Thank you. Yes, the Chameleons would be an excellent choice! I like the Ice Warriors too. Hmmm… Decisions, decisions… ?
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Let’s make it a poll. I’ve also added in the Macra as a possibility to make it a three way choice. So, which foe, in which story, should we delve deeper into next? 
- The Ice Warriors (The Ice Warriors) 64%
- The Chameleons (The Faceless Ones) 18%
- The Macra (The Macra Terror) 18%
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The Ice Warriors, simply because they’ve been portrayed in various ways over the years, sometimes as foes and sometimes as allies?
But have they always been monsters?
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What about the Daleks Alpha, Beta, and Omega in The Evil of the Daleks? I think that they present an interesting contribution to your thesis because them having names is seen as affirming their status as innocent. The humanized Daleks are not seen as monsters, but creatures on our side.
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Absolutely right, and Evil is a story, I believe, with much to say on this matter. We also get the much more individual (though still faceless) Emperor for the first time. I will definitely be coming back to the Daleks via other stories and Evil is one I intend to explore…
…but I shall tread other pastures first! 
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A strong lead for the Ice Warriors so far, but I’ll keep the poll above open until Monday morning. Still time for the Chameleons or Macra to gain ground.
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That’s a clear win for The Ice Warriors! Thanks to everyone who participated.
Already thinking about this now. A very different prospect to the Daleks (right from the off, in fact). Even though they’re clearly portrayed as villains in their first appearance, they have names. Does that make a difference? In part, yes (and it’s quite an important difference)! There’s a lot of power in names. I’ll delve deeper when I get chance.
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FINALLY, I have got around to writing my analysis of the Ice Warriors (as portrayed in their original serial) as monsters. I apologise for the delay and can only say, in my defence, that the start of a new academic year is always a busy time for me. Anyway, here I am. So, let’s bring on the analysis:
Criterion 1 (Malformation/Disfigurement/Inhuman Appearance): Whilst discredited, rightly so, it’s still important for us to consider this aspect as it also tells us about changing prejudices and perspectives in the writing of the show. As far as the eponymous Ice Warriors are concerned, there is an element of this in their portrayal. Their great (monstrous?) size, reptilian appearance and (despite basic humanoid body shape) clamp-like hands all draw attention to their difference. We know that this is not enough (and never should be enough) to warrant the label as monster, but it’s undeniably present in the portrayal. Indeed, this will be used as a point of critique (later, against the Doctor himself) in stories like The Curse of Peladon, so there is even a genuine narrative value to acknowledging the monstrous appearance of our favourite Martian giants.
Criterion 2 (Omen of Misfortune): Now, for me, THIS is where things start to get interesting. The very presence of the Ice Warriors immediately starts to act as a portent. As the Doctor himself remarks, the presence of their spacecraft poses a very real threat to the ioniser project (and, thus, to the defence of the Earth against climate change). This requires no intent on the part of the Martians themselves, but narratively starts to position them very much as omens of misfortune. Initially, the threat is existential (the ioniser is all that is holding back the new ice age) but it rapidly becomes very real and rather brutal as the Ice Warriors start to kill (this will clearly link into criterion 4, below).
Criterion 3 (Warning): In what way could the Ice Warrior portrayal be considered a warning that differs, qualitatively, from their role as portents of doom? Quite simply, they are woken by the use of the ioniser. This could be interpreted as a warning about the dangers of technology - disturbing slumbering dangers, triggering unintended consequences. Indeed, the whole serial leans heavily on distrust of technology, with the outsider subplot, the Doctor’s attitude to Clent’s reliance on the base computer and the threat (as identified above) posed by the existence of the Ice Warrior’s ship. From the way this story plays out, and with the Ice Warriors as the ultimate threat, it seems pretty clear to me that they meet criterion 3 (less in-universe but very strongly as a message to the audience).
Criterion 4 (Intent to Terrorise/Destroy): This one’s a slam dunk. Whilst the intent of Ice Warriors in future stories will not always be malicious, in their debut serial these Martian giants clearly and repeatedly demonstrate intent to terrorise and destroy. They use threats of violence to force compliance and, where they choose, they freely kill.
Criterion 5 (Nameless/Unknown/Unknowable): Whilst they are very much an unknown at the start of the story, we learn much about their motivations and we even learn the names of key individuals (Varga, Zondal). What’s interesting is that their unknown nature at the beginning of the story helps them seem more monstrous (because nothing scares quite like fear of the unknown) but that, as we come to know them better, the understanding we gain only serves to draw our attention to criterion 4. On balance, their initial unknown status serves an early role, yet rapidly transitions to more objectively definable monstrous traits later. Interestingly, by fleshing them out with names and a degree of culture here, the seeds are already sown for much more nuanced (and less monstrous) portrayals from The Curse of Peladon onwards.
So, to summarise:
- Inhuman Appearance: Yes, but this should not influence our interpretation
- Omen of Misfortune: Yes. their very existence immediately poses a threat to the continued existence of humanity.
- Warning: Yes, as they are used as a symbol of the dangers of technology (both Earth’s - in awakening them - and theirs - as a direct threat).
- Intent to terrorise/destroy: Yes, from all perspectives
- Nameless/Unknown/Unknowable: Initially, though this is rapidly discarded/replaced with the more concrete threat that they pose through intent.
Key criteria: 2, 3 and 4
Supporting criteria: 1 (rightly or wrongly - though let’s acknowledge that this is used effectively in later serials to highlight the dangers of judging by appearance) and 5
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I am thinking of evaluating the monster credentials of a new Who creature next. I’m open to suggestions. If I get enough suggestions, I’ll draw up a shortlist and set up a poll.
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I’ve often thought how silly it is that the Ice Warriors and The Sea Devils don’t have actual species names, and are referred to by a nickname given to them by humans.
This is even lampshaded in Legend of the Sea Devils:
DOCTOR: Stop right there! Sea Devil.
CHIEF: Land Parasite.
DOCTOR: All right, let’s not get into the name-calling. How would you prefer to be addressed?
Of course any attempt now to give them proper species names would be difficult to do as they are so well-known, but I always cringe at the thought of calling them these names!
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It’s the same with the Silurians, who have been named by the era they originated from (and the fun thing is that the show itself acknowledges that they have been wrongly named; they should be called Eocenes instead).
And the Chumblies aren’t actually Chumblies either. Vicki came up with the name, and then everybody started using it (including people who had heard her name!).
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They’re also called ‘Homo Reptillia’ a few times
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I absolutely agree with you. It’s awkward and part of the reason why I used the term ‘Martians’ repeatedly during my analysis. Even this doesn’t really work though. It’s no more descriptive to refer to Ice Warriors as Martians than it is to refer to the denizens of Earth as Earthlings (a term which would, surely, apply as much to Silurians as humans).
Indeed.
Which (and I’ve said this before) bothers me to my very core because it fundamentally misunderstands Linnean taxonomy and nomenclature. There are reptiles, so evidently NOT genus Homo. I’ve previously suggested that something like Reptilio sapiens would be far more in keeping. It shouldn’t bother me this much, but it DOES (I work with and use Linnean taxonomy all the time so it’s very difficult for me to overlook this gaffe).
That aside, the species name (or, even better, the chosen name of that species) for the Silurians should surely be the same as for the Sea Devils who are a subspecies. Much as I’d love to substitute R. sapiens in, they are known (though incorrectly) as H. reptilia in series so we’ll stick with that. We need to discriminate between the land dwellers (of which there are now two varieties) and their oceanic cousins, so we might end up with something like:
H. reptilia trimatia (literally “three-eyed”) - My pref. R. sapiens trimatia
H. reptilia novum (“new” - for those appearing in New Who) - My pref. R. sapiens novum
H. reptilia aquaticus (for our Sea Devil friends) - My pref. R. sapiens aquaticus
This still doesn’t help with our Ice Warrior problem, however. Hmmm, let’s think. If we applied Linnean taxonomy to them, we might look for something that reflects their Martian heritage, warlike nature (and possibly passing resemblance to Norse warriors) and affinity for the cold.
Tyr cryodylus (completely made up, but I’ve taken the Norse God of War to form the genus name and combined “cryo” [cold] with “-dylus” taken from “crocodylus”)
Yes, I know. I think about things like this WAY too much! 
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This is also problematic– I don’t think anyone really knows what period or even era the Reptilia sapiens (thank you @realdoctor) are from! The Third Doctor places then in the Eocene, but they have dinosaurs, so must be from the Mesozoic era (ten million years before the Eocene). I think I remember a Paternoster Gang story dating Madame Vastra to the Jurassic, but then where did the T. rex (and all those other Cretaceous dinosaurs from Dinosaurs on a Spaceship) come from?
I think Jonathan Morris posited the idea somewhere (edit: in The Monster Vault, apparently, but I remember it from social media somewhere) that there were several possible extinction events that forced different sub-populations of Reptilia sapiens underground and in hiding.
A suitably ludicrous solution to a ludicrous problem (that also potentially explains the morphological differences between Classic and New species!)
(Also: the idea of a planetoid being caught by Earth’s orbit and becoming our moon is no longer the scientific consensus– the dominant theory right now is that of a huge asteroid impact which sent up a cloud of debris into space around the Earth which would eventually form the moon. Not strictly related, but I think it’s really interesting!! Anyway, geology geekout over now…)
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Geekouts of all varieties welcome here! I mean, I hardly make a secret of my geeky tendencies (it’s very much in the DNA of who I am) and I welcome geeky geekouts of geological, biological, ecological, physical, chemical, cultural, sociological, anthropological, neurological (ad infinitum) flavour.
I mean, if not here… then where? Doctor Who has always been a celebration of the geek and of geekiness. After all, that’s a big part of why I am who I am, and why I’ve been successful in my chosen profession.
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I have now bookmarked this thread so I remember to properly read it. It deserves more than my usual flippant remarks!
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So, c’mon folks! Not a single suggestion for a Nu Who creation for me to analyse? This is going to be an awfully boring poll unless we get some suggestions soon!
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Maybe the whatsits from Hide who I can’t remember the names of rn, bc the whole point of that episode is that they’re not ‘‘monsters’’
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I had to look this up cause I always thought the “homo” part of homo sapiens just meant “same” like it’s used in other words, but it does just mean “human” in Latin, like you were saying.
Could headcannon that the Silurians species name comes from homo as in “the same” for whatever reason, I don’t remember if they named themselves homo Reptilia or the humans did. 2 different species sharing the same name isn’t ideal but the Silurians came first so I suppose we have to change our name to fix this 
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Ooh, the crooked man? Love it! Definitely going on the list. Right, any more?
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