The Main Villain For Doctor Who Season 16 Is Now Clear

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Doctor Who is scheduled to return in 2026 with a Christmas special, and a new series will follow sometime after that. As of late 2025, details about season 16 are scarce – information regarding the cast, plot, release date, and potential co-production partners remains unknown.

Thankfully, Doctor Who ended the year with a strong story. While the adventure featuring UNIT and the Sea Devils wasn’t subtle in its message about the environment, The War Between the Land and the Sea was still a captivating sci-fi thriller. Though the story largely stands on its own, separate from the current Doctor Who timeline, it clearly established a compelling villain for season 16.

After The Spinoff’s Ending, The Silurians Should Strike In Doctor Who Season 16

In The War Between the Land and the Sea, land ultimately wins a clear victory. A clandestine group called UNIT, composed of powerful military, political, and business leaders, secretly creates and unleashes a virus named Severance. This virus eliminates ninety percent of the Homo aqua population, leading the remaining sea-dwellers to surrender and accept any terms imposed by humanity.

By the end of the story, the last of the Homo aqua are confined to a small part of the ocean, fleeing in terror and grief from the new, dominant species on Earth.

This is one of the most significant defeats of a monster species in all of Doctor Who, and it’s likely to have lasting consequences. My first thought was simply, “How will the Silurians react to this?”

The Silurians and Sea Devils are closely related species in Doctor Who, and though they have different cultures and live in separate places, they’ve occasionally joined forces. While the Silurians might not actively seek revenge for the Sea Devils after The War Between the Land and the Sea, they would likely be very upset to see humans destroy their aquatic cousins.

The Silurians are likely to attack Earth as a first strike, fearing the same destruction that happened to the Homo aqua. Similar to how Salt and others of her kind slept for millennia under the sea, the Silurians are currently hibernating deep underground. However, over the last 60 years of Doctor Who, some have awakened. It would only take one Silurian to realize what happened to their relatives and warn the others, making an attack almost inevitable.

Doctor Who Has Given Itself A Villain Problem Ahead Of Season 16

As a big Doctor Who fan, I’ve always thought it would be amazing to see the Silurians as the main villains again, especially in season 16. What sets them apart from the Sea Devils, in my opinion, is that they live underground – it makes them a totally different kind of threat. I imagine they’d be much more likely to use sneaky tactics and sabotage than to come out and fight openly. There’d be no pretending at peace talks, just a silent, hidden war. Plus, looking back at the show, the Silurians have always seemed like a tougher, more complicated enemy to deal with than the Sea Devils.

Bringing back the Paternoster Gang would be fantastic, and it would be a nice change of pace to see the Doctor focus on preventing a war between two groups instead of just battling a single villain. However, the show has created a situation where making the Silurians the main villains again is difficult.

Doctor Who has several ongoing storylines involving its villains that haven’t been resolved. These include the identity of the mysterious “Boss” first hinted at by Meep, the Master’s connection to a tooth belonging to the Toymaker, and the problems Susan faced in season 15. Considering the show’s uncertain future in 2025, season 16 would benefit from starting to tie up some of these loose ends. Unfortunately, that might mean delaying a response from the Silurians to the events of The War Between the Land and the Sea.

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2025-12-31 15:58