TV Series

Who’s feeling blue? The bluest creatures in the Doctor Who universe

By Paul Lang

It’s Blue Monday, and for most people that means moaning about the most miserable day of the year. But the Doctor loves a bit of blue (look at the TARDIS, for a start!) and has encountered many blue creatures while travelling the universe.


Cold as ice

The Woman Who Fell To Earth/The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos (2018)

The Doctor was definitely a bit blue the day she met T’zim-Sha. For a start, she’d just regenerated, which would leave anyone feeling out of sorts. Also, she’d fallen from a great height and crashed through the roof of a train carriage. And worst of all, once she was back on her feet, she had to deal with “Tim Shaw”, a ferocious Stenza warrior with a face full of fangs extracted from his unfortunate victims! His skin was blue because he was so bloomin’ cold – one touch of his face would freeze any human to death, so keep your mitts off him if you happen to spot him!

Hot stuff

The End of the World (2005)

The Moxx of Balhoon might have looked like he’d be a turquoise terror, but it’s wrong to judge by appearances – he was actually a solicitor! The Doctor met him on Platform One in the year five Billion, when the great and good had gathered on a special viewing platform to watch Earth finally get engulfed by the Sun. He was a generous soul who liked to honour those he met with the gift of bodily saliva – by spitting in their faces! The poor old Moxx met his maker when cruel Cassandra lowered the platform’s sun filters and burned everyone to a crisp. Should have worn some SPF 50!

Eater of Worlds

Battlefield (1989)

When time witch Morgaine needed help outsmarting the Doctor to take over the world, she summoned her old mate, the Destroyer – a horned horror with scaly blue skin and impressively pointy ears. Despite claiming to be the Eater of Worlds and the Lord of Darkness, the Destroyer didn’t actually manage to destroy very much at all. That’s because Morgaine had bound him with silver chains, which subdued his powers. When she did finally release him, he didn’t even get a chance to devour the Earth – the Doctor’s old pal, the Brigadier, saw him off with some silver bullets.

The New (Blue) Paradigm

Victory of the Daleks (2010)

The last three Daleks in the universe hit a major hitch when they tried to create an army of reinforcements using pure Dalek DNA stored in a Progenitor – their own genes had been spliced and rearranged so many times that it no longer recognised them as Daleks! They had to trick the Doctor into confirming their identities, at which point the Progenitor spewed forth the New Dalek Paradigm – five totally pure specimens who would rebuild the empire in their image! They each had a colour to signify their rank, and the brilliantly blue one was the Strategist, whose speciality was coming up with battle plans to endure Dalek supremacy. Sadly we never got to find out if its strategies were up to much, as it was never seen again!

Fangs a lot

Demons of the Punjab (2018)

The Thijarans were another example of appearances being deceptive – these spiky blue-skinned demons with large tusks and row upon row of beady eyes looked like they’d be after a fight when they turned up in the Punjab around the time of the separation of India and Pakistan. The fact their telepathic communications caused pain to any non-Thijarian on the receiving end of their thoughts seemed to confirm their ill intent. But they were actually damaged survivors of a terrible war whose planet had been destroyed. They hadn’t been able to honour their own dead, so teleported around the universe bearing witness to the fallen of other conflicts who would have died alone otherwise. Very noble.

It takes allsorts to make a world

The Happiness Patrol (1988)

Now this guy was a real sweetie – in appearance only. A psychopathic robot killer dressed up in a suit made of sweets and a blue aniseed jelly for a face, The Kandyman was the chief confectioner on Terra Alpha, a planet where it was illegal to be unhappy. You might think that eating delicious sweets would mean everyone there was naturally joyful, but that wasn’t how the Kandyman operated. He made sweets so delicious that human bodies were unable to cope with the pleasure, and anyone tucking in would die. The sugary sicko thought this was perfectly acceptable – at least they’d die with smiles on their faces! He also liked to drown people in gooey, gungey fondant, an experience that would surely leave a sour taste in anyone’s mouth.

Getting ahead

The Husbands of River Song (2015)

Flemming was a suave, sophisticated, sly and slightly sapphire insect maitre d’ who looked dapper in his tux. He got involved in some head-hunting shenanigans with River Song, and almost lost his own bright blue bonce in the process, until he he promised to deliver the Doctor’s head instead. River was one step ahead – she had an escape plan involving the fast-approaching meteor about to slam into the spaceship they were all on that she knew was guaranteed to work. How? Well, as a time-travelling archaeologist, she’d already dug up poor Flemming’s remains, 400 years in the future. Neat!

Siren call

The Curse of the Black Spot (2011)

When a load of 17th century pirates marked with a black spot started disappearing from their ship, they hadn’t fallen overboard – an interdimensional nurse from a ship that had crashed in the same place in a different dimension was spiriting them away for treatment. Her shimmering aquamarine presence was a calming sight, but woe betide anyone who tried to interfere with her duties – she’d turn red and start blasting fire!

Stylish Sontarans

The Sontaran Stratagem/Poison Sky (2008)

Any good clone warrior race needs a good clone warrior outfit – after all, if everyone’s going to be wearing it, it’s best to choose a flattering style and a colour that complements the standard skin tone. The Sontarans wore black and silver for a long time, but they had taken their army’s attire up a notch when they turned up on Earth with a plot to poison the planet using the fumes from tampered cars. Their nifty new navy gear set off their leathery old skin a treat, especially under the flattering pink lighting of their battleship. Who says you can’t look good while conquering the galaxy?

Violet vampires

The Curse of Fenric (1989)

If you ever needed an incentive to sort out your mixed recycling, this picture should do the trick. It’s a Haemovore, a vampire creature evolved from future humans in a time after all the oceans on Earth have been reduced to chemical slime. You might think that’s ages off and you’ve got nothing to worry about, but an ancient force called Fenric has been known to send some of these puffy blue bloodsuckers back in time to feast on fresh blood supplies! So don’t get complacent – especially if you pop to the beach for a paddle, as they are often to be found lurking under the sea.

Hand havoc

The Hand of Fear (1976)

Eldrad was a Kastrian scientist who went rogue and was sentenced to death by his own people. They scattered his remains throughout the galaxy, which was a bit of a misfire to be honest, as the bits had the potential to cause havoc wherever they ended up. His hand was sent to Earth, where it came into contact with the Doctor’s friend Sarah Jane. She fell under its control and took the it to a nuclear plant, where the radiation restored the rest of the body – this time in the form of a human female, albeit one with a distinctly blue hue.

Ol’ Blue Eyes’s Snack

The Tsuranga Conundrum (2018)

Pting might be a nasty, bitey, greedy gremlin who will eat your ship out from under you and leave you floating in the vacuum of space, but look at those baby blues! With those big, cute eyes staring back at you, how could you stay mad for very long? Or alive!

 

• IMPORTANT NOTE: Literally every creature the Doctor met pre-1970 might have been blue as well, but as the episodes back then were made in black and white, we will never know for sure!

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