After 17 Years Away, This Underused Doctor Who Villain Is Seriously Overdue A Return

With Doctor Who stuck in a cycle of overused villains and underwhelming new antagonists, it becomes even more confusing why a nefarious race from a 2008 story hasn't returned to the long-running British sci-fi show. Recurring Doctor Who villains are a big part of what makes the show what it is, but it also tends to get itself stuck in a loop of revisiting the same monsters far too often. Sadly, others only appear once and are never shown again. Both trends have their pros and cons, but Doctor Who must shake things up by bringing back a 17-year-old threat.

Pretty much every actor to play the Doctor faces at least one new adversary during their time as the saga's protagonist. Some of the luckier actors will get to enjoy longer arcs with established villains like the different versions of the Master - but more often than not, the Daleks. Doctor Who often struggles to find the balance between overusing and underusing new and old bad guys, and it can become tiresome after a while. With any luck, the show's immediate future will start to delve into its bag of one-off villains, but one in particular very much deserves a comeback.

Doctor Who's Vashta Nerada Have Been Badly Underused Since Appearing In 2008

Steven Moffat's deadly shadows only appeared in a Doctor Who season 4 two-parter

Some of Steven Moffat's best Doctor Who episodes were written before he took over as the showrunner, and his season 4 two-parter introducing Alex Kingston as River Song fits into his upper echelon of stories. As well as revealing a pivotal moment from River Song's Doctor Who timeline, "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead" have a fascinatingly unique villain. Flesh-eating shadows sound ominous on paper, and Moffat's script definitely does the concept of the Vashta Nerafa justice. Sadly, they haven't been in the show since.

The Vashta Nerada's 2 Doctor Who Episodes
Season	Episode	Title	IMDb Rating
4	8	"Silence in the Library"	9.3/10
4	9	"Forest of the Dead"	9.4/10
These episodes are ranked 3rd & 4th respectively in IMDb's ranking of Doctor Who episodes between 2005 and 2022

As well as being convincingly threatening in their own right, the Vashta Nerada are signature Moffat bad guys. The former showrunner has a brilliant knack for turning what should be benign and everyday concepts into sinister threats. Just as he made an entire generation think twice about blinking in the vicinity of a statue, Moffat somehow managed to make shadows themselves into something that should be feared. The quite literally faceless villains that reanimated the bones of the dead drive an extra measure of horror into proceedings, and Doctor Who would benefit from them coming back.

The Arguments For & Against The Vashta Nerada's Doctor Who Return

Bringing back this 2008 Doctor Who villain may not be easy

A Vashta Nerada reaching out in Doctor WhoA Vashta Nerada reaching out in Doctor Who — A Vashta Nerada reaching out in Doctor Who

Although bringing the Vashta Nerada back to Doctor Who would be very exciting, it wouldn't be a simple thing to do. Their two-part debut gives great reasons why they should realistically show up again, but it also makes sense why they've been used so restrictively in the show's decades-long story. The biggest argument to support a Vashta Nerada comeback is that David Tennant's Tenth Doctor explains that they exist on a billion planets, including Earth. So, it arguably makes little sense why the Time Lord has never had another onscreen encounter with the Vashta Nerada.

On the other hand, the Vashta Nerada's last appearance in 2008 ended in pretty much the only way it could from a storytelling perspective. After evacuating the Library's population, the Doctor leaves the Vashta Nerada to roam the book-ridden world. He knows they're not technically villains, and that they're just feeding to stay alive, but he's likely torn because he essentially leaves them to starve to death. They still exist in smaller numbers on other worlds, and the Doctor just has to accept that. Otherwise, Doctor Who's main character would slowly become the bad guy.

Source: IMDb