Doctor Who has cemented its place in British culture. Since its debut in 1963, the sci-fi drama has gone on to cast thirteen different Doctors (or 14 if you count John Hurt’s War Doctor), over forty companions of the Doctor, and countless terrifying monsters. While one cannot overstate how much of an institution Doctor Who is in Britain, it would be false to state that the show has always been perfect.
Due to the fact that Doctor Who has been running since 1963, it has endured some difficult spells and not every character has been loved by fans. Consequently, for every Rose Tyler, there will be a controversial Adric. This article will list the 10 most hated supporting characters in Doctor Who.
Ashildr
Ashildir was first introduced as a Viking girl living in the 9th Century. However, during her first episode, Ashildr dies only to be brought back to life by the Doctor using Mire technology and making her, essentially, immortal. The Doctor then bumps into Ashildr in both the 17th Century, the 21st Century, and the end of the Universe.
The fact that Ashildr was portrayed by Game of Thrones’ Maise Williams helped to win over some fans, but others were more annoyed at the writing around her character. For instance, despite being saved by the Doctor, she would turn on him and have him imprisoned in his confession dial. Despite Williams’ great performance, this lack of consistency in the character left some fans annoyed.
River Song
River Song is another polarising addition to this list. While the time-traveling archaeology professor’s first appearance, “Silence in the Library”, was a fantastic watch, as she appeared more frequently her story became more and more perplexing. Some enjoyed this fact, while others did not and started to feel like the character had become overused.
In addition, there were also sections of fans who were not pleased with the fact that River turned out to be the Doctor’s wife.
Clara
Clara will be a divisive addition to this list. Clara is a character who splits the fan base in half, some love her and some hate her, leaving very few in the middle. Yet it is exactly because of this divisive nature that she must be on this list.
Most of the hate around Clara comes from the fact that, at least through her first season, she was an amalgamation of all the other companions so far in the show and was devoid of any original personality. Furthermore, the showrunner at the time was leaning heavily into the ‘impossible girl’ motif around Clara, causing many fans to feel like the show was structured more on Clara than the Doctor.
Nardole
Nardole was only supposed to appear in a Christmas special episode but, for some reason, was invited back to be a full-fledged companion in series 12. As Nardole was intended to be a comic relief character, he was almost destined to polarise fans. Some fans would love his comedy, whereas others would hate it and argue that his comic relief hampers the drama.
In addition to his comic nature, Matt Lucas (the actor who portrays Nardole) also has a polarising brand of humor which did not help the character in the eyes of some fans.
Danny Pink
Danny Pink was the love interest of Clara in the 12th Doctor’s first season. Notably, Danny was critical of the Doctor and saw him as a danger to Clara. Pink was introduced in order to initiate some conflict involving Clara. In other words, she would have to choose between Danny and the Doctor.
However, Danny’s ‘Doctor Critical’ character has already been seen throughout the recent revival of Doctor Who. For instance, both Rose and Martha’s mothers saw traveling with the Doctor as dangerous. Consequently, Danny Pink was disliked among fans due to his overused character trope in the series revival.
Adric
The first entry from the ‘classic Who’ era. Adric was one of the few non-human companions of the Doctor. While this initially made him interesting, his know-it-all boy genius personality eventually started to annoy fans of the show. Initially hiding aboard the Tardis during Tom Baker’s run as the 4th Doctor, Adric would continue to travel with the Time Lord for 2 years until he eventually met his end in a Cyberman themed episode.
Adric was disliked among fans due to his arrogance and immaturity. These character traits led Adric to frequently clash with the Doctor, as Adric believed he knew better. It was because of this that fans considered the character to be incredibly obnoxious.
Mel Bush
Mel Bush was a computer programmer from the UK in the 20th Century. Mel was disliked due to the fact that she stringently obeyed rules and was far too cutesy. She was also incredibly pushy and attempted to force her vegetarian diet, as well as her exercise plan, on the Doctor.
It wasn’t only the fans who despised this character, even the Doctor’s other companion, Ace, could not stand Mel.
Adam Mitchell
This character is fairly forgettable, but at the time he was quite despised among Whovians. The character appears in the first season of Doctor Who’s revival in the episode Dalek. Adam appeared in two episodes before being kicked out of the Tardis by the Doctor in the episode the Long Game.
After traveling to the future, Adam received brain surgery in order to store more information in his brain. After using this brain implant to access future technology and information, he then tries to send the information back to the 21st Century, although he was stopped by the Doctor. It is for this breach of trust that he was kicked from the Tardis.
Kandy Man
The first of two badly designed monsters on this list. The Kandy Man appeared in the penultimate season of classic who and, truly, seemed to be a symptom of the show’s demise. The Kandy Man was a psychopathic and sadistic executioner who was obsessed with candy.
For American readers, the Kandyman was clearly based on Bertie Bassett, a sweet (candy) mascot in the UK. The similarity in design even led the confectionery company’s CEO to lodge a complaint with the BBC. However, an internal investigation by the BBC concluded that the design was coincidental.
The Abzorbaloff
Fans of Doctor Who will certainly expect Peter Kay’s Abzorbaloff to be on this list. The Abzorbaloff wasn’t given the best chance of success, as the villain appeared in an episode that was, to use the fan term, Doctor-lite. This means that the titular time traveler did not appear very much in the episode. Rather, this episode followed a man called Elton as he joined a club that is hunting down the Doctor. Eventually, a disguised Abzorbaloff infiltrated the group and made himself leader before he then killed the club members one by one.
This character is hated both because of its insane design - it was designed by a child who won a competition - and because of the awful episode in which he appeared.
