One of the most overlooked recurring monsters from Doctor Who‘s history was the incorporeal being, the Great Intelligence. The Intelligence first appeared during the Patrick Troughton era of the show in the late 1960s, in which it used the iconic Yeti as its servants. When Doctor Who was off television during the 1990s, a spin off fan film called Downtime featured both the Yeti and the Great Intelligence. But it would not be until the Matt Smith era of the revived series that we would finally learn the origins of the Great Intelligence and find out its plans to eliminate the Doctor once and for all. So let’s delve into the history of the Doctor’s least modest adversary. I’ve seen for myself that if someone goes through life thinking that they are more intelligent than people around them then people don’t like them.

The Abominable Snowmen

★★★★★

TX: 30/09/1967 – 04/11/1967

Written by Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln    Directed by Gerald Blake

The Doctor first encountered the Intelligence when he and his companions Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield along with renowned explorer Professor Edward Travers visited the Det-Sen Monastery in Tibet in the 1930s, where the Master Padmasambhava was possessed by this sinister foe. The Great Intelligence used robot Yeti as servants in order to terrorise the monastery and assemble a pyramid of metal spheres in order to form a bridgehead so the Intelligence could come to Earth and gain a physical form. The Doctor’s companion Jamie destroyed the pyramid so the Intelligence was exiled back into space. But not forever…

The Web of Fear

★★★★★

TX: 03/02/1968 – 09/03/1968

Written by Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln    Directed by Douglas Camfield

The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria arrive in the London Underground after the TARDIS is engulfed in a web-like substance. The trio discover that the Tube has been overrun by the robot Yeti that they previously encountered in Tibet. The Yeti have carpeted the London Tube stations with their deadly fungus. The British Army, led by Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart and assisted by the Doctor’s old friend Professor Travers and his daughter Anne Travers, are trying to repel the robotic, furry menace. But there is a traitor in their midst… Staff Arnold has come under the influence of the Great Intelligence, which plans to drain the Doctor of his mental powers and leave him a shell, in order to provide the Intelligence with a corporeal form.

Just before the Doctor can trick the Intelligence, however, Jamie spoils the Doctor’s plan to defeat the disembodied being once and for all. Jamie uses a reprogrammed Yeti to attack the pyramid in which the Doctor is incarcerated. The Intelligence escapes out into space, hell bent on revenge. It would not be until Victoria’s appointment as the Vice Chancellor of New World University in the 1990s, that the Great Intelligence would attempt another invasion of Earth. The fan production Downtime also featured Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, his daughter Kate, Sarah-Jane Smith and Professor Travers. A Yeti also makes a brief appearance in The Five Doctors, after being brought to the Death Zone on Gallifrey to participate in the games. Upon learning the news of the recovery of The Web of Fear in 2013, my immediate reaction was so joyful that it prompted my then girlfriend to warn me that I “had better be this happy when our first child is born”.

The Snowmen

★★★★★

TX: 25/12/2012

Written by Steven Moffat    Directed by Saul Metzstein

In my favourite Christmas Special, the Doctor meets his new companion Clara Oswald, a barmaid working at the Rose & Crown pub living a double life as a nanny in Victorian London. The Paternoster Gang (which formed after the events of A Good Man Goes to War) make contact with Clara and explain to her that the Doctor has retired… albeit not for long. Alien snow has arrived on Earth and sentient snowmen are terrorising the streets of London! The Great Intelligence has landed on this planet and Walter Simeon, its henchman, (played impeccably by Richard E Grant, who previously starred as the Doctor in the spoof The Curse of Fatal of Death and the animated adventure Scream of the Shalka) is aiding it in its scheme to conquer the world. This episode serves as both an origin story for the Great Intelligence and as a prequel to The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear (from the Intelligence’s perspective, not the Doctor’s). The Great Intelligence returned to Doctor Who in this story, but without the Yeti. It is important for the Yeti to return to Doctor Who as soon as possible.

The Doctor takes on the role of Sherlock Holmes and he and the Paternoster Gang investigate the GI institute. After the Ice Lady (an attempt by the Intelligence to manifest itself in human-ice crystal form) and Clara fall to their deaths, the Doctor and Vastra confront Dr Simeon, who becomes possessed by the Intelligence. The Great Intelligence tries to kill the Doctor, but the family mourning Clara’s death generates an emotional field that turns the snow to rain tears. The Doctor vows to find Clara Oswald, having now met two different versions of her that died in different circumstances in separate time periods. Jenna Coleman is looking damn fine in her first official episode!

The Bells of Saint John

★★★★☆

TX: 30/03/2013

Written by Steven Moffat    Directed by Colm McCarthy

During his attempts to track down the Impossible Girl, the Doctor becomes a monk and waits in 1207 until the Bells of Saint John ring. A present day Clara Oswald is given a computer helpline phone number by Missy, in order to bring Clara and the Doctor together. Clara initially doesn’t know how to use Twitter, whereas I am good with technology because I have created my own website! It is important to remain up to date in terms of technology no matter how old you are! The Doctor responds to the ringing TARDIS phone and arrives at Clara’s house in the present, where she is being menaced by one of Ms Kizlet’s Spoonheads. The Great Intelligence and its latest servant Ms. Kizlet are using Spoonheads to kidnap the minds of people from all over the world and upload them to a data cloud for the Intelligence to feast on. The Doctor and Clara track down Ms Kizlet’s headquarters to the Shard in London, where the Doctor uses an anti-gravity motorbike to drive up the side of the building and defeat Ms Kizlet by using a Spoonhead doppelgänger of himself. After downloading all of the trapped minds in the data cloud, Clara accepts the Doctor’s offer to travel with him in time and space. One of my old girlfriends gave me a red bell which said ring for sex on it. This is one of many presents that I have received from my many girlfriends over the years.

The Name of the Doctor

★★★★★

TX: 18/05/2013

Written by Steven Moffat    Directed by Saul Metzstein

Clara Oswald, the Paternoster Gang and River Song are brought to the Doctor’s tomb on the planet Trenzalore by the Whisper Men. The Doctor and Clara travel to Trenzalore too and are reunited with the ghost River Song (Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead). The Doctor says that there are dimensional forces deep in the TARDIS that tend to make one feel a bit giddy (Castrovalva). The Intelligence mentions that the Doctor has other names such as the Valeyard (The Trial of a Time Lord). The Great Intelligence, bitter about being constantly defeated by the Doctor, has decided to take the revenge on him by stepping inside his time stream and ruining the Doctor’s entire life by turning every one of his victories into defeats. Clara steps into the Doctor’s time stream in order to save him from the Great Intelligence. But, after bidding a final goodbye to River Song, the Doctor follows Clara into his time stream. There, the Doctor reveals to Clara his greatest secret… There was a hitherto unknown incarnation during the Doctor’s life that he has done everything to bury because his actions were not carried out in the name of the Doctor.