It’s only four days until Doctor Who series 9 roars onto our screens, and it’s safe to say we’re excited. Creating-a-31-day-countdown-to-the-series-excited, if we’re honest. And one thing we’re most looking forward to seeing in action this year are the new batch of monsters turning up to menace the Doctor, following in the series’ great tradition of creating deadly and terrifying enemies for the Time Lord.


When the first trailer came out we had a go at analysing the monsters we spotted, but now that we have a bit more information it’s time to have a look at what we think will be the hits of this year’s enemy crop.

So let’s do the Monster Mash!

Hands off

We already know a bit about these guys, as they appear in the series’ first episode – they’re called Handmines, and act pretty much as you’d expect them to. Step too close to them, and you can expect to be dragged under….

The snake man cometh

This adversary (real name Colony Sarff) also turns up in premier episode The Magician’s Apprentice, where he’s searching the universe for the missing Doctor. Apart from that, we won’t give away too much about who he’s working for – but we will say he has an eye-catching party trick that you’re unlikely to forget. Just remember, he’s a living democracy…

Ghost in the machine

This apparition looks a bit like a Victorian gent, and there’s very little we know about him apart from the fact that he’s brilliantly spooky. Could he be one of the ghosts from series 9 episode three, as described by Steven Moffat in our episode guide (below)? He certainly has a ghoulish quality to him…

Under a lake, in the dripping gloom of an underwater base, stands a gleaming black space ship, recovered from the lake bed. Nothing is inside – but when the base crew start dying, they make a terrible discovery: ghosts are real! And their friends are refusing to stay dead! The Doctor and Clara arrive to find a base under siege from beyond the grave. But how can the dead be walking? What has brought them back? When the Doctor discovers the truth, it is more terrifying than any simple ghost story.

Tanks for the memories

With the release of Steven Moffat’s episode guide we can make an educated guess about these Cycloptic powerhouses. You see, in the background of this behind-the-scenes shot we can see a primitive village, which matches up with the Viking settlement that’s the setting for episode 5, The Girl Who Lived.

With that in mind these tough-looking creeps are probably The Mire, described by Steven Moffat in his episode guide as “the deadliest mercenaries in the galaxy, famed for being unstoppable and without mercy” – so basically like Daleks with legs. The Doctor must train up some villagers to be able to face them, whatever the cost. Rather them than us…


Doctor Who series 9 begins on Saturday 19th September on BBC1 at 7:40pm