10 Chilling Doctor Who Unsolved Mysteries

Mystery is at the heart of Doctor Who

From the very beginning, the character of the Doctor was intended to have an air of intrigue

and the many mysteries of the Doctor have provided so much storytelling fuel over the decades

The show itself is also full of secrets. Whether it's a real-life mystery or one within the world of the show

there are several dark corners of the Hooniverse that have yet to be fully explained

I'm Ellie for Who Culture here with 10 Chilling Doctor Who Unsolved Mysteries

Number 10. The Nature of the Beast Up until recently, Doctor Who would offer sci-fi explanations for things like ghosts and vampires

which is what makes the mystery of the Beast so fascinating. The impossible planet and the

Satan Pit found the Tenth Doctor and Rose stranded on a strange planet orbiting a black hole

Unbeknownst to them, the planet is actually a prison for the Beast, an enormous and ancient

creature trapped beneath the surface. The design of the Beast is intentionally similar to the

traditional depiction of Satan. Red skin, horned head, generally unpleasant attitude. However

as the Doctor explains, most religions he knows of feature something that looks like this

implying that the Beast has served as the blueprint for the embodiment of evil across

the universe. But what exactly is the Beast itself? Is it the actual literal devil or the

oldest fraud in the universe? And would a singular devil imply the existence of a singular God

Well, even the Doctor himself is unsure, dismissing the Beast's claims that it existed before the universe was created

The episode is intentionally ambiguous, which only makes the creature more unsettling

All that's certain is that the Doctor encountered an immense power in the depths of Croptor

Number 9. The Wookiee Hole Curse Across the last six decades, Doctor Who has been filmed in countless different locations across the UK

quite often in and around a quarry or a steel mill. It stands to reason, then, that the show has visited some peculiar places over the years

including the supposedly cursed Wookiee Hole Caves. This area in the English county of Somerset is most famous for their caves

which are a major tourist attraction and a site of special scientific interest

They're also said to be home to a witch, which might sound like a superstitious hokum

but when the fourth Doctor serial Revenge of the Cybermen was being filmed there

it felt very, very real indeed. A number of strange things occurred during the shooting of this serial

Director Michael E. Bryant claims he saw a ghostly apparition late one night

believed to be a diver who had died in the caves four months prior. A crew member became very unwell while another suffered a panic attack

An entire scene went missing in the script, and Elizabeth Sladen was almost killed when a small motorboat she was driving

malfunctioned and smashed into a cavern wall. Was the curse real, or was it just a string of bad luck

The insane amount of stories from the set would seem to indicate that something must have been plaguing the production Number 8 The Fate of Madame Kavarian Doctor Who meddles with alternate timelines so much that it no wonder these lead to unsolved mysteries from time to time

The assassin training, baby kidnapping, Madam Kavarian may have been killed in the series 6 finale, The Wedding of River Song

but what you might not have realised is that due to this timeline being aborted

by the end of the episode, Kavarian actually doesn't die at all. Steven Moffat himself has said that she's still alive in the main timeline

which begs the question, where is she? And what kind of horrific scheme might she be plotting

It's been over a decade since the character last appeared, but with Moffat now back in the Doctor Who fray

it's not inconceivable that we may revisit the Kavarian or Church of the Silence plotlines in the near future

After all, Season 1's boom brought back the Anglican marines who worked for Kavarian in Series 6

There's something unnerving about knowing that the person who went so far as to kidnap a baby is still lurking out there. Let's just hope the Doctor

keeps on his toes. 7. Rogue Spooky Set Half a century after the Wookiee Hole incident, another Doctor Who episode also suffered some

creepy goings-on. Season 1's Rogue is set in Regency-era England and was filmed at a number

of grand locations. According to Millie Gibson, everyone had a run-in with something otherworldly

during the shoot, and there were reports of doors opening on their own. While nobody nearly died

this time round, that's hardly what you want when you turn up for work. What Gibson might not have

been aware of is that one of the main locations used for Rogue, Margham Country Park in Wales

is said to be haunted. The ghost of a murdered gamekeeper wanders the grounds while staff who

work there have heard running footsteps and giggling children late at night when nobody

else is around. Many of these happenings remain unexplained to this day. Fittingly, this location

was also used for the 11th Doctor episode Hide, which is itself a ghost story. And the show will

no doubt visit there again in the future, so there might be more paranormal experiences to come

Number six, the Midnight Entity. In a universe filled with aliens, monsters, robots, and gods

Midnight proved that the most frightening force of them all is ordinary people. After the 10th

Doctor boards a bus on the titular planet, he and the other passengers become the playthings

of an unknown entity. It rips the front of the vehicle off, killing the driver and the mechanic

then stalks the others by banging on the walls. It eventually finds its way inside by possessing one of the tourists

Sky Silvestri, before freaking everybody to high heaven by repeating everything they say

Midnight is a masterpiece of suspense, terror, and self-examination. And it's made even better by the fact that nobody knows

what the creature at the heart of it is. It's never seen, never heard, and never explained

Even the Doctor is baffled by how it can exist on such a hostile world full of deadly radiation

Now some fans believe the entity can be glimpsed ever so briefly as the shield on the windscreen goes down But whether or not the production team did leave us something to find the reality is that the truth about the entity will never be revealed and nor should it Its power lies in its mystery

Number 5. The Curse of Chameleon. 1983 serial The King's Demons is best known for introducing

Chameleon, a shapeshifting robot who, after being rescued from the clutches of the master

joins the fifth Doctor as a new companion. Chameleon was a nightmare to work with behind

the scenes and would constantly break down, resulting in the character being dropped from

the show after just two stories. Over the years, fans have jokingly suggested that the prop might

have been cursed. But when you look at the sheer number of unfortunate incidents surrounding it

it actually might not be a joke at all. Pretty much everyone involved with the creation of

Chameleon died within 10 years of his introduction. The King's Demon's writer Terence Dudley passed

away in 1988, five years after it aired. Peter Grimwade, the writer of Chameleon's second and

final story, Planet of Fire, died in 1990, while Chameleon actors Gerald Flood and Dallas Adams

died in 1989 and 1991, respectively. Even creepier is the fact that Chameleon's software designer

Mike Power, died in a boating accident shortly after the prop was signed for the show. Bizarrely

he was the only person who knew how to operate Chameleon, which is why it was such a problem

for the production. Some accounts claim that the prop was found in an old warehouse or junkyard

which is exactly the type of place you'd expect to find a cursed item. Even if that's not true

though, something was clearly wrong with Chameleon from the off. Number four, The Watcher. Tom Baker's fourth Doctor was on a great run of form in the 1970s

and early 80s, but then he had to go and ruin it by falling off a big telescope. What a silly

Billy. The 1981 serial Logopolis famously marked the end of the long, popular tenure of Baker. I

had also saw the one and only appearance of the Watcher. An unsettling figure cloaked entirely in

white, the Watcher appears to various characters throughout Logopolis and seems to know a lot more

than it's letting on. This strange being then reappears at the moment of the Doctor's death

merging with him to aid his transition into his next life. It's widely believed that the Watcher

is an incarnation of the Doctor, perhaps one who appears to them when they need help regenerating

But that doesn't explain his absence at other regenerations, like when Twelve flat out refused to change

So what was it about the fourth Doctor that required the presence of this spectral force

Like the Midnight Entity and the Beast, it's the lack of answers that actually makes the Watcher such a chilling mystery

Number 3. The Murder of Peter Arne The fifth Doctor serial Frontios features a character called Range

the chief scientist of a remote human colony. The role was played by William Lucas

but it was originally earmarked for British character actor Peter Arne, perhaps best known for his appearances in the Pink Panther films and the Avengers TV series Arne attended a costume fitting for the role on the 1st of August 1983 before returning to his home in London Soon after neighbours

reported hearing a loud argument in his flat. When his home was searched, Arne was found dead

having been bludgeoned by a stool and a log of wood from his fireplace. A police investigation

concluded that the perpetrator was Giuseppe Peruzzi, an Italian schoolteacher. However, but they had no idea why he'd done it

Peruzzi and Arne did know each other, but nobody knew why they were arguing

or what drove Peruzzi to commit murder. This aspect of the case remains unsolved to this day

Number two, the woman's words. The mark of a good scary story

is when it makes something seemingly mundane feel absolutely terrifying. 73 Yards did this by transforming an old woman

into one of the most feared creatures in the world. There are several chilling things about this woman

Chief among them being the fact that she can send people running scared with a few simple words

But what could those words possibly be? The incredible power that must be needed to get Ruby's own mother to abandon her is crazy to think about

There's clearly some magic or other higher force involved. But it's also likely that the words themselves are just as grave and terrible

Perhaps the woman speaks some deep dark secret that should never be uttered

Perhaps there's something unnatural about Ruby that's yet to be revealed and the woman exposes this

Or perhaps the woman embodies fear itself and can speak to the things that scare people the most

Russell T. Davis has remained tight-lipped on this aspect of 73 yards

and he will no doubt continue to do so. It's unlikely the real answer would be as unsettling as whatever your imagination can conjure up

Number 1. The Max Headroom Incident On the 22nd of November 1987

Chicago-based TV station WTTW was airing a rerun of the fourth Doctor serial Horror of Fang Rock

And while the fourth doctor was dealing with the usual monstrous goings-on off the south coast of England

a real-life interloper was about to make themselves known. The broadcast was hijacked by a person wearing a mask of the TV character Max Hedrum

a computer-generated TV host. Nobody was on duty at the station at the time

so this wannabe pirate had a decent chunk of time to warble on about New Coke

a local sportscaster, and a pair of dirty gloves. He was then spanked on the bottom by a woman holding a flyswatter

before the regularly scheduled Doctor Who episode started back up again. This is one of the weirdest and most disturbing things you will ever see

And the worst part is, the perpetrators were never caught. To this day, nobody knows who was under the mask or why they did what they did

It's one of the strangest moments in TV history. And a pretty freaky unsolved mystery to boot

Well, there are some of the unsolved mysteries, but some of them have been answered

So why not check out 10 Doctor Who Mysteries You Didn't Know Were Answered

In the meantime, I've been Ellie for Who Culture, and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties