Recurring Dr Who monsters and villains, number of appearances and when we first saw them

[purplecat]

Daleks (20 - depending how you count): 1963
The Meddling Monk (2): 1965
The Cybermen (12 - depending how you count): 1966
The Macra (2): 1967
The Yeti/Great Intelligence (2): 1967
The Ice Warriors(4): 1967
Autons/Nestenes(3): 1970
Silurians and Sea Devils (2 each, 3 in total): 1970
The Master (21 - depending how you count): 1971
Omega (2): 1972/73
The Sontarans (5): 1973
Davros (5): 1975
The Black Guardian (4/2 - depending how you count): 1979
The Mara (2): 1982
Sil (2): 1985
The Rani (2): 1985
The Slitheen (2): 2005
Cassandra (2): 2005
The Ood (2): 2006
The Judoon (2 - depending how you count): 2007

I feel there should be some way to plot this information to demonstrate diminishing returns. I also feel it's telling that the Slitheen are the only recurring monster to be created in the the four years of the new series which really should have been aiming quite high in that department.

EDIT: Forgot the Ood, who are a much better monster than the Slitheen. Perhaps because I don't actually view them as a true monster or villain, but by that reasoning the Silurians and Sea Devils and the Ice Warriors are also debatable entries.

EDIT 2: Not to mention the Macra, Autons/Nestenes and Omega. I'm clearly not as good at this as I used to be - I assumed I'd spot everything simply by looking down a list of stories. Fairly sure I would have done in my teens!

EDIT 3: Now we've got the Judoon in that list it, looks more like the Cardiff team have made a fairly serious stab at a "new" monster each year. Of which I'd say the Ood are the most successful but the Judoon are perhaps the most likely to appear again.


WHO DAILY: <lj user=louisedennis> has a list of <a href=http://louisedennis.livejournal.com/80320.html>recurring Dr Who monsters, their number of appearances and date of first appearance</a>

Comments

[purplecat]

It's an interesting thought that its the non-fans who think that loads of continuity references are "better" in some sense than stand-alone stories.

I seem to remember, at some point, some suggestion that the Judoon would be Sontaran substitutes - and then they went and bought back the Sontarans anyway.

Actually, one of the more interesting things, looking a that list is the 1975-1979 gap in the creation of recurring monsters - corresponding, broadly speaking, to Phillip Hinchcliffe's tenure as producer (allowing a little leeway for hangovers from previous teams in a new producer's first season). There are also relatively few returning monsters during his tenure. It suggests that whatever he was doing he wasn't interested in encouraging stories that fed off the past, and ones that, while creating several striking monsters and villains, didn't create ones that lent themselves to re-use.

[daniel-saunders.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember, at some point, some suggestion that the Judoon would be Sontaran substitutes - and then they went and bought back the Sontarans anyway.

I think that was based purely on the perceived similarity of the costumes in the season three trailer!

I'd agree with your point about Philip Hinchcliffe, and I'd say that the same goes for Graham Williams (one pair of new characters (the Guardians) and one return appearance each for the Sontarans, the Daleks and Davros, although there are two Time Lord stories if you count Shada).

Over the whole of Doctor Who there are at most four seasons with no returning characters or monsters at all of which one was produced by Hinchcliffe and one by Williams: 1, 16 and 7 and 13 (depending on whether you count UNIT as a regular part of the format at those times or as recurring characters).