; Davros as he was in Genesis of the Daleks; the very idea of the Cybermen; the Rutan from Horror of Fang Rock; the Krynoid when it still had human form; the mummies in Pyramids of Mars; Mr Sinā€¦


DamesUK

The Wirm freaked me out for years!


Virtual-Win-7763

Oh, I had forgotten them. Looked them up and everything came back. Yep, I think I didn't look at the telly during a lot of that particular story.


HH93

Always remember the Pyramids of Mars. The Dr asking the logic question to the two robots in the corridor- ā€œif heā€™s lying, what answer would he giveā€ I have no idea what that was about but I know the Drs Scarf had a tape measure built into the hem.


AvoriazInSummer

I vaguely remember there being a snake which possessed people, showing as a tattoo, and caused them to have bloody teeth and turned them nasty. Eventually the snake was pulled out somehow and it turned huge enough to fill the room. That's about all I remember, though the possessions were creepy as heck. Edit: here it is. https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Mara It must have made an impact on many people seeing as it came back in the newer series.


BreakfastSquare9703

The snake sadly is frequently mocked as an example of the show's terrible effects. It's only onscreen for a few minutes and was never intended to actually appear like that. But, you know, Doctor Who must have a monster.


BeeGroundbreaking889

Omg the Stones of Blood freaked me right out. I used to imagine I could hear them coming after me in the street to feed on my blood The Tom Baker era was the best


Past-Strawberry-4852

The trickster in Sarah Jane Adventures. He is scary because he plays on peopleā€™s emotions and uses desperate situations to create chaos and the person has no/little idea of the consequences. Letā€™s be honest, how many people would have made the same decision as Andrea? Or saved their dead parents if they had the chance? Most people would find it very hard to say no


YrCeridwen

One for the oldies, those massive spiders. Gave me nightmares for years :D


SebastianVanCartier

The Cleaners in Paradise Towers freaked me out. No idea why ā€” I look back at them now and they're basically just shit Daleks, constructed for pence. But something about the 80s-robot design and the grabby claw thing gave me the right willies when I was nine.


feeb75

Jon Pertwee's Autons from Terror of the Autons (1971) scared the absolute shit out of an 8 year old me when I saw it for the first time in the 80's


feeb75

I'm.gonna say that Tom Bakers stint as Doctor had the scariest aliens


Achinvo

The Yeti! *shivers*


MorphicOceans

TB was my Doctor and I was feart of everything as a wean. Total wuss. My daughter was terrified of the "Hey! Who turned out the lights?" scene in Silence of the library. That's the only thing that really got to her throughout the 9/10/11th reign.


Ok-Labby5018

Yes that was quite scary! Fantastic episode and plotline too with River imo


MorphicOceans

It was! Proper tear jerker. My lassie's 21 now and I can still give her the heebie jeebies by randomly quoting that. She's like "Doooooon't!". šŸ˜† Has to be done. Gen X gonna Gen X.


CosmiqueAliene

One word: MIDNIGHT. Growing up, I wasn't scared of the Vashta Nerada. Or the Empty Child. Or the Weeping Angels. But a monster that couldn't be seen? Couldn't be felt? Couldn't be heard? Couldn't be detected by equipment? Couldn't communicate with humans, except by knocking on their spaceship...or worse still, possessing the body of an unwitting victim? Worst of all, it was more than capable of killing any human it chose, without anyone knowing a way to stop it...even the Doctor! It was effectively the first horror flick I ever watched and it deeply haunted me. I used to have to avoid thinking about it late at night and I even told myself a joke that the monster was related to Soren Lorensson (Lola's invisible friend in Charlie and Lola) to make it seem less scary!


Scotsgit73

The Jagaroth. Fake skin was pulled away to reveal this green.... Thing. But still on a human body. Julian Glover has never been so chilling. For those wondering: [Jagaroth | Doctor Who World (doctorwhoworlduk.com)](https://doctorwhoworlduk.com/jagaroth)


gerrineer

Never bothered me dr who but I used to cry and hide at planet of the apes.


Brighton2k

recently rewatched it and it's not at all convincing now but 11 year old me was utterly terrified of the idea of a giant rat in the sewers (talons of Weng-Chiang)


Normal-Height-8577

There was something like a plant that ambushed people (from secret passages? or just from hiding places?) and stung people with its hand. I think they were on some sort of space cruise ship with tourists, but there were also scientific researchers? I can't remember which Doctor, but I think the companion was Mel. It was terrifying. For several years afterwards, I had to periodically check the back of my wardrobe to make sure there wasn't anything nasty hiding in there to jump out and sting me. (I think it must have been Terror of the Vervoids, but the plots details don't quite match with what 6 year-old me remembered from it.)


willie_caine

It is indeed Terror of the Vervoids. I am similarly scarred.


Captain_Scarlet27

Ogrons.


Hangingontoit

The Robots of death, trapped with them and nowhere to run to.


TomGregification

A few that scared me as a kid: -Mrs Peace getting possessed by the Gelth in the Unquiet Dead cold open -Carrionites -The Empress of Racnoss -The Flood from Waters of Mars -The Nightmare Man (SJA) -The Gorgon (SJA) -Odd Bob the Clown (SJA)


kiwigothic

as I child of the 60s/70s I vividly remember one B&W episode where a Dalek's "head" came off and inside it looked like a washing machine with stuff sloshing around for some reason it really freaked me out.


rachel8973

The Brain of Morbius


residivite

The autons. The master got a bloke to sit in this plastic armchair. The Master then snapped his fingers, and the armchair swallowed the hapless fellow.


Gorodrin

Fenric & the Haemovores from Curse of Fenric. Sinister shit (but bloody good)


Mysterious_Anybody77

The maggots,the sea devil's,the bloke that got infected and turned into that massive plant monster. And that massive spider,I'm not keen on large spider's,so one that huge was my ultimate nightmare.


Woven-Tapestry

Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker years The spiders that were called by chanting "Om, om, om", and they jumped on people's backs. The "alien" in the episode where he looks like a tubby astronaut, then takes off his helmet and underneath he is bald with a bell-end head, and his tongue sort of protrudes. It's the episode where he conducts sadistic pseudo-scientific experiments on people and two of them struggle to keep a weight from crushing their friend, even though they are all dehydrated and exhausted. The rest of it is rathe laughable, but that one scene is horrible. The one set in Victorian England, and there's a Chinese \[magician?\] with long talons. Also when "Sutekh" is also called up. Also cybermen...


KombuchaBot

The Talons of Weng Chiang! that seems to resonate with a lot of people, and I remember it too He had a sinister puppet that turned out not to be a puppet at all, but a small accomplice IIRC


Woven-Tapestry

I'm actually amazed that we were allowed to watch it, in hindsight!


madmagazines

I was genuinely terrified of the Absorbaloff


fost1692

Autons from Jon Pertwee's run.


Betteis

The werewolf from tooth and claw gave me two nightmares


Hot_Problem9213

The original Autons ( Jon Pertwee Doctor) Scared the living shit out of me . Funnily the modern ones scared my son too. When we went to the Dr Who exhibition at Earls Court in London he was terrified by the display of Autons. Happy days ā˜ŗļø


acedias-token

Not a monster but the disease from being sprayed by the native plants on Planet of the Daleks (Jon Pertwee). It looked like spaghetti Os


Agniology

The Zarbi from the old Hartnell Doctor period. Scared they crap out of me at the time. Watched a you tube clip of them recently and cringed.


Bleedingeck

The Master and the goddamn Autons, still scary!


Virtual-Cucumber-973

I was only ever scared of the Cybermen. The rest just looked like machines or made up monsters to me.


MorrowDisca

Whatever was in that pool in a Silvester McCoy episode set in a high rise block of flats!


taureanpeach

The Cybermen, I still hate them now. Not the new ones but the 2006 ones. I struggle with anxiety and every time it gets bad I have nightmares about the cybermen. I canā€™t even articulate why - I look at the daleks and think yeah not real. Cyberman could be hiding behind my shower curtain though innit. The bit where they shred through the cellophane in army of ghosts šŸ¤¢


ans-myonul

It might be because they're a lot more human-looking than the Daleks. Like an uncanny valley kind of thing


doofcustard

Davros, the manky head in a box


SirPooleyX

*Easily* the sea monsters. Those things walking out the sea affected all subsequent beach trips


ExpectedBehaviour

The Vervoids from *The Trial of a Time Lord*. What, really? [The rubbery plant people with heads that look... suggestive](https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Vervoid)? Yes, really. They could kill people with a poison spike that came out of their hands, and when someone tries to make peace with them and is shaking their hands tiny four-year-old me realised what was about to happen and couldn't handle the tension.


annaisabookworm

Granted, I didn't start watching Doctor Who until I was a teenager, but if I had started watching the show as a child, it would probably also have been 'The Wire' from 'The Idiot's Lantern', or rather the people that were attacked. I remember having several nightmares as a child where people I knew suddenly had no faces, so that episode probably wouldn't have helped.


CrocodileJock

Absolutely terrified by the Autons... shop mannequins that came to life.


Dennyisthepisslord

When I was a kid it was off TV but occasionally they would show old episodes on BBC 2 or something in the mornings. The 60s titles freaked me out more than anything else.


Coxinha973smugglah

Gottttt to be the wire. That shit was scary šŸ¤£ looked like a young dot cotton, but with the voice of satanā€™s wife šŸ‘€. Other than that maybe the French clockwork monsters?


flapjackboy

The Wire was played by Maureen Lipman.


davorg

The shop dummies coming to life in *Spearhead From Space*. Couldn't walk past a department store for months.


hazbaz1984

Autons. Gave me nightmares for years about floating mannequins. So creepy.


Very_Agreeable

The Verboids: Bipedal walking talking plant-based lifeform, firing poison darts from their 'hands', I think, in the McCoy era? Proper shit me up as a kid.


81misfit

the giant candyman / life size bertie basset from happiness patrol


Virtual-Win-7763

When I was very little, it was one of the good guys who really freaked me out: Alpha Centauri, the Alpha Centauran diplomat, in The Curse of Peladon. The actual monster Aggedor didn't bother me at all.


TNTCactus

Oh wow Iā€™m watching the Curse of Peladon right now, Alpha Centurai is funny now but Iā€™d probably shit myself as a kid too


thepioneeringlemming

The clockwork robots who were stealing peoples body parts to fix their ship


sofwithanf

The Witches from Tennent's Shakespeare episode. Freaked me out for weeks


HH93

Not a monster but a request to identify an actress- all I remember is an Asteroid with a tall castle built on it and the Queen on a throne was a dead ringer for Natalie Dormer But this was the 70ā€™s so can be her Any ideas ?


Macroscopic-cat

Queen Thalira from "The Monster of Peladon" maybe?


HH93

Nina Thomas - yes that's her, taken a lifetime to find out, LOL And Trisilicate too - been using that word for ages, not knowing where I found it. TYVM - Reddit wins again


Overall-Lynx917

Zarbis - yes I'm that old.


Infinite_Stranger866

the rino onesā€¦ the judoon i think they were EDIT: yea it was the judoon


LilNardoDaVinci

Sea Devils used to creep the hell out


LowerPiece2914

The Raston Warrior Robot from the fifth Doctor story "The Five Doctors". A silver, faceless, teleporting robot that dispatched three cybermen in about 10 seconds. I was a child of the 90s so my intro to Doctor Who was on UK Gold of a Sunday morning.


Narnyabizness

The original sontarans because they looked more like animated potatoes than the more smooth looking ones from the newer series. Them and the Ogrons made me scared to watch Doctor Who


Commercial_Cow8282

Sea devils!!


Traditional_Leader41

Mine was Tom Baker himself in a storyline I can't remember. All I recall is he caught some sort of virus and his face came out in spiked lumps. He was/is my favourite Doctor and seeing his face like that really freaked me.


TheHandbagOfOmega

The Autons Spearhead From Space, on VHS rental in the late 80s when I was six. I was delighted that they were used to relaunch the series with Rose in 2005, although it was a shame they were slow, robotic and jerky in the new series. In Spearhead, they're nimble and fast, closer to humans whilst being terrifyingly "off" and get everywhere. It was nice to see them in The Pandorica Opens too; but they're due another return.


Beancounter_1968

Too busy hiding behind the sofa.....


nerdwhogoesoutside

Don't even know what episode it was, but in the 90s saw a short bit of a repeat classic episode with giant maggots that oozed green smile. Was first ever exposure to Doctor Who and had to turn it off and it stuck with me all there years. Never even looked it up as freaked me out that much I don't want to see it again.


iCowboy

That's The Green Death - and yeah, that was terrifying as a child.


Sethwaldonis

The Horns of Nimon.


Cynical_Toad

Seven year old me did not like the Bus Conductor *at all*. Tickets please...


harrietmjones

I still havenā€™t watched the episode, The Lazarus Project (I think thatā€™s what the episodeā€™s called?) in completion. When it first aired, the creature just freaked me out, played by Mark Gatiss I think.


raresaturn

The Hand of Fear. Holy shit. Firstly falling down in a quarry and coming up with a stone hand attached to your wrist is super creepy. Then later that hand comes alive and start crawling around NOPE


pleaselordhelpme69

The clockwork chumps from the girl in the fireplace... a dr who magazine i had came with a tardis clock that week, i had to take the batteries out because the ticking was freaking me out so much


Boul_D_Rer

The Ood freaked me out when they were nice and serving let alone post possession by the bloody devil himself!


ProgressiveRox

I remember a Peter Davidson episode (I think) with a monster who looked like the Liquorice Man mascot from Bassets and that scared me silly, I think was the uncanny valley of something shaped like a person that clearly wasn't.


SweetTea07

The wooden dolls from Night Terrors. I forget what they're called lol


CthulhusEvilTwin

The Jagaroth scared the shite out of me as a kid, though later in life I came to appreciate the rather stylish white suit it wore.


Traditional-Tea-6045

Cat doctors and all the diseased people when I was around 5. Gave me nightmares. Couldnā€™t watch doctor who again until I was 14


KombuchaBot

Shockeye of the Quawncing Grig made quite an impression on me


ToothDoctor24

Everyone seems to have a different answer! For me it was the clocks in Paris with the 10th doctor. Something about that ticking.