The 10 scariest monsters from Doctor Who’s classic and modern era

9. The Autons

First seen in: “Spearhead from Space” and various other episodes.

Deadly creatures that can disguise themselves as very authentic (and creepy) looking humans? The Autons definitely make the top 10 list. Forget everything you know about plastic. The Autons are about to make the common substance very scary indeed.

Developed by the Nestene Consciousness (a recurring villain in Doctor Who), the Autons are essentially life-sized dummies that can mimic human behavior and have been developed over the years to be a very convincing human lookalike. First appearing as mannequins come to life in the classic Who episode “Spearhead from Space,” they returned again in “Terror of the Autons” where the Nestenes made use of every day objects as well as copying the human form. Controversially, the episode was also considered too scary for children. There were fears of a public outcry at some of the scenes involved, including one of a police officer being revealed to be an Auton.

The special effects may not be up to scratch with what we expect from Doctor Who now, but the Autons are a scary concept — especially with their ability to mimic the human form getting better each time they reappear in the Who universe.

The Autons were updated and included in the very first episode of new Who in 2005 where David Ecclestone’s Doctor comes up against them. This time taking the form of plastic shop mannequins, the Autons try to kill humanity once they are activated from their mainframe located in the London Eye. Even Rose was fooled into thinking an Auton Mickey was the real deal, so be careful who you trust!