‘Doctor Who’ Offers Fans A First Look At An Original Villain’s Return To The Show

Outgoing Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi never hid the fact he was a hardcore fan of the series when he was child. What’s more, the dedicated Whovian has a favorite classic villain — the Mondasian Cybermen, the first incarnation of one of the Doctor’s chief villains. During a 2014 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Capaldi couldn’t hide his excitement about the possibility of his one day facing off with the ’60s era baddie. “I’d also like to see… the return of the Mondasian Cybermen,” he said. “They were absolutely terrifying, with cloth faces. That was really creepy.”

Showrunner Steven Moffat, whose departure from Doctor Who will coincide with Capaldi’s, downplayed the possibility in the same interview. “We’re not bringing those back, because they look like boys with [sweaters] pulled over their heads.” However, it seems Moffat’s qualms no longer apply in 2017, as BBC revealed the Mondasian Cybermen will appear in the final two episodes of the upcoming 10th season. They even threw in a photo of the “creepy” villains with “cloth faces” squaring off with a wigged-out Capaldi in character as the 12th Doctor.

Both the original run of Doctor Who, and the current series reboot from 2005, have featured various iterations of the Cybermen. Yet aside from the four-part 1996 arc “The Tenth Planet,” the original Mondasian Cyberman have never again appeared in the show’s nearly 54-year-old history. Precisely why Moffat changed his mind between now and his 2014 interview isn’t known, though considering Capaldi’s forthcoming exit, it’s safe to say the actor’s preference for the characters likely influenced the showrunner.

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