The 10 scariest monsters from Doctor Who’s classic and modern era
By Becky Kukla
6. The Nanogenes
As seen in: “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances.”
This monster lives firmly in the uncanny valley. Human enough for it to be recognizable but with something so devastatingly out of kilter that makes it far scarier than the average monster. It’s a child, but it isn’t. It’s dead, but it’s somehow still alive. Worst of all, it’s coming for everyone.
The tragedy of the Nanobots is that they were actually trying to help by taking human DNA and restoring people to full health. Unfortunately, they picked a lonely child with a gas mask on to model their idea of what a human should look like and incidentally created the scariest looking thing to ever repeatedly ask “are you my mummy?”
Of course, turning humans into bizarre human lookalikes isn’t the only thing that the Nanogenes do. The empty child, before it’s revealed what it actually is, interferes with radio signal, makes strange noises and hunts down a young woman called Nancy for seemingly no reason at all.
Set against the backdrop of the London Blitz in WW2, there is real terror in the air, which is only amplified as people start transforming into more gas mask creatures. Underneath it all is a heartbreaking story about fear, guilt and a young woman who isn’t ready to accept the truth about being a mother.
“The Empty Child” was also the first episode written by Stephen Moffat, who later went on to become Doctor Who’s showrunner. Moffat, also responsible for several other characters in this list, had a penchant for creating simple yet horrifying creatures which are hard to forget.