10 Best Doctor Who Female Villains

Some of Doctor WhoThe best villains are inhuman, or things that were once human but aren't anymore. Take for example the Daleks or the Cybermen, two of the Doctor's greatest enemies and iconic designs. They strike fear into the hearts of the public. But some of the other biggest villains are human, and many are women.

Female villains often get more attention than male villains, simply because society doesn't always expect women to be evil. But not only were these women evil, some of them absolutely loved being evil. They were scarier than any Dalek or Cyberman.

10 Roseanna Calvierri had the dark qualities of a vampire

Played by: Helen McCrory

Roseanna appeared to be a beautiful human woman, but was in truth a fish-like Saturnyn who used a perception filter. This gave her the qualities of a vampire. All the Saturnyn had fled their planet after a crack in time appeared, and were living in Venice, preying on the local human population and turning young women into “vampires” like them.

Roseanna was a good mother to her children and wanted them to live on, but her plans would kill others, so she had to be stopped. After the Doctor foiled his plan to destroy Venice, Roseanna allowed herself to be devoured by her own children, who mistook her for a human. It was a horrible death.

9 Mrs. Gillyflower abused her own son

Played by: Diana Rigg

Mrs. Gillyflower was an almost entirely irredeemable woman. He experimented on and blinded his daughter, Ada (who was played by Rigg's real daughter, Rachael Stirling), and told her that her father had done it. But worse than that, he planned to eliminate all of humanity except his chosen few. A rocket full of poison would destroy the Earth.

The Doctor managed to defeat Mrs Gillyflower with the help of Clara, Madame Vastra, Strax and Jenny Flint. As Gillyflower lay dying, after being shot by Strax, she begged for forgiveness from her daughter Ada. Ada replied, “Never,” and Gillyflower expressed only pride.

8 Cassandra was a living piece of skin

Played by: Zoe Wanamaker

Cassandra was the first female villain fans met in the rebooted Doctor Who series, and she stood out straight away. He was a horrible creature, a human being reduced to a piece of skin by too much “plastic surgery”. She was vain, selfish, hateful, and a murderer.

The Doctor left Cassandra to die from lack of moisture in the episode “The World's End” as punishment for her crimes, but she returned with a vengeance in “New Earth”. This time, though, her past was revealed, and that made her just a little more sympathetic. Cassandra finally died at the end of the episode, this time peacefully, and in the arms of the person she loved most: herself.

7 The Duchess was an alien in disguise

Played by: Indira Varma

The Duchess was actually an alien being wearing the face and body of a duchess. In truth, she was a Chuldur, one of a group of ferocious aliens who liked to “cosplay” by literally wearing human beings. The Doctor and the Thief were determined to get rid of the Chuldur, but it proved more difficult than they thought.

Eventually, the Doctor and Rogue maneuvered the Chuldur into a trap… but they didn't realize that Ruby Sunday was also in the trap. Rogue ended up sacrificing herself to save Ruby, and the Doctor could only watch in horror as Rogue was hurled into another dimension with little hope of rescue. The Duchess was thus responsible for one of the Doctor's greatest losses.

6 Margaret Slitheen would do anything to save her own skin

Played by: Annette Badland

“Margaret” was one of the Slitheen who attempted to destroy the world in the two-part story “Aliens of London”. Her real name was Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen, and “Margaret” was simply the name of the body she wore. When he asked the Doctor for help, he he pointed out to her that she was begging for mercy from the lips of a dead woman.

The Doctor intended to return the Slitheen to his planet to face the death penalty for his actions, but ultimately did not have to. During a tense standoff in which Blon grabbed Rose Tyler by the neck, she looked into the heart of the TARDIS and was transformed into a Slitheen egg. He got a second chance at life, whether he deserved it or not.

5 The Rani was incredibly amoral

Played by: Kate O'Mara

The Rani was one of Doctor Who's first female villains, and she was really good. She was a Time Lord and a biochemist who was completely apathetic towards everything that does not concern his research. She only appeared in two stories, plus the charity special “Dimensions in Time”, but this was enough for her to gain considerable fandom.

Sadly, the Rani never appeared again after the series' reboot in 2005. And with all the Time Lords seemingly missing from the universe since Jodie Whittaker's run, it seems increasingly unlikely that she will return. Fans, however, always remain hopeful. Some have Gillian Anderson in mind as a good casting choice.

4 Lindy Pepper-Bean was a selfish racist

Played by: Callie Cooke

When audiences first met Lindy Pepper-Bean, they would have been forgiven for almost rooting for her. She was extremely silly and whiny, but the Doctor had met people like that before, and they always ended up becoming better human beings. But that wasn't the case with Lindy. It was even worse than it first appeared.

Lindy showed her true colors when she left her idol, Ricky September, to die at the hands of the Dots. She seemed aware that what she had done was wrong, but she didn't care as long as she survived. She then met the Fifteenth Doctor, who offered to take her and her friends to safety, but Lindy rejected him simply because of the color of his skin. All the inhabitants of the planet Finetime were racist. Lindy probably met a gruesome end in the end, having refused the Doctor's help, and it was all his fault.

3 Madame Kovarian has kidnapped a child

Played by: Frances Barber

When Amy Pond was traveling with the Doctor after her marriage to Rory Williams, she kept seeing a mysterious woman appear through portals. This was Madame Kovarian, and her hold on Amy was more terrifying than anything anyone could have imagined. The “real” Amy was pregnant and imprisoned, while her soul wandered in a fake body. Kovarian's appearances were the real world bleeding for Amy.

Madame Kovarian wished to kidnap Amy and Rory's son, River, for the Silence. And more or less she succeeded. River actually grew up separated from her parents and as a tool for the Silence to use against the Doctor. Both Amy and River suffered at his hands, and in an alternate universe, Amy killed her and had no remorse for her actions.

2 Tecteun was a terrible parent

Played by: Seylan Baxter, Barbara Flynn

Tecteun was the Doctor's adoptive mother, but she was terrible. She discovered the Doctor as the Timeless Child on a distant planet and decided to raise him as her own. But when he discovered that the child had the ability to regenerate and cheat death, he wanted that power for himself.

Tecteun began to experiment on the little girl he called his own. Eventually, she gained the power of regeneration from them and became the first of the Time Lords. There was a great story arc about parenting and abusing a child, but it was cut short when Tecteun was killed by the villain Swarm. Now, it seems like that entire story arc has been abandoned.

1 Missy was the female owner

Played by: Michelle Gomez

There had never been a female Master before Missy's arrival, even though it seemed like an obvious plot twist for the character. She was present throughout the sixth season as the Mary Poppins-style “Guardian of the Nethersphere”, her true identity is hidden and fans only learned about it at the end of the episode “Dark Water”.

Missy quickly became a fan favorite. She had a twisted and complicated relationship with the Twelfth Doctor and people responded very well. Her final appearance came at the end of season 10, teaming up with a previous incarnation of herself, John Simm's Master… and that was it for her. She reigns supreme as Doctor Who's queen of villains.