Pretty much in the title, what makes a monster scary and what are the scariest monsters that are in Doctor Who?
What makes a scary Doctor Who Monster?
I'd say that it's usually something which seems familiar, but made 'strange'. Like the Autons or Angels for example; familiar everyday sights, but then they start killing everyone!
Originally Posted by ShootyDogThing:
“I'd say that it's usually something which seems familiar, but made 'strange'. Like the Autons or Angels for example; familiar everyday sights, but then they start killing everyone!”
“I'd say that it's usually something which seems familiar, but made 'strange'. Like the Autons or Angels for example; familiar everyday sights, but then they start killing everyone!”
Funny, I'd say the exact opposite, it's the unknown and what we dont understand that scres us most, deep down, in our gut instincts e.g. I'd say, without a shadow of a doubt, Midnight is the scariest thing I've seen in television EVER. Certainly, one of the best episodes of Dr Who and probably RTD's best. The primeval fear of the unknown and alien, that fear which the racists and bigots of the world cant ignore, leading to awful crimes. And that's what's also so great about Midnight, what it does to the people, how it turns them against against each other, manipulates them, brings out all their fears, rivalries, jealousies anger and hatred. "What, like an immigrant?" It brings out the worst in us. I've been scared by Dr Who before, but that's one of the only times I've ever been genuinely DISTURBED (only word, disturbed) by the program and being dosturbed so much better and worse than being a little bit creeped out, as in an episode like Blink or the Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.
The only other times I've really just been disturbed like that when watching Dr Who is just in a few seconds long clips from the Impossible Planet and The Day of the Moon. The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit's scary anyway, cos again, it deals with something totally unknown and seemingly omnipotent, except this time it does suggest that it is in fact the Devil, and that is scary. Simply cos Devil=Pure Evil. And I'm an atheist funnily enough, yet that still gave me the shivers. The scene which genuinely disturbed me though was the scene where Toby's been possessed and that girl see's him standing outside, without a spacesuit, "bathing in the black sun." And he looks at her, with those marks on his face, and blood red eyes, and such a weird smile (that actor deserves an oscar), and he beckons, and she actually GOES to him. And then, when she stops, when she pulls herself away, and she tries to get away, and then his face changes, and the music, OMG, it just gets at something, deep down. Another disturbing scene is a 20 sec one in the orphanage in Day of the Moon. Not the scene with the Silents, there's no real monster as such. It's when Amy finds the little girls room, she finds the photo of herself and then she's confronted by the Astronaut. There's just something about that scene which is just (shudder)
I think both points of view are right. The normal and everyday turned into something sinister is scary - and so is the unknown.
I'd say for me the great scares of New Who are;
1. The Empty Child. Apparently a normal everyday wartime little boy in a gas mask, and yet he's clearly not that. Not so scary in the second part, when we'd started to get an idea who he was, but in the first part, when we have no idea who or what he really is...
2. Satan. A scary fellow at any time of course, but when he's a voice just behind your shoulder telling you that he's getting closer and closer, but you mustn't look round or you'll die...
3. The Angels (in Blink and in the scene from A Time of Angels where Amy is trapped with the screen image). I think there the scary thing is that they just look like statues, but you daren't turn your back or you know they'll be coming to get you. (Flesh and Stone ruined them by showing them moving IMO)
4. The alien in Midnight. More than any Who adversary, it is the great unknown. We never know what it looks like in its own form, nor what it intends to do. It's clear, though, that whatever it is, it's learning fast.
1 and 3 probably exemplify the menace of the everyday, though in 1 also a dash of the unknown. 2 and 4 are very much the unknown.
I'd say for me the great scares of New Who are;
1. The Empty Child. Apparently a normal everyday wartime little boy in a gas mask, and yet he's clearly not that. Not so scary in the second part, when we'd started to get an idea who he was, but in the first part, when we have no idea who or what he really is...
2. Satan. A scary fellow at any time of course, but when he's a voice just behind your shoulder telling you that he's getting closer and closer, but you mustn't look round or you'll die...
3. The Angels (in Blink and in the scene from A Time of Angels where Amy is trapped with the screen image). I think there the scary thing is that they just look like statues, but you daren't turn your back or you know they'll be coming to get you. (Flesh and Stone ruined them by showing them moving IMO)
4. The alien in Midnight. More than any Who adversary, it is the great unknown. We never know what it looks like in its own form, nor what it intends to do. It's clear, though, that whatever it is, it's learning fast.
1 and 3 probably exemplify the menace of the everyday, though in 1 also a dash of the unknown. 2 and 4 are very much the unknown.
I think the very mysterious monsters are the scariest; the ones which we know very little about.
The best example of this is the Midnight monster. We knew it was incredibly powerful and that it could posses people and turn groups of people against each other, but I think what made it very successful was that we never got to find out what it looked like. We have been left speculating ever since.
Special mention goes to the Silence. The idea that you forget them once you look away is fantastic. It's good, because it makes you think "how do I know that I haven't met one of them?".
Finally, I do love a good possession. Monsters possessing people are always good. We haven't had a good possession in a while though.
The best example of this is the Midnight monster. We knew it was incredibly powerful and that it could posses people and turn groups of people against each other, but I think what made it very successful was that we never got to find out what it looked like. We have been left speculating ever since.
Special mention goes to the Silence. The idea that you forget them once you look away is fantastic. It's good, because it makes you think "how do I know that I haven't met one of them?".
Finally, I do love a good possession. Monsters possessing people are always good. We haven't had a good possession in a while though.
Ones that are fully realised in the mind of their creator. The Angels and the alien in Midnight are almost opposite - but their creators understand them, what their powers are, how they move etc even if we the audience don't.
Midnight does have one very mundane thing at it's heart, twisted around to create a real sense of fear: your own voice...
To me, the scariest thing in Who was when the voice of "The Devil" was speaking behind Toby. I genuinely got frightened by that. It was the calmness of the voice, saying something I, as a child, always feared, something behind my back. Also, to this day, I cannot watch the scene with Toby out in space with no suit on. It really cut me that scene. I also loved the separation of the physical devil and the mental one, which is within everyone. Some of RTD's best.
So I agree that it is the unknown that is scary. Midnight was just wow!
As for scary scenes, in SITL/FOTD The music that plays when the scene cuts to Donna's world, really creeped me out, that wirey sound it had. Shows that music and sounds affect the tone just as much as direction and dialogue.
So I agree that it is the unknown that is scary. Midnight was just wow!
As for scary scenes, in SITL/FOTD The music that plays when the scene cuts to Donna's world, really creeped me out, that wirey sound it had. Shows that music and sounds affect the tone just as much as direction and dialogue.
Originally Posted by TheSilentFez:
“I think the very mysterious monsters are the scariest; the ones which we know very little about.
The best example of this is the Midnight monster. We knew it was incredibly powerful and that it could posses people and turn groups of people against each other, but I think what made it very successful was that we never got to find out what it looked like. We have been left speculating ever since.
Special mention goes to the Silence. The idea that you forget them once you look away is fantastic. It's good, because it makes you think "how do I know that I haven't met one of them?".
Finally, I do love a good possession. Monsters possessing people are always good. We haven't had a good possession in a while though.”
“I think the very mysterious monsters are the scariest; the ones which we know very little about.
The best example of this is the Midnight monster. We knew it was incredibly powerful and that it could posses people and turn groups of people against each other, but I think what made it very successful was that we never got to find out what it looked like. We have been left speculating ever since.
Special mention goes to the Silence. The idea that you forget them once you look away is fantastic. It's good, because it makes you think "how do I know that I haven't met one of them?".
Finally, I do love a good possession. Monsters possessing people are always good. We haven't had a good possession in a while though.”
Agreed, Who is at its best when it takes things you either know nothing about or fear anyway. Moffat's good at finding things we're already scared of and twisting that fear. As for possession, that was kind of ruined for me by the Cassandra debacle at the start of Series 2. That was awful. (Saying that its the first episode of Who I ever watched and it got me hooked so it couldn't be THAT bad)
Originally Posted by Check it out:
“ Also, to this day, I cannot watch the scene with Toby out in space with no suit on. It really cut me that scene.”
“ Also, to this day, I cannot watch the scene with Toby out in space with no suit on. It really cut me that scene.”
Yeah, that really got to me, that scene, I'm not even sure why
Originally Posted by TheSilentFez:
“Finally, I do love a good possession. Monsters possessing people are always good. We haven't had a good possession in a while though.”
“Finally, I do love a good possession. Monsters possessing people are always good. We haven't had a good possession in a while though.”
Possession is usually a lazy cop-out. What I liked about Midnight is that the possession - and the alien doing it - isn't actually the threat. Possession stories usually come down to "let's make the Doctor's friends become threats instead, we don't even need to come up with a good reason, just make them possessed and then it's not their fault".
In Midnight, everyone knew about the possession - it's the humans and their motivations and paranoia that were the real danger.
Although it was more of a jump scare than anything else, the surreal nature of the computer world in Forest of the Dead combined very well with the mysterious veiled woman stalking Donna. The music as well was top notch - and oh god, when they showed her distorted face...
Plus the shot where it's revealed all the children are identical. That was pretty damn scary. And honorable mention to the scene where the children realize they aren't real and promptly vanish.
And of course Midnight and Impossible Planet/Satan Pit are about as scary as the modern series has got.
Weirdly I never found The Empty Child/Doctor Dances or Blink that scary myself... although the first time the Angel is shown in attack mode, fangs out... that made me start.
Plus the shot where it's revealed all the children are identical. That was pretty damn scary. And honorable mention to the scene where the children realize they aren't real and promptly vanish.
And of course Midnight and Impossible Planet/Satan Pit are about as scary as the modern series has got.
Weirdly I never found The Empty Child/Doctor Dances or Blink that scary myself... although the first time the Angel is shown in attack mode, fangs out... that made me start.
Originally Posted by DavetheScot:
“1. The Empty Child. Apparently a normal everyday wartime little boy in a gas mask, and yet he's clearly not that. Not so scary in the second part, when we'd started to get an idea who he was, but in the first part, when we have no idea who or what he really is...”
“1. The Empty Child. Apparently a normal everyday wartime little boy in a gas mask, and yet he's clearly not that. Not so scary in the second part, when we'd started to get an idea who he was, but in the first part, when we have no idea who or what he really is...”
The only episode I can't take myself to rewatch!
