Recently I’ve noticed some strong similarities between two of my favourite horror franchises. The Evil Dead and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I’d go as far as to say that they are more comparable to each other than to any other franchise in terms of style, tone and premise as we will soon see.
Overview of Both Series
The Evil Dead franchise began with a low budget independent horror movie, called Within the Woods, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Bruce Campbell and Ellen Sandweiss.
The film revolved around a group of twenty somethings stumbling upon an old cabin in the woods, built next to an Indian grave yard. The spirits from the grave however soon possess one of the group, Bruce (played by Campbell), who goes on to pick off the others one by one. Though Ellen (played by Sandweiss), Bruce’s girlfriend is able to slay Bruce. The ending of the film shows that the spirits have survived and leaves her fate open as one of her possessed friends advances on her from behind.
Evil Dead 0.
The film proved to an unexpected success after being shown as a b-movie before a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
A few years later in 1982. Raimi would produce a remake, titled The Evil Dead which followed the same premise. Rather than being spirits from an Indian graveyard however. The monsters were Demons from hell, summoned by a book called the Necronomicon.
Bruce Campbell and Ellen Sandweiss also played brother and sister rather than lovers, and switched roles. Ellen’s character was now possessed by the Demons, whilst Bruce’s character, renamed Ash, became the final survivor.
The ending of Evil Dead similarly saw the last survivor, Ash, being attacked by the Demons after he believed he had banished them, leaving his fate open.
The film was a huge success, though it also proved to be extremely controversial due to its excessive gore. It was even banned in the United Kingdom.
A sequel would be produced in the late 80s, Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn, which has often been mistaken for a remake as it opens with Ash and his girlfriend Linda from the first movie arriving at the cabin and reading from the book. Linda is also played by a new actress. However it is still intended to be a sequel. Raimi and Campbell had intended to open Evil Dead 2 with a recap of the first film, but they couldn’t get the rights as it was owned by a different company. Instead they were forced to reshoot a recap of the first film.
5 minutes into the second film, the Demons are shown to grab Ash just like the ending of the first Evil Dead. Everything from there on can be considered a sequel (and would later be by the series Ash Vs Evil Dead.)
Evil Dead 2 sees the owner of the cabin Raymond Knowby’s daughter, Annie arrive at the house. Though initially believing Ash killed her parents, she later discovers the truth when her demon possessed mother Henrietta returns. Ash and Annie are able to send the Demons back to hell using the Necronomicon, though sadly Annie is killed before she can close the portal and Ash is also sucked through.
The ending reveals that the portal actually sent both the Demons and Ash to the medevil era.
Several years later another sequel would be released titled Army of Darkness which would see Ash battle the forces of the Necronomicon in the 12th century. At the end of the film Ash, after defeating the Demons is given a magic potion that will send him back to his home era.
From here there are two endings. The original intended ending from Sam Raimi, and the more family friendly ending for the theatrical cut. (Though interestingly enough neither of these endings would be regarded as canonical by subsequent entries in the series.)
Original ending.
Theatrical ending.
Over the course of the next two decades. Ash would return in various comic books and video games, including several crossover series which would see Ash encounter such characters as Xena the Warrior Princess, Jason Vorhees, Freddy Krueger and even several Marvel superheroes.
There was also a remake of Evil Dead in 2013, featuring a new female hero. The remake though successful, was more of a serious horror movie like the original, than the later entries which tended to blend humour and horror.
Two years later in 2015, Bruce Campbell finally made a full return to the role in the series Ash vs Evil Dead. This series saw Ash come out of retirement (after accidentally unleashing the Deadites again) and be forced to work with two new Demon slayers, Kelly Maxwell (played by Dana Delorenzo), and Pablo (played by Ray Santiago). The series also expanded on the Demon lore, revealing who created the Necronimcon and introduced the character of Ruby, played by Lucy Lawless (best known for her role as Xena the Warrior Princess.)
Running for 3 series, Ash vs Evil Dead proved to be a huge critical success and brought even greater attention to the franchise. Sadly however after its conclusion in 2018, Bruce Campbell announced that he intended to retire the character of Ash, seemingly bringing an end to the franchise for good.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer originally began as a film in 1992, starring Kristy Swanson as Buffy. Its premise revolved around one girl in every generation, known as the Slayer being granted the strength and power to hunt Vampires. The latest Slayer, Buffy Summers, is approached by Merrick, a member of an organisation known as the Watchers, to combat the ancient Vampire king Lothos (played by Rutger Hauer.)
Merrick is killed by Lothos, who later launches an attack on Buffy’s school. Ultimately however unlike all of the Slayers before her. Buffy is able to slay Lothos by going against the rules of the Watchers and doing things her own way.
The Buffy movie was a moderate success, though Joss Whedon was reportedly unhappy with it. He felt that they toned down the horror aspects, and theme of female empowerment from his original script too much.
5 years later Whedon would revive the project as a series. The series, which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy, was a loose sequel to the original film. It takes place several months later and shows Buffy moving to Sunnydale, desperate to move on with her life, only to be approached by another Watcher, Rupert Giles (played by Anthony Stewart Head.)
Buffy at first refuses to continue on as the slayer after the events of the first film, only to be forced into action when her new friends Willow (played by Alyson Hannigan) and Xander (played by Nicholas Brendon) are attacked by Vampires. Buffy later discovers that Sunnydale is built over a portal to a hell dimension which makes it a magnet for not only Vampires, but Demons, Werewolves, Witches and other supernatural creatures.
Buffy’s main adversary was initially The Master, an ancient Vampire king, buried below Sunnydale who sought to open the Hellmouth and allow the Demons trapped within to emerge back into our world and conquer humanity.
Over the course of the series Buffy would go on to battle various other monsters, such as Demons, Ghosts, Werewolves, Zombies, Witches, Gods, Robots and even Aliens from outer space! The core cast would also expand over the course of the series too.
Arguably the two most significant supporting character in the series, outside of Buffy’s original three friends, were Buffy’s two love interests. The Vampires, Angel and Spike (played by David Boreanaz and James Marsters.)
Angel was introduced in the shows first series initially as a mystery man who gave Buffy cryptic advice on Vampires. Part way through season 1 however Angel was revealed to be a Vampire, cursed with a human soul, and therefore capable of feeling remorse. Angel and Buffy would fall in love in season 2, though later that year Angel would lose his soul. Reverting to the evil Angelus he had been before. Angelus would serve as the main antagonist for the shows second season. After gaining his soul back at the end of season 2, Angel would later gain his own spin off series, simply titled Angel that would run for 5 seasons and become a major and influential cult hit in its own right.
Spike meanwhile initially began as an enemy of Buffy’s in season two and would continue to recur as a villain until season 4 when he was kidnapped by The Initiative. An organisation devoted to tracking down and experimenting on supernatural creatures. The Initiative implanted a chip in Spike’s brain that caused him pain every time he attempted to hurt someone, but not Demons, resulting in Spike becoming an unlikely ally of Buffy’s.
In season 5 Spike falls in love with Buffy, which leads to a destructive and abusive relationship between the Vampire and the Slayer, culminating in Spike’s attempt to rape her in season 6. Following this Spike would later win himself a soul and find redemption by sacrificing himself in the season finale of Buffy, before being resurrected as a regular for the final season of Angel.
The series was initially conceived as a “High School is hell” metaphor, but later series would depict Buffy in college and as a young adult. Outside of her battles with the undead, the series also saw Buffy cope with everyday personal problems such as her mother dying and subsequently being forced to raise her little sister Dawn.
At the end of the series. Buffy, much like in the original film, goes against the Slayer rules, and has Willow (who over the course of the series becomes a powerful Witch) cast a massive spell which turns every potential Slayer into a Slayer.
Buffy finished in 2003 after 7 season, whilst Angel finished the following year in 2004. 3 years later however, both Buffy and Angel’s stories were continued via two comic book series which are still going as of the writing of this article.
The official comic book continuation of Buffy and Angel which is said to be canon according to Buffy creator Joss Whedon.
In 2018, Joss Whedon announced that he would be remaking Buffy, 15 years after the original finished its run. No details are known about the casting or plot at present.
Both Buffy and Evil Dead would go onto be very influential on subsequent horror films and television series, with the characters of Ash and Buffy being among the most iconic horror characters. Edgar Wright, the director of Shaun of the Dead has cited Evil Dead 2 as one of his biggest influences, as has Eric Kripke, the creator of Supernatural. The makers of both Charmed and the 21st century version of Doctor Who meanwhile have both credited Buffy with inspiring and paving the way for them.
The stars of both franchises such as James Marsters, Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi and Eliza Dushku have also gone on to land major and leading roles in various other cult series and films as a result of both franchises popularity.
Evil Dead’s Influence on Buffy
Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy and Angel is a fan of the Evil Dead franchise, having cited it as a big influence.
There have even been a few direct references to Evil Dead in Buffy, such as the First Evil shouting “DEAD BY SUNRISE!” in an homage to “DEAD BY DAWN” the tagline of Evil Dead 2, and a phrase that is frequently shouted by the Demons of the series. In the episode Crush, Xander also refers to Spike as “The Evil Dead.”
Whedon’s later horror movie, Cabin in the Woods followed the same basic premise as Evil Dead. It sees a group of twenty somethings become lost in a cabin in the woods, and after reading from a book, they end up unleashing ancient Lovecraftian Demons into the world. There is even a reference to the Deadites, the main villains from the Evil Dead franchise too.
With this in mind it is likely that at least some of the similarities between both franchises were intentional. There’s nothing wrong with this. All works of fiction take from others (including Evil Dead which borrowed from everything from The Three Stooges to HP Lovecraft.) Nothing is truly original, but still I think its fair to say that the Evil Dead in many ways was a predecessor to Buffy.
Interestingly enough however Bruce Campbell is a huge Buffy fan and has included a few references to it in his work too. In My Name is Bruce, Campbell’s fictionalized version of himself, who is called in to fight a Demon by one of his fans. Says after the Demon is seemingly slain. “Next time there is a Demon. Call that Buffy chick.”
Finally the season 2 episode of Ash vs Evil Dead called Delusion, where a Demon attempts to trick Ash into believing that the supernatural are all figments of his imagination, was inspired by the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, Normal Again, which featured a similar plot.
Similarities
Both Revolve Around A Reluctant Chosen One
Both Evil Dead and Buffy revolve around a hero who is chosen by the forces of good to fight Demons and monsters. Both are even regularly referred to as the chosen one.
Ironically however in both cases the chosen one is, on the surface at least. Not anybody’s ideal idea of a hero and is extremely reluctant to be a hero too.
Ash is shallow, lazy, unmotivated, arrogant, egocentric, and at times, somewhat lecherous.
Buffy meanwhile though not nearly as unsympathetic or unlikable as Ash, is still, in the original movie at least. Initially shown to be quite shallow, spoiled and vapid.
Both Buffy and Ash regularly quit being the chosen one for long periods at a time, such as at the end of season 1 of Ash vs Evil Dead, and the end of season 2 of Buffy. It would be unthinkable for another Vampire hunter character like Blade or Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing to quit.
Both Buffy and Ash also regularly screw things up, such as when Ash says the wrong words to release the Necronomicon in Army of Darkness, or when Buffy leads dozens of young girls to their deaths at the hands of Caleb.
Both are even responsible for unleashing a lot of the monsters they face. Ash unleashes the Demons in season 1 of Ash vs Evil Dead when he reads from the book to try and impress a girl, (whilst he’s stoned.) Buffy meanwhile is responsible for letting the Master go free in Prophecy Girl when she blunders head first into his base. In season 2, Buffy also inadvertently causes Angel to lose his soul. To be fair to Buffy in regards to Angelus, unlike Ash’s many screw up, she had absolutely no idea that Angel would lose his soul. Still to have the hero be responsible for letting the villain be free in any way is again not something that you could imagine with most other heroes.
Buffy and Ash’s flaws do sometimes make them come over as unsympathetic and selfish, but at other times they can make both characters seem more human, which is why both have such an enduring popularity.
Who wouldn’t react the way Buffy and Ash do a lot of the time? Imagine being told that you will have to spend the rest of your life fighting the most hideous, evil, bloodthirsty monsters. That you’ll never be able to have a family, or any kind of normal life again, and that the rest of your life will probably be very short. You’d have a right to be pissed off and ask why does all of this have to fall on your shoulders?
Unlike Blade or Peter Cushing who make it a mission to hunt the forces of darkness, Ash and Buffy are thrown into it unprepared.
Buffy and Ash in both cases later gather together a group of misfits, and unconventional heroes to help them battle the paranormal. The Ghost Beaters in Ash’s case, and the Scooby Gang in Buffys.
Buffy and Ash’s unconventional status as heroes is regularly used as a source of comedy and tragedy in both series, which leads to my next point.
They Both Mix Horror and Comedy
Evil Dead and Buffy are not the only examples of the horror and comedy genres being merged together.
However I think its fair to say that they represent arguably the most extreme examples. Most other horror comedies tend to settle on being largely one over the other.
Scary Movie for instance is totally a comedy with a horror movie setting, whilst An American Werewolf in London might have humorous, and witty moments, but it is still largely a horror movie.
With Buffy and Evil Dead however the comedy is so severe that it is more or less a complete parody, whilst the horror in both franchises represent some of the most extreme and gruesome in the history of the genre in either film or television.
The jump from comedy to horror is so large as you can see from the two clips above, if you were to watch both clips in isolation you probably wouldn’t believe they were from the same show!
Both Buffy and Evil Dead are able to merge both genres together so well because they make everything so extreme. The monsters are so over the top, even just in terms of appearance that the viewers are able to accept the horror and comedy being so over the top as a result.
Buffy Vampires vs The Deadites
The main villains of both franchises possess many strong similarities with one another in the following ways.
Origins
The gigantic, Lovecraftian, tentacled creators of the Vampires and the Deadites.
In both the Buffy and Evil Dead mythology, gigantic god like Demons were said to have ruled the earth many thousands of years before recorded history began. They made the earth a hell before being banished to another dimension, allowing the age of man to begin.
In Evil Dead’s case these Demons were referred to as the Dark Ones, whilst in Buffy they were referred to as the Old Ones. Both are based on the Old Ones from HP Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythos.
The Dark Ones were banished by one of their own, Ruby, through a book called the Necronomicon, which she hoped to use to control them. Ruby however was later stripped of her powers. In Buffy it is not known who banished the Old Ones, but the Demons were cast through a portal to hell, located beneath Sunnydale (which is referred to as the Hellmouth.)
The Vampires and the Deadites meanwhile are lesser creatures created by the Dark Ones/Old Ones to help them escape. The Deadites are released through the Necronomicon, and their goal in all three films, and the tv series, is to use the book to release the Dark Ones to overthrow humanity and bring hell on earth.
In Buffy meanwhile the Vampires were created when one of the Old Ones fed on a human and infected him, turning him into a Demon/human hybrid. He then went on to infect another and another, creating the Vampire race. Vampires main aim in Buffy is similar to the Deadites, as they hope to open the Hellmouth and release the Old Ones to overthrow humanity and bring about hell on earth.
They’re Both Demon/Human Hybrids
The Deadites and the Vampires are not people at all. They are Demons who inhabit the corpses of humans. They absorb the memories of the human bodies they take over, and even some negative personality traits, but they are still not the people whose bodies they take over in the slightest. In some cases they even refer to their predecessors in the third person.
In both franchises we see a few instances of the Demon inside of Deadites and Vampires outside of a human body and it is depicted as nothing more than a savage animal. Therefore the entire Vampire or Deadites personality comes from the memories of the host it takes over. The Demon that possesses Deadites is referred to as a Kandarian Demon, whilst the Demon that possesses Vampires is referred to as a Van-Tal.
The Van-Tal Demon left, and the Kandarian Demon right, without human bodies to inhabit. Vampires and Deadites only refer to the combination of these Demons in a human body.
Both Demons will often use their hosts memories to trick and torment their loved ones.
Examples of this include in Evil Dead 2 where the Demonic version of Henrietta attempts to trick her daughter Annie into releasing her by singing a lullaby the real Henrietta used to sing to Annie when she was a little girl, or in Ash Vs Evil Dead when Kelly’s mom is possessed and the Demon uses her memories to repeatedly torment Kelly.
First the Demon lets Kelly think her mother is alive, (after she was killed in a freak accident 6 months earlier.) It lies to Kelly and claims that she was injured and suffered amnesia for 6 months, before it murders her father. Even after killing her father however. The Demon manages to trick Kelly again, making Kelly believe that her mother is merely possessed and that she can fight it with Kelly’s help. Worst of all the Demon later lies to Kelly that her mother wasn’t killed in an accident, but that she in fact killed herself to escape her failure of a daughter!
Spike’s mother similarly after she is turned into a Vampire enjoys tormenting her son, by claiming that she never loved him, always regarded him as a failure, and worse that she had a sexual attraction to him!
In both cases we know that neither Spike nor Kelly’s mother viewed their children that way. Sadly however from Spike and Kelly’s point of view, there would always be a tiny grain of doubt, as the Demon has access to their memories and inner thoughts. This tiny grain of doubt is shown to torment Spike and Kelly for practically the rest of their lives.
At the same time however whilst the Demons are able to use their hosts memories to torment or trick people, ironically there are some instances where their hosts memories can affect them to some extent. The Demons can even end up having a fleeting affection for their hosts loved ones.
Examples of this include the Demonic version of Henrietta who is shown to become visibly moved when the real Henrietta’s daughter Annie sings (ironically the lullaby the Demon had attempted to trick Annie with earlier) purely due to Henrietta’s memories. This ultimately allows Ash enough time to slay the beast.
Similarly in Buffy both Spike and Drusilla, even as Vampires still love their parents. Spike even goes as far as to turn his mother into a Vampire, whilst Drusilla later takes a pleasure in torturing Angel as revenge for killing her loved ones. Even though technically Drusilla is a Demon, merely inhabiting the corpse of the young woman whose actual loved ones Angelus killed. Once again the hosts memories are enough to trick Drusilla into caring about their deaths, just like Henrietta and Annie.
Whilst not humans, the Deadites and the Vampires do draw a fine line between Demon and human. They also explore the idea of our memories really defining who we are more than anything else to the point where an evil Demon from hell can still feel affection and love, simply due to inheriting our memories.
They Are Both Completely Evil
The Buffy Vampires and Deadites are both evil, sadistic monsters who enjoy not only killing, but torturing their victims. Despite the very rare, fleeting moments of affection from some Demons and Vampires. There are virtually no shades of grey to either.
They are all colossal perverts who frequently sexually abuse their victims too, or are at least shown to derive a perverse pleasure from torture.
Examples of this include Angelus who was shown to frequently rape his female victims, Marcus a Vampire who enjoyed torturing, raping and killing children, and even Spike who mentioned doing horrible things to girls Dawn’s age.
In the Evil Dead meanwhile Ruby’s Demon children similarly mention a desire to gang rape Kelly, whilst another female Deadite tears a man’s penis off whilst giving him a blow job. Then there is the notorious tree rape scene from the first Evil Dead.
With this in mind, coupled with the fact that they aren’t people at all, just Demons inhabiting, and therefore really desecrating human corpses. There is absolutely no moral ambiguity in killing Deadites or Vampires at all. The main heroes, Buffy and Ash can kill them in the most gruesome and over the top ways, and not once does any other character, or the viewers question if they are doing the right thing. If anything its extremely satisfying watching the Vampires and the Deadites suffer the most gruesome deaths.
In both cases however they’re both such perverts that they often enjoy being beaten up and tortured to an extent.
The Vampires and the Deadites ridiculous cruelty is often what allows both Buffy and Evil Dead to frequently switch between such overt comedy and such visceral horror. Sometimes their cruelty can be used in a more petty, comical way, with the Vampires and the Deadites being portrayed as homicidal trolls, or just jerks, whilst in other instances they can be portrayed as horrifying, sexual predators.
They Both Look Similar
Vampires and Deadites can appear human, but when they attack they revert to their true Demon form. Their Demon forms look somewhat similar. They both have large, bumpy foreheads, yellow eyes (in some cases) slightly paler skin, and sharp teeth.
Joss Whedon himself even said that he preferred the more overt Vampire make up for the creatures in the earlier seasons, because it reminded him of the creatures in old horror films like Evil Dead.
Finally as if those similarities weren’t enough, both the Deadites and the Buffy Vampires main enemies are a reluctant hero, who is picked by the forces of good to do battle against them, and is referred to as The Chosen One.
They Both Span Multiple Mediums
Buffy and Evil Dead have had a greater success across several different mediums than most other horror franchises.
Big tv hits like Supernatural, Charmed, Being Human, Hex etc, have not crossed over into film or comic books or video games as frequently as Evil Dead and Buffy. Charmed did produce a sequel comic book series, but only one very basic mobile video game and never (to date) a film. Similarly many horror film franchises like Alien, Halloween, and Friday the 13th have not crossed over into television, whilst those who have such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream have not crossed over into the video game medium with as much success.
Meanwhile I think its safe to say that not many horror franchises have spawned musicals!
It’s even more incredible when you consider that Buffy and Evil Dead have largely been produced by the same people over the decades. The 92 movie may have deviated from Joss’ original idea, but it was still his script.
There are many reasons as to why these two franchises have been able to cross over across so many different mediums more than others.
The fact that they lend themselves to parody more than other franchises is what allowed both to have musical instalments.
At the same time the fact that they do treat their horror seriously, and are even willing to go the extra mile in terms of gore and visceral content (up to and including showing people be skinned alive on screen!) Means that both can just as easily be adapted into terrifying, shocking horror movies too.
The fact that both have such wide universes and mythology, allows them to be adapted as television series, comic books and video games. The fact that they both star such dynamic and over the top action heroes also makes them both a natural fit for video games and comic books too. Even Supernatural and Charmed though having a wide enough universe, both of their leading heroes are more toned down compared to Buffy and Ash. Sam and Dean are ordinary humans (most of the time) who have to rely on spells, and weapons and don’t tend to do as much over the top physical fighting as Buffy, whilst similarly, the Charmed Ones tend to rely on spells and potions to destroy Demons.
Buffy meanwhile has super strength, stabs her enemies, cuts their heads off, and burns and beats them to death. Ash similarly has a chainsaw hand, hacks his enemies to pieces and gets involved in the most over the top surreal fights scenes.
You can see how both characters could easily translate into the comic books and video game mediums.
Conclusion
As you can see there are a number of similarities between Buffy and Evil Dead. Both feature more human, flawed, reluctant heroes, both merge extreme horror and comedy together, and both feature main antagonists who are the lesser minions of Lovecraftian Demon Gods, whose main goal is to free their masters and cause as much havoc as possible.
Finally due to their larger than life nature and dynamic, action leads, both have been able to conquer just about every medium.
The key difference between the two franchises is that The Evil Dead is aimed more at guys, whilst Buffy the Vampire Slayer is aimed more at women.
Both franchises are hugely popular among both genders, and there are plenty of strong, heroic and villainous roles for both genders in both franchises.
However that said I do think that Evil Dead is aimed primarily more at men simply because it is more of an action series. It focuses solely on the horror, the gore, the monsters. There is some romance in it, but its usually very fleeting. Most of Ash’s love interests are either killed such as Linda and Amanda, or forgotten about. Similarly Kelly and Pablo’s will they, won’t they romance, is largely in the background throughout most of the series.
Buffy meanwhile, whilst having a healthy dose of action and horror too, tends to focus a lot more on the soap opera elements than Evil Dead. We see more of her home life, and later seasons, such as most notably season 6 focus almost entirely on Buffy’s love life, as well as the love lives of her friends like Xander and Willow, with the monsters being pushed into the background.
I’m not saying that you don’t get plenty of women who love horror and gore and action, and plenty of men who enjoy romance stories. Overall though I think its fair to say that women tend to enjoy romance more, whilst men tend to enjoy action more.
Buffy and Evil Dead are similar to this respect in Supernatural and Charmed, in that Supernatural and Charmed also represent a similar idea told from a different genders perspective.
With this in mind, and considering the good will there is between the makers of both franchises. I’m amazed that there has never been a crossover between Buffy and The Evil Dead.
Ash has crossed over with Xena, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, but none of them in my opinion are as good a fit as Buffy would be.
I’d love to see a story where the Deadites posses Willow and make her start skinning people at random, like she did to Warren.
Deadite Willow would be the most horrifying villain in either franchise!
The Deadites could easily exist in Buffy’s universe, and the Buffy Demons could easily exist in Evil Dead’s. We know that there are hundreds of species of Demons in both franchises.
Furthermore as the lore is so similar, then they could easily fit together, unlike say Buffy and Supernatural, which has a totally different origin for Demons and Vampires.
If anything Evil Dead could explain who banished the Old Ones in Buffy. We never found out who did banish the Old Ones in Buffy? Maybe it was Ruby, who banished the Demons she couldn’t control through the hellmouth, and the ones she did hope to control into the Necronomicon. The Dark Ones and the Old Ones could easily be the same creatures. They more or less are. All you’d have to explain would be that some people call them the Old Ones, and others call them the Dark Ones.
Maybe with this in mind the Vampires and the Deadites are cousin races. Both created by the Dark/Old Ones, to free them from hell?
Whilst it will never happen in live action, I’d love to see a comic series that brings Evil Dead and Buffy together, and sees the Ghost Beaters and the Scoobies team up to take on some ancient Vampires and Deadites who plan to free the Old/Dark Ones from hell.
The two most evil, loathsome and hated figures throughout the entire galaxy from the 21st to 24th centuries.
Arguably one of the most turbulent periods of human history. In this section we will be examining how humanity would survive constant attacks from the Venusian tyrant, the Mekon, an invasion from the most evil creatures in all of creation the Daleks, only to become monsters themselves in the 23rd century, before uniting with other races to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity in the 31st century.
The Age of Spacefleet
Dan Dare, the finest captain in all of spacefleet.
The 2040s was a golden age for mankind. Humanity was united like never before, all prejudices and inequalities of the past were nothing more than a distant memory and technology had reached new heights.
Sadly however as mankind celebrated its great achievements. One of its oldest and deadliest enemies plotted its destruction. The Mekon.
This tyrant had made many attempts to invade the earth throughout the 20th century. His attempts had been foiled by the likes of the Doctor, Bernard Quatermass, and even the Furon invader Crypto.
Still the Mekon did not give up and by the 2040s he had almost completed plans for two new super weapons to use against humanity and the Therons, the other humanoid race who lived on Venus.
The weapon against humanity was to have been built on the moon and disrupt the weather on the planet earth to the point where it would destroy all of human civilisation. The Mekons weapon against the Therons meanwhile would cause the fire from the Flame belt to spread over the Therons city on the other side of the planet, wiping them out.
The weapon was unstable however and needed perfecting. Still the Mekon was prepared to wait. He wanted to destroy the Therons completely. Despite claiming to have elevated himself above emotion, he held a special hatred for the Therons as inferior scum. With humanity meanwhile he hoped to turn them into a slave labour force and use them to help conquer other worlds.
In the year 2047 Captain Dan Dare arrived through the rip in time that he had fallen into almost exactly 100 years earlier. The Treen vessel that had abducted him was sent even further into the future, with Dan managing to escape it in an escape pod before it was pulled further in time.
Dan would be taken in by UNIT who investigated the crash site. He discovered much to his horror that he had been gone for over 100 years.
Dan Dare visits his “grave” in the late 2040s.
It took the captain a long while to adjust to life in the 21st century. UNIT would help him get a job as a pilot and over the next ten or so years Dan would rise up the ranks, becoming one of the most respected and celebrated pilots of Spacefleet.
Whilst he may have shot to fame as the man from the past, Dan’s reputation as a pilot would soon eclipse that. During the course of these 10 years, Dan’s success as a pilot in the future would allow him to live a more extravagant lifestyle than he ever did in the 20th century. He would also meet up with his relatives including the archeologist Ivor Dare. Ivor was in fact Dan’s great nephew, but as he was so much older than Dare physically, Dan would often just refer to Ivor as his uncle.
In the year 2055 Dan would come into conflict with what would eventually be his greatest enemy for the first time. The Mekon!
The Venus Mission
By 2055 mankind’s population had increased to over 13 billion. With food becoming scarcer, mankind turned to Venus for help. Humanity did not yet have the technology to leave the solar system and whilst some terrorforming had been accomplished on Mars (including restoring the oxygen to the planet in the late 2040s.) The Martian soil was not yet fertile enough to grow plants.
Venus was an elusive planet that humanity knew was inhabited, but that no one had ever been able to get to. There had been a few manned expeditions to Venus in the early 21st century, but they had never returned and the planet was subsequently put off limits.
Now out of sheer desperation, more missions would be mounted to Venus but they too seemingly vanished without a trace.
Spacefleet was on the brink of giving up until Captain Dan was able to work out that the problem was a forcefield around the planet (which the Captain would later discover was the work of the Mekon.)
The forcefield was designed to attack the impulse engines, which all earth ships used, causing them to explode. Dan would lead a team using an old fashioned craft, that was able to infiltrate the forcefield and land in the jungles of Venus.
Dan’s team consisted of his loyal batman, Digby, Professor Joeclyn Peabody, Sir Hubert a Spacefleet veteran and two experienced pilots Hank and Pierre.
As soon as they landed, the team faced various dangers, including the Silicon Mass (which devoured Peabody’s vessel), giant Dinosaur like reptiles that inhabited the Venusian jungles and the Atlantines.
All but Hank and Pierre who had the good fortune to land on the Therons side of the planet were taken prisoner by the Treens. Though they briefly managed to escape (thanks to a defective Treen named Sondar, who became defective after experiencing an emotion, fear when he confronted the Silicon Mass.) The Mekon was able to quickly recapture all of the earthlings except for Dan, who during the fight was knocked down a ravine which washed him down a secret passage way under the flame belt to the Theron’s side of the planet.
There Dan was reunited with Hank and Pierre and learned the truth about the history of the Therons and the Treens influence on humanity. Dan was able to convince the Therons to help him. Though they did not want to restart their conflict with the Treens, Dan was able to convince the Therons to take responsibility for their role in the ascension of the Treens, who were only able to become a threat to humanity thanks to their reckless actions many centuries ago.
The Therons helped Dan sneak his way back into the Treens camps, (passing by the lake of monsters which served as the perfect natural defence for the Mekon’s city) disguised as an Atlantine slave. In the camps Dan met with another rebellious Atlantine slave, Dapon, and the two of them would work together to try and free Dan’s friends and stop the Mekon’s super weapon from going ahead.
Back at the Treen city meanwhile, the Mekon carried out horrific experiments on his 3 human captives. He wanted to test how strong untamed humans like his Atlantine slaves were as well as how high a pain threshold they had.
After the experiments (which nearly killed Peabody, Hubert and Digby.) The Mekon was satisfied that the Treens were superior, but he nevertheless grew worried that humanity may discover what he was planning as they had already made their way to Venus. He didn’t think that even the Treens could fight off the combined might of the Therons and humanity and so he decided to use more underhand means. (The Treens super weapon that he hoped could destroy the Therons, was still not ready to use as it was still too unstable.)
The Mekon forced his captives to record a message from humanity, stating that they crashed on Venus, and that Captain Dare was killed in the crash, but that the Treens took them in and saved their lives. The Mekon also wanted them to lie to humanity that the Treens are more than happy to share the food supplies on Venus with the human race.
Peabody and Sir Hubert refused to help the Mekon, even under threat of torture or death, but Digby seemingly agreed.
The Mekon hoped to win humanity’s trust by helping to cure the famine crisis on earth, after which he could then convince them to allow him to build a station on the moon, to help control the weather to help the humans, (which he would actually use to destroy humanity.)
The Mekon’s message was broadcast to earth and it did fool humanity for a short time, with the Treens even being hailed as heroes (though UNIT of course had their suspicions.)
Ultimately however Digby’s aunt would discover the truth when she was able to decipher Digby’s hidden message. Digby said that staying with the Mekon was just like being on holiday in Sunnymouth. When Digby was actually on holiday on Sunnymouth, he was falsely imprisoned. Anastasia quickly warned Spacefleet and the Treens on earth were imprisoned.
Back on Venus meanwhile, Dan was able to infiltrate the Mekon’s base with Dapon’s help and both rescue his friends and capture the Mekon in a confrontation. Dan would also rescue Sondar, who helped the earthlings to escape using Treen hover pads, powered by thought.
Unfortunately however, the Mekon’s vastly superior brain allowed him to take control of the hover pads, just as Dan and his friends were almost free over the lake outside the city. Before the Mekon could drag Dare back to the city, using a Theron device, Dan was able to sabotage the hover pad, sending himself and the Mekon tumbling into the water below.
The Mekon was unable to swim and so whilst the Treens tried to rescue their leader, Captain Dan escaped.
Knowing that the Therons had helped Dan, the Mekon declared war and decided to use his super weapon. Even though it hadn’t been tested yet and was so unstable that it could destroy all of Venus. The Mekon was still willing to take the risk.
He knew that he couldn’t fight a war on two fronts (with humanity, having been made aware of his tricks.) So the Mekon wanted the Therons out of the way with as soon as possible.
Fortunately Dapon was able to destroy the Mekon’s super weapon by piloting one of the Treens vessels into the weapon, sacrificing himself in the process.
Dan and the others were able to escape to the Therons side of the planet after Dapon’s sacrifice. Both the Therons, and the Treens then broke their peace treaty and launched all out war on one another.
Both the Treens and the Therons however were evenly matched and every time one would attempt to launch an attack, the other would find a way to block it. The twos weaponry began to cause one another’s technology to stop working. Before all of the Therons space ships broke down however, they were able to get Dan and his friends back home.
Back on earth Dan would organise an attack on the Treens side of the planet whilst they were still vulnerable. The earth forces would succeed in overpowering the Treens whose weapons were all useless. During the fight the Mekon would escape Venus, along with some of his loyal Treens, but he faked his death.
With the Mekon’s defeat, the Treens were forced to surrender. Sondar would be appointed their new leader, the Atlantine slaves would all be released and granted equal citizenship with the Treens and Therons. For the first time the Treens and the Therons would genuinely work together for the good of Venus.
Free from the Mekon’s influence, many Treens were able to experience emotions for the first time and came feel guilt for their actions under the Mekon. Others however remained loyal to the Mekon and were convinced that he would return to lead them.
The Mekon meanwhile had fled to Mercury, a small planet in our solar system which had not yet been explored by humanity. The Mercurians were a peaceful, but somewhat placid and primitive race, allowing the Mekon and his Treens to easily conquer them.
Quickly establishing a new base and slave force on Mercury, the Mekon plotted his revenge against humanity and the Therons.
Back on earth, Captain Dan would be hailed as a hero. The Therons and the Treens under Sondar, would supply earth with enough food supplies to fix the famine crisis on earth (with the Treens advanced technology allowing them to harness enough food supplies for earth and Venus many times over.)
Whilst Dan would go on many more adventures in the years to come, his success on the Venus mission would tend to overshadow his later exploits at least until the first Treen invasion of earth.
The Red Moon Mystery
A few months after the Venus mission, mankind would face a new threat far greater than even the Mekon. The Insectoids of the Red Moon.
These creatures had visited our solar system many thousands of years ago where they had devastated the surface of Mars, before King Ghidorah had driven them out.
The magnetic forces of the Red Moon caused any earth vessel that came near it to shut down. It also caused widespread devastation on the colony on Mars as it passed the planet.
Dan, Peabody and Digby were able to rescue the colonists using a Venusian vehicle called the Anastacia which was immune to the effects of the Red Moon. However the earth would soon be thrown into panic when the Red Moon approached. All machinery began to break down on earth, preventing anyone from escaping as the Insectoids began to launch an attack on humanity.
Professor Peabody was able to devise a solution however after theorising that the Insectoids were able to find planets by tracing the light from their suns through space, as light was the only thing that could travel through space.
The Treens would construct a gigantic lighthouse to lure the Red Moon away from the earth. Once it got a good distance away from the earth and humanity’s technology could work again. Dan, Digby, Peabody and Sondar would fire a weapon from space capable of destroying the entire planet.
None of them wanted to, but they had no choice. The Red Moon would have gone on to destroy billions more worlds across the universe. Little did they know however a few of the Insectoids managed to escape and would later resurface many centuries later as a force to be reckoned with.
The weapon Dan, Digby, Peabody and Sondar used to destroy the Red Moon was so unstable that it caused their craft to crash land on Mercury. Back home everybody believed that they were dead, but in truth they not only survived, but would stumble upon another great threat to earth.
Marooned on Mercury
Dan Dare comes face to face with his archenemy the Mekon a second time.
On Mercury, Dan, Peabody, Digby and Sondar would discover that the Mekon had conquered its inhabitants and was preparing a second attempt to invade the earth.
In truth however the Mekon didn’t just simply want to conquer humanity. He judged them to be too much of a threat to his plans for conquest and now sought to exterminate them completely.
The Mekon had created a deadly plague that would be capable of wiping out all life on earth, but he had no way of depositing it on earth. An unauthorised Treen ship would never make it past either earth or Theron security.
The Mekon however had a way round this. Not all of the earth vessels that had arrived on Venus before Dan and his team had been destroyed.
One vessel had been captured by the Mekon, who kept its crew prisoner as a back up plan in case his initial conquest of earth didn’t succeed.
When the Mekon fled to Mercury, he took the captured earth crew with them. The Mekon hoped to trick the earthlings to fly back to earth in their own vessel, by allowing them to think they had escaped. The Mekon would of course keep a sample of his plague in the ship which would be released once the ship reached earth.
The Mekon had not used this plan initially, as before he had wanted to use humanity as a slave labour force, as well as study their race and history. Again however, he now regarded humanity as too dangerous to be allowed to exist.
Dan and Peabody were able to discover the Mekon’s plan and rescue the earth crew before they fell for the Treens ruse. The Mekon however was able to capture Dan and his friends and attempted to starve them into serving him. Once again however Dan was able to escape the Mekon and convince the Mercurians to revolt against the Treens, as well as alert earth to his location.
Knowing that he couldn’t stand against the combined forces of Earth, Venus and Mercury, the Mekon and his loyal Treens were once again forced to flee into space.
Back home, Dan, Digby and Peabody were all hailed as heroes for thwarting the Mekon once again, and the trio would go on many more adventures over the next few years (including foiling the Mekon yet again when the villain attempted to crash an earth space station onto Venus to reconquer the Treens.)
Dan’s next major adventure however would take him beyond our solar system. In the year 2058, earth would be visited by an alien known as Lero who belonged to a humanoid race of aliens called the Crypts.
He explained that the Crypts were locked in a perpetual conflict with a pitiless race known as the Phants. Every 10 thousand years, the Phants invade the Crypts planet and virtually wipe out their race. The only way the Crypts survive is to preserve members of their race in suspended animation in space. Once the planet became habitable again, the Crypts would revive and then return to build their society, only for the same horrible cycle to repeat.
Lero begged Dan and the earth men to help his people, as they were so weak and pacifistic they could never stand up to the Phants. Dan agreed, and he, Digby, Lex O’Mailey and a young cadet named Flamer would travel across the universe to Cryptos.
The journey would take two years, one year to reach Cryptos, and one to get home. The crew would be placed into suspended animation during that time.
When the earth men arrived on Cryptos, the Phants had already begun their invasion. During their battles with the Phants, Dan’s team discovered the reason the Phants were so aggressive and the Crypts were so passive.
The two races food supplies were drugged with chemicals, which in the Phants case heightened aggression, and in the Crypt’s case lowered it. Dan would later discover when he travelled to the Phants home planet that the real architect behind the perpetual war was a super computer called Orak. Many centuries ago, Orak had been created to protect the Phants from invaders. It was arguably the greatest war computer ever built, but after hundreds of years of protecting the Phants, Orak, having developed its own sentience, wished to create another war to give itself a purpose and also just simply for its own amusement.
Orak had led the Phants to destroy the two other inhabited worlds in the Phants solar system besides Cryptos; Alerok and Phascos. Both of those worlds inhabitants were vicious and callous warlike people who warred with each other. They had also invaded the Phants, many hundreds of years prior before being driven off. The Phants had no problem waging a war on, and ultimately destroying both races under Orak’s guidance.
However with the Crypts, the Phants were not happy invading what were a peaceful people who had never done them any harm. Orak also lacked the technology to move the Phants to other worlds beyond his solar system, so he instead drugged the Phants, turning them into vicious war mongers to attack the Crypts.
Whilst Orak loved war, he was also a poor loser and so after the first Phant invasion that he would ensure his people drugged the Crypt’s supplies too, and lock them in a vicious cycle for his own amusement.
Dan was able to defeat Orak and shut the evil supercomputer down for good, freeing both races and allowing them to rebuild together.
A few of the Phants however didn’t want to give up the power they had over the Crypts and so after Dan left, they stole the main file for Orak and fled across the Solar System. They would later build another body for Orak who would go on to lead them to build a massive empire where they would force the various races they ruled over to wage war with each other for their own amusement. Dan Dare would later come into conflict with them in the 23rd century.
Orak, leader of the Phants and one of Dan Dare’s archenemies.
After defeating the Phants, Dan prepared to return home, but Lero revealed his terrible secret.
The journey to Cryptos actually took longer than he said. It took five years to get there and five years to get back. Dan was angry at the deception, but understood why Lero had lied and forgave him as he and his companions went back into suspended animation to return home.
When they arrived back on earth in the year 2068 Dan and his men discovered much to their horror that the Mekon had invaded and conquered the planet with the aid of his new servants, the Elektrobots.
The Treen Invasion of Earth
The new masters of humanity.
A few months after Dan and his team left for Cryptos, the Mekon and his Treens unleashed their new army of Elektrobots on Venus. They initially conquered the Treens as the Mekon knew that there was still great support for him among their people.
Whilst many had adapted to having emotions, others couldn’t cope with the new feelings and missed having their Atlantine slaves perform their grunt work.
Most of the Treens sided with the Mekon over Sondar when he returned, and those who didn’t were quickly put to death when the Mekon reclaimed his former city. Sondar however was able to escape and would remain on the run for 10 years.
The Mekon would then lead his people to finally conquer the Therons, with his new Elektrobots giving them the advantage they needed.
Within less than a week, all of Venus was under the Mekon’s control.
The Mekon immediately prepared to invade the earth, but first he had to deal with an old enemy in the form of the Furons.
The Mekon would lure the latest version of Crypto into a trap on Venus by launching constant attacks on Orthopox’s labs on earth with his Elektrobots. Though Crypto was able to slaughter many Treens, the Mekon was able to kill the latest version of Crypto by trapping him in one of his gas chambers in the Treen city.
The Mekon would then from Crypto’s corpse create a plague that unravelled the DNA of the Furons and launched it at all of the most important planets in the Furon empire. Billions of Furons were slaughtered, and their forces were forced to retreat from earth to try and hold on to what little power they could. Orthopox and the new Crypto vowed revenge, but within a few years thanks to the Mekon’s influence the Furon empire completely collapsed as more and more of their enemies would get hold of the Mekon’s plague. Over the next few hundred years, the last of the Furons would struggle just to stay alive.
With the Furons out of the way, the Mekon launched his Elektrobots at the earth. The Elektrobots however were no match for earth’s giant monsters.
Just as they had always done, Godzilla, Jiras, King Kong, Anguirus, Gorosaurus, and Rodan fought to protect the earth and slaughtered thousands of the Mekon’s robot warriors.
Eventually however the Mekon was able to defeat the monsters by using knockout gas on the monsters on Monsterland. Whilst they were asleep, the Treens would abduct the monsters and take them to a small planet, just outside the solar system.
There the Mekon would attempt to find a way to control them, but the monsters after waking up destroyed the Mekon’s base on the planet. The Mekon would attempt to set up another but the Monsters proved to be too difficult to control, and eventually the Mekon would abandon the project as he had more important matters.
Godzilla, King Kong, Anguirus, Gorosaurus, Jiras and the rest of earth’s monsters would continue to live on this world for over 1000 years afterwards (with their mutated DNA allowing them to live for so long.) Long after the Mekon’s invasion humanity would continue to leave them on what would eventually be christened, monster world. Despite the monsters many heroic actions, humanity felt they were more trouble than they were worth, and so they would be left on this planet in peace (though they would return to earth for later battles.)
With the monsters gone, humanity lost its advantage. The Elektrobots and the Treen warships massacred Earth’s defences and conquered their entire world in a few months.
Over 5 billion people were killed in the Treen invasion. It was the single most devastating event in human history at that point.
Fry survives the Treens invasion of New York, which was destroyed in the process. The reason the Treens spared this building was because they wanted to examine the humans who were frozen, with the Mekon believing that they must be special if humanity had preserved them.
After the surrender of humanity, the survivors would be rounded up into concentration camps and ghettos around the world. The Mekon forced humanity to build more advanced robots known as Selektrobots and weapons that would allow him to conquer other planets beyond our solar system.
The Mekon soon built up a large empire thanks to his robots.
The Elektrobots and Selektrobots, the weapons the Mekon used to conquer the earth and various other worlds across the universe.
The Mekon would also perform various experiments on his enslaved humans, with another 3 billion people dying in agony over the next 10 years the Mekon ruled over the earth.
Reign of the Robots
After 10 years in space, Dan discovers to his horror that the Mekon has conquered humanity.
Upon arriving back on earth, Dan and his team were instantly captured by the Elektrobots who took them to face the Mekon.
The Mekon told Dan with glee how he had conquered humanity and how they were now his slaves. He planned to make Dan his servant however rather than simply kill him.
The Mekon was angry when he found out that Dan was lost in space after his conquest of earth. Despite claiming to have elevated himself above emotion, the Mekon wanted to make Dan suffer. He hated him above all of his other enemies such as the Doctor, Gamera, the Furons and Godzilla.
In the years the Mekon ruled over the earth, Dan would become an icon to humanity. The man who had beaten the Mekon three times and who was now lost. Many hoped that he would one day return and overthrow the green tyrant.
The Mekon knew that if Dan ever did return then he couldn’t just kill him, as Dan would become a martyr to the cause of the earth men. So he decided that he would crush what was left of their spirit by forcing Dan to serve him.
To accomplish this, the Mekon abducted those he knew were closest to Dan, including Sir Hubert, and Peabody and kept them in suspended animation for 10 years so that he could use them as leverage to make Dan obey him and renounce the resistance, should he ever return.
Sure enough when Dan saw his friends in the Mekon’s care he had no choice but to obey the Mekon’s will, and the Mekon would send Dan and his friends to work in his harshest labour camp.
However whilst in the camp, Dan was able to make contact with the last tiny pocket of resistance and with their and Sondar’s help (Sondar was serving as a double agent for earth within the Mekon’s head quarters.) Dan was able to discover how the Mekon controlled his robots.
He had a speaker in his levitating chair which he gave the Elektrobots their orders through. After a confrontation with the Mekon, Flamer was able to give the Elekrtobots new orders to turn on and destroy one another.
With the entire invasion force of robots destroyed, humanity and the aliens on the other worlds the Treens had conquered overthrew them. The Treens numbers were small and they had only been able to maintain their rule through the robots. Whilst most of the Treens had sided with the Mekon at first, as time went on many of the Treens who had begun to develop emotions under Sondars rule found it hard to repress them again and carry out the Mekon’s ruthless orders.
The Mekon would have all “traitors” executed by his robots and slaughtered millions of his own people, but many survived and would form a resistance movement with Sondar. Either through desertion or execution however, the Treens numbers had been greatly depleted by the Mekons actions, resulting in those who remained loyal to the Tyrant being forced to rely on their robots.
The Mekon however was not beaten yet. He had a special back up army of Selektrobots who were far more powerful, and intended to use them to not only reconquer planets such as the earth, but also carry out a mass slaughter of billions on every world to crush any further hope of rebellion.
Dan however was able to pilot one of his vessels into the space station the Mekon used to control the Selektrobots, eliminating the entire Selektrobot invasion fleet and ending the Mekon’s rule over the earth.
The Mekon was captured by human and Theron forces, but whilst on Venus he managed to escape by flying over the molten lake the Silicon Mass lived in. The Mekon was seemingly killed when the Mass consumed his vessel. In truth however he managed to teleport to safety at the right moment. He wanted to fake his death at the right moment and in a way where they wouldn’t expect to find a body.
As it was, Dan still didn’t believe his archenemy was gone and would insist on the Mekon remaining at the top of the most wanted list in the solar system. The Mekon would subsequently lay low for the next few years as he slowly rebuilt his forces.
All of the Treens who were loyal to the Mekon were imprisoned (on some of the worlds they had conquered however the Treens were executed.) Sondar would once again be appointed as the head of the Treen state on Venus.
Not all of the Elektrobots had been destroyed, but they had all been deactivated. The Elektrobots would later be reactivated and reprogrammed to aid humanity. The technology from the Elektrobots would later serve as the basis for the robots of the 31st century.
It took mankind many years to recover, but ironically the decades after the Mekon’s invasion would be more prosperous. Mankind would unite with the various worlds who had been conquered by the Mekon and together they would form a small federation of planets who would all help each other rebuild their fallen civilisations.
Over the next few decades mankind would expand beyond the solar system and advance like never before.
The Phantom Fleet
In the year 2069 mankind would face yet another threat from space. The Pescods, a race of ocean dwelling creatures from a far away planet who had created a virus that could eat metal. Humanity was given a warning of their coming by a race known as the Cosmobes whose entire planet had been destroyed by the Pescods.
The Cosmobes were a tiny race of fish like creatures who wanted to live in the oceans of earth. Their population was small, and their small size and aquatic nature meant that they would not compete for resources.
Humanity was still unsure about allowing an alien race to co-inhabit the earth. Whilst they had established a peaceful contact with various other races, humanity had never willingly shared the planet with another species before.
Still the Cosmobes proved themselves by helping Dan, Digby and Peabody destroy the oncoming Pescod fleet (though not before both humanity and the Treens endured heavy casualties from the Pescods virus that destroyed dozens of warships.)
The Cosmobes would mostly keep themselves to themselves under the ocean, but they would aid humanity at various points over the next several decades.
By the year 2070 a base on the moon had been established which helped to regulate the weather on earth for humanity’s benefit. Unfortunately in 2070, a group of Cybermen would attack and invade the Moonbase in the hopes of using it to destroy all of humanity.
These Cybermen were survivors from the 2020s war. Low on power, they had been forced to go into hibernation for years to reserve it, but now they were ready to launch their counter attack.
They would have succeeded had it not been for the intervention of the Second Doctor who was able to destroy the Cyberfleet by whisking them away into the sun. A few of the Cybermen survived however and fled across the galaxy to find a new base.
Eventually they settled on the isolated planet of Telos that was inhabited by a race of creatures known as the Cryons, a peaceful race who had adapted to the cold atmosphere of Telos and when the planet’s atmosphere began to rise on the surface, the Cryons built a gigantic city with refrigeration units to survive.
Sadly this was the reason the Cybermen would target their people, as they needed the refrigerator units to preserve their low power. The Cybermen would virtually wipe the Cryons out and preserve themselves in the Cryon’s chambers, though before they froze themselves, they set up a series of traps to not only protect themselves but ensnare those with the highest intellects to be converted once the Cybermen had reached full power.
Throughout the 2070s and 80s mankind would establish colonies on various worlds throughout the galaxy. Still they would be forced to endure many threats chief among them being of course the Mekon, who would create a new race of mutant Treens who were physically incapable of any kind emotion and far more physically powerful. The Mekon first attacked Venus with his new supertreens. He wanted to exterminate what he regarded as the previous inferior race of Treens, who he was ashamed of.
Dan however was able to save Venus from the Mekon, but once again the villain managed to escape justice.
The Mekon would later work with Davros, who had escaped the destruction of the time travelling Dalek mothership in 1963 through an escape pod, but the blast still knocked him over 100 years into the future. Davros’ escape pod was captured by the Treens and taken to the Mekon.
Davros simply wanted to return to his home time, but the pod he escaped in had been damaged. The Mekon offered to give Davros the resources and equipment he needed if he helped him.
With no other choices Davros agreed and together Davros and the Mekon would create a race of hideous, gigantic, carnivorous blob creatures that they would used to decimate several worlds and launch an invasion of earth. The 7th Doctor and Dan Dare working together were able to destroy most of the Mekon and Davros’ creations, though Davros subsequently fled with some of the Mekon’s equipment and would later be able to travel to the future.
A few of Davros and the Mekon’s mutants would survive however in the jungles of Venus. Whilst the Therons were able to keep their population under control, they did not wipe them out and the blobs over the years would develop a greater intelligence thanks to further, unintended mutations. They would come to live in peace with their fellow Venusians for thousands of years to come.
A descendant of the Mekon and Davros’ mutant blobs in the 31st century. Though they would come to live in peace with their fellow Venusians and other races, they still always remained a somewhat naturally aggressive species.
In the 2080s whilst exploring beyond our solar system, Dan would encounter the former despot named Xel. Whilst Dan would prevent Xel from reconquering his home world, unfortunately the monster would stow away on board Dan’s ship. The villain would make many attempts to conquer the earth, and even partnered with the Mekon on one occasion.
Dan would always stop him but he would never bring Xel to justice and he always felt immense guilt over having inadvertently brought the former tyrant to the earth’s solar system.
Xel, one of Dan Dare’s greatest enemies and the second most wanted man in the earth solar system after the Mekon.
Dan Dare’s adventures in the 21st century would come to an end in the year 2088 when he had one last encounter with the Mekon.
By this time Dan had retired from spacefleet, but he and Digby would be called back into action when the Mekon, and the last of his Treens captured a space station which they intended to crash into the earth.
Dan and Digby as ever were able to foil the Mekon’s plan, but Dan was mortally wounded and put into a coma in the process.
Whilst Digby was able to get help, sadly it was too late and there was nothing anybody could do for Dan. Not wanting to lose the greatest hero of the 21st century, Spacefleet would have Dan placed into suspend animation alongside the others in the cryo lab such as Fry until something could be done to help him. Ultimately he would remain there for close to 200 years before medical science could properly revive him.
The Mekon meanwhile was successfully captured and put on trial. Crowds of people on earth called for the monsters blood and his trial had to be conducted in secret for his own safety.
The earth authorities decided to imprison the Mekon in a cylinder at the end of the solar system. He would remain trapped there for close to one year, before the last of his loyal Treen guards were able to rescue him, by blasting the cylinder through space to an uninhabited planet far beyond the federation the earth was a part of.
The Treens would track the Mekon down and free him. Knowing they could not return to the Federation, the Mekon and the Treens would build their forces up slowly over the next few decades.
The Mekon would create a new empire covering multiple solar systems. By the mid 22nd century he would have been more than powerful enough to conquer the Federation (though the Federation was at that point ruled by the Daleks, the Mekon’s empire was actually bigger than the Dalek empire at that point too.)
However before the Mekon could launch his attack on earth, he came into conflict with a race of shapeshifting Ape like creatures known as the Krulgans.
The Krulgans had themselves built up a massive empire and were every bit as evil and ruthless as the Treens. The two races war would last for close to 100 years and would see the destruction of both empires. Once his empire had fallen, the Mekon would retreat back to the earth solar system in the late 23rd century where he would once again come into conflict with a revived Dan Dare, though more on that later.
With the Mekon gone, the federation would enjoy a period of peace for the next few decades, though it would have to deal with a few more threats towards the end of the 21st Century.
In the year 2090 a group of renegade Ice Warriors would attempt to conquer the earth using the moonbase. They were opposed by the Second Doctor who was able to divert their invasion force into the sun.
In the year 2099 an earth colony on the distant world of Vulcan would encounter a far flung group of Daleks lost in time and space.
These Daleks had been performing time travel experiments in an attempt to try and capture the Doctor. The time machine had gone off course however and crashed landed into the Mercury swamps on Vulcan.
The Daleks lost their power and went into a state of hibernation for many centuries before the earth colony discovered them.
Vulcan was the most distant earth colony and had been cut off from earth more or less for the past 15 or so years.
The colony had been experiencing problems for years thanks to a group of rebels. When the Daleks were discovered by a scientist named Lesterson, he hoped that they could be used to help fix the colonies problems.
Lesterson had no idea what the Daleks were really capable of and assumed they were just harmless robots. The Second Doctor meanwhile who had landed on Vulcan after his recent regeneration tried to warn Lesterson, but sadly he wasn’t the only person on the colony who foolishly thought they could use the Daleks.
The rebels hoped to use them as an army to overrun the colony, as did Bragan one of the higher ups on the colony who wanted more power.
The Daleks, despite the Doctors best efforts were able to manipulate the humans on the colony into giving them the materials they needed to build up a massive army of Daleks, who proceeded to slaughter most of the colonists.
Fortunately before they could exterminate everyone on the colony or make their way to the other planets in the federation, the Doctor was able to destroy the Daleks by giving them a power overload.
One Dalek survived however and would later return to Skaro in the future, where it informed its superiors of the Doctors change of appearance.
22nd Century
Humanity faces an enemy even more evil than the Mekon in the 22nd Century
One of the many advances earth would make in the early part of the 22nd century was the development of of sophisticated Holograms.
These Holograms were not only full, lifelike projections of human beings, but the disk that projected them, their light bee was capable of full consciousness. Furthermore humanity would also find a way to download a humans memories onto a hard drive in the early part of the 22nd century, meaning that once this disk was merged with the Hologram’s light bee, it could effectively allow a person to survive as a Hologram.
Only a few Hologram’s were created however as the technology was expensive. Only the super rich would be able to download their memories onto hard drives before they died. Even then however many of them did not wish to become hologram’s as they couldn’t touch one anything. Their bodies were still composed entirely of light.
Attempts were made to try and build a hard light drive, but sadly the Federation would never succeed in developing the software.
In the year 2120 a group of Elite holograms would be sent out on various deep space missions on Holoships, with their objection being to explore the universe.
12 Holoships would be created and dispatched. Almost every Hologram volunteered for the mission. On a Holoship the Holograms could eat, drink and interact with their environment as it was all simulated. Only the most elite were chosen however.
All the Holoships would become lost in deep space, but at least one was shown to have survived for 3 million years into the future, where it was still exploring. One Holoship however would be infected with the Holovirus and its crew would go completely insane and cause havoc across the universe.
During the early years of the 22nd century, for the first time mankind felt secure and safe in the universe, but sadly it was not to last.
Throughout the 22nd century mankind would be forced to battle the greatest evil it had ever faced, the Dalek Empire.
This was the original Dalek Empire, made up of Zolfian and Yarvelling’s, rather than Davros’ Daleks. They had already conquered and destroyed many worlds by this stage, including Alvega.
The Daleks first came into contact with humanity (from their perspective) in the 2110s when a stray human space ship named The Guardian accidentally wandered into the Dalek’s area of space.
The Guardian had been sent to exterminate an infestation of Krynoids on the planet Arides. When the Daleks captured the crew, they intended to exterminate them, but the Guardian’s captain Kirid was able to trick the Emperor of the Daleks by convincing him that the Krynoids were a threat to the Daleks as well.
Kirid tricks the Emperor.
The Emperor however eventually found out about Kirid’s deception and though the Guardian was able to eliminate the Krynoid infestation, the Daleks ultimately destroyed the Guardian. Kirid could have escaped the Daleks, but he willingly sacrificed himself to stop the Krynoids.
The Emperor of the Daleks took note of humanity during this encounter considering them to potentially be a threat, and the next year yet another earth vessel would stray into the Daleks territory.
The Starmaker, which unlike the Kirid was merely a cruise space ship, crash landed on Skaro after it was blown off course.
All of the crew except for Captain Fleet and two small children, Tom and Jennie were exterminated. Worst of all however the Daleks were able to discover the location of earth from the starships remains and soon made plans to claim it as their own.
Fleet did manage to escape to earth and warn humanity of the Daleks, but sadly nothing could prepare them for what was coming.
In the 2020s the Daleks would pilot their own planet into the Federations area of space. The Daleks had earlier experimented with moving worlds with the planet Skardal.
The Daleks had attached a giant motor to the molten core of Skaro effectively turning Skaro into a giant spaceship.
Upon arriving in our solar system, the Daleks would launch successful invasions of the earth colonies on Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. They attempted to launch an invasion of Venus, but the combined might of earth, the Therons and the Treens would push them back (though not without enduring heavy casualties.)
On Saturn, three siblings, Jeff, Andy and Mary Stone would succeed in starting a rebellion that drove the Daleks out of the planet.
The Daleks were able to hold off the combined might of the other worlds of the Federation and remained in the earth solar system for 10 years. This period became known as the first Dalek war, and it saw the deaths of over 15 billion people from the combined worlds against the Daleks.
Earth had many notable victories against the Daleks such as when the Stone siblings where able to infiltrate Skaro and discovered the plans for many of their weapons.
However the Daleks ultimately won out and would have invaded and destroyed the earth and indeed the entire Federation had it not been for the intervention of the Time Lady Romana. Then in her 5th incarnation, Romana helped the Stones prevent the Daleks from using their ultimate weapon, the Giostrak ray.
The Giostrak ray specifically attacked the molten core of each world. Whilst the Daleks had the upper hand in the war, they knew that they didn’t have the power to conquer each world, and so they decided to cleanse the entire galaxy of life. The Giostrak rays were invisible to the human eye, but they could travel across space and they would heat the core of a world to such an extent that they would eventually explode. The Daleks used them to destroy dozens of worlds in the Federation, and wreck havoc on various others including earth.
Humanity even surrendered to the Daleks, with their ray causing mass earthquakes and volcanoes to erupt, but the Daleks continued to fire the ray.
Fortunately with Romana’s help the last tiny pocket of resistance were able to break into Skaro and destroy the weapon. Sadly both Jeff and Andy were killed in the process.
The Giostrak ray had taken decades to build and furthermore before its destruction, Romana had used the ray to attack the core of Skaro itself causing volcano’s and earthquakes to devastate the entire planet.
The Daleks were in no state to take on the combined forces of the Federation so they fled our galaxy.
Romana 5 saves humanity from the Daleks in the early 22nd century.
The Dalek Invasion
The darkest period of human history begins.
The Great Dalek War had devastated the Federation, but by 2050 mankind and the other worlds had begun to recover. Sadly however so had the Daleks.
The Daleks had found another way to conquer worlds without actually attacking them directly. Chemical warfare.
During their war with humanity the Daleks had taken several human prisoners. These poor souls had sadly not been rescued during the final attack on Skaro and the metal monsters would continue to experiment on their captives for decades to come.
They attempted to turn some of their captive humans into slaves by mutating their bodies. They created several hideous flesh eating monsters who were conditioned to be totally loyal to the Daleks.
The Daleks would also perform horrific experiments on their human prisoners brains. They wiped their minds and cut pieces of their brains out, turning them into mindless drones, called Robomen. Unlike their mutant servants, the Robomen were unstable and would break down regularly. Still they could last for several months and would be useful foot soldiers for the Daleks.
Worst of all however the Daleks would create a powerful plague from experimenting on their human captives.
The Daleks knew that any missiles would be shot down, so they hid their plague inside a shower of small meteorites which they fired at the earth.
The plague quickly spread throughout the earth and to its outer colonies. Earth and its colonies soon became quarrantined by the rest of the Federation, as all of the worlds desperately struggled to find a cure. The plague however would still spread to the planets beyond the earth’s area of space in the Federation to the point where only the outer worlds of the Federation were able to remain safe.
Two groups of humans however were able to escape the devastation of their world. These humans were chosen as part of a project in order to make sure that humanity would survive in case no cure was found. Several thousand uninfected humans were to be kept in suspended animation (as the journey would take over a century) in two ships that would travel to a far away galaxy known as the Isera Galaxy.
As much as the Federation wanted to help humanity, they couldn’t risk the plague getting loose in the universe, and so they tried to stop the vessels from escaping the earth. In the fight where several brave earth men gave their lives against both the Daleks and the Federation, the vessels would manage to escape the galaxy. One of the two ships was badly damaged however and would drift off course for over three million years with its crew in suspended animation.
The other ship would make its way to the Isera Galaxy. Neither the Federation, nor the Daleks knew where the vessel was going, and they were too busy with other more important matters to follow it. No one would ever venture into the Isera Galaxy as it was dead and of no value to any other race. Even strategically it was too remote.
Thus when the humans arrived there 100 years later in the 23rd century they would be able to establish several colonies in peace from any alien life. Their terrorforming equipment allowed them to bring life to the dead worlds of the Isera Galaxy and make the planets habitable again.
Over the centuries they would spent in the Isera Galaxy, myths would develop around the earth. Only a few historical records survived, and gradually as mankind failed to encounter any alien life in the dead Isera Galaxy, many came to believe that the Daleks were a myth and that mankind had simply left the earth due to overpopulation.
The hundreds of earth colonies in the Isera Galaxy would later be united under the alliance of planets in the 24th century, though 200 years later this would lead to a civil war with the Browncoats attempting to gain independence for their worlds. The war which lasted for ten years ended in a victory for the Alliance, though there would be still be several supporters for independence, such as most notably Malcolm Reynolds, the captain of the ship Serenity.
The Alliance would endure for several hundred years until it would be rediscovered by the earth in the 29th century and became part of the earth empire.
The vessel that drifted 3 million years into deep space meanwhile eventually collided with an asteroid which damaged the preservation chambers, reviving the crew.
These humans 3 million years into the future would build an empire in deep space cut off from the rest of humanity. They would create various mutants, Mechanoids and robots known as Simulants in Deep Space to serve them. (They would also continue to develop Hologram techonology, eventually cracking the secret of a hard light drive.)
After 1000 or so years however the Simulants and the Gelfs would overthrow their human masters and slaughter most of them as well as most other life forms in that Galaxy, though we will be covering this period of human history in a greater detail later.
The Daleks quickly launched their invasion at the Federation once it had become scattered and weak thanks to their plague.
The last of humanity on earth would eventually discover a cure to the plague mere weeks before the final Dalek invasion of the earth in the year 2167, but by that point humanity had endured so many casualties that they were in no position to take on the Daleks.
All of the earth colonies were either destroyed or under the Daleks rule by this stage, as were most other worlds in the Federation apart from those on the very outskirts who had mounted an effective defence against the Daleks.
Attempts were made by the surviving planets on the outskirts of the Federation to reach the earth and gain access to the cure so that they could then fight the Daleks, but sadly as the Daleks had conquered the rest of the Federation, then every Federation ship that tried to make it to the earth was shot down.
Monster World was right within the outskirts of the Federation and so the Federation would attempt to use the likes of Godzilla, King Kong, Jirass and Anguirus to fight back against the Daleks. They had a few victories at first, but the Daleks would soon create giant monsters of their own by fusing several of their mutations together. They also mutated several of the giant Dinosaur like creatures on their world.
Godzilla and the rest of earth’s monsters were eventually defeated by the Daleks and their army of giant monsters. Godzilla slaughtered hundreds of the Daleks and their mutations, but ultimately there too many of them for the monsters to fight. The Daleks weapons were far more advanced than any other race of aliens Godzilla had ever faced and could hurt the monsters too. Some of earth’s monsters would be slaughtered by the Daleks.
Godzilla, Jirass, King Kong, Anguirus, Rodan and Gorosaurus would subsequently be used to help defend the last planets in the Federation.
Within Earth’s solar system meanwhile, the Mercurians would be easily conquered by the Daleks, whilst the Therons and the Treens managed to place a gigantic forcefield around Venus. The forcefield kept the Daleks out, but sadly the Therons and the Treens were not strong enough to take the Daleks on either. The Daleks war fleet dwarfed the Treens and the Therons combined.
Still the Treens and the Therons did at first try and fight the Daleks off when they launched their first direct attack on the earth, but they were hopelessly outnumbered.
Sondar, who still commanded over the Treens at this point in their history personally led the attack against the Dalek fleet, but after his entire garrison was destroyed he was forced to flee. Unable to return to Venus as the forcefield was placed almost immediately after the Treen and Theron fleet lost. Sondar would be forced to go on the run for the next decade.
Sondar would amass a group of rebels from conquered planets and colonies all over the Federation. They would cause trouble for the Daleks, and even manage to ship supplies of humanities cure to the still free outskirts of the Federation.
Sadly however the Daleks would eventually within the first 12 years of their rule over earth and the other worlds in the Federation, track the rebels down and kill them all except for Sondar who managed to escape thanks to the actions of the 12th Doctor, who Sonder would then join on his journey’s through time and space for many years.
As much as they couldn’t bare it the Treens and the Therons were forced to remain trapped on Venus for the next few decades, watching helplessly as humanity suffered under the Daleks rule.
The Daleks laid waste to most of earth’s cities in their final attack on earth. London, Paris, Rome, and New York were completely devastated by the Daleks saucers.
The Daleks lay waste to New York. After the Mekon invasion of earth, New York was made the location of the new earth government with its retro design, and as result it was one of the first cities to be destroyed by the Daleks. Once again the cryogenics lab was spared, as the Daleks wished to use the humans as test subjects. Fry and Captain Dan were among the lucky few to survive by chance.
Before the Dalek invasion the population of earth was at the highest it would ever be. Over 70 billion people lived on the earth. On all of the earth colonies combined meanwhile, there were over 400 billion people. After the Dalek invasion however less than 100 million humans survived overall and that number would drop over the next 30 years the Daleks would rule over earth and the other planets in the Federation to barely over 10 million.
The Cosmobes would also be almost driven to extinction by the Daleks. Being more advanced than mankind they put up a better fight than humanity, but the Daleks would destroy the civilisation they had built under the ocean.
They would continue to send troops under the water to hunt for surviving Cosmobes throughout the rest of their time on earth. Only a very few Cosmobes would manage to survive.
A Dalek emerges from a river after hunting a Cosmobe in the later years of their occupation of earth.
One group of Cosmobes managed to set up a sanctuary under the ocean for humans. This city was built from the ruins of city called Atlanta. The Daleks had sunk into the ocean during their attack.
In order to survive under the ocean the Cosmobes would fuse their DNA with the humans giving them the appearance of Mermaids.
The humans would continue to live in Atlanta safe from the Daleks (with the city being at the very bottom of the ocean floors.) After the Dalek invasion when the Cosmobes would decide to flee earth, the “Mermaids” would continue to live in Atlanta until the 31st century. During that time however several legends would develop about how the city had survived
The Daleks only kept that tiny percentage of humans alive because they found humanity to be the most useful servants and lab rats. It was easier for the Daleks to mould the DNA of humans, allowing the Daleks to turn them into their mutant servants, and reshape their bodies in other ways that made them more useful slaves and foot soldiers in their wars with other races.
Other races however who they couldn’t mutate as easily, and who were deemed too troublesome, the Daleks simply exterminated. The Daleks whenever they invaded a planet would always evaluate the dominant race. If they could be of use as a slave labour force, or as grunts to use in later wars, or if their planets were of any use then they would be kept alive for the time being, but if not, then the Daleks would completely destroy the surface of the planet completely.
Humanity simply lucked out in that not only were they useful test subjects for the Daleks, but the earth also had many natural resources that were of use to them too.
There were over 600 worlds with life on them in the area of the Federation the Daleks conquered (including all of the colonies.) Only 20 including the earth would remain by the end of their 30 year rule.
The Daleks conquer humanity by launching a plague which decimates the Federation, except for the outer colonies. After fending off the Therons and the Treens who are forced to retreat to Venus, a weakened Earth is then easily overrun by the Dalek invasion force.
Rule of the Daleks
The darkest days for mankind.
For the next 30 years the Daleks would rule over the earth and the other worlds in the Federation.
The conquest of the Federation had helped to expand the Dalek empire like never before. Prior to their war with humanity the first Dalek empire had managed to claim a few solar systems of isolated planets, but this marked the first time they had brought down a major power in the galaxy. The Daleks would subsequently expand over the next 30 years to claim more solar systems and a few smaller empires.
Earth along with most of the planets they had conquered were turned into giant factories at first to create weapons, more Daleks, and more mutant servants.
A gigantic lab was built over the ruins of New York where the Daleks continued to mutate more humans into monsters to serve them in their war against other life forms.
After 10 or so years of experiments, the Dalek scientists would create a horrific form of green slime which would twist the human body into a hideous mutated form. Not all of these mutants were powerful however, and those who were of no use to the Daleks would be vaporised.
In the year 2180 a resistance group would destroy the Daleks lab over New York. It wouldn’t set the Daleks back by much as they had other facilities on the other earth colonies the Daleks had conquered.
Still the mutanagenic slime was not destroyed. It would sip into the sewers and ruins of old New York below. Not all of the Daleks mutants were destroyed either and many of them would retreat to the ruins of old New York to escape the Daleks. Over the next almost two decades of the Daleks rule more survivors would come to live under New York to escape the Dalek. These humans would be abducted by the mutants and dipped into the Daleks slime which came to flow through the ruins like a river. Just as the mutants were shunned by humanity then the mutants came to despise all normal people and would only allow them to enter the sewers if they were mutants.
The mutants would survive for hundreds of years after the Dalek invasion below New New York that would be built over the ruins of the old one. Over time they would become a more peaceful people and develop a thriving society. Their existence would be discovered by the surface world in the 27th century by the government who would regard them as inferior scum. It wouldn’t be until the 31st century however when they were finally granted equal rights and able to live on the surface thanks to the actions of Turanga Leela (a sewer mutant who had lived on the surface for her entire life as she had passed as an alien.)
The sewer mutants in the 31st century, the descendants of the mutants created by the Daleks in the 22nd century.
The Daleks would force the rest of their human slaves to mine the earth for materials and resources to build more weapons and space ships. Aside from creating mutants to police their camps, the Daleks would create more Robomen.
During the middle of the Daleks rule over the Federation, they came into serious conflict with the Mechanoids. (Who they had had a few more minor skirmishes with before.)
The Mechanoids were a race of highly advanced robots from a far away star system. They had been created by a galactic union of worlds to store information about the entire history of their galaxy (and many others that their creators had visited.)
The Mechanoids were essentially mini libraries that could hold a virtually unlimited amount of information. Unfortunately the Mechanoids would develop sentience and armed with the knowledge of the entire galaxy, they were able to take control of it in no time, and from there they would build a massive empire.
The Mechanoids believed in conquest as after learning the history of various worlds they had become fascinated with how some races were able to conquer others and relive their burdens through them. The Mechanoids wanted that power for themselves and they believed having studied the history of so many empires that they could avoid their mistakes.
The Mechanoids first came into conflict with the Daleks during the early days of the Daleks empire. The Mechanoids had the obvious advantage technologically speaking, but the Daleks were soon able to become a match for the Mechanoids as they slowly built their empire up. A war almost broke out between them. Both races however decided on an uncharacteristic truce until one could gain an advantage.
With the Dalek empire now having gained a huge advantage in the conquest of the Federation, the Daleks launched an attack against the Mechanoids. The Daleks had the advantage at first, but the Mechanoids were able to form an alliance with the surviving outer planets of the Federation and various other powers, many of whom had become terrified of the Daleks after the destruction of the Federation.
The Daleks soon found themselves outmatched against such a large alliance. In desperation they turned to the planet earth itself. The Daleks intended to remove its core completely and replace it with a giant motor and death ray attached, one capable of vaporising an entire planet. They had been working on this ray for decades, before the monsters had even conquered the earth.
Our planet was to become the greatest weapon of the Daleks, allowing them to destroy the Mechanoids and their allies and spread their empire even further across the universe.
There were still some small human resistance groups scattered around the earth that had caused some minor trouble for the Daleks over the course of the 30 years they had ruled the earth.
By the year 2197 however, almost all of these resistance groups had either been crushed or given up. All hope for humanity seemed lost.
The Fall of the Daleks
“They dare to tamper with the forces of creation. They dare, and we have got to dare to stop them.”
In late 2197, as the Daleks were preparing to finish turning the earth into their super weapon, their greatest enemy, the Doctor would arrive on earth.
The Doctor was in his first incarnation, and was actually intending to take his two human companions Ian and Barbara back to their time in 60s London. Sadly as always, his unpredictable time machine had taken him too far into the future.
The Doctor and his companions explored the ruins of London, but whilst the Doctor and Ian were examining the corpse of a Roboman, Barbara and Susan were abducted by possibly the final resistance group in all of Britain.
They told Barbara and Susan that it was not safe out on the streets as the Dalek and Robomen patrols were searching for survivors. Sadly before they realised the danger they were in the Doctor and Ian were captured by the Daleks.
Back at the saucer, the Doctor and Ian found out to their horror how the Daleks had conquered humanity. The Doctor would attempt to escape from the Daleks clutches, but the monsters were testing him and monitoring the Time Lord to see if he was a threat, and as soon as the Doctor got out of his cell the Daleks instantly ambushed and prepared to robotize the Time Lord.
The last group of rebels meanwhile were preparing to launch their final attack on the saucer. The rebels were led by a man named Dortmun, a scientist who for years had attempted to build a weapon that could harm the Daleks. He believed he had finally constructed a weapon that could shatter their casing, a new kind of bomb.
Sadly the bomb ultimately had no affect against the Daleks, but the rebel attack that night created enough of a diversion for the rebels to rescue some of the prisoners including the Doctor just before the Daleks could robotize him.
The rebels however were completely demoralized by the failed attack and many of them gave up, whilst others had were scattered across London after the attack to escape the Dalek and Robomen troops.
Only Barbara and a young girl named Jennie were able to return to the rebels HQ where they would try and help the crippled Dortmun escape through the Dalek infested London. Sadly however Dortmun, believing he was holding the girls back, sacrificed himself against the Daleks.
Barbara, Dortmun and Jennie try and escape a Dalek infested London.
Barbara and Jennie would make it to the countryside, but they would later be sold out by Dalek collaborators and taken to the camps.
Ian meanwhile after the attack on the saucer had managed to stow away on the Dalek saucer, alongside another rebel. The two made it to the main Dalek camp, where after an encounter with the Black Daleks most vicious pet mutant, the Slyther, Ian was able to climb up the Daleks main shaft to their base.
At the same time Barbara tricked the Daleks into taking her to their base to meet the Black Dalek, by claiming that she knew of a rebel plot to attack them (she used Dortmun’s old plans for his bomb as proof.)
Whilst in their base, Barbara would discover the Daleks key weakness. They controlled all of their robomen with a single speaker in their headquarters. Barbara tried to take control of it and give the robomen new orders to turn on the Daleks, but sadly she failed and was captured again.
The Doctor meanwhile, working with Susan and a small group of rebels figured out what the Daleks were planning and sent Susan and a rebel named David to tamper with the Daleks main power source.
The Doctor knew from his previous experience with the Daleks that monsters couldn’t leave their metal city without the power dishes on their back. Susan and David were able to sabotage the Daleks power source, causing the Dalek machines to break down all over the world, whilst the Doctor with the aid of the rebels infiltrated the Daleks base and rescued Barbara. The Doctor would then give the robomen new orders to turn on and destroy the Daleks.
All over the world robomen started to attack the now vulnerable Daleks. Several of the Daleks human slaves in the camps also seized the opportunity and joined in attacking their former masters.
Whilst the Daleks were being slaughtered by their own servants, Ian who had managed to crawl up the shaft they had intended to send their bomb down into the earth’s core, blocked up the shaft.
When the bomb went off it destroyed the Dalek headquarters, with the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan having managed to get the slaves to safety first.
Most of the Daleks were killed in the blast that consumed the headquarters, whilst the few survivors around the world were killed off by their own robomen, or died as a result of their power being sabotaged by Susan and David.
Mankind was free for the first time in 30 years thanks to the Doctors actions. Whilst the Doctor, Ian and Barbara prepared to leave, Susan had fallen in love with David during their adventure against the Daleks, and the Doctor, not wanting to stand in his grand daughters way. Told her to stay with David and build a new life on earth, her favourite planet before leaving in the TARDIS.
After saving humanity from the Daleks, the Doctor bids Susan farewell.
With the Daleks plans to transform humanity into a weapon gone, the Daleks were forced to retreat from the Mechanoids and their allies. The weaponized earth was their last hope, and now they were completely outnumbered by their enemies. The Daleks retreated back to Skaro which in turn fled to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. The Daleks original empire had almost been almost completely destroyed.
23rd Century
Over the course of the 23rd century mankind would rebuild his devastated planet. It would take over 70 years for humanity to rebuild its cities and develop fully functioning societies again.
Mankind was assisted in rebuilding by the other surviving races of the Federation, their allies and also the Therons and the Treens who felt guilty at not being able to help the earth from the Daleks during their rule.
Life on Venus had been hard during the Dalek’s rule. Many of the Treens had come to blame the Therons for their predicament arguing that if they had still been under the Mekon’s rule then they would have been strong enough to fight the Daleks and defeat them.
This would eventually lead to a civil war on the Treens side of the planet between the Mekon loyalists who believed they should try and find their former leader to lead them into battle against the Daleks, and those who still wanted to work with the Therons. The war killed millions of Treens and devastated entire cities, with the Theron loyal Treens eventually winning out.
In addition to this it took so much energy to power the forcefield that protected Venus from the Daleks, that there was very little power left over for anything else, forcing the Therons and the Treens to scrape on very few resources.
Overpopulation on Venus prior to the Dalek invasion of earth also meant that Venus had become dependent on trade from other worlds which resulted in a mass starvation on the planet too.
Although they hadn’t been invaded by the Daleks themselves, Venus was still left utterly devastated as a result of the Dalek invasion of the solar system, with 100s of millions of Therons and Treens having died from the combination of the wars and famine.
Venus would need help itself to recover, but still even in its most desperate times, it would still supply aid to the earth in order to make up for its past inaction.
Susan would also play a key role in helping the earth rebuild. Her advanced Time Lord intellect helped humanity to develop terrorforming equipment far more advanced than before. Susan eventually married David and had two children with him in the early part of the 23rd century, John and Gillian.
As John and Gillian were half Time Lord then they aged much slower than any human would, and so their father passed on before they were even teenagers. The two were still teenagers in the 2270s, despite being born in the early 23rd century.
In addition to help from other species, some pieces of technology from the Daleks had been left on the earth and other worlds after their invasion, and it would be salvaged and used to not only rebuild humanity, but advance it in some respects to greater levels than ever before by the 2270s.
The Mechanoids meanwhile were left devastated after the war with the Daleks. It would be their former allies however who would turn on the Mechanoids afterwards that would completely destroy their empire.
The various races who had worked with the Mechanoids and the surviving worlds of the Federation against the Daleks, knew that the Mechanoids were an evil, pitiless race of conquerors in some ways no better than the Daleks.
With the Mechanoids now at the weakest they had ever been, the allied planets didn’t want to waste a golden opportunity to eliminate this potential threat and so they turned on and attacked the Mechnoids. Completely unprepared and weak, the allied worlds were able to destroy what was left of the Mechanoids empire in no time and the few surviving Mechanoids would be forced to flee across the universe to try and rebuild.
One group of Mechanoids would come to settle on a jungle planet. These Mechanoids would later capture a stray a human named Steven Talyor in the early 24th century who had crashed onto their adopted planet (dubbed Mechanus.)
The Mechanoids would keep Steven Taylor prisoner for several years and perform various experiments on him in an effort to try and create a weapon to use against not just humanity but humanoid life forms in general. They managed to master several mind control techniques and even planted false memories in Steven’s head of the Mechanoids being simple service robots.
Steven would later be rescued when the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki arrived on Mechanus. The foursome were being chased through time and space by the Daleks (these Daleks were from a later point in their history after they had discovered time travel.)
The Daleks and the Mechanoids would fight one another whilst Steven managed to slip out. The Doctor left behind a bomb which destroyed the entire Mechanoid city on the planet, killing all of the Daleks and Mechanoids.
The new Federation would be made up of the survivors of the old Federation and their former allies against the Daleks who together made up a larger power than the previous Federation ever was.
At first humanity was a small influence in this Federation but that would change over the next century.
In the early 2270s, Dan Dare would be revived from his cryogenic suspension. Thanks to the influence from various other worlds, humanity now had the technology to treat his injuries, though in order to do that they had to reconstruct his entire face, giving Dan a totally different appearance from before.
Captain Dan’s new appearance after the reconstructive surgery.
Dan Dare was revived more as a piece of propaganda than anything else. The new global government that had seized power after the Dalek invasion hoped that Dan, seen as the icon of the greatest era in human history could help win the people round.
From the start however this plan would backfire on them. Dan frequently clashed with this government that was far more ruthless and xenophobic as a result of the Dalek invasion. Still throughout most of the 2270s, Dan would nevertheless serve them in the battle against the Daleks.
Skaro had been forced to flee across the universe from the new Federation who wanted to crush the Daleks power completely. It eventually settled in a distant galaxy where the Daleks would begin to build up a small power base. However one of the races the Daleks had conquered would send out a distress signal that would be picked up by the Federation who were able to surround and corner the Daleks.
The Daleks were outmatched by the new Federation, but they were able to build up a strong defence against them. The war waged on for a few years, and the Daleks came close to developing a weapon that would have allowed them to destroy the Federation.
The weapon was designed to control the magnetic field in the milky way galaxy which would have allowed the Daleks to rip apart space ships and even planets from a distance.
The monsters had been working on the weapon on Skaro for many centuries, even before the end of their invasion of earth.
Captain Dan and the Doctors grand daughter Susan would working together, succeed in destroying the weapon (though not before the Daleks were able to use it to devastate several worlds in the Federation.)
Susan had become disenchanted with the new earth government like Dan, but she still agreed to help them as the Daleks were obviously a greater evil.
After the Daleks super weapon was destroyed, Susan and Dan would be hailed as heroes back home. Sadly the earth government would attempt to capture Susan and her two children. It hoped to discover what type of alien Susan was for its own purposes.
The earth government would perform several horrific experiments on Susan, but Captain Dan would rescue her and together they would free her children before exposing what was going on to the general public. The government would deny all responsibility, and those responsible were seemingly arrested (though in truth they would continue to work for the government for decades afterwards.)
Susan decided to flee into deep space. She wasn’t scared for her own safety, but had to put her children first. Dan understood and he only stayed behind to try and expose more of the government’s dodgy dealings.
Susan and her children would leave the Federation and explore the universe for many years, but sadly she and her children would later be attacked by Daleks who had travelled from the future (See part 2 of the history of N-Space for full details.)
The short war with the Daleks eventually came to an end in the year 2277, when the Daleks were attacked from within by an old enemy, the Thals.
The Thals had been forced underground by the Daleks many centuries ago just before the metal monsters had begun to build up their empire. The Thals had waited underground for the right time to strike, and now with all of the Daleks efforts spent simply defending themselves from the Federation, the Thals were able to strike at the monsters city. Catching them off guard they destroyed the Daleks main power source, causing all of their machines to break down.
The Daleks were put into a state of suspended animation. Back on earth there was almost a universal support for the Daleks to be exterminated whilst they were vulnerable. Ultimately the other worlds in the Federation did not want to carry out a genocide, and so they instead simply quarrantined Skaro off to prevent anyone from ever reactivating the Daleks.
The Thals meanwhile would try and rebuild the surface of their world.
The Biogs Invasion and The Mekon’s Return
In 2279 earth would be invaded by a race of hostile alien monsters known as the Biogs. The Biogs originated from the planet Zicron and their machines and weapons were made of flesh. They travelled the universes assimilating other creatures into their technology. They were commanded by the Mother Biog.
The monsters were directed to the earth by Dan Dare’s old archenemy, the Mekon. The Mekon’s empire had by this point crumbled and the monster sought to make the Federation its new base of operations.
The Mekon hoped that the Biogs would be destroyed by the combined forces of the Federation, but not before greatly weakening them, allowing the Mekon and his Treens to then emerge and take over in the aftermath.
The first planet in the Federation that the Mekon directed the Biogs to was the earth for no reason other than simply because of his intense hatred for mankind. (The Mekon had no idea that Dan had been revived at this point.)
The Biogs would set up their base on Jupiter which they prepared to attack the earth from. Dan however would be the first to discover its presence after losing a ship to the Biogs. At the time the head of the Space Corps accused Dan of losing the men through his own incompetence. They did not believe that there could be any life on Jupiter. They also did not particularly like or trust Dan, even with his status as a hero after foiling the Daleks with Susan. Dan Dare constantly questioned the Space Corp and the earth government’s methods. The head of the Space Corps was really looking for any excuse to get rid of Dan.
Dan would stow away on board another vessel passing by Jupiter called the Odyssey. which was piloted by a 5th generation Martian named Monday. Monday’s people were the descendants of the original earth colonists on Mars from the 21st century. Their colonies had been destroyed during the Dalek Invasion of Earth along with most of the of the rest of the earth colonies.
A few of the human settlers on Mars however had managed to survive on the planets surface (which had long since had oxygen restored to it.) But they would be forced to live a desperate and nomadic existence throughout the years of the Dalek occupation of earth. In the last 70 years they had managed to rebuild, but centuries of living on Mars had altered their bodies somewhat to be larger and stronger.
Monday discovered Dan not long after they had taken off, but fortunately the Martian was more open minded than those in the Space Corps and he took Dan’s warning seriously.
Dan and Monday, working together would battle the Biogs, but the monsters proved to be too powerful, and all of Monday’s crew but Dan, Monday, and Doctor Ziggy Rodan were devoured by the mutants.
The Space Corp would send a fleet to try and destroy the monsters, but they were all effortlessly destroyed by the Biogs.
Monday however would manage to pilot the Odyssey straight into the heart of the Biogs mothership which managed to force it into the sun. Sadly however Monday was unable to escape in time and he too was consumed in the sun.
Monday bravely sacrifices himself to save the earth from the evil Biogs.
Back on earth Space Corps refused to reinstate Dan, or even acknowledge he been right about Jupiter, much to Doctor Rodan’s anger. Doctor Rodan and Dan would begin a relationship with each other that would last for a few more years until her apparent death.
Dan had suspected that the Biogs had been led to earth and with the help of a Werewolf named Rok he was able to track down the true culprit, the Mekon.
After the failure of the Biogs invasion, the Mekon had teamed up with the notorious Two of Verath.
The Two of Verath were two of the worst criminals in the galaxy who were fused together as a punishment. Prior to being joined together, the two were sworn enemies.
One was a sadistic mass murderer, and another was a ruthless eugenicist. The two had since taken over a planet on the outskirts of the Federation where the worst criminals and the scum of the galaxy came to live.
The Mekon and the Two formed an alliance to disrupt the Federation’s economy, throwing it into anarchy, but in truth the Mekon attempted to double cross the Two. He hypnotised the Two, and implanted a bomb into their chest, capable of destroying a planet. (It was the last of the super weapons the Treen empire had developed in their war with the Krulgans.)
The Mekon intended to send the Two to attack the dominant race of the Federation’s home planet, where once they killed the Two, the bomb would go off. With the head of the Federation destroyed, the Mekon believed that it would throw the Federation into anarchy and allow him to take control in the aftermath.
The Two of Verath.
Dan and Rok were able to make their way to the Two’s headquarters. Whilst they were able to discover the Mekon’s plan, they were not able to stop him from hypnotising the Two.
The Mekon at first did not recognise his old enemy, but after scanning his mind he discovered the truth and tried to feed Dan Dare to maggots!
The Mekon and Dan Dare meet for the first time in almost 200 years.
Dan however was able to escape with Rok’s help but they were too late to stop the hypnotised Two from making their way to the planet. However the Mekon had greatly underestimated the inhabitants of the planet who were able to free the Two from the Mekon’s mind control and send them back to the Mekon.
Dan would subsequently form an alliance with the Two to destroy the Mekon. The Mekon saw through their ruse however and tried to murder the Two. To the former rule of the Treens surprise however, he discovered that the criminals on the Two’s adopted planet were genuinely loyal to the Two and defended him from the Mekon.
In order to escape the Dare, Rok, the Two and the hordes of criminals out for his blood, the Mekon literally tore the small planet apart.
Dan and Rok were able to escape, whilst the Mekon placed a forcefield around himself to survive. The Two however quickly threw themselves into the Mekon’s forcefield in time and survived the planets destruction.
The Mekon and the Two of Verath were left floating in space together. Both wanted to kill the other, but sadly neither could for now. If the Mekon killed the Two he would explode, whilst if the Two killed the Mekon the forcefield would collapse and he would be killed by the vaccum of space. The two villains agreed to call it a truce for now.
The Mekon’s forcefield would eventually make its way into the Federation’s missile silo in space. The two villains were quickly abducted by the Federation security, but the Two was able to turn the tables on their captors by threatening to shoot himself which would have set the missiles off, destroy the neighbouring solar systems.
With no choice the Federation were forced to surrender their missiles to the Mekon and the Two who would use them to devastate several worlds in the Federation as a demonstration of what would happen if the rest of the Federation defied them.
Dan, Doctor Rodan and Rok working together would be able to foil the Mekon and the Two’s plans. Doctor Rodan was able to shut down the bomb with a special signal that scrambled its circuits, whilst Dan and Rok were able to drive the Mekon and Rok from the Missile silo (fighting past the Federation’s robots that the Mekon and the Two had taken control of in the Missile Silo.)
The Mekon and the Two would be forced to go on the run again.
They would eventually be found by some of the few surviving Treens from the Mekon’s old empire. Though he now had the upper hand Mekon did not kill the Two. As much as they despised one another the Mekon and the Two realised that they were of use to one another for now. The Two had connections via criminals all over the Federation that would be of use to the Mekon and his Treens.
The scientific side of the Two alongside the Mekon would create a virus that attacked Rok’s people. The race of Werewolves Rok belonged too had spent centuries controlling their bloodthirsty urges unlike other Werewolves across the universe which was why they had been fully integrated into the Federation. The Mekon and the Two’s virus however was like rabies in that it completely drove the Wolves mad causing them to degenerate into animals, savagely attacking one another and various other life forms across the Federation, spreading the curse of Lycanthropy further. The Mekon contacted the leaders of Rok’s people and said that they would give them the cure as long as they handed Dan, Rok and Doctor Rodan over to them.
With no other choice the Federation would attempt to capture Dan, Rok and Rodan (whilst still trying to find a cure on their own, and capture the Mekon.)
Fortunately Dan, Rodan and Rok would find a sample of the Mekon’s virus which the earth government were able to derive a cure from (they also discovered that the Mekon did not have a cure himself.)
The Mekon and the Two would next track down the last of the Cosmobes that had fled to the outskirts of the galaxy during the Dalek invasion.
These Cosmobes were derided by the rest of the Federation as cowards and traitors and were generally seen as second class citizens and even shunned by most of its other inhabitants.
The Mekon would ally himself with one of the Cosmobes who was desperate to make the rest of the Federation pay. The Mekon and the rogue Cosmobe would together create a weapon that could dry up all of the waters on each world. The weapon had been invented by the Cosmobes at an early point in their history when they like many other races warred with each other. Whilst the weapon had long since been demolished, the rogue Cosmobe however believed he could rediscover the formula and with the Mekon’s help he managed too.
The Two’s various criminal connections allowed the villains to deposit this weapon on various worlds around the Federation leading to a massive loss of life. Fortunately however Dan, Rodan and Rok, working with the Cosmobes, tracked down the Mekon and destroyed the weapon. The rogue Cosmobe would be betrayed by the Mekon who abandoned him to be captured.
Over the next few years, Dan, Rodan and Rok would continue to track down the Mekon and the Two’s criminal minions and enterprises all over the entire Federation and shut them down before finally facing the Two and the Mekon at their headquarters.
In the confrontation the villain’s headquarters were destroyed and both Doctor Rodan and the Two were seemingly killed in the explosion, whilst the Mekon and his few surviving Treens fled into deep space.
Dan was left utterly devastated at Rodan’s death and with the Mekon gone, he now lacked a purpose and would spend the next few years in solitude whilst Rok returned to his people.
In truth however Doctor Rodan and the Two had survived. They had managed as the base was blowing apart to escape into a capsule which was then blown off course and drifted outside the Federation’s reach to a primitive planet.
At first the Two and Rodan would be forced to work together to survive on this hostile world. They would later be captured by one of the two civilisations on the planet, the Grystroks, a ruthless war like people who the Two was only happy to serve (and eventually took control of.)
Rodan meanwhile would flee the Grystroks and aid the race they were persecuting, the peaceful Lias for the next decade.
Revival of the Daleks
In the year 2285, an earth prison ship named the Starfinder would crash land on Skaro near the abandoned city of the Daleks.
The ship contained two prisoners, one of whom named Ladiver had been arrested for breaking the quarantine and visiting Skaro a few years prior.
Not long after the ship crashed, the Daleks were reactivated by a member of the crew and began to slaughter them one by one.
The captain of the vessel, Redaway initially believed that Ladiver was the traitor, but the two were quickly forced to work together to fight off the Daleks. Redaway was eventually captured by the Daleks however who brutally tortured him to death.
Redaway is tortured by the Daleks. During the torture session he was able to discover the identity of the real traitor. Sadly though Ladiver was able to rescue Redaway, he died of his wounds before he could tell Ladiver the truth.
Ladiver soon discovered that the traitor was in fact a member of the crew rather than a prisoner, Bob Slater who hoped to use the Daleks as his army to conquer the Federation.
Slater had reactivated the Daleks using several devices that he placed on their backs. If the Daleks disobeyed him then he could simply deactivate them again. The Daleks pretended to be docile servants for Slater, but in secret they were able to reconnect their power source.
Slater watched in horror as the devices fell off the Daleks backs and his former “servants” turned on and killed him.
The Daleks prepared to begin their war against the Federation again, but Ladiver was able to escape their city and warn the Thals. The reason Ladiver had visited Skaro was to be with his lover, a Thal woman named Ijanya, who he had helped defeat the Daleks years ago.
Whilst Ladiver distracted the Daleks, Ijanya was able to deactivate the monsters power source, putting them out of action once again. Before he was put into a state of suspended animation, the Black Dalek vowed Ladiver that they would return.
The Daleks are shut down a second time by the Thals.
The survivors of the Starfinder would return to earth, where Ladiver would be pronounced dead, allowing him to stay on Skaro with Ijanya.
Sadly Ladiver and Ijanya’s life together would not be a happy one. A few years after the defeat of the Daleks Skaro would be invaded by a race known as the Moroks. The Moroks were an emerging space power from just outside the Federation.
They conquered Skaro relatively easily. At first the Federation attempted to defend Skaro in case the Moroks tried to reactivate the Daleks. The Moroks however soon made an alliance with the Federation. The Moroks would destroy the Daleks and conquer the Thals if the Federation left them alone.
The heads of the Federation agreed. By this stage earth and various other races who had suffered under the Daleks had gained a greater influence in the Federation and they had no trouble with exterminating the Daleks.
They had still been prevented however from doing so by the Thals who did not want to carry out a genocide. Even though the Federation were far more powerful than the Thals, they did not wish to set a dangerous precedent of larger powers imposing their will on smaller planets.
However the Moroks who were seen as evil conquerors could do the Federation’s dirty work for them and wipe out the Daleks after which they would “negotiate” a peace treaty for the public.
Ladimer was given a warning by a friend of his in the Federation that the Moroks would invade and humanity would be happy to let them have the Thals.
With no other choice, Ladimer and Ijanya would lead a team to rescue the Daleks from the city. The Thals were no where near advanced enough to take on the Moroks. The Daleks were their only hope. A small group of Thals were able to hold the Moroks off long enough for the Thals to get most of the Daleks safely underground.
The Thals reactivated the Daleks underground, though much like Slater it was in a way where they would shut down the Daleks if they turned on them.
The Daleks would reluctantly work with the Thals to fight the Moroks for many years. Eventually however even with their limited resources the Daleks were able to develop their own power source, but they still worked with the Thals, as neither could stand against the Moroks.
The Moroks outnumbered both the Daleks and the Moroks greatly and were able to slaughter their small armies.
One of the Daleks killed during the Morok’s invasions casing was later placed in the Morok’s museum of greatest triumphs.
The Moroks would make a fatal mistake at the start of the 24th century when they unknowingly released Davros’ Daleks from their prison.
These Daleks were far more advanced than Zolfian and Yarvelling’s Daleks but they had been sealed beneath a mountain for several thousand years by the actions of the Fourth Doctor. With only limited resources the Daleks were completely trapped below ground with neither the original Daleks nor the Thals even being aware of their existence.
The Morok’s however detected the old Kaled bunker below the ground and thinking it was a secret Dalek base they blasted their way there. As soon as they made their way in however Davros’ Daleks fought back and were able to slaughter the Moroks.
Davros’ Daleks were more powerful than the Moroks as they could power themselves and fly.
They wiped out the entire Morok invasion force relatively quickly and then turned their attention to the Thals.
Davros’ Daleks, just as they had done thousands of years ago slaughtered the Thals. The Zolfian and Yarvelling Daleks sided with Davros’ Daleks, despite having worked with the Thals for years, they showed no clemency to them.
Most of the Thals were exterminated but a few led by Ijanya managed to escape to another world. The Thals had not mastered spaceflight yet and would not do so for the next couple of hundred years, but they were able to capture a Morok spaceship and force its occupants to take them across the universe to another planet.
The Thals would never return to Skaro on a permanent basis again. Ladimer was killed by the black Dalek and leader of the Zolfian and Yarvelling Daleks who had worked with for years against the Moroks (the two had even saved each others lives during the constant battles against the Moroks.)
The surviving Thals fled beyond the Federation’s area of space as they no longer trusted humanity. They would spend the next several centuries building themselves up to strike back at the Daleks.
Back on Skaro Davros’ Daleks would force Zolfian and Yarvellings Daleks to further mutate themselves in order to match Davros’ Daleks, and they upgraded their casings to be more powerful and capable of powering themselves too.
The leader of the Zolfian and Yarvelling Daleks, and Davros’ Daleks would then merge together into the one entity, who would become the new Emperor of the new unified race of Daleks.
The new unified Dalek race would pilot Skaro out of the Federation and Morok’s reach into another galaxy. Despite how advanced and powerful they were, they were few in number and so they needed to regroup. The Federation would search for Skaro, but it travelled far beyond their reach, where the Daleks would over the next 100 or so years build up a new empire, far larger than the original as well as discover time travel.
Red Dwarf
In the year 2292 the legendary Jupiter mining corp ship Red Dwarf would become lost in space. Red Dwarf carried a crew of over 1000 people when a radiation leak caused by a faulty drive plate killed all but one of its crew, the lowest ranking technician, Dave Lister.
Dave Lister had been put in stasis, a special kind of suspended animation for a few months as a punishment for smuggling his pet cat, Frankenstein, on board.
Whilst Lister was in stasis, the second lowest technician on board the ship (and Listers bunk mate) Arnold Rimmer failed to fix the drive plate properly, leading to the destruction of the crew.
The radiation leak was so great that no earth crew could board Red Dwarf to rescue Lister and so it would be forced to drift through deep space, piloted by its sentient computer Holly for over 3 million years.
Red Dwarf would eventually drift into the galaxy where the humans who had earlier fled from the Dalek invasion of earth had escaped too. By the time Red Dwarf arrived there however, almost all of the humans had been killed off by the Gelfs and the Simulants who were now the dominant life forms, though a few stray Mechs and other man made creatures survived.
On Red Dwarf itself however there would be one other survivor besides Dave Lister. His pet Cat, Frankenstein was stored safely in the cargo hold of Red Dwarf away from the radiation. Frankenstein was pregnant and she and her kittens descendants would eventually over the course of 3 million years evolve into a race of intelligent cat people called the Felix Sapiens.
The Felix Sapiens would come to worship Lister as their god and after a holy war that nearly wiped their species out, the Cat people would leave in two vessels to try and find the mythical lost world of Feschie (in reality an earth colony Lister had planned to move to with Frankenstein.)
The old and the sick were left behind to die on Red Dwarf, with eventually only one young male remaining.
Dave Lister would be awoken from stasis three million years into the future (with only seconds having passed for him.) By that stage Holly, who gone somewhat peculiar due to the millions of years of solitude, had revived Arnold Rimmer as a hologram to accompany Dave Lister. Hologram technology had been revived in the later part of the 23rd century before Red Dwarf had become lost. This technology however was more basic than that before the Dalek invasion, but it was now more common, with various space ships having their own hologram member. It would be discontinued at the start of the 24th century however with the government believing it was ultimately too expensive and pointless as the demand for more and more holograms was growing at that point.
Rimmer and Lister along with the last Cat person on Red Dwarf (who Lister came to simply name The Cat) would later discover an abandoned Mech named Kryten and together the 4 of them would go on various adventures in deep space together, though we will be looking at the history of the Dwarfers in greater detail later.
The Lost Worlds
In the year 2294 Dan Dare would be sent on a mission to explore an uncharted area of space that the Federation had attempted to colonise many times before, only to lose all contact with the colonists each time. The mythical lost worlds.
The mission was seen as suicide, but Dan still eagerly accepted. He had spent years in solitude grieving for Doctor Rodan, but now he was eager to resume his career. Sadly however his public clashes with the government meant that no one would hire him. The Lost Worlds was the only possible chance he could get to be the captain of a vessel again and so he took it.
Dan knew given the Lost Worlds reputation that no one would willingly venture into the Lost Worlds, so he was forced to make his crew up of some of the worst criminals and outlaws in the Federation.
Whilst this would later lead to problems, with one of the criminals attempting to overthrow Dan and leading a mutiny. Two of the criminals, a large brutish man nicknamed Bear and another nicknamed Gun (as he had a gun built into his hand) would become two of Dan’s best friends.
Dan would travel the Lost Worlds in a gigantic space fort, with a scout ship christened the Eagle.
Dan’s mission was actually to try and find any survivors of the recent colonies that earth had established on the outskirts of the Lost Worlds, but which much like the Federation’s previous attempts to colonise the Lost Worlds, they had lost all contact with.
It wouldn’t take Dan long to discover that there were no survivors on the outer planets, but he would continue to explore the Lost Worlds right up until the early 24th century.
Dan would explore more of the Lost Worlds than anyone before him. Among his most notable adventures in the Lost Worlds included his adventure on the sand planet of Vern, where the sand was not only alive but it ate flesh. An entire earth colony that had settled on the planet, believing it to be uninhabited were consumed by the living sand.
When Dan arrived to investigate, several of his men would be devoured by the killer sand, and his ship would be trapped in a sandstorm. Dan however would be able to escape the sand planet by using his ship to affect the atmosphere, making it rain which weakened the sand enough for it to loosen its grip on Dan.
Dan would also encounter a planet where a few lesser vampires had survived and would do so long after their creators were slain by the Time Lords.
For thousands of years these monsters lured passing ships to their world and slaughtered their inhabitants. They slowly built up a small population of captured aliens who served as their regular food supply. These aliens would be broken down emotionally by the vampires through constant torture to ensure that they would never turn on them.
Whilst the alien population served as a regular food supply, the monsters still loved luring passing ships and hunting less docile and easy victims.
The Eagle would be lured down to the planet, with the vampires pretending to be a peaceful, yet somewhat primitive society at first. The first night they spent there however, Dan would discover the awful truth when two of his men were lured away by two vampire girls who ripped their hearts out.
More of Dan’s men would be slaughtered by the vampires, but they managed to fight their way out past the monsters and back to the Eagle.
Dan Dare and his men battle the Vampires of the Lost Worlds.
By far and away Dan’s greatest exploits in the Lost Worlds were his battles against the Star Slayer empire, the biggest power in the Lost Worlds. It would take Dan many years to bring down their empire, but he managed to convince many of the worlds in the empire to rebel, and succeeded in killing the Star Slayers ruler, the Dark Lord in a duel.
The Dark Lord, Dan’s nemesis during his time in the Lost Worlds.
Sadly Dan’s adventures in the Lost Worlds would come to an end when his crew encountered Moebius, a member of a highly advanced race known as the Golden Ones. Moebius’ crew had decided to explore the universe, but unfortunately a plague had killed all of the crew except for Moebius himself who had downloaded his mind into a computer.
Moebius would continue to pilot the ship through the galaxy, but it eventually developed a mind of its own and began capturing various races and destroying entire worlds.
Moebius desperate to stop the destruction would abduct Dan and his team in the hopes that they could finally destroy the ship from within and save countless worlds.
Though Dan managed to destroy the ship, sadly all of his crew were killed in the process and his fortress was destroyed.
Dan would be left floating in space until he was eventually found by his old archenemy, the Mekon.
Servant of Evil
The Mekon had travelled to the Lost Worlds many years ago to escape the Federation. He felt it was the perfect place to begin a new empire. His Treens were able to conquer a few planets and used their resources to build various weapons. However their plans to become a major force in the galaxy were hampered when the Mekon fell ill.
Mekon’s were genetically engineered to live for centuries, and this Mekon, the last of his kind was nearing the end of his natural life span. The Mekon would pull all of his Treens efforts into trying to find a way to prolong his life. They soon learned of the existence of the Crystal of Life, a powerful artefact, created from a star.
When the Mekon first discovered Dan he simply intended to torture and kill his archfoe, but when his attempts to make Dan relive the most painful moments from his life instead made the former pilot amnesiac. The Mekon decided to use Dan as a pawn to help him retrieve the Crystal instead.
The Mekon had also imprisoned Sondar (who had settled in the 23rd century after his adventures with the Doctor.) Sondar would escape however and manage to restore Dan’s memories, but unfortunately by that time Dare had done everything the Mekon had wanted, and the former Venusian tyrant was able to acquire the crystal.
The Mekon would gain immortality from the crystal and become far more powerful than ever before.
Armed with his new powers and abilities the Mekon would return to our galaxy. Despite having originally repressed his emotions, the Mekon had learned how to hate over the centuries. He despised not only Dan Dare but all of humanity too, and wanted to make them all suffer.
Dan and Sondar followed the villain back, but the Mekon prepared for them. He hired a shapeshifting Krulgan to impersonate and frame Dan.
This Krulgan was actually a former enemy of the Mekon during the wars, but since the collapse of his empire he had resorted to being a mercenary in the Federation’s area of space.
The Krulgan at first refused to work for the Mekon, but the former Venusian tyrant was ultimately able to force the Krulgan into helping him by threatening to expose him to the Federation. The Treens could detect a Krulgan in any form it had assumed through their advanced form of smell (which is why the Treens were the first people to challenge them.)
The Krulgan assumed Dan’s form and framed him for a high profile murder in the Federation. Dan and Sondar would be forced to go on the run as they tried to hunt the Krulgan down and clear their names.
When they finally found the monster, it was killed by a a warrior woman named Morag, using her pet alien that resembled a Pteranodon!
Morag’s people had been enslaved by the Krulgans and her husband had been killed by the Krulgan that had framed Dan and Sondar.
Morag had no idea that the monster had framed Dan and Sondar before it killed them, and she agreed to help them clear their name and bring down the Mekon (who she also held a grudge against as the Treens had destroyed her home planet in their war with the Krulgans.)
For the next few months, Dan, Morag and Sondar would work together to try and bring down the Mekon but not only did the villain cover his tracks well, but the trio were constantly being hunted by the Federation.
Dan would be forced to undergo more reconstructive surgery to change his appearance a second time.
Dan’s new appearance after his reconstructive surgery.
The Mekon would destroy the government on earth with his new weapon and took control of the earth after defeating the earth’s armies in the year 2304. The Mekon was aided by several Treens on Venus, who even after all this time still remained loyal to the former tyrant.
The Mekon’s second occupation of earth would only last for a few months. He did not devastate the planet in the same way as before. Cities were left largely intact. Still the Mekon’s rule over the population was brutal and over 500 million people would be slaughtered by the villain, more than both World Wars combined. Most of his rule was spent trying to defend the earth from the new Federation. He would force his human slaves to help build weapons that he hoped could devastate the other worlds of the Federation.
Dan, Morag, and Sondar working with the other worlds of the Federation would infiltrate the Mekon’s base and drive the monster off the earth.
The Mekon would go on the run with his loyal Treens and Dan, though this time he would not be able to escape the Federation’s area of space. He would remain the most wanted fugitive in the Federation for the rest of his life.
After saving the earth Dan, Morag and Sondar would be approached by the 13th Doctor to accompany him to the 31st century for an important mission. After being returned to their own time, they would later go their separate ways. Morag to try and find more of her people, and Sondar to try and help Venus recover from the Mekon’s actions.
Dan meanwhile, his named cleared would form a new team called Dan Dare’s Eagles (named after his old vessel.)
Dan’s Eagles consisted of Tremloc, a benevolent Treen mutant, Velvet O’Neil, a member of a race of aliens known as the Scouran and Andy Zapper Lawrence, a human who had been flung forward from the 20th century. Dan naturally could relate to Zapper and would take on a fatherly role to young boy.
Dan’s Eagles would have many more battles with the Mekon and his Treens as well as various other threats to the galaxy over the next few years.
Towards the end of the 2300s, Dan would finally discover that Rodan had survived and would aid her and the Lia’s to finally drive the Two of Verath off Glasias. Rodan and Dan would later marry in the early 2310s. Their relationship was long term for a while however as Dan continued to try and track down the Mekon (and the Two), whilst Rodan would continue to help the Lias rebuild their world.
However whilst Dan’s name was cleared and many would come to regard him as a hero again, he still clashed with the Earth government all the time.
The new earth government established after the Mekon’s second invasion of earth was even more hostile to aliens, and was desperate to make earth a major power that could never be invaded again. Over the course of the next 50 years, the earth would slowly begin to undermine other powers in the Federation to the point where it would become the dominant power in the Federation. The primary reason for this was the establishment of the super computer, Control in the year 2320.
Control would allow mankind to terrorform planets to a greater extent, control the weather on certain planets, and power more advanced weaponry than other worlds in the Federation.
Slowly but surely humanity would begin to stamp their will on their former allies.
In the early 2310s The Mekon would discover the secret of time travel and attempted to change history so that his first invasion of earth was never repelled.
Dan however managed to travel back and confront the villain in the past. He would be forced to work alongside his younger self. Dan simply told his younger self that he was his great grandson (he often told people in the future that he was simply the grandson of the original Dan Dare to avoid explaining how he ended up in the future, and why he looked different.)
Though Dan foiled the Mekon’s plan, the villain would continue to try and perfect his time machine. His experiments however ended up creating ripples throughout the time vortex which threatened all of time and space, eventually drawing the Time Lord’s attention, who quickly sent the 10th Doctor in to deal with the problem.
The 10th Doctor his companions, Elena and Yarox, as well as Crypto 245 and of course Dan Dare himself would work together to stop the Mekon’s time travel experiments from destroying the universe. At this stage the last of the Furons had been reduced to nothing but intergalactic nomads, travelling from world to world, desperately trying to survive.
Still despite Orthopox not wanting to draw attention to their race now that they were vulnerable (and many species wanted revenge.) Crypto’s hatred for the Mekon eclipsed everything else, and he was determined to make the monster pay for destroying his people.
Working together, the Mekon’s archenemies were able to destroy his time machine and seemingly kill the green skinned tyrant once and for all.
With the Mekon gone, Dan would settle down with Doctor Rodan for many years. He became a recluse for a while, disgusted with what the Federation were doing, he would later aid various resistance groups making him an outlaw.
Dan and Rodan would be forced to flee to an area of the Federation, still not under humanity’s control with the two being branded as traitors back on earth.
Dan would make one last visit to earth’s area of space again however near the end of his life to do battle with his archfoe the Mekon for the final time in the year 2330.
The Mekon had survived the Doctor, Crypto and Dan’s attack on his base, but he had been left badly wounded. The Mekon was saved by his few surviving Treen servants who placed him on an advanced life support machine that barely kept him alive. The Mekon had finally been driven insane by his latest defeat. Over the decades his hatred for humanity and Dare above all else had slowly dragged him deeper and deeper into madness, but now near death and in constant pain, the Mekon’s rage finally pushed him over the edge.
The Mekon knew that he wouldn’t live for much longer in his current state, and so he sought to make all of reality pay. He couldn’t bare the thought of the universe going on without him. He was also bitter that no matter how hard he tried his empires had always fallen, and his enemies, humanity, had if anything been made stronger by his actions.
The Mekon decided to rebuild his time machine, but this time he would turn it into a weapon. He would intentionally use it to rip apart the time vortex, which would not only destroy this universe, but all realities as well.
The Mekon didn’t want to use it to try and go back to change his own history. Changing time in such a direct way was dangerous in N-Space, and even if he did manage to find a way to change things, the Time Lords would detect him and he was in no position to take them on.
The Mekon no longer wished to conquer. He just wanted to tear everything down.
With only a handful of Treens to help him, the Mekon formed an alliance with the Two of Verath and together the two villains would recruit human rebels as their new allies.
The Mekon through hypnosis was able to take control of the leaders of the various human rebel groups which had previously always fought and made them steal pieces of equipment for his weapon. Even the Two of Verath was duped by the Mekon as he merely believed that they were building a time machine. The Two hoped to travel back and prevent being fused together. Under the Mekon’s guidance the rebels were unified like never before but they also became far more ruthless and began slaughtering civilians on certain colonies.
Dan would be summoned to help by one of rebels he had worked with years ago named Kasta who suspected something was wrong. Doctor Rodan had sadly passed away in the year 2327, and since her death Dan had become somewhat reclusive and pessimistic.
Still he agreed to help his former ally and the two would eventually discover the truth. The Two would also discover what the Mekon was really planning and turned on him, though the Mekon would in turn kill the Two.
The Mekon was also able to mortally wound Dan, but before his death Dan would overload the Mekon’s weapon causing it to explode and finally destroy the former Venusian tyrant once and for all.
Dan would be buried on the neutral world he had spent the last few years of his life on alongside Doctor Rodan by Kasta.
Back on earth Dan would still be smeared as a traitor by the earth government and his heroic exploits in finally destroying the Mekon would be covered up by the government.
He would be largely forgotten as a result for hundreds of years afterwards, but by the 31st century Dan’s exploits would once again be known to the public and he would become one of humanity’s most celebrated heroes.
The Mekon’s influence on the resistance movement caused it to collapse completely. The earth government were able to smear all resistance movements as Mekon sympathisers. It would take decades for the resistance movement to recover.
Over the next 60 years after the Mekon and Dan Dare’s death in 2330 mankind would come to completely dominate the Federation thanks to Control. All planets would either be ruled by humanity or at least become dependent on them. The Federation under humanity’s guidance would conquer thousands more worlds and expand like never before. A few planets would remain neutral, but throughout the 24th century most of our galaxy would be under the earth’s rule. Humanity would be utterly ruthless in stamping out all opposition in the most brutal way possible, ironically becoming no better than the Mekon himself.
By the late 2370s the resistance movement had begun to recover and over the next 20 years it would score many notable victories against the Federation.
The Federation in response would clamp down even harder on any form of resistance with Federation officers earning a reputation for brutality that would persist for hundreds of years afterwards.
In the late 2380s the resistance movement was led by a man named Roj Blake who scored many notable strategic victories against the Federation and was able to win round more support for the resistance than ever before.
The Federation however would nevertheless manage to capture Blake in the year 2390 thanks to the efforts of Space Commander Travis who Blake was able to grievously wound in the process, blowing off his arm and one of his eyes. Rather than simply kill Blake however the Federation brainwashed him to renounce the resistance on air. If they killed him he would have been a martyr, and so instead they brainwashed him into being a loyal citizen of the Federation. In the meantime the Federation would hunt down and slaughter almost all of Blake’s former allies.
A few years later in 2394, the few surviving members of Blake’s resistance would manage to track their former leader down and help restore his memories. Unfortunately the Federation would capture Blake again as well as slaughter the last of his former allies (even after they had surrendered.)
The Federation attempted to brainwash Blake once more, but his mind had built up a resistance to it, and he continued to renounce the Federation. Still not wanting to kill Blake and make him a martyr, the Federation would instead discredit him by brainwashing several children into believing that they had been raped by Blake.
With his reputation completely destroyed, Blake was shipped off to the prison planet, Cygnus Alpha.
Along the way Blake would attempt to take over the ship with the aid of several other criminals including Kerr Avon, a computer expert, Jenna Stannis, a smuggler, Vila Restel, a cowardly thief, and Olag Gan, an alien who had murdered a Federation guard that murdered and raped his wife.
The attempted takeover however was quickly crushed thanks to Vila’s incompetence, but Blake, Avon and Jenna would get a second chance, when the prison ship stumbled across a seemingly abandoned gigantic alien spacecraft.
The prison ship would send several guards to explore the ship, but they were all killed by its self defence system. Not wanting to lose any more men, the commander would send Avon, Blake and Jenna to the ship, promising to spare them if they found out what was wrong.
Avon and Jenna nearly succumbed to the ships defence system, as it used illusions to draw its victims in, but Blake after his experiences with the Federation could recognise the illusions for what they were and destroyed the defence system.
Jenna would then quickly pilot the ship away from the Federation. The alien vessel that Blake would come to christen the Liberator could move faster than any Federation ship and came equipped with a teleportation device. Blake would follow the prison ship to Cygnus Alpha where he would rescue Villa and Gan.
Later Blake would recruit another ally, a young alien telepath named Cally. Cally’s people, the Auroni were a peaceful race who had been persecuted for decades by humanity.
Together, Blake, Jenna, Vila, Cally, Avon, Gan and the Liberator’s living computer, named Zen would be known as Blake’s 7 and they would become the most notorious enemies of the Federation. The Liberator allowed them to outfight and outrun any Federation ship, whilst its teleportation system allowed them to infiltrate Federation bases and colonies like never before.
The original incarnation of Blake’s 7.
Blake’s 7’s most notable victory in the early years was stealing the super computer named Orac, who would become a member of their crew.
Blake’s 7 were pursued in the early years by Travis, though in reality the greater threat came from Servalan, Travis’ superior.
Servalan was the most vicious, power hungry and sadistic woman in the entire Federation. She was hated and feared by all of her superiors and those who worked with her. Whilst all of Travis’ efforts were spent trying to capture Blake (with the Federation wanting the Liberator to study in the hopes of mastering its teleportation system.) Servalan would slowly build up her power throughout the Federation’s ranks.
In the year 2395, Blake would launch an attack on Federation control only to discover that it had been moved to a far away planet called Star One. In the resulting confrontation with Travis and Servalan, Gan was killed and the crew began to lose faith in Blake.
Things had always been tense between Avon and Blake. Avon did not care about Blake’s cause. In fact he felt it was pointless and that Blake would get them all killed eventually as he could never hope to win against an empire.
Avon had only stayed with Blake because it was the safest option for him, but he regularly tried to undermine his authority.
Still Blake would carry on as the leader of the group as he desperately tried to find the real location of control. After a year or so of searching, Blake was finally able to track down Star One.
When he arrived at Star One however he discovered that Travis had beaten him there.
Travis by this point had become an outlaw from the Federation as well for a massacre he carried out many years ago. Servalan had given him a pardon because she felt she could use him against Blake, but after the two’s failure had resulted in the secret of Control not being on earth being exposed, Servalan allowed Travis to be tried to take the heat off of her.
Travis was driven insane by what he felt was a betrayal of the Federation and sought to make all of humanity pay. He had managed to contact a race of hostile shapeshifting aliens from the Andromeda galaxy who had sought to expand their empire into the Federation’s area of space.
The aliens however had been kept out by Star One’s defence system, but Travis was able to give them the secret code to by pass the defence system, and infiltrate Star One. The aliens quickly slaughtered the humans sent to monitor Star One and prepared to destroy the base.
Ironically Blake would now be forced to try and protect Star One from the aliens. As bad as the Federation were, the aliens planned to exterminate virtually all of humanity, as well as the other races under their rule.
During a confrontation with the aliens and Travis, Blake was badly wounded. Avon was able to kill Travis, whilst Cally was able to dispose of all but one of the bombs Blake had placed around the base.
The last remaining bomb shut down Star One’s defences, allowing the full alien invasion fleet to move in.
With no other choice, the Liberator sent a distress signal to the Federation. Servalan had just managed to assume control of the Federation after staging a coup and she instantly dispatched her main war fleet to defend Star One.
In the meantime the Liberator would hold off the aliens by itself. Avon was forced to lead the attack as Blake was still recovering from his wounds.
A full scale intergalactic war would break out between the Federation and the aliens, with the Liberator fighting on the Federation’s side. The war lasted for several months and ended in the complete destruction of both the alien and the Federation fleets. In their final counter attack the aliens were able to destroy Star One completely.
Though the aliens were defeated, the Federation’s power was completely crushed. Blake had seemingly won.
Blake and his crew however would be forced to abandon the Liberator during the final days of the war, and both Blake and Jenna would subsequently become lost.
Avon, Cally and Vila would return to the Liberator after the war, and they would pick up two new companions along the way, Del Tarrant, a petty criminal, and Dayna, a young weapons expert.
Along with Orac and Zen they would make up the new 7 with Avon as the new leader in Blake’s absence.
For the next year Servalan would desperately attempt to rebuild the Federation’s empire. She would become more fixated on capturing the Liberator and Orac, seeing them both as her way of reclaiming her former power.
Avon ironically would take up the now missing Blake’s place as the leader of the resistance, though it was not for altruistic reasons. Avon enjoyed the freedom he had in the post Federation galaxy and was determined not to loose it.
Sadly however after a year of leading the crew, Avon would make a fatal mistake when he took the Liberator through a dangerous fog in space in order to meet up with what he thought was Blake.
In reality however it was Servalan who was tricking Avon in an attempt to get her hands on the Liberator. Whilst Servalan managed to outwit Avon and steal the ship leaving Avon and the rest of the crew stranded on Terminus (an unstable man made planet.) The fog Avon had brought the Liberator through ultimately destroyed the ship. Though Servalan was able to teleport to safety in time, she was left stranded on a far flung earth colony, during which she was overthrown as the President. Servalan would subsequently fake her own death, and go under the alias of Commander Sleer and slowly work to regain her power.
The former crew of the Liberator meanwhile would run into trouble on Terminus. Cally was be killed by one of Servalan’s booby traps, whilst the others would struggle to survive against the dangerous creatures of the planet and in the freezing conditions.
Eventually however they would be rescued by an immortal named Dorian, who kept himself alive for centuries by sacrificing innocent people’s lives to prolong his own. He intended to make the crew his new sacrifices, but Avon managed to kill Dorian, after which the former Liberator crew would adopt Dorian’s spaceship, Scorpio, and his headquarters as their own.
Thanks to Orac, the crew would be able to adapt old Liberator technology to Scorpio including the teleportation system and the ability of the ship to go faster than any Federation vehicle.
They would also take on Dorian’s former assistant and lover, Soolin, who he had also attempted to sacrifice as a new crew member to replace Cally, whilst Scorpio’s living computer, Slave, made up the new and final incarnation of the seven.
Under Avon’s leadership the crew of the Scorpio would continue to fight the Federation for a year. Though they had many more notable victories, including stopping the Federation from acquiring the Tachyon Funnel, a planet destroying weapon developed by the rogue scientist Egrorian. The Federation was still able to slowly rebuild its power thanks to the help of a new mind controlling drug which they were able to spike the population of various worlds with.
Avon needed a figure head to unite the various rebel factions together to strike back at the Federation and destroy it whilst it was still weak.
Avon hoped that Blake could be the figure head. Blake had been stuck on the planet Gauda Prime, a rogue world populated by criminals for the past year or so. Jenna had sadly since departing from the Liberator been killed in a confrontation with Federation scout ships.
All the time spent alone on Gauda Prime had made Blake bitter and paranoid and though he still wanted to destroy the Federation, he would make every single one of the people he recruited go through a test to see if they could be trusted where he would pretend to be a Federation agent.
Sadly this would ultimately backfire on him, when Avon arrived. Scorpio was shot down on arrival by criminals. Tarrant had nobly stayed behind on the ship to pilot it whilst the others teleported down. He survived the crash only to be found by Blake on the ground below who performed his usual test of character on Tarrant. Unfortunately before he could explain what had happened, Tarrant escaped and told Avon that Blake had betrayed them.
Before Blake could explain it to Avon, Avon shot him dead. Immediately after Blake’s death, his base was swarmed by Federation troops. Ironically one of Blake’s allies was in fact a Federation double agent. One by one, Dayna, Vila, Soolin and Tarrant were shot dead by Federation troops.
Only Avon who had completely snapped from the realisation of what he had done, was left to face down the Federation guards in a last stand.
In the year 2397, all of the members of the final incarnation of Blake’s 7, but Avon are slaughtered by the Federation.
Avon was captured by the Federation who did not want to make him a martyr figure. Ironically Avon himself had become something of a figurehead to the resistance movement in Blake’s absence.
Servalan, who had once again managed to seize power, gave Avon an ultimatum that if he publicly renounced the resistance and made out that Blake had been a traitor then she would allow him to live in exile. Avon was a totally broken man at this point and put up no resistance to Servalan.
Avon would spend two years in exile, whilst Servalan, using Orac that she had managed to retrieve from where Avon left it on Gauda Prime was able to expand the Federation again to greater levels than before.
Eventually in the year 2399, Servalan would decide to finish Avon off and sent assassins to kill him. Avon meanwhile who had recovered from his mental breakdown was able to kill the assassins and stole their vessel which he used to flee from the Federation.
Avon knew it was pointless to try and fight the Federation again so he fled to the neutral city of Kaldor city beyond the Federation’s reach where he would remain for a few years, under the alias of Kaston Lago.
Whilst on Kaldor City Avon would face the last of the Fendahl that had survived the Doctors attempts on it’s life in the 1970s.
In the year 2407, Avon would help foil an invasion of Kaldor City by the Cybermen who wanted to use it as a launch pad for an invasion of the Federation.
Avon would work with the 8th Doctor and Arnold Rimmer against the Cybermen. This version of Arnold Rimmer was a hologram from several million years in the future. He had left the crew of Red Dwarf to assume the identity of Ace Rimmer, a dimension hoping heroic alternate version of himself. At first he struggled however, but after joining the 8th Doctor he gradually became a more genuinely heroic figure, worthy of the title of Ace.
Avon would subsequently join the Doctor and Rimmer, and the three of them would travel together for many years.
Back in the 25th century meanwhile, Servalan would degenerate further in the later years of her rule. She became more paranoid, psychotic, perverted and reckless despite her earlier success. The last few years of her rule were a very dark time indeed.
Servalan wanted to conquer the Lost Worlds area of space. Ever since Captain Dan’s mission to the Lost World’s the Federation had largely ignored the Lost Worlds out of fear.
In the 2380s however they had attempted to establish colonies there, but just as before they had lost contact with them. Servalan would later in the year 2397 mount a rescue mission to Vern, the sand world in search of the one man she had ever loved. Whilst there she became stranded with Tarrant who she was forced to work with to escape.
The records of Dan’s mission to the Lost World’s had been lost when all of his exploits were covered up by the Federation.
This would prove fatal in the year 2414 after Servalan’s death, her successor who was just as obssesed with conquering the Lost Worlds. (It had become a symbol to to the Federation of power) mounted another expedition to the Lost Worlds. The Federation were able to conquer various planets at first (though they stayed away from Vern of course.)
However one team would make a mistake of landing on the Vampire planet Dan had visited a century earlier.
One of the Federation troopers was infected by one of the Vampires and when he returned to the Federation, he would infect others, and eventually even the new supreme commander himself would be transformed into a Vampire.
Vampires had largely been driven to near extinction throughout the Mekon and Dalek invasions of earth. Both the Treens and the Daleks singled the bloodsuckers out as threats.
A few had survived and spread to the outer colonies, but they were too few in number to pose a major threat. The infected Federation guard however was able to infiltrate the Federation high command and very soon Vampires would spread across the Federation, taking over entire colonies.
The new supreme commander would be quickly deposed a second time after she was discovered to be a Vampire, but he would soon try and unite the Vampires together as an army against the Federation.
Whilst the Vampires were never able to overthrow the Federation, they did weaken it considerably. The Vampires mixed in with numerous rebellions, and incompetent, corrupt supreme commandersc caused the Federation to finally collapse. Throughout the rest of the 25th century the entire galaxy fell into chaos. Whole planets were destroyed, others fell into a dark age, whilst others including the earth quarantined themselves from any other world to prevent Vampires from making their way to their planet.
Contact between earth and outer colonies would still happen however. Ships would still try and deliver food and supplies to the outer colonies that needed them. Simply travelling from world to world was dangerous. Vampires, criminals, and other races and organisations who tried to assume power in the Federation’s absence all fought with one another constantly and attacked any passing ships that came by.
Servalan would be remembered as one of the most evil women throughout history.
Servalan’s human descendants would continue to have an impact on human society for many centuries to come. Servalan had one daughter in the year 2400. Her daughter grew up to be a cruel, sadistic and selfish woman just like her mother. One of Servalan’s descendents would even become a Vampire during the wars. She often claimed to be the original, but this was a lie.
Servalan’s descendants would continue to be involved in the shadier dealings of the earth empire and the Democratic Order of Planets.
Carol Miller, a direct descendant of Servalan in the 31st century who was every bit as corrupt and evil.
The 100 year long Vampire wars would come to an end at the start of the 26th century in the year 2525 when earth would develop a new weapon capable of unravelling the Vampires DNA which they were able to use to virtually wipe them out across the entire galaxy.
Over the course of the next few decades the earth would attempt to establish a new central power in the galaxy to unite the warring planets.
By the 2570s earth had managed to unite several of the planets in the galaxy under the banner of the earth empire. This “empire” was not malevolent however like the Federation. In fact it sought to protect the planets under its jurisdiction. Alien worlds in the earth empire would receive aid from the earth (that had come out the best from the Vampire wars as it was the only planet that had never been invaded by the Vampires at any point.) Earth would help cure famines and diseases on various planets, and help their people rebuild their worlds. Earth would also pay out reparations to various planets that had suffered under the Federation too.
These worlds would also still govern their own laws, with earth never being allowed to interfere again. However all of these planets armies would still be forced to help humanity if it ever became involved in a war, regardless of who was the aggressor, whilst humanity was under no obligation to help these worlds if it didn’t want to. Many worlds agreed to this condition simply because they had no choice.
In the year 2588 an earth expedition would be sent to Telos to uncover the secret history of the Cybermen.
The expedition however was founded by a secret terrorist organisation known as the brotherhood of logicians who wanted to reconquer the former Federation’s territory.
The Brotherhood funded what was for all intents and purposes an archeological expedition so that they could revive the Cybermen and use them as their servants to help reconquer humanity.
Two members of the brotherhood would join the expedition as double agents to free the Cybermen from their tombs when the time was right.
The Second Doctor and his companions, Jamie and Victoria would arrive on Telos at the same time as the expedition. The Doctor suspected that Cleeg, one of the brotherhood had an ulterior motive, but sadly the Time Lord’s curiosity got the better of him, and he left it too late to stop Cleeg, who revived the Cybermen for the first time in 5 centuries.
The Cybermen are awoken for the first time in 500 years.
The Cybermen quickly turned on Cleeg and the explorers. Recognising their old enemy the Doctor, the Cybermen wished to turn them all into a new race of Cybermen and partially converted a member of the crew Toberman.
The Doctor however would convince Toberman to turn on the Cybermen and was later able to use the Cybermen’s own traps to destroy and imprison them back in their tombs declaring “Last time they were frozen for 5 centuries. This time it must be forever!”
Sadly Toberman despite breaking free from the Cybermen’s control would still be killed in a final confrontation with the Cybercontroller, as were most of the rest of the expedition (including Cleeg himself.)
With the Cybermen sealed back in their tombs, the Doctor hoped he had seen the last of his old enemies, though as he said to Jamie he “never liked to make predictions.”
The earth empire would continue to expand throughout the galaxy for the remainder of the 26th century, but in the late 2590s it would come into conflict with another vast interstellar empire, the Draconian empire.
The Draconian Conflict and The Second Dalek Wars
The Draconians
At the start of the 27th century humanity and the Draconians would establish a frontier in space to avoid any future skirmishes.
Neither the Draconians or humanity really wanted to go to war with one another. The Draconians were not an evil race of conquerors like the Treens or Daleks.
Sadly however both races were instinctively distrustful of one another and had many close calls, with their worst being in 2605 when General Williams fired on a Draconian vessel that was travelling to the earth to negotiate, and contained a nobleman from Draconia.
The ship was a war cruiser as that was deemed the only way the noble man could travel, but its guns were empty. Still Williams felt the cruiser was an act of aggression and destroyed it. Years later he would discover that it was unarmed and would try and make amends for his sins.
In 2610 the tensions between Draconia and Earth would reach their peak when a third party, the Master would attempt to manipulate the two races into a full scale conflict with one another.
The Master, then in his first incarnation would send Ogrons to attack both earth and Draconian ships, often killing most of the crew. The Master would use a hypnotic device that would cause the Draconians to see the Ogrons as humans, and the humans to see the Ogrons as Draconians.
Fortunately before a war broke out the Third Doctor and Jo Grant would arrive in the middle of one of the Masters Ogron raids. The Doctor was not affected by the Masters device and saw the Ogrons for what they really were.
The Doctor had a hard time trying to warn humanity about the third party provoking both sides for its own benefit. The Master using a forged alias was the chief of police in the earth solar system framed the Doctor and Jo as criminals.
Eventually however the Doctor was able to knock out one of the Ogrons that had attempted to assassinate the Draconian emperor, and after the Master was forced to flee, the effects of his hypnotic device wore off, allowing the Draconians to see the Ogron for what it really was.
The Doctor and the Draconian Prince would then warn the President of earth, and she authorised an earth vessel led by General Williams (who was desperate to make amends) to the planet of the Ogrons to try and gain proof of a third party (with the population of earth now being hungry for war against the Draconians.)
When they arrived on Draconia however, the Master was already waiting for them and he had summoned his allies, the Daleks!
The Doctors two greatest enemies meet.
The Daleks since fleeing our galaxy in the 24th century had settled far beyond even the andromeda galaxy. They had since discovered the secret of time travel to the point where they were able to create a machine that could travel anywhere in time and space which they had earlier used to chase the First Doctor through various locations in an attempt to exterminate him.
The new Dalek race had suffered a set back in their early time travel experiments however when the Second Doctor spread the human factor throughout their race, which gave many Daleks human emotions such as compassion and remorse.
A civil war broke out on Skaro between the humanized and regular Daleks which very nearly wiped out their entire race. Ultimately the regular Daleks won out, but still a few of the humanized Daleks would escape to the furthest region of the galaxy. These Daleks would eventually develop their own society and religion which persisted at least until the 31st century. They referred to themselves as Deacons to distinguish themselves from the Daleks.
The Planet Express Crew encounter the Deacons in the 31st century.
Back on Skaro the Daleks would recover from the civil war and go on to build a massive empire that dwarfed the previous one belonging to the Zolfian and Yarvelling Daleks.
They would continue to experiment with time travel technology and even briefly found a way to change history so that their invasion in the 22nd century was never overthrown by the Doctor. Ultimately however the timeline would be restored by the Third Doctor in the 1970s (see the 20th century section for full details.)
After their invasion was foiled the Daleks would attempt to abduct the Doctors TARDIS from the time vortex itself. Instead however they abducted the TARDIS of the Doctors archenemy, the Master.
The Daleks initially believed that the Doctor had just changed his face again and prepared to kill him, but the Master was able to talk his way out of it. He convinced the Daleks that he could be of help to them in destroying the earth and Draconian empires.
The Daleks were preparing to launch a full scale invasion of our galaxy. They were more advanced than humanity, and their empire was several times larger than earth’s and Draconia’s. However the Daleks knew that if they were to attack the earth empire, then all of the neighbouring great powers of our galaxy and its neighbouring galaxies would unite against them. The Daleks reputation was still worse than humanities even after all this time.
The Daleks wouldn’t just have to fight the earth, but several entire galaxies. Though they were more than willing to fight all of the great powers, the Master promised the Daleks that he could make their conquest easier by provoking a war between earth and Draconia.
The Master believed that a war between earth and Draconia could potentially escalate to include the other great powers, as many of them still had interests in the earth and Draconian empires.
Once the war had destroyed most of the great powers the Daleks could easily move in and conquer the survivors.
The Daleks agreed to let the Master live for now whilst he put his plan into action. The Master meanwhile whilst provoking a war between earth and Draconia, tried to find a way to make his hypnotic device work on the Daleks in the hopes of provoking a civil war among their race that would wipe them out.
The Master would also prolong his life by giving the Daleks information on the Time Lords and their history which had eluded them until now. The Masters actions would ultimately be what helped to elevate the Daleks to a level where they could threaten the Time Lords.
General Williams entire team were slaughtered by the Daleks and Williams, the Doctor and the Prince of Draconia were taken before the Gold Dalek who wished to exterminate all 3 of them.
The Master however wanted to prolong the Doctors torture by making him see the earth and the galaxy he loves so much in ruins, and so he convinced the Gold Dalek to keep him alive until the war was over.
The Doctor, Williams and the Prince would escape however, with the latter two fleeing back to earth and Draconia to warn their people of the Daleks intentions.
The Doctor meanwhile would be wounded by the Master in a final shoot out before making his way back to the TARDIS.
There the Doctor would send a telepathic message to the Time Lords, telling them that he needed to find the Daleks base. Even with the Masters plan foiled, the Daleks would still be more than powerful enough destroy the earth and Draconian empires.
The Time Lords directed the Doctors TARDIS to Spirodon. Here the Daleks were working to create a virus that would allow them to wipe out most life in our galaxy. They were also through experiments on the native life forms who they had conquered, the Spirodons, attempting to master the secret of invisibility.
Finally the Daleks were also preparing a massive army on the planet Spirodon too, who were kept in stasis until the time was right.
After recovering from his wounds, the Doctor would work with a kamikaze group of Thals who had landed on the planet to foil the Daleks schemes. (These Thals had set up a base on Skaro briefly where they found out about the monsters plans before following them to Spirodon.)
The Doctor was able to position one of the Thals bombs by an ice volcano near the Daleks base which caused an eruption, burying the Daleks base, their army, all samples of their plague, and all of their research on invisibility under thousands of tons of molten ice.
The Thals would then escape by stealing the Dalek supreme’s vessel leaving him trapped on Spirodon, whilst the Doctor and Jo escaped in the TARDIS.
The Doctor had set back the Daleks greatly. Not only had they lost their two key weapons, the secret of invisibility and their plague, but earth, Draconia and various other great powers were now united against them.
Still the Daleks still felt confident that they could destroy the great powers. The plague, the Masters plan to create a war were only to make the Daleks invasion easier.
From the year 2610 to 2690 earth, Draconia and various other great powers across the Galaxy would unite to fight the Second Dalek empire. The war was the bloodiest in our galaxies history. Humanity did not suffer as many casualties as they did during the Dalek war, but that was only because so many races were involved. Still humanity did endure incredible losses. The greatest since the Dalek invasion. Over 30 billion people were killed in the second great Dalek war.
From all the great powers combined, over a 100 billion people would be killed in the conflict against the Daleks. The Daleks would eventually be beaten back in the 2690s however, having lost billions of soldiers of their own during the war.
Their final strike took place on the planet Calesk, on the very outskirts of the galaxy. Here the Daleks attempted to create a weapon that could rip a hole in the fabric of the universe. The Daleks hoped to use it to create worm holes in any part of the universe that could destroy their enemies fleets.
Little did the Daleks know however their weapon was so unstable that it would actually shatter the barriers between N-Space and every other universe causing them to all bleed into one another, leading to the destruction of all universes as all anti matter realities would bleed into their counterparts.
The Daleks experiments already created several rips between realities, which caused the USS Enterprise from D-Space to fall into N-Space. The USS Enterprise was the flagship of the Federation from D-Space, a benevolent organisation that united several planets together. This was the original Enterprise, piloted by Captain James T Kirk.
The Enterprise arrived in Calesk’s solar system where it was almost destroyed by the Daleks. Fortunately however the Third Doctor arrived on the Enterprise in time and would help the crew escape the Daleks.
Working together, the crew of the Enterprise and the Doctor would attack the Daleks base on Calesk (whilst the allied forces held the Daleks army at bay.)
Though the Enterprise suffered many casualties (more on this mission than any other in fact.) With their help, the Doctor was able to destroy the Daleks weapon and their base.
With Calesk gone, the Daleks last chance of victory was lost and the monsters were forced to retreat back to their empire, whilst the Enterprise returned to D-Space before the tears in reality healed.
Whilst the Daleks were beaten back, they still held on to their empire. None of the great powers including the earth had the willpower to wage another war against the Daleks again in order to rescue the planets under their rule and so a truce was called for now.
Over the course of the next 40 years however the Daleks would still launch many attacks on the earth and various other powers across the galaxy. These incidents never led to another full scale war, but they still saw a heavy loss of life.
One of the most notable incidents however came in the year 2702 when a space plague began to sweep through the galaxy killing millions of people on colonies around the galaxy.
The only known cure for the plague was parrinium a substance that was most common on the planet of Exillion. Unfortunately however any ship that went to Exillion never returned as the city would drain any vessel that landed of all its power.
Still with no other choices the Earth empire would dispatch a ship to Exillion to mine for parrinium.
At the same time however the Daleks would dispatch a vessel to the planet. The Daleks hoped to mine the parrinium themselves and then destroy the surface of Exillion to prevent humanity from obtaining any more supplies. The Daleks would then use their supply to hold the earth to ransom and effectively make them surrender.
Both ships however were affected by the power drain from the city. The Daleks weaponry would also be rendered completely useless by the power drain as well, forcing them into a temporary alliance with the human party, and the Third Doctor who had also landed on Exillion with his companion Sarah Jane.
The Daleks lied to the Doctor and the humans that they were suffering from the same plague too, though the Doctor naturally had his doubts.
The Doctor, the Daleks and the humans would struggle to survive together at first against the hostile Exxilons who attempted to sacrifice the Doctor and Sarah to the City that they worshipped as a god.
The Daleks however were able to overcome the power drain by replacing their dead ray guns with machine guns that allowed them to slaughter the Exxilons on mass and conquer their planet.
The Daleks would then force the Exxilons and the humans to mine the parranium for them.
The Doctor meanwhile would work with a rogue Exxilon named Bellal to infiltrate the Exxilon’s city where he would scramble its brain eventually causing the City to die. At the same time the Daleks also destroyed the beacon of the city, restoring power.
Now at full strength the Daleks revealed their true plans to the humans and the Doctor and that they intended to launch a plague missile onto Exillon once they were in space, rendering further landings impossible on the surface of the planet.
However just as the Dalek had gotten clear of Exillon, one of the human party who had stowed away, activated a bomb which destroyed their vessel. Sarah had also managed to sneak all of the parrinium onto the earth ship (replacing it with bags of sand on the Daleks ship.)
The parrinium would be shipped back to the earth colonies, curing the plague.
Whilst the Daleks would send their agents to infiltrate and attack various human colonies and bases, earth and various other powers would send their agents to fight the Daleks too.
Almost all of the agents sent to fight the Daleks however never returned. Eventually the earth government would send criminals in against the Daleks, as they couldn’t find any volunteers.
One of these criminals Abslom Daak would go on to become one of the most notorious enemies of the Daleks.
Originally Daak just joined the war against the monsters to escape the death penalty but it later became more personal for him when the woman he loved was killed by the Daleks.
Daak would work with the Doctor on many occasions. Though the two had very different methods, they nevertheless would make an effective team against the Daleks.
Abslom Daak vows to wipe the Daleks
Abslom Daak uses his trademark weapon, a laser chainsaw on the Daleks.
Daak would later go on to travel with the Twelfth incarnation of Romana in E-Space for many years who he developed feelings for.
Daak would spend much of his life travelling with Romana 12 who he fell in love with. She never returned his feelings however, but the two still had a very close friendship.
These skirmishes would continue for the first few decades of the 28th century until the Daleks would be caught in a war with another, equally vicious race of machine creatures known as the Movellans.
The Dalek and Movellan war would last for a further almost 2 centuries, during which time all of the Daleks hostilities with the earth ceased as the monsters pulled all of their efforts into fighting their new enemy.
The rest of the 28th century would be a more peaceful time for mankind as it spread further out into the galaxy and made new advancements in technology. There would be great advancements in robotics during this time, with many robots developing full sentience for the first time.
Another major advancement during the 28th century included limited time travel technology which was able to pull people from just before their moment of death. The technology to develop this had first been mapped out by Ron Popeil in the 21st century when he discovered a crystalline surface. He wasn’t able to harness its true potential however, and though there would be some study in the Crystalline’s in the 23 century, it wasn’t until the 28th century that they would be harnessed to their full potential.
Even then however this time travel technology was extremely limited. It could not pull a person’s full body into the present. Only their heads would be brought through time.
These time displaced heads were kept in jars surrounded by the crystalline substance to keep them in the present. This crystalline substance could also de age them to their prime too, and effectively allow them to live forever.
When this technology was first unveiled many hailed it as the greatest invention in the history of mankind, but others viewed it as inhuman to keep people locked in a state between life and death. Attempts were made to harness the crystalline substance in such a way that the full bodies could be brought into the present, but sadly this was never achieved as the Crystalline substance was too limited.
The heads would be able to overcome this by having robot bodies and even clone bodies attached. Many of the heads would on to live very productive lives, with Nixon even becoming President again in the 31st century.
The biggest controversy involving the heads would happen at the end of the 28th century when Jesus was brought back through the crystalline’s. Jesus’ head would disavow the religions that worshipped him and tried to tell humanity the truth about God. Unfortunately however this led to mass riots in the streets and many denouncing Jesus (and by extension the rest of the heads) as fakes. In order to save their business the head museum would send Jesus backwards in time.
Several advancements in cloning and genetics would be made throughout the 28th century too which would result in humans becoming a lot more durable than ever before and life expectancy increasing until the late hundred and 50s.
The Furons would also recover in the 28th century. Ironically they would be aided by humanity. The human race felt a certain kinship with the Furons, due to the fact that all humans contained some Furon DNA, and Crypto had still saved mankind from various threats. They would offer the Furons asylum from their enemies in the Earth empire, as long as they would aid humanity in any future wars. The Furons happily agreed and ironically thanks to humanity they would slowly begin to rebuild over the next few hundred years.
Unlike the other races in the earth empire the Furons were able to convince humanity to make concessions to them. Human criminals would be shipped off to the Furons to allow Orthopox to carry on his experiments.
At the start of the 29th century mankind would be called into yet another intergalactic war with their old enemies the Cybermen.
These Cybermen were the survivors from Planet 14. After their failed attempt to conquer Kaldor city these Cybermen had since built up a massive invasion force and were able to convert entire worlds into members of their own kind.
The Cybermen would have the upper hand against humanity in the war, but the human race and their allies would be assisted by the Vogans. The Vogans originated from a planet made of gold, the one metal which was fatal to the Cybermen and they supplied vast amounts of gold to the Cybermen’s enemies allowing them to destroy the Cyber fleet.
Just before they retreated however the Cybermen would fire a Cyber missile at Vogan which devastated the surface of the planet.
Furthermore as many other planets had been made aware of the planet of gold then there would be more invasions of the planet from other races. Eventually humanity would place a quarrantine around Vogan ten years after the Cyber wars in the year 2840. However even with the quarrantine, the Vogans would still retreat underground for the next 60 years .
On earth meanwhile a group of Silurians would be revived in the year 2850. Things would be peaceful between the Silurians and humanity at first, but sadly it didn’t take long for things to escalate between them yet again. Part of the reason for the conflict was because these Silurians wanted to revive the other members of their kind, but the earth government refused for now, believing that it would create more problems on the already overpopulated earth.
Both the humans and the Silurians made attempts to destroy the other which ended in the deaths of the Silurian group.
Nevertheless as the reptiles had been brought to the public’s attention, the government would search for other Silurian hibernation chambers around the world. Terrified of what would happen if the Silurians awoke, but not wanting to destroy the Silurians, the government would have the Silurians shipped out to an uninhabited planet that had been terrorformed to resemble earth 65 million years ago. Several of the Dinosaurs kept in suspended animation however would be kept on earth in Zoos.
Dinosaurs buried under the earth in the Silurians preservation chambers are revived for the first time in 65 million years.
There were widespread complaints and protests held on earth from the population, with people arguing that the Silurians had just as much right to live on earth as humanity. There would also be Silurian groups who would launch attacks on the earth to try and reclaim it.
The Silurians adapted to life on their new planet and would by the end of the 29th century establish more peaceful relations with humanity and both races would even share technology with one another. Still relations were never completely easy between humanity and the Silurians. Things would only get worse in the 29th century when several aliens would come to settle on earth and be granted full citizenship. Many Silurians would launch terror attacks on the earth decrying both humans and the aliens who had settled there such as the Decapod’s phoney earthlings.
By the end of the 29th century the Daleks and the Movellans had become locked in a logical empase. Neither could fire a shot without the other’s battle computer finding a way to block it.
The Daleks would seek out their own creator Davros in an attempt to try and break the stalemate. The Daleks had by this stage abandoned Skaro. Having plundered it of what little resources it had left, the Daleks were now scattered across hundreds and thousands of worlds.
In the year 2887 a small group of Daleks, along with several slaves would land on Skaro and dig through the ruins of the old Kaled bunker to find their creator Davros.
The Emperor of the Daleks was aware that Davros had not died when they shot him centuries ago. He had found the notes about his life support machine and worked out that he had simply been placed into a state of suspended animation. The Emperor had kept this knowledge secret however in case the Daleks ever needed their creator again one day.
Unfortunately however for the Daleks, both the Movellans and the Fourth Doctor along with his companion, the Second Romana would land on Skaro just as they had almost finished digging through the ruins of the bunker.
The Doctor would be able to make his way to the ruins of the bunker where Davros had simply been left for thousands of years before the Daleks. Davros had been placed in a state of suspended animation by his life support machine, whilst it slowly regenerated his organs.
The entire process had taken over 1000 years, but Davros was now ready to live again.
The Doctor did his best to try and get the revived Davros away from the Daleks, but the monsters in retaliation started to exterminate their slaves until the Doctor was forced to release Davros back to them.
The Doctor however was able to negotiate with the Daleks to release their prisoners which they regrettably did.
The Doctor soon discovered the truth about the Movellans, that they were not only no better than the Daleks but that they wanted to destroy Skaro to prevent the Daleks from breaking the stalemate. The Doctor however was able to lead the freed Dalek slaves to overpower and destroy the Movellans. Though highly advanced, the Movellans could be easily overpowered physically as simply pulling their power pack free would be enough to deactivate them.
Davros meanwhile grew paranoid about the Movellan spacecraft and sent all but one of the Dalek squad to it, strapped with explosives to the craft to destroy it.
The Doctor however managed to make his way to Davros and destroyed the Dalek that was guarding Davros before forcing him to detonate the bombs early, destroying the Daleks before they reached the Movellan ship.
The escaped human slaves would escape Skaro in the Movellans ship taking Davros with them as prisoner.
The Daleks were too preoccupied to rescue Davros and he would be taken back to Earth where he was tried for his crimes against the rest of the universe. Davros was found guilty and placed in suspended animation where would remain for close to a century.
In the year 2897 a small group of Planet 14 Cybermen would attempt to destroy Voga before beginning their second campaign against the Earth Empire. The Cybermen attempted to send three captured humans, strapped with three Cyber bombs to the centre of the planet which would rip the planet to pieces.
The Doctor however would foil the monsters plans and destroy the Cyber ship.
The final surviving group of Cybermen from the Cyber wars meanwhile would retreat to Telos. Having learned that there was a city of Cybermen there during the wars, the Cybermen would awaken the other, more primitive members of their kind from the Ice tombs of Telos and upgrade them. (They would also revive the Cyber Controller who had been badly damaged and drained of his power, but not destroyed.)
The unified Cyber race would prove to be more powerful than any before and it would expand throughout the 30th century, building up a massive empire.
The earth empire meanwhile would fall throughout the 30th century. Many of the worlds that had previously been dependent on earth had become advanced enough to survive on their own. More importantly the human race found that it simply didn’t have the resources to waste on other planets anymore. In the 2960s, the earth empire finally collapsed and by the end of the decade, earth would help form the Democratic Order of Planets along with various other races who would all be treated as equals.
In the year 2977 the Dalek and Movellan war would finally come to an end when the Movellans created a virus capable of attacking the Dalek mutants. The plague spread throughout their entire empire and very nearly destroyed their race.
The Movellans in turn would be destroyed when various allied powers attacked them. The allied powers had been waiting for the right moment to strike. They had considered attacking the Daleks and the Movellans when they were both distracted fighting one another, but there was concern that the Movellans and the Daleks may unite against the allied powers.
Instead they decided to wait until one had destroyed the other and then strike at the winner whilst they were weakened. The Movellans worn down by centuries of fighting the Daleks were quickly overrun and destroyed.
The last surviving Daleks would be forced to flee from the allied powers and the earth empire to try and survive.
They would perfect android duplicate technology which would allow them to infiltrate various planets across the galaxy and for a while remain hidden.
In the year 2980 the Daleks would rescue Davros from the prison ship, but their creator soon turned on them. Davros knew that the Daleks had no real loyalty to him and would discard their creator once he had served them. Davros wished to create a new race of Daleks and after poisoning several of the Daleks that had saved him with samples of the Movellan virus, managed to escape to Necros.
(During this time the Daleks also attempted to change the history of earth in the 1980s by using their duplicates though this invasion was ultimately foiled by the Fifth Doctor. See the 20th century section for full details.)
During this same year a group of Daleks would infiltrate the earth with the aid of their android duplicates.
These Daleks would attempt to destroy the planet by using the mutants in the sewers. The descendants of their original creations, the mutants had since built a thriving society in the sewers.
The Daleks however having found that their DNA had mutated to unprecedented levels wanted to study them and create a new race of mutants to serve them.
The Daleks would easily enslave the mutants and perform absolutely horrific experiments on them. Thousands of mutants were killed, entire communities were wiped out by the Daleks actions.
Sadly no one on the surface even knew the Daleks were underground as no one cared about the mutants. They were seen as inferior scum at best by the surface dwellers.
Fortunately the Doctor and his companion Leela would help the Mutants and defeat the Daleks before they could unleash their army of new mutants on the surface. Most of the Daleks new mutants were destroyed, but a few would surface below the regular mutants “city”.
One of these mutants, dubbed El Chupanibre, would terrorize the regular mutants for many decades after.
Leela faces the Daleks in the sewers of New York in the 30th century.
During her adventure against the Daleks, Leela saved the life of a young mutant couple Turanga Morris and Turanga Munda. At the time Munda was pregnant with their only daughter who Munda decided to name Leela after the woman who saved her and her husband’s life.
Munda and Morris’ child was initially only born with one mutation, a single eye and they felt that she was too “normal” to not be allowed to live on the surface. The two mutants would disguise Turanga Leela as an alien and abandoned her at an orphanage where she would be raised.
Leela would believe she was an alien abandoned on earth for the first 25 years of her life. Still her parents would always watch out for her throughout her early life from the sewers and help her out from time to time.
Leela would later learn that whilst her parents gave her up to ensure a better life for her, they never abandoned her.
On Necros meanwhile Davros would quickly take control of its main facility, Tranquil Repose and use it to create his new army of Daleks.
Tranquil Repose was a medical facility where those dying of terminal diseases were kept in suspended animation until a cure could be found for their condition.
Davros would transform some of the people kept in suspended animation into his new race of Daleks, conditioned to obey only his will. He chose those he deemed to be the greatest intellects and strongest minds to be his new race of Daleks. Those he judged to be the lesser intellects meanwhile he turned into food and sold to the outer planets in order to gain money for his experiments.
The Doctor is horrified to hear what Davros has done to the Tranquil Repose facility on Necros.
With his new army of Daleks completed, Davros would then lure his archenemy the Doctor (then in his Sixth incarnation) to Necros as part of a trap.
Davros succeeded in capturing the Doctor, but just as he was about launch his new army, his original Daleks arrived and captured him.
These Daleks had been summoned by one of the staff at Tranquil Repose who had grown to despise Davros. Whilst the Daleks took Davros back to Skaro to stand trial for his crimes, they also intended to recondition his new army of Daleks to be loyal to them.
Fortunately however a knight named Orcini who had been hired to kill Davros, but who still wanted an honourable kill destroyed the Dalek army with a bomb before they could be activated.
The Doctor would subsequently convince the people on Necros to harness the planets on the planet to create a food source to feed the starving planets.
Davros meanwhile would later escape from the Daleks. He would spend the next few years attempting to take control of the monsters only to fail each time.
Davros would later find a way to revive the frozen Dalek army on Spirodon, who he then reconditioned one at a time to be his servants. These new and upgraded Daleks would drive the original Daleks from Skaro (after the Movellan war the monsters had returned to their old home planet which they had terrorformed.)
Davros would make Skaro his new base of operations and he would also upgrade his own body too. As the Doctor would later comment “he had removed the last vestige of his human form.”
Davros in his new form.
Davros’ Daleks on Skaro would be referred to as the Imperials, whilst the original Dalek faction would be referred to as the renegades.
Both factions would over the course of the next century or so build up their own empires whilst constantly warring with one another.
In the year 2985, the new Cyber empire had expanded to such an extent that the earth grew terrified and would attempt to mount an alliance between various other races even beyond the Democratic Order of Planets against the Cybermen.
The Cybermen however would attempt to stop the conference from going ahead by planting a Cyber bomb on the earth which would have been capable of destroying the entire planet.
The Fifth Doctor and his companions however would successfully deactivate the bomb, but the Cyber leader had a back up plan.
He would crash a gigantic ship into the earth filled with Cyber bombs which would render planet uninhabitable. Despite his best efforts the Fifth Doctor was no match for the Cybermen who were able to steer the ship towards earth. Unfortunately for the Cybermen however their own technology inadvertently sent the space ship back 65 million years where it was the cause of the final extinction of the Dinosaurs.
The Cybermen however still achieved a small victory over the Doctor as they forced his companion, Adric to remain behind on the ship as it crashed. Adric’s death would continue to haunt the Doctor for centuries to come.
The alliance of planets would wage war on the Cyber empire which would last from 2985 until the year 2997. The alliance of planets was the largest humanity had ever assembled and ultimately even the Cybermen couldn’t withstand it and they were eventually beaten back to Telos.
One group of Cybermen did manage to make their way to earth during the war where they would revive several of earth’s giant monsters buried under the ground as Cybernetic monsters. Among these included several of the Gyaos and King Ghidorah.
The earth would be forced to turn to giant monsters such as Godzilla and King Kong for help. All of earth’s giant monsters had continued to live on Monsterworld for the past 1000 years. Their mutated metabolism would allow them to survive for several thousand years, though by this stage baby Godzilla had fully grown meaning there were three Godzilla’s now. The Federation had attempted to weaponize Godzilla in the 24th century, but the monsters were too powerful for the Federation to capture.
The monsters had played a brief role in helping to fight back the Daleks during the second great Dalek war.
The Democratic Order of Planets would still nevertheless be able to bring Godzilla, King Kong, Jiras, and Anguirus back to earth with the help of the 12th Doctor.
Back on their home planet for the first time in close to 1000 years, the monsters would battle the Cyberized versions of their old enemies such as Ghidorah and Gyaos. Godzilla and his allies would destroy the Cybermen’s monsters whilst the Doctor destroyed their invasion force on earth. The monsters would then be shipped back to Monster World.
In the year 2998 the Cybermen would succeed in capturing a time vessel which they attempted to use to change the history of the universe by preventing Mondas’ destruction. These plans were foiled by the Sixth Doctor, and with the last suriving Cryons help, the Sixth Doctor was also able to destroy the Cybermen’s base of operations on Telos, forcing the last of the Cybermen to retreat across the universe.
By the end of the 30th century human civilisation was thriving like never before thanks to both its own technological advancements and those of the various alien species that had come to settle on the earth. However this would create a problem of people in the 30th century becoming decadent as they no longer had any responsibilities. In order to get round this the government would force people to take jobs through computer chips implanted in their minds. Those who lacked the chips were deemed outlaws.
At the end of the year 2999 Philip J Fry would be awoken from his 1000 year long slumber. Having been preserved solely to battle against the Brain Spawn when they returned, Fry was not sorry to leave his life in the 20th century behind as he felt his life was going nowhere.
Fry awakens in a very different world to the one he left behind.
Sadly however the job he was assigned by Turanga Leela at the cryogenics lab was the same as his job from the 20th century, a Delivery boy. He refused to go back to his old life and fled from Leela who tried to install his career chip. .
Along the way Fry encountered a robot, Bender and the two of them would soon forge a strong, if somewhat unusual friendship.
Leela would catch up to Fry in the ruins of Old New York where the two bonded over the loss of their family and not fitting in 30th century earth. Fry inspired Leela to quit her job, and the three of them tracked down Professor Hubert Farnsworth, Fry’s great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great nephew.
Farnsworth ran a delivery company called Planet Express which he used to fund his outlandish experiments. His old crew had been tragically killed on an expedition against gigantic bees and he was only too happy to hire Fry, Bender and Leela.
Despite the fact that he was a Delivery boy again, Fry was happy to work for the Professor.
Whilst only a delivery company, the Planet Express crew would become involved in many of the most important events in earth’s history throughout the 31st century.
In the final article of the series we will take a look at the golden age of mankind in the 31st century, how the Daleks and the Cybermen would rebuild their shattered empires, the cold war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, the fall of mankind and its enslavement at the hands of the Apes, the Furon wars, the second Ice Age, and the final fate of mankind.
There have been many Vampire films and television series over the decades. Some inspired, others fairly unoriginal, but still very enjoyable, and others just plain awful.
Whilst Vampires may have been somewhat overexposed in the last few years, personally I think Vampires are the most interesting and varied monsters. I think there’s always a new angle a writer can bring to them.
With this in mind the following are Vampire stories from other mediums that haven’t sadly received that much attention, but that I think would potentially make brilliant films and television series.
Let me know what you think, and if there are any overlooked Vampire stories you’d like to see on the big or small screen.
Fray
What’s it about?
Fray is a comic book mini series created by Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy and Angel and is set in the same fictional universe as those two series.
Fray takes place in the future of the Buffy/Angel universe, in a time when technology has advanced but little else has. Vampires are public knowledge too, but most people believe them to simply be a breed of mutant and they are referred to as lurks.
Aside from Vampires, most Demons and supernatural creatures have vanished from the earth. They were apparently wiped out in a battle that took place in the middle of the 21st century, described as the ultimate battle between good and evil. (It is implied that it was Buffy and the Scooby gang who fought in the battle.)
Now however after over 100 or so years, Demons are being brought back into our world through dark magics, and as a result a new slayer is called for the first time in over a century to battle them, Melaka Fray.
Things become more complicated for Fray however when her brother Harth ends up becoming the new Vampire king of Manhattan.
Why It Would Be Great
Fray is definitely Joss Whedon’s best comic book work. Its setting in the far future with hover cars, mutants, and death rays, is a very unusual setting for a Vampire story and could I think help it to stand out from other pieces of Vampire fiction. It would need a larger budget to do its setting justice, but that might not be a problem given Joss Whedon’s recent success.
As a leading character, Fray in many ways is more of a hothead, yet also at other times more practical than Buffy or Faith. She doesn’t tend to let her personal problems affect her life to quite the same extent as Buffy.
She’s also a bit more unpolished compared to other female heroes too. Fray carries a massive scar that runs down her face, similar to the Wishverse version of Buffy.
Finally another reason I think a Fray series would do well is because of its connection to Buffy and Angel. Both series are still rightfully regarded as classics and have massive followings. As seen with the success of the Buffy and Angel comics, many people evidently want more stories set in that universe.
I don’t think that you could bring Buffy and Angel back to television now however.
Its not because the concepts or style are outdated, its more simply because I think too much time has passed for the cast. Angel and Spike for instance are meant to be immortal characters, and whilst James Marsters and David Borearnaz have aged very well, ultimately as it is 15 years on then they have changed perhaps a bit too much.
Fray however could continue the story and universe, and you might even be able to have Buffy characters pop up in the series from time to time. For instance one issue of season 8 of Buffy sees her travel forward into the future and even work alongside Fray. This could easily be adapted as an episode with Sarah Michelle Gellar reprising her role. This same issue also reveals that Willow at some point tragically gave into being Dark Willow again and has become a major villain in Fray’s time, working alongside Harth.
Buffy and Fray in the future take on Dark Willow.
It would be an absolutely sensational story arc to have Dark Willow be the main villain of a season of Fray. Though it might be too controversial for Buffy fans, depending on what way they went with it.
Personally I think it would be better to have Willow exist in the future, having survived for so long via magic, but serve as a mentor to Fray instead.
Overall I think Fray is just screaming to be adapted as a television series. With its interesting setting and premise, unique and gritty female lead and its connection not just with Buffy and Angel, but to Joss Whedon, a major cult figure. I think it would be guaranteed to develop a very devoted cult following at the very least.
The Cast?
Dana Delorenzo would in my opinion be the best choice for Fray.
For those of you who don’t know who she is, Dana Delorenzo is an American actress best known for playing Kelly Maxwell, a main character on the horror series Ash Vs Evil Dead.
Though it sadly only lasted for 3 series, Ash Vs Evil Dead has still developed a very large and devoted following, and Delorenzo’s foul mouthed, short fused Demon slayer is without doubt the most popular character in the series alongside its lead, Ash himself.
Delorenzo is also an impressionist too. She used to be a professional Amy Winehouse impersonator due to her rather staggering physical resemblance to the late singer. She was even in an Amy Winehouse tribute band.
I honestly can’t think of anyone better to play Fray than Dana. As you can see she could handle the physicality of the role perfectly. She’d also be able to capture the more gritty aspects of the character too, better than a lot of other actresses. How many leading actors do you think would be happy to do a scene where their heads were dumped in toilet water by a Demon puppet, perving them up like Dana did in Ash Vs Evil Dead?
Dana’s personality as Kelly also matches Fray in that on the one hand she is quite level headed and practical, but on the other she has quite an explosive temper. Finally Dana also has the right look for Fray. Short, more exotic, darker good looks, and a constantly angry expression on her face.
In my opinion Delorenzo would be as well cast as Fray as Sarah Michelle Gellar was as Buffy.
As for Harth, Fray’s Vampiric brother, I think Robbie Kay would be a good choice. Kay is a young and very talented actor who is probably best known for playing an evil version of Peter Pan in Once Upon A Time.
Robbie’s malevolent version of Peter Pan was originally a lazy bum named Malcolm who gave up his only son Rumplestiltskin in order to return to being a boy, and live forever on the magical island of Neverland.
Pan returns many centuries later to try and murder his great grandson Henry, and steal his heart in order to prolong his own miserable life. He also attempts to curse the town of Storybrooke where Rumple lives, condemning his son to the worst fate of all.
Robbie Kay was amazing as Pan. I’d rank him as one of the greatest television fantasy villains of all time. Kay’s Pan was charming, suave, and witty on the surface, yet underneath there was a real horrible, sneering, cruelty to him. He was like that horrible bully at school that pretended to be your friend, only so that he could humiliate you before he sticks the knife in and twists it.
Kay was also brilliant at doing the old man in a young man’s body too. In the scenes where he encounters his son Rumplestiltskin as an adult (played by Robert Carlyle) you buy that Kay is Carlyle’s father, as utterly ridiculous as it might seem.
Harth in many ways is similar to Pan. Like Pan he is a relative of the main hero. He has a boyish, somewhat friendly look, but underneath is very cruel, manipulative and cold. He also like Pan is not above pretending he still cares about his loved ones to his advantage, (when he secretly despises them) and he is also again despite his young appearance, the fearsome and tyrannical leader of a powerful group of supernatural creatures.
There are two problems however with Robbie’s casting. First of all his accent doesn’t match Dana’s. He could adopt an American accent, but his natural English accent is part of his screen presence. Also he might be a bit too young to play Dana’s twin brother.
Dana is 35 years old. She could easily pass for at least 10 years younger (not that 35 is old of course.)
Still whilst Dana can pass for her early 20s no problem, Robbie does look like a teenager. You could possibly get round that by having it that Harth was sired as a teenager and its been a few years for Fray, but obviously Harth hasn’t aged.
As long as he could do a good American accent then Robbie for me would be the perfect choice for Harth.
Kelly vs Peter Pan. Please someone make this happen!
Finally for the role of Erin, Fray’s sister, I’d love to see Stephanie Beatriz. Best known for her show stealing performance as the aggressive Rosa on Brooklyn 999, Stephanie would be good for Erin for many reasons.
To start with she is not entirely unlike Dana Delorenzo physically (both could play Amy Winehouse in the film of her life.) Also the character of Erin is the head of the police force of Manhattan in the future too, and Stephanie already has experience playing somewhat bad tempered law officers as seen with Rosa.
They’d be the most badass sisters of all time.
The Legacy of Kain Series
What’s It About?
Set in the mythical land of Nosgoth, this series follows the adventures of Kain, formerly a young nobleman who is resurrected as a Vampire by the Necromancer Mortainus. Kain as Vampire initially despises his condition and seeks to find a way to turn back, before eventually embracing his destiny and becoming the king of the Vampires.
The series sees Kain constantly struggle against the Circle of Nine, powerful sorcerers who control the fate of Nosgoth. In various entries in the series Kain even manages to change the history of Nosgoth, turning it from a land where Vampires are all but extinct, to one where Kain rules a massive Vampire empire.
Later entries in the series follow Kain’s rivalry with his son, Razziel. Razziel, also a Vampire is thrown by Kain into a bit of never ending torment after defying him, but manages to survive only to re-emerge later as a mutated soul devouring Vampire.
Razziel is condemned to a slow torturous death by his father only to return as a more powerful adversary later.
Whilst Razziel seeks to destroy his father, the two nevertheless do work together in other entries to try and in their eyes, save Nosgoth.
Razziel and Kain’s somewhat complicated relationship.
Throughout the series Kain wavers between an anti hero and an outright villain, but he always remains convinced that he is doing the right thing.
Why It Would Be Great?
The Legacy of Kain is easily one of the greatest video game series ever made.
Not everything that works in a video game works in other mediums, but I think a television series of the Legacy of Kain would translate really well.
On tv I think it would stand out somewhat more. We don’t see that many Vampire television series or films that take place in a mythical fantasy land like Nosgoth. They usually take place in modern day, or in Gothic surroundings.
Also Kain and Razziel are very unusual leading Vampire characters. They are truly monstrous in appearance. (Razziel is missing the lower half of his jaw!) Most good guy Vampires are portrayed as sexy like Spike, Angel, Vampirella etc for obvious reasons.
Also Kain and Razziel are a little bit more complex than other Vampire protagonists too. They aren’t motivated by being in love with someone, or even in just in being a better person. They both want to challenge destiny, defy the will of the gods, and shape the world in a way that they believe to be better.
The fact that The Legacy of Kain also deals with time travel too is also a somewhat unusual subject for Vampire fiction.
The Legacy of Kain television series would need to have a large budget to do its exotic and colourful settings justice, but still if done right I think Legacy of Kain could be a Game of Thrones style gritty, violent fantasy series.
The Cast?
Kain would have to be played by Simon Templeman who voiced the character in the original games. The character would have to be made older, but that’s okay. Small price to pay to get Simon Templeman back. Templeman to me has the best voice for a villain.
Among his other notable roles include The Angel of Death in Charmed, the psychotic spectre Pervayne in Angel, and Doctor Doom is the classic 90s animated version of the Fantastic Four.
Sadly however Michael Ball the voice actor for Razziel is too old to play the character. He is 80 years old! Instead I think Michael Fassbender would do a brilliant job at capturing the characters passion, fanaticism and more complex personality.
The Amazing Screw On Head
What’s It About
Set during the time of the American Civil War. The Amazing Screw On Head revolves around a robot who can attach his head onto various different bodies, and who battles Vampires, Demons, Werewolves and Zombies.
His two archenemies are his former butler and friend, Emperor Zombie, and his former lover who was turned into a Vampire, and now works for Emperor Zombie.
The Amazing Screw On Head originally began as a one shot comic book, written and drawn by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola.
It was later adapted as an animated pilot in 2006 starring Paul Giamatti as Screw On Head, and David Hyde Pearce as Emperor Zombie.
See here.
What a shame this series was never picked up. It could have been one of the greatest animated series of all time!
Why It Would Be Good
The Amazing Screw On Head is a wonderfully crazy, offbeat and imaginative story. It has a love triangle between a robot, a Vampire and a Zombie, Vampires, a main hero who can replace his body as easily as changing a coat, giant hundred foot tall Demons fighting spider robots in the American civil war, and a prissy uptight Zombie who is willing to sacrifice all of humanity just so that he can be a butler to a Demon.
Its safe to say its quite unlike any other Vampire television series. Its a great blend of surrealist offbeat humour and a genuinely good, imaginative horror story.
The Cast
I would love to see Bruce Campbell play the title role. Bruce Campbell is a legendary horror actor best known for playing Ashley Williams in the classic Evil Dead trilogy and sequel series Ash Vs Evil Dead.
Campbell has also had starring roles in many other genre classics too however such as Bubba Ho Tep.
Campbell I think based on his previous work would be able to find the right balance of humour and drama in the character. As silly as The Amazing Screw On Head may seem, he still has to be played completely straight. Not only does that add to the comedy, but it also allows the story overall to still be a proper fantasy adventure, and not just a total parody.
As for Emperor Zombie, personally I think Matt Smith, best known for playing the 11th Doctor would be an excellent choice. He could capture the villains more uptight, prissy mannerisms and zany humour perfectly.
Ash vs the Doctor? Someone make this happen!
Finally for Screw on Head’s former Vampire lover, I think Lucy Lawless, best known for playing Xena, and who has a long history with Bruce Campbell would make an excellent choice.
Vampirella
What’s It About?
Originally the character of Vampirella was portrayed as an alien from the planet Drakulon, where blood flows in rivers. As the blood begins to dry up however due to the planets two suns, Vampirella is sent to earth to try and find a way for her kind to survive. It is said that centuries ago another member of her kind, Dracula visited the earth and was able to survive on the planet. Vampirella discovers that this is because her species can survive on the blood of humans.
Though giving into her thirst initially, Vampirella eventually is able to control her dark urges and works to help fight the evil members of her kind who were created on earth by Dracula, (who also goes on to become her archenemy.)
Many decades later when Vampirella was revived, her origins were changed so that she had been sent from hell by her mother, Lilith, the mother of all Vampires to help mankind. Lilith was initially believed to be seeking redemption for her sins in creating the Vampire race, but it was later revealed that she had her own evil plans for her daughter.
Why It Would Be Great?
Vampirella is the original Vampire superhero. There had been benevolent Vampire characters in fiction before Vampirella, such as most notably Carmilla Karnstein. However these characters were usually just love struck, mopey heroes who wanted to give up being Vampires and have a normal life.
Vampirella marked the first time we saw a Vampire actively hunt other members of its kind and other supernatural creatures such as Witches, Demons and Werewolves.
Also whilst super strength and other incredible abilities had been a feature of Vampire myths throughout the ages, Vampirella was really the first time where these powers were used in a more overt way like a superhero.
Vampirella is really one of the most pivotal characters in Vampire fiction, helping to pave the way for the likes of Blade and Angel. Sadly however despite this whilst she has a following, Vampirella remains somewhat overlooked in comparison to other Vampire characters.
Its amazing that save a terrible 1996 straight to video film, there has never been a proper adaptation of the character either. Apparently there was an attempt to make a serious film version by Hammer in the 70s which would have starred Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, and Caroline Munro as Vampirella, but sadly it was never made.
I think there could be a lot of value in a Vampirella tv series. Most brooding Vampire heroes tend to be guys, like Angel, Blade, Spike, Mitchell from Being Human etc. It might be interesting to see a female version of this type of character. Vampirella also had an interesting collection of supporting characters and villains culled from various myths and Vampire stories such as Lilith that could be exploited too.
As for which of her origins to use, well I think you could maybe merge both of them together so as to incorporate elements from the characters entire history.
You could have it that Vampirella instead comes from an alternate universe where Vampires have overrun humanity. Perhaps in this universe, Van Helsing failed to stop Dracula when he was in London during the events of Stokers novel. Remember that in Stokers original novel, Dracula is only in London so that he can use the British empire to spread Vampirism around the world like never before, and eventually overrun humanity.
Maybe in Vampirella’s universe Dracula succeeded after killing Van Helsing and now humans are nothing but cattle, with there being rivers of blood and all other supernatural creatures having been enslaved by Vampires too, just like Draculon from the comics, but at the same time its effectively a hell dimension like her later origins.
Maybe the alternate world has even been renamed Draculon! Of course in the first episode you’d have Dracula and Vampirella, the last hope for the last group of human resistance accidentally get transported to our reality whilst dueling with each other (in our universe Dracula just as in Stokers novel was killed by Van Helsing in the early 20th century, explaining why Vampires haven’t overrun our earth.)
You could also later have Lilith be the one who engineered Dracula and Vampirella to be transported into another universe through a spell like in Vampirella’s later origins, so that she could take over in Dracula’s absence. However after she takes over Lilith finds out that the humans the Vampires feed on have been hunted so extensively that they are dying out, and so she decides to lead her army to our earth.
Much like with Buffy, Vampirella also fights various other monsters such as Demons, Werewolves and Witches and so the stories wouldn’t have to just stick to Vampires either.
The Cast?
Its hard just whittling it down to one choice for Vampirella, but I’d say my top choice would probably be Katarina Law.
Best known for playing Nyssa Al Ghul in Arrow, Katarina has the right look for the part, can cope really well with action roles, and is a great actress all around who could easily carry her own series.
Famke Janssen best known for her roles in various action and cult films such as Goldeneye, the X-Men film series, and The Faculty would make a brilliant Lilith too. She’s great at playing really nasty villains and she’s physically quite imposing too.
The Monster Club
What’s It About?
The Monster Club is an anthology horror novel by R Chetwynd Hayes. It was adapted as a film in 1980. I’m only going to be talking about the film here as sadly I haven’t had a chance to get a hold of the book yet, though its on my to do list.
The films premise sees a horror author attacked by a Vampire named Erasmus, who pretends to be a homeless man. Erasmus does not kill the horror author however after recognising him and invites the author for a drink at the local monster club.
There Erasmus tells the author three real stories about monsters.
The first story is about a Shadmock named Raven. Shadmock’s are hybrid monster creatures, who kill using a deadly whistle which burns their victims. Shadmock’s can’t always control their whistle however and will sometimes unleash them on their victims in a moment of anger or stress.
Raven is a wealthy, kind hearted individual, who keeps away from people so as not harm anyone. Unfortunately however he soon becomes the target of two con artists, Angela and her boyfriend George.
Raven falls in love with Angela and even proposes to her. Though Angela does develop a genuine friendship with the Shadmock and doesn’t want to hurt him. George forces her to go along with the scam. Things become too much for Angela however when she meets Raven’s strange monstrous relatives, and later when Raven finds Angela trying to steal the money from his safe, he willingly hands it over to her pitifully telling her “You could still love me”.
Angela however having finally snapped from the pressure screams at Raven that she could never love him, and Raven in grief unleashes his whistle which completely destroys Angela’s face. When Angela returns to George, he is driven insane by the sight of her mutilated face and ends up in a catatonic state for the rest of his life.
Angela after the Shadmock’s whistle destroys her face. Ironically her final words to her boyfriend before sending him into a permanent catatonic state are “you could still love me.”
The second story revolves around a Vampire who still has a normal human family. Unfortunately despite seemingly being reformed the Vampire is still the target of a group of dedicated Vampire hunters. The Vampire however after tricking their leader is able to turn him, resulting in the Vampire hunter being slain by his own men.
The final story sees a film director named Sam stumble upon an old town named Loughville whilst searching for an atmospheric setting to shoot his new film.
As soon as he arrives in Loughville, Sam is confronted by several decrepit old men who tell him he will never leave. When he tries to get away in his car, Sam finds it has been sabotaged and is attacked by the residents.
Barely escaping to a nearby house, Sam soon meets a young woman named Luna. She explains to him that the residents of the village are hideous flesh eating Demons called Ghouls. She says that she is a half human, half Ghoul, and that her mother was a traveller who stumbled upon the village, where she was raped by the Ghouls, and then eaten alive after she gave birth to Luna. Luna says that the monsters have devoured countless other travellers who have strayed too close to the village, and tells Sam that the only place he will be safe is in the local church.
Sam barely makes it to the Church, which the unholy monsters can’t enter. Whilst there he discovers the rotting skeleton of a priest as well as his diary, which details the chilling circumstances of how Loughville came to be overrun by the Ghouls.
Originally Loughville was just a normal town, but at some point its people discovered a Ghoul lurking in a local graveyard. The villagers wanted to kill the abomination, but the Priest foolishly thought he could rehabilitate the monster and took it into his house.
Later however he discovered the beast feasting on the corpse of one of its victims. He chased the Ghoul away, but by then it was too late and the monster was able to summon a horde of Ghouls who quickly overran Loughville.
The Priest escaped to the church, but he was too scared to try and escape and eventually died of dehydration in the church. The final entry in his diary mentions that even as he writes he can hear the howls of the ravenous Ghouls outside.
The Ghouls turn on Luna for helping Sam and try to eat her. Sam is able to ward them off with a cross and get Luna inside the Church. Luna then warns Sam that soon the Elders will return to the village. The Elders regularly make visits to the London underground where they snatch unsuspecting victims. Luna states that the Elders are far stronger than the regular Ghouls and that they won’t escape if they return.
Sam and Luna make a run for it through the woods, carrying a cross to ward the Ghouls away. Unfortunately just as they are about to escape, Luna’s own Ghoul father kills her by throwing a rock at her head.
Sam escapes to the motorway meanwhile where he is picked up by two policemen who promise to help him. However the policemen drive back to the village and explain to Sam that they are actually the escorts for the elders when they visit London, whose car Sam can see driving behind them.
To Sam’s horror the car arrives back in the village square where the monsters swarm the car, and the two policemen turn round revealing their monstrous teeth to the petrified film director, who is then eaten alive.
Sam finds out the hard way that there is sometimes corruption in the Police force.
After entertaining the author with the three stories, Erasmus insists that he be made a member of the Monster Club. Despite the fact that humans aren’t monsters, Erasmus is able to convince the owner of the club (a Werewolf) that humans are evil by listing all of the horrible things they have done to each other and the author is made an honorary member.
Why It Would Be Great
Okay now I know that this book has already been made into a film in 1981 starring horror icons John Carradine and Vincent Price. The film is great fun and at places genuinely terrifying such as in the Ghoul story.
Still I think that it could also be the basis for an interesting television series. I would keep the same basic premise for the television series as the film and the book, but change a few things around for practicality sake. I would have the horror author from the book arrive in a city, famous for its ghost sightings, and monster stories to get inspiration for his latest book, only to discover that the stories are real!
He would just as in the movie befriend Erasmus, who in this version would be a reformed Vampire. The Monster Club would in turn also be a place for reformed Monsters who use their powers for good to chill out after a day of saving the world.
The main characters aside from Erasmus would be Raven, the son of the Vampire from the second story, and Luna, (who I would reveal had survived being hit on the head. The way I see it, she’s half Ghoul so she has to have some kind of special Ghoul powers. Maybe she was stronger than she thought, and awoke a few hours later, slipping away from the Ghouls who also thought she had died?)
Together they would be a group who fight monsters such as Vampires, Ghouls and Werewolves. The series would blend humour and genuine horror together just like the original film and novel.
The book and film have such rich backstories and mythology for their monsters its a shame we don’t get to see more, which obviously the tv show would exploit.
The book features an interesting idea of Vampires, Ghouls and Werewolves being the three original monster races, with all of the others like the Shadmock being hybrids of some kind.
I’d love to see some of the other monster hybrids in action and see their powers. Its a shame that we only get to see a Shadmock. Also how do the different monster breeds view each other?
Maybe some hybrids consider themselves superior to the original monsters as they have all of their powers and fewer of their weaknesses?
Added to that a lot of the characters in the three stories I feel have more potential to exploit in a tv show. Luna for instance has potential to be a really interesting heroine. A half human, half Ghoul who at first finds it hard to adjust to human society, who has a lifetime of horror in the Ghoul village to overcome (including watching her own mother be eaten alive by hordes of monsters, including her own father!) Then there is also the fact that Luna herself was forced to eat the remains of the Ghouls victims too!
Similarly the Shadmock is a tragic character who could be so torn over the guilt at destroying the woman he loves he is determined to make up for it.
At the same time the Vampire character from the second story could also be made into a darker character. Perhaps he keeps his wife and son around simply as a cover? Maybe his wife is being forced through hypnosis like the Priest in Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, or Renfield in the Lugosi Dracula to protect him during the day, but every minute she is struggling to break free? We could also see how the Vampire abuses his son in an attempt to crush all humanity out of him, so that when he is older he can turn him into a more effective Vampire.
The boy however would escape his father, and devote himself to killing his father, becoming a Vampire hunter, whilst his father would be determined to make his son pay for blowing his cover too.
The Vampire hunter (played by Donald Pleasance in the film) who is turned could also an interesting villain for the main characters. Much like Gordon Walker in Supernatural he would be a Vampire who hates being a Vampire but can’t control his bloodlust and so he ends up being dangerous to everyone and everything around him.
There are also a number of other characters from the anthology who could make effective villains. Angela for instance would be a great archenemy for Raven. After he destroyed her face and made her an outcast like him, she would be determined to make him pay.
Luna meanwhile would have the Elders and her own Ghoul father as her foes. It would be cool if they made the Elders (who we don’t actually see in the film) look like the Ghouls in these terrifying illustrations we see in the priests account of how Loughville fell.
Ghouls are very under represented in horror movies and television series compared to other favourite monsters like Vampires, Demons, Witches, Zombies and Werewolves. We never see them as the main villains in any major franchise for instance, so a Monster Club tv show could finally give them a big role.
Again it feels like we only scratch the surface of the Elders in both the book and the film. We know that they are more powerful than regular Ghouls, that they travel to the city and snatch people in the London underground to bring back to the Ghoul village. We also know that they have eyes and ears outside the village, including most disturbingly of all, in the police force!
There is so much potential in the Ghouls backstory. We could see stories involving the Elders creeping about the dark streets of London, picking people off, or stories that explore how they have agents across human society in the police force, or even in other areas such as the government, maybe even the entertainment industry! We could see how there are hundreds of towns like Loughville across the world, and they are all in some way connected, with the Elders working through a network with one another.
We could see how the monsters have even managed to take over modern cities, albeit in more discreet ways than Loughville as they have to work under the radar.
I would also love to see a story where Luna returns to Loughville to destroy it and we get to see the town in a greater detail, including the cages where the Ghouls keep their victims locked up, as well as the remains of Sam and of course the return of Luna’s abusive, monstrous father.
There’s an entire wealth of stories just waiting to be used in the universe R Chetwynd Hayes created.
The Cast?
I think that Noel Fielding would be a great choice for the role Erasmus. For Erasmus you’d need someone who is quite optimistic, yet has quite a dark sense of humour. Someone who can happily tell their victim that their blood was the nicest he ever drank and hope they’ll take it as a compliment.
Noel is a great comedy actor and he has experience playing weird and over the top monsters like the Hitcher, the Spirit of Jazz, Tony Harrison and of course Old Gregg!
I am sure he could come up with a suitably over the top and lovable personality for Erasmus.
I’d also love to see Noel play other monster roles in the series too. I think he would do a brilliant job as one of the Elders too. His performance as the Elder would have to be more frightening. I think it would be interesting to see Noel try and tackle playing a a proper horror movie monster. A lot of his characters like the Spirit of Jazz and The Hitcher are bordering on being genuinely creepy. You can imagine how with a little tweaking the Hitcher could be a genuine horror movie villain. A green skinned monster who enjoys stabbing and raping people!
As for who could play the horror author, I think Noel’s comedy partner, Julian Barratt would be excellent.
Julian is a great comedy and serious actor. He’s really good at playing pompous know nothing know it all’s and I think he could bring a lot of humour to the author character, yet not too much that they couldn’t have him be involved in serious storylines.
As for Raven I could definitely see Reece Shearsmith playing him. Shearsmith who is best known as a member of the League of Gentlemen is a lifelong horror fan and I can see him coming up with an interesting look and somewhat more nuanced performance for the tormented but hot tempered Shadmock.
As for Luna I think that Ingrid Oliver would be great. I admit I LOVE Ingrid Oliver so I pretty much want to cast her in anything. Still I think she would bring a lot of vulnerability and strength to the role as seen with her performances as Natalie in Peep Show and Osgood in Doctor Who.
The Witches
What’s It About?
A Roald Dahl novel, The Witches revolves around an old former Witch hunter and her grandson (neither are named in the novel, but in the film the grandmother is named Helga, whilst the boy is named Luke.)
Helga warns Luke about Witches who are said to be Demons that take on human form. Witches despise children above all else and torture and kill them using their spells.
According to Helga Witches are all bald, have purple eyes, long talons, and square toes which they cover up in various ways when luring children away to murder.
Despite Helga’s warnings however Luke is later captured by the Grand High Witch of England (who poses as the head of a children’s charity!)
The Witch uses Luke as a test subject for her new potion, which turns him into a mouse!
Luke and Helga soon discover that the Witches are attempting to spike candy bars all over England with this poison and turn every child into a mouse!
Fortunately however with Luke’s help, Helga is able to turn the tables on the Witches and spike their own food with the poison, causing them to all turn into rats where they are hacked to pieces in a hotel.
The ending of the book and the film differ from this point. In the film one of the Witches (played by Jane Horrocks) reforms and reverses the spell turning Luke back into a boy. In the book however there is no good Witch (as such a thing simply cannot exist.)
Thus there is no way to turn Luke back from being a mouse, and he will only live another 9 years. Still Luke and his mother decide to hunt down the remaining Witches and wipe them out using their own poison.
Why It Would Be Great?
Okay I know there are two things I have to address. First of all this is not a Vampire story, and second, its already been adapted.
However I’m going to make an exception in including the Witches here. First of all whilst it might not be a Vampire movie, it does still follow all of the tropes laid down by Vampire stories. Its basic plot is somewhat similar to the two modern day Hammer Dracula’s, Dracula AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee for instance.
Both revolve around an old grand parent, who used to be a monster hunter, both see them come across their archenemy, the alluring, but utterly loathsome leader of a race of monsters. Both see the leader of the monsters target their enemy’s grand child, and both see the monster using aspects of the modern world to keep hidden in plain sight, whilst intending to launch a plague with horrifying effects.
Also whilst the 1990 Witches film adaptation is one of my favourite films, I think that it might be quite interesting to base a television series around the Witches.
The series would follow Luke and Helga travelling the world killing Witches. It would have to take a few liberties to be adapted. Much like the film, Luke would have had to have been turned back into a human after the Witches were destroyed.
You could include the reformed Witch character from the film if you wanted, or you could just simply have it that after slaying the Grand High Witch, Helga was able to find a way to reverse the potion. She is a Van Helsing style expert on the occult after all. It shouldn’t be too hard.
You’d have it set about ten years after the events of the novel, with Luke now being 18 and you’d have to add at least one or two more characters so it wasn’t just Luke and his grandmother all the time.
Also I think you would need to change it so that the Witches were not an all female race of monsters. I don’t think the original novel was sexist because of this. In fact quite the opposite. I think its great that women got a chance to play one of the scariest monsters in all of horror. Normally the most terrifying monsters are men, like Dracula, the Daleks, Freddy Krueger etc, whilst female monsters and villains in general such as Catwoman tend to be more sympathetic. So it was good to see a female monster for once who was evil as you could imagine.
However in the current climate I think having a show about a young man go around killing female monsters would just stir things up. The SJWs and the anti SJWs would probably both try and claim the show. You’d get people saying the show encourages violence against women, and you’d get people saying that the Witches are a metaphor for feminists, and Luke is a symbol of men fighting back against Third Wave Feminism.
Its sad but its true that in the current climate almost nothing can be apolitical anymore. It’s the SJWs fault for trying to find sexism in EVERYTHING. Its only natural that the anti SJW side would soon start to do the same and slap their agenda on everything they can. Still that’s the way things are, so I think it would be better to simply have it that Warlocks also exist in this version and they are the same as Witches.
I wouldn’t bother to have there be any power struggle between Witches and Warlocks either so as not to get it dragged down in any more feminist vs anti feminist crap. Just have some cells be commanded by a Grand High Witch and others by a Grand High Warlock.
In keeping with the book, then the main villains would all be Witches, with the Warlocks usually just being mooks. The Grand High Witch would still be heroes archenemy. The same way that most Vampires we see in Buffy are men, even though we know that women can be Vampires, then this would just be the same in reverse.
I think the Witches would offer more different roles for women than we see in other genre series.
The role of the grandmother is almost always one that is occupied by a man. Whether that’s Peter Cushing, Ruper Giles, Abraham Whistler, Bobby Singer. The crusty old mentor figure who is a paternal figure to the younger heroes, who knows everything there is to know about Vampires, Demons, Witches and monsters, who has countless books on the occult, who loves reading about the occult, who is old, but still tough as an old pair of boots and at times quite ruthless. We rarely see female versions of that character.
The Witches also wouldn’t have to be bound just to Witches all the time. At the start of the book, Helga mentions that there are various other monster species including Ghouls, but none of these creatures make an appearance.
In the television series however you could do episodes that focus on these monsters. I think you could actually have The Witches and Monster Club television series take place in the same universe, and even have crossovers between them. I think their style would mesh as they are both very British and both whilst having moments of genuine terror, also have a somewhat tongue in cheek aspect to them too.
The Cast?
For the role of the Grandmother I think that Jenny Agutter would be marvellous. Jenny Agutter is a highly respected British actress known for her wide range of roles in various film and television series such as Call the Midwife, Logans Run and An American Werewolf in London.
She’s good at playing quite practical, level headed characters, but at the same time she also has a very warm, caring aspect to her too as seen in the poignant final moments in An American Werewolf in London where she attempts to talk David down.
As for the Grand High Witch, you’d need to get someone who much like Anjelica Huston is strikingly beautiful, yet can also play a grotesque monster really well.
I think that Lucy Lawless once again would be an amazing choice for the Witch. She is an excellent villain and much like Anjelica Huston, looks imposing physically.
Don’t tell me you couldn’t see her as the Grand High Witch.
Katey Sagal an actress best known for her roles in Futurama, Sons of Anarchy and Married with Children would also make a great Grand High Witch. Like Lucy Lawless and Anjelica Huston she is physically quite imposing and she can do nasty really well too.
Another great choice for the role would be Michelle Gomez. Now I absolutely despise her most well known role, that of Missy, the female version of the Master in Doctor Who. However in all fairness that’s not because I dislike her. I think that everything about the character of Missy from why it happened, to the way it was written was terrible. The actress almost didn’t matter.
Michelle Gomez, Missy aside is a good actress, and she is certainly good at playing crazy and nasty people. I could easily see her playing a really menacing Witch. Whilst she’s not physically very tall, in the original novel the Grand High Witch is actually said to be very petite in both frame and stature so Michelle could actually be a more faithful interpretation than even Anjelica Huston’s.
As there is meant to be more than one Grand High Witch then you could have all 3 actresses play Witches at various points in the series. Why settle for one marvellous, crazy, shameless ham actress?
American Vampire
What’s It About?
American Vampire is a comic book series created by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuergqueqe and Stephen King. Its premise revolves around the idea of there being various different species of Vampires, giving rise to the different myths and legends over the centuries.
The series follows an outlaw named Skinner Sweet who is the first of a new breed of Vampire, immune to many of their standard weaknesses and limitations such as sunlight.
The series primarily follows his life throughout the 20th century as well as his battles with other Vampire breeds, and his somewhat complicated relationship a young woman named Pearl Jones, who he turns in order to save, and who then goes on to wage war against a pack of European Vampires who had ruined her life as a human.
Why It Would Be Great?
American Vampire has a particularly interesting premise with its blending of different Vampire myths and settings across various different periods in American history. Its Vampire protagonists are also not really good guys either. More villain protagonists who are slightly less evil than the Vampires they are facing. Skinner Sweet is a sociopathic murderer even before he becomes a Vampire!
I think it might work better as a film series than a television one.
The Cast?
For Skinner Sweet I think Boyd Holbrook would be excellent. Holbrook is best known for playing the sadistic villain Donald Pierce in Logan. With Skinner he could give us a Vampire protagonist that is genuinely difficult to like, but still engaging on screen.
Michelle Rodriguez meanwhile would be great for Pearl. Who plays tragic, badass action heroines better than her?
Tomb of Dracula
What’s It About?
Tomb of Dracula was a long running Marvel comic. It told the history of Dracula, showing his life as Vlad the Impaler, when he first becomes a Vampire, when he kills the then current king of the Vampires, Nimrod and takes his place, his attempts to spread Vampirism across the world, his battles against the Van Helsing family and his own half human, half Vampire daughter, Lilith and his many deaths and resurrections over the centuries.
Later series see Dracula battle the Night Stalkers a group of Vampire hunters which include Drake, Dracula’s human descendent, Rachel Van Helsing, reformed Vampire Detective Hannibal King, half human, half Vampire Eric Brooks (Blade) and Quincy Harker, a descendent of Jonathan Harker.
Why It Would Be Great?
Obviously there has already been an adaptation of Blade, and I liked the Blade trilogy. It was in its own way innovative and influential.
Still it wasn’t really faithful in anyway to the original source material. Its versions of Dracula, Blade, Hannibal King and Frost were all drastically different to the Marvel versions, whilst characters like Quincy Harker and Rachel Van Helsing were replaced with the Whistler family. Other characters like Lilith were omitted completely meanwhile.
Personally I’d love to see a version that stays closer to the original. The Marvel Dracula could actually be the definitive version of Stokers Vampire.
It manages to capture all of the elements that we see in the most famous versions of Dracula. There’s the physical, savage aspect and the sadism of Christopher Lee, the hypnotic, sinister gentlemanly qualities of Bela Lugosi, the romantic qualities of Dracula’s like Jack Palance, Frank Langella and Gary Oldman, and finally he also captures the arrogant, Vampire King who wants to rule the earth aspect of Stokers original Vampire.
I think the television series based on Tomb of Dracula would probably feature the Nightstalkers as the main characters, but that would be okay. We could still see Dracula’s long history unfold via flashbacks.
I think it would also be better if they set it in the 1970s too. Whilst the stories could be adapted to modern day fairly easily, I think that the 70s setting would help the series stand out more.
The Cast?
For the role of Quincy Harker I think Tim Curry would be an excellent choice. Tim Curry needs no introduction. He is one of the greatest British actors of all time, famous for his wonderfully over the top performances in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Legend, Clue, Muppets Treasure Island and IT.
Sadly Curry suffered a stroke in 2012 and now uses a wheelchair. Fortunately he can still speak, and continues to act, having done both voice over work, such as in Over The Garden Wall, and live action work, such as the 2016 remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show where he played the Narrator.
Now the character of Quincy Harker is in a wheel chair too, so physically there wouldn’t be any problems in Curry’s current condition. Also I think Curry would be right for the role as Harker is an old eccentric, very British, stiff upper lip type character that Curry plays so brilliantly in films like Clue.
As for Dracula himself I think Aidan Gillen would be good. He is a brilliant villain as seen with his performances in Game of Thrones and Shanghai Knights, however he is also able to bring a certain gravitas to his performances that would help to flesh the Marvel Dracula out.
For Rachel Van Helsing meanwhile I think Heida Reed would be brilliant. Whilst best known for her role in Poldark, what really made me think she would be great was her performance as Joecyln Peabody in the recent audio version of Dan Dare, a similar brainy heroine who fights monsters. She’d have to dye her hair blonde, but other than that I think she would be excellent.
For Hannibal King I’d like to see James McAvoy as the famous Vampire Detective. King is supposed to be a very thoughtful, sensitive character which is why Ryan Reynolds, no offence intended to the man, didn’t really do the character justice.
For Blade I think D.B. Woodside would be an excellent choice. He has already played a kick ass Vampire hunter, Robin Wood in Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 7, and his recent role as Uriel in Lucifer further shows how well he can cope with action and genre roles too.
Finally for Lilith I think Morven Christie would be great. Morven is a character actress who is known for playing somewhat complicated, tormented, even villainous characters, so I’m sure she’d be able to get into the characters complex personality no problem.
The Federal Vampire/Zombie Agency
What’s It About?
The Federal Vampire/Zombie Agency is a website that is written from an in-universe perspective. It was later adapted into a comic book miniseries.
It details an alternate history of the world where Vampires, Zombies and Werewolves were public knowledge with humanity throughout its entire history. The Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency was set up to deal with the threat these monsters posed to humanity.
Vampires, Zombies and Werewolves are not supernatural creatures in the Federal Vampire/Zombie Agency universe. They are the result of mutations and viruses, and all of their powers, and specific weaknesses are explained away through rational means.
The Vampires in the Federal Vampire/Zombie Agency are truly hideous, pitiful creatures who live in squalid little caves, are impotent, and their bodies literally rot away into nothing.
Killing them is seen as an act of mercy by the FVZA.
Why It Would Be Great?
The Federal Vampire/Zombie Agency would be the basis for a really dark and frightening Vampire television series.
Its definitely the anti Twilight, anti Vampire Diaries in that it makes being a Vampire look like the most horrifying thing imaginable.
Vampires in the FVZA are bald, ugly, rotting, impotent monsters who live in caves, and fight each other for dominance.
The fact that its Vampires are also created through rational and scientific means could also help the series stand out somewhat from almost all other popular pieces of Vampire fiction which are obviously more fantasy based.
The Cast?
The leading character in the FVZA series would have to be Doctor Pecos, the world’s greatest expert on Vampires.
Personally I think that Peter Capaldi would be brilliant as Pecos. Capaldi is great at playing the older, angry, insufferable genius type. Sadly during his tenure as the Doctor he was somewhat wasted, though I won’t go into why again here as that’s been covered many times before.
Still hopefully Doctor Pecos would make a better use of his talents. In my opinion Peter Capaldi needs to play a Vampire hunter. He has the right look for it. He kind of reminds me a little bit of Peter Cushing, arguably the greatest onscreen Vampire hunter of them all.
Capaldi is a massive fan of Peter Cushing and even bases his autograph on Cushing’s so I think if given a chance to play a Cushing style Vampire hunter/expert he would really relish the chance.
Thank you for reading, and let me know which overlooked Vampire or supernatural stories you’d like to see adapted.
Vampires are unquestionably the most popular supernatural creature. There’s far more you can do with them than you can with other favourites like say Werewolves, Zombies and Ghosts. Vampires can be both the perfect hero and the perfect villain. They can also be integrated into far more settings than many other types of monsters. There have been Vampire westerns, Vampire spy stories, Vampire detective stories, Vampire teen dramas and even Vampire superhero films.
Despite this however there are still a number of character types that we see replicated again and again in many of the most celebrated Vampire stories across all mediums, and in this article I am going to run through them, how they came into being, the most famous examples, as well as what my favourites are.
Just about any popular piece of Vampire fiction of the last 100 years or so will usually have at least two or more of the following characters. I’m not knocking them for doing this of course. I’ve used many of these characters in my own Vampire fiction and I’ll do so again. You don’t have to be totally original. As long as you do something new and interesting or even just enjoyable with an old idea. Who cares?
Still the following character types certainly seem to be the most popular with authors of Vampire fiction. Many of these character types may also be blended together as well, but these basic templates always persist.
We will also be looking at characters in some non Vampire, but supernatural series like Charmed. After all though they may not have Vampires as the main villains, they still ultimately follow the same tropes laid down by Vampire stories.
Also most supernatural series tend to feature a kitchen sink of supernatural creatures too. Even if they aren’t the main threat or focus, Vampires, Demons, Zombies, Ghosts, and Witches are bound to appear at some point in your average supernatural themed series these days anyway.
The Good Guys
1/ The Peter Cushing Style Mr Exposition Guy
Originator: Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing (obviously)
Other Notable Examples: Rupert Giles (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Professor Grost (Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter), Abraham Whistler (Blade franchise) Wesley *Wyndam Pryce (Angel), Bobby (Supernatural), Master Kau (Mr Vampire), Professor Abraham Setrakian (The Strain)
Peter Cushing’s iconic performance as Van Helsing in 5 Hammer Dracula films, “The Horror of Dracula”, “The Brides of Dracula”, “Dracula AD 1972”, “The Satanic Rites of Dracula”, and “The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires”, helped to lay down the template not just for this type of character, but Vampire hunters in general in popular culture.
Prior to Cushing’s performance as Van Helsing, the Vampire hunter was not really a classic horror movie character. There had certainly been no films that featured a Vampire hunter as a main character. In the classic Universal horror movies, the monsters were always killed by angry villagers, the bland leading man, their own loved ones, or by themselves.
Their deaths were also always presented as tragic moments, with the audience almost always having sympathy for monsters like the Wolfman, the Frankenstein’s Monster and Dracula’s Daughter when they died.
The character of Van Helsing obviously did exist in both Stokers original novel, and the 1931 adaptation of Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, where he was played by Edward Van Sloan.
Still he was very different to the Van Helsing we would later recognise from popular culture. He wasn’t a Vampire hunter per se. He was simply an eccentric scientist who had many interests, with study into the occult being one of them. He lives an otherwise normal life, and certainly has not devoted his existence to hunting the undead. Indeed Dracula is the first Vampire he has ever actually encountered.
Though he does supply our heroes with the knowledge needed to defeat Dracula, and slays the Vampires three brides, he is ultimately not the one who finally kills Dracula in the book (though he does offscreen in the 1931 film.)
Cushing’s Van Helsing meanwhile was re-imagined as being someone who did devote his entire life to destroying Vampires. Cushing’s Van Helsing, travelled from town to town hunting them, believed it was his duty to exterminate the undead from the face of the earth, and was also a much younger character who would fight the monsters in one on one conflicts. Finally he was also presented as Dracula’s ultimate nemesis who fought with him many times, and was the only person who could match the legendary king of the Vampires.
Cushing’s Van Helsing was also the lead character, and played by a far better known actor than the one who played Dracula. (At that point Christopher Lee was virtually an unknown, whilst Peter Cushing was a very well respected television actor.)
This would pave the way for other films and television series in the ensuing decades to focus on the Vampire or monster hunter, rather than always the monster such as Buffy, Blade, Charmed, Evil Dead, Mr Vampire film series etc.
Added to that traits of Cushing’s Van Helsing, specifically the person who travels from town to town, saving people from Vampires, yet is often blamed by the ignorant locals for the killings the Vampires carry out (as he is always there at the scene of the crime.) Can be found in characters like the Winchester brothers from Supernatural, Captain Kronos, Blade and Whistler and even Ash from the Evil Dead franchise.
Cushing’s Van Helsing is really the daddy of all Vampire/monster hunters, but whilst his influence is far and wide reaching, I think its fair to say that he created a very specific type of Vampire hunter that we have seen replicated in certain characters more than others.
Cushing’s Van Helsing was very much a British gentlemanly, stiff upper lip, no nonsense, serious, dedicated character. There wasn’t any room for little quips, or jokes after he slew a monster like there would be with later characters such as Buffy, Blade, the Winchesters and Ash.
He didn’t hunt Vampires because of some vendetta, or because he was the chosen one or anything like that. Van Helsing simply felt it was the right thing to do to free the world of this unquestionable evil, and he never complained about not being able to have a normal life, or wanted to give up being a Vampire killer either.
At the same time however Cushing’s Van Helsing could also appear somewhat cold and ruthless. He is so utterly devoted to destroying Vampires that at times it could seem like he was willing to do anything. In the above clip for instance he is willing to leave Lucy in her nightmarish state as a Vampire for a short while longer to track Dracula. His actions make sense of course, but understandably to those who knew and loved her in life, it seems abhorrent to even suggest leaving her like this. Even when Van Helsing stakes Lucy at Arthur’s request, we still see a slightly colder side to him.
When she screams in agony, her brother Arthur can’t even look, but Van Helsing doesn’t react at all, showing how hardened he has become to the horrors around him.
Cushing’s Van Helsing had a will of absolute iron. Very few things could faze him either emotionally or physically. We can see this in The Brides of Dracula when after having been bitten by Baron Meinster, Van Helsing rams a seering piece of hot metal into his throat to cauterise the wound.
Cushing’s Van Helsing also whilst being able to take care of himself in a fight, lacked the super strength, and cool gadgets of later Vampire hunters like Buffy and Blade. Instead he had to rely on his wits and knowledge of the Vampires weaknesses. Killing Vampires, even the lowliest minion of Dracula was shown to be a dangerous, drawn out process in the Cushing movies. It wasn’t something our hero did in spades to show how badass they were like with later Vampire killers such as Blade or Buffy.
Van Helsing genuinely felt like he was fighting for his life, and he was famous for often being forced to improvise and turn anything he could into a weapon against Vampires, from candle sticks, to the sails of a Windmill, (both of which he used to form a cross), to mirrors that he used to deflect sunlight onto a Vampire, to even a shower (with clear running water being a weakness of Vampires in Hammer movies, which is something I always personally hated as it kind of undermined their menace.)
At the same time however underneath Cushing’s Van Helsing’s level headed, rational, seemingly unbreakable exterior, lurked a great anger and passion. Whilst he isn’t motivated by hatred, sometimes his strong sense of morals cause his disgust towards the monsters he fights to push him over the edge.
Cushing’s Van Helsing was also in the movies Dracula AD and Satanic Rites of Dracula, a very paternal character. In both movies, Dracula seeks to make his grand daughter, Jessica, into a Vampire to punish the entire Van Helsing family. The later Van Helsing movies with Cushing, which were made when he was older also show him take on the role of a mentor, even father figure to the young action heroes such as in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires.
Cushing’s Van Helsing, much like his literary counterpart is obviously the worlds greatest expert on Vampires, Demons and the supernatural in general. He has an entire library on the paranormal, and would often have to explain how to kill Vampires both to the other characters and through them, the audience too.
Finally Cushing’s Van Helsing, whilst viewing Dracula and the other monsters he faces as repugnant, nevertheless is somewhat fascinated by them. Studying and fighting Vampires is a moral crusade he feels he must do for the good of humanity, yet its also bizarrely a hobby for Van Helsing too.
You can see all of these traits replicated beat for beat in many leading and supporting Vampire hunter characters.
Master Kau played by the late Lam Ching Ying, the main protagonist in the classic Chinese Mr Vampire film series followed Cushing’s template perfectly.
Kau was a taoist priest who fought Vampires, Ghosts, Demons and other monsters. He used a variety of spells and enchantments to not only slay monsters, but tame them. He even kept some tame Vampires as pets. In the movie Vampire vs Vampire, his adopted son is a friendly Vampire child called “Wee Okay Boy”.
Obviously Mr Vampire was a brilliant character and Lam Ching Ying brought an incredible physicality to the role. Still you can see how he was essentially a Hong Kong version of Van Helsing.
Kau much like Cushing is an ultra serious, no nonsense Vampire killer. He hunts Vampires, Ghosts, and Demons much like Van Helsing because he thinks it is the right thing to do. Kau even has compassion for the monsters he hunts. He doesn’t see them as monsters, more souls that are not given a chance to properly rest.
At the same time however just like Cushing’s Van Helsing, Master Kau can come across as a ruthless, callous individual at times because he is so dedicated.
In the movie Spooky Encounters, Master Kau tries to exorcise a young Ghost lady who is not doing anyone any harm. In fact she still looks after her ill mother who is unaware that her daughter has died.
Kau however not only tries to banish her, but also reveals that she has died to her mother which breaks the mothers heart. Kau’s own assistants even attack him for his ruthless actions, but we later discover that he was actually protecting both the mother and her daughter. In the Mr Vampire universe, Ghosts regardless of whether they are evil or good will draw the life out of whatever human they spend too much time with.
Ironically this was why the Ghosts mother was ill in the first place, with the daughter being unaware that she was actually killing her own mother.
Whilst much like Van Helsing using Lucy to find Dracula, Kau may have seemed callous to the family of the loved one who had been cursed, he was ultimately helping them.
Just like Cushing’s Van Helsing there are times when Kau can blow his top despite his iron will and serious demeanour, though usually its in more comical ways, directed towards his bumbling assistants.
Master Kau is also someone who despite being a devastating fighter, is not able to kill Vampires in a straight fight, and often has to use his wits and resources to bring them down.
Finally Master Kau much like Cushing’s Van Helsing is not only portrayed as the greatest expert on Vampires (and thus has to provide exposition on the monsters.) But he also is a much older character and serves as a mentor, even father figure to the younger monster hunters around him, such as Sammo Hung’s character, “the fat man” who appeared in various Hong Kong horror movies.
Whilst they may not have become mainstream hits in the west, the Mr Vampire movies still nevertheless have a huge global following, and among genre fans around the world, Lam Ching Ying is usually regarded as one of the greatest on screen Vampire hunters of all time.
Rupert Giles is obviously another iconic Vampire hunter that follows the Cushing template to a T. (Joss Whedon even based Giles somewhat on Cushing’s performance as Van Helsing, and indeed the Watches Council who originated from Britain were essentially an organisation of Peter Cushings.)
Giles much like Cushing’s Van Helsing is a British gentlemanly expert on Vampires, who has countless books on the subject and who often has to give exposition to Buffy, her friends and the audience on Vampires, Demons and other monsters.
Giles just like Van Helsing is also somewhat fascinated by the supernatural creatures he faces. He even smiles with delight when finding out that there is a Werewolf loose in Sunnydale, commenting that he’s pleased to get a chance to read up on one of the classic monsters, with Buffy commenting “he needs to get a pet”.
Giles hunts Vampires and Demons because he believes it must be done to protect humanity just like Van Helsing too rather than because of a vendetta, or because its his calling. He also has to often convince Buffy to fight them in the earlier episodes and even just take her calling seriously.
Giles like Cushing’s Van Helsing is also much older, ultra serious, no nonsense character, who generally keeps a level head in tense situations.
However once again like Cushing’s Van Helsing, when his loved ones are threatened, he can completely lose it as seen when Angelus murders his lover Jenny Calendar and Giles responds by burning his house down, and beating the Vampire to a bloody pulp with a flaming baseball bat!
Giles like Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing is more than capable of fighting and killing Vampires, but again he obviously can’t take on hordes of them at once, so he tends to have to rely on his wits and skill more when fighting one.
Giles can also like Van Helsing and Master Kau can appear quite ruthless and callous at times. Indeed all Watchers in the Buffyverse are. A Watcher’s job is to basically go to a 16 year old (sometimes even younger) girl, take her away from her family and tell her that she needs to spend the rest of her, (consequently very short), life fighting Vampires and Demons.
There are many examples of Giles clashing with Buffy and other characters over his more callous methods, such as most memorably in the classic 5th season finale, The Gift. Here Giles is actually willing to murder Buffy’s 14 year old sister, Dawn Summers to save the world. Again his logic is sound just like Van Helsing’s with Lucy’s or Kau’s with the Ghost Lady, but its still pretty shocking to see Giles, argue in favour of murdering someone who is essentially like a daughter to him. “Yes we bloody well are!”
Dawn isn’t the only member of the team Giles is shown to be willing to sacrifice however. In season 7 he actually attempts to kill Spike, along with Robin Wood, when Spike becomes a liability to the team thanks to the Firsts ability to control Spike.
Then of course there is Giles ruthless murder of Ben, the human host of the evil Goddess Glory, (the most dangerous, and powerful adversary of Buffy at that point.)
Finally Giles much like Cushing’s Van Helsing is also a fatherly figure and mentor to those around him, such as Willow, Faith, Anya, Dawn and of course Buffy Summers herself.
Wesley who began on Buffy and later crossed over onto Angel also followed this template. Not quite to the same extent of course. Wesley was a younger, more naive character than either Cushing, Kau or Giles, and when he did toughen up in the later series he became a much harder, more violent, even unstable character.
Still Wesley like Cushing, Giles and Mr Vampire is an expert on the occult. Like them he regards Vampires, Demons and the supernatural as evil monsters that have to be destroyed, but he is also fascinated by them, with study into these creatures being his greatest passion. In contrast to Buffy who wants to always quit being a slayer, in both instances when Wesley gets fired by Angel, he honestly doesn’t know what else he can do with his life.
Wesley is also obviously very much the stiff upper lip, ultra serious Vampire killer. Though there is some humour with the character, its more unintentional on his part, like when he dances and he has no idea how stupid he looks.
Wesley still takes hunting monsters 100 percent seriously and never makes jokes or anything like Buffy.
Wesley is also shown to be very ruthless and callous just like Giles in both Buffy and Angel. He is happy to leave Willow in the care of the Mayor and Faith (who will surely torture and kill her) to stop the Mayors plan. He also memorably steals Angel’s child to avert a prophecy that Angel will murder his own son, and doesn’t hesitate to strike the Demon Illyria in the head with an axe whilst it has taken control of the woman he loves, Fred (for all the good it does).
Abraham Whistler meanwhile also fulfils a similar role to Blade. In the classic 90s Spider-Man series where the character was introduced and voiced by actor Malcolm McDowell, he was very much a prim and proper older British character like Cushing and Giles. He was also a scholarly expert on Vampires who supplied Blade with knowledge on how to fight Vampires and weapons. He was also both a mentor and father figure to Blade.
In the 90s/00s Blade movie series, the character of Whistler was played by American actor and was re-imagined to be a lot more rough around the edges. His cause for hunting Vampires is also a lot more personal in the film series as well. Still he nevertheless serves as the older, father figure to Blade and the expert on the occult too.
Finally the character of Bobby from Supernatural also fits this template too as again he is the older, father figure to the Winchesters, the expert on the Supernatural, the character who can’t slay Demons as easily as the young heroes, but is still as tough as an old pair of boots and wiley.
The Peter Cushing character is probably the most prolific Vampire hunter character in all of fiction. Most Vampire hunting teams from the Scooby Gang, to Angel Investigations, to the Nightstalkers will have a Peter Cushing type, stuffy old English guy, with countless books on Vampires, who knows everything about them, and serves as the father figure to the group as a whole, and who keeps them in line.
The reason for this is because the Peter Cushing character, unlike a lot of other Vampire hunters who tend to always take centre stage, can be both a leading character and a pivotal supporting character.
There are many advantages to having him as the lead over other Vampire hunters. The Vampires are at their most terrifying when he is the leading character, as again he genuinely struggles against them, unlike the later superhero Vampire hunters such as Blade and Buffy who can undermine their menace when they curb stomp 20 of them without breaking a sweat.
Of course I love these brilliant fight scenes as much as anybody else, but you can see what I mean. Vampires in these instances do kind of become less threatening as we always see them get mowed down in droves. And its by someone who is making jokes about how easy it is to kill them!
With the Cushing character as the lead however you get the impression that taking even one Vampire on requires the utmost preparation, training and knowledge, and even then its still a dangerous experience.
Still in the stories about more modern superhero Vampire hunters like Buffy and Blade, the Cushing character is not obsolete. In fact he is probably the most essential after the main hero themselves, as its through him that the writer can explain what is going on, and develop their own supernatural lore and mythology.
Personally I’d say this is my favourite type of Vampire hunter. I’ve always loved the more old fashioned, fatherly, somewhat eccentric professorial type of hero, who relies more on his wits like The Doctor, and Sherlock Holmes (its no surprise that Peter Cushing played both of these characters too.)
I think it would be interesting to see some more female counterparts of this type of character. I’m not saying that I care about representation or anything self indulgent like that, but since these characters are always men then it might be quite interesting to see a woman play a similar type of character of the old wise mentor, who has to survive on her wits rather than physical strength, and is actually interested in studying the occult.
Of course again rather than just lazily turning an existing male character into a woman, it would be interesting to see someone come up with a new female character like this.
We have seen at least one female version of the Peter Cushing style monster hunter already. The main heroine in Roald Dahl’s version of The Witches. Simply referred to as the Grandmother in the novel, and Helga in the film, she is really a female Peter Cushing almost beat for beat.
She is an expert on Witches, Ghouls, Demons and various other supernatural creatures. Like Cushing’s Van Helsing, she finds them evil and loathsome, but at the same time, has a weird fascination with paranormal creatures. You can sees this when she tells her grandson about the Witches. She clearly LOVES to talk about them.
She also obviously fulfils a parental role to the main character of the novel, (who is named Luke in the film adaptation.) Not only is she his grandmother, but she also raises him too after the tragic death of his parents.
The Grandmother also has a very similar dynamic with the Grand High Witch that Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing had to Christopher Lee’s Dracula in the modern day Hammer horror films.
Both are sworn archenemies who have faced one another many times in the past. One is the old wise Monster hunter, the other the dark, alluring, but utterly loathsome leader of a group of famous monsters, Vampires and Witches.
In both cases the leader of the monsters even targets the grandchild of their archfoe, (Jessica Van Helsing, and Luke respectively.) The monster in both cases foolishly thinks that because their archenemy has now aged and seemingly become frail, that they can’t possibly threaten them, which ultimately allows their old foe to outwit and destroy them once and for all.
Both letting us know what goes bump in the night.
Both dropping the ball and letting their archenemy get near their grand child.
Both destroying their archenemy in a very undignified and unpleasant way.
In the film adaptation, the Grandmother was played by the late Mai Zetterling, whilst the Grand High Witch was played by Anjelica Huston.
Both were brilliant in the roles, and to be honest I think Anjelica Huston as the Witch scared me when I was younger more than any Vampire. I mean I love Vampires the most, but all a Vampire can do is just kill or torture you. Being trapped in a painting for 60 years like Erica however is much worse!
Imagine being trapped in one little farmhouse, with nothing to do, no one for company, and worse, being forced to watch the world go by, knowing that all the years of your life were being wasted, watching your family grieve for you. I’d take getting strangled to death by Christopher Lee over that any day.
Sadly however whilst The Witches is rightfully regarded as a cult classic, the Grandmother character hasn’t really entered into popular culture like Van Helsing or Rupert Giles, so this character still tends to always be a guy in most works.
The Outcast, Freak, Good Guy Vampire/Supernatural Superhero
Originator: Vampirella
Other Notable Examples: Blade (Marvel), Lilith (Marvel), Angel (Buffy and Angel), Spike (Buffy and Angel), Cole (Charmed), Castiel, (Supernatural), Hellboy (Hellboy), Spawn (Spawn), Crowley (Supernatural), D (Vampire Hunter D)
This character in many ways took over from Cushing’s Van Helsing as the new main male hero in Vampire fiction.
This character is usually a Vampire, but he may be some other type of supernatural creature (a Demon is usually the most popular after a Vampire.)
This character is a member of a race that is normally completely evil, but for some reason, he will be a good guy. He will also as a result have devoted himself to fighting other evil members of his kind and ultimately wiping them out. His Vampire or Demon powers will obviously make him a great asset, if not the greatest asset to any team of Vampire hunters he is a part of.
Sometimes this guy will be good just through his own force of will, but usually its because there is something special about him. He may be half human, (Angel who has a human soul, Blade who has a human mother, Cole whose father was human, or Castiel in season 5 when his powers are stripped.) He may have been raised by humans (Hellboy) or he may have been experimented or cursed on and be forced to reluctantly fight the good fight (Crowley, Lilith, Spike, and to some extent Angel too, who only became good after the Gypsies cursed him.)
Point is these creatures are viewed as freaks by the rest of their kind regardless if they are good or not which is partially why they are on our side. Your regular Demon, Vampire, even Angel will refer to this character as a traitor, freak, or mock their humanity.
We can see this the way that Darla tries to kill Angel when he has a soul, the way that other Vampires call Blade “the Daywalker” with disgust, and perhaps most notably in the brilliant Vampire Hunter D series of novels, where the main protagonist D, is a Vampire/human hybrid that both Vampires and humans regard as a filthy mongrel.
Of course ironically when this character embraces his evil side, he will actually be among the most evil of his kind (Angelus the most flamboyantly sadistic Vampire, Cole who was one of the Charmed ones most dangerous enemies and killed hundreds of Witches, Crowley who was one of the Winchesters most evil and dangerous adversaries.)
This character may have even started out as the most dangerous enemy of the heroes (Spike, Crowley, Cole) and they may also flip flop between being good and evil. This usually won’t be their fault. They will often be taken over, or lose their humanity in some magical way. For whatever reason they will be the most unpredictable member of a monster hunting team, and will usually be disliked, or at least not trusted by most of the other members.
Look at Angel famously going bad in season 2 of Buffy, all the times Castiel has fucked up badly for the Winchesters, Spike going evil in season 7 of Buffy thanks to the First, and the many, many, many times that Cole flipped from good to bad.
There will usually be one member of the team who is loyal to this monster above all else, even when it would probably be better for them to just get rid of him, they’ll still protect him. Examples of this obviously include Buffy with Spike and Angel, Phoebe with Cole and even in a non romantic way, Dean with Castiel.
Of course the person who defends this benevolent monster will also later after one too many betrayals come to hate their former friend/lover more than anyone else, and may even try and kill them.
This character also has a habit of dying (after being killed by members of the team) and coming back again and again too.
In many ways its not hard to see why this character ended up becoming the most popular leading male character in modern Vampire fiction.
I personally prefer the Cushing/Van Helsing Vampire killer (though I do love this type too of course.) Still this character was a lot younger, more romantic, and could also take Vampire movies into more of an action oriented direction, allowing them to properly compete with big blockbusters and franchises.
These characters could jump through the air, beat up dozens of Vampires at once and withstand getting shot by hordes of bullets, and thrown off of buildings!
Whilst this character is almost always male, its worth noting that the first ever version of this type of character was actually a woman.
Vampirella, created in the 1960s, was really the first Vampire superhero. We had seen good guy Vampires before of course, but none of them had been comic book characters who used their Vampire powers to fight other Vampires, and other supernatural creatures such as Demons.
Still whilst Vampirella initiated the idea, it was definitely Blade that set the template that these characters were to follow.
Originally introduced as a supporting character in Marvels Tomb of Dracula series. Blade was initially not a Vampire/human hybrid.
In the comics his mother, whilst pregnant with him had been bitten by the Vampire Deacon Frost. She died just after giving birth to him and Blade as a result would gain some Vampiric powers. He aged much slower than a human, and he was also immune to a Vampires bite too.
It was in the classic 1990’s Spider-Man The Animated Series however that Blade was re-interpreted as a half human/ half Vampire superhero. In this series his origins were altered. Now his mother had fallen in love with a Vampire and bore him a child that she later abandoned.
This child had the superhuman strength, speed and healing of a Vampire, but none of their weaknesses. Sadly he also inherited their inhuman thirst for blood, which he has to suppress every day. Blade (real name Eric Brooks) was later found by a man named Abraham Whistler who trained him to fight other members of his kind, as well as other supernatural threats.
Elements of both the animated and comic book origin were later fused together for the Blade trilogy starring Wesley Snipes, with its version of Blade’s mother being bitten and killed by Frost like the comic book version, but Blade also becoming a full Vampire/human hybrid as a result like his animated counterpart.
With Blade you can see so many traits of later characters like Angel. He is a miserable, brooding loner, who is scared of getting close to people, his attempts to control his thirst are treated very much as a metaphor for a recovering alcoholic, and even in terms of his look, Blade dresses in long, black, leather and trench coats too, which is usually the look for these types of characters like Spike, Angel and Cole.
Blade had a huge influence on Angel in particular. There are some strong similarities in their story arcs.
Both Angel and Blade are special, human Vampires who can feel guilt and sorrow for their actions, and both end up living in the gutter, until they are found by a man, who in both cases is named Whistler, who takes them off the streets and teaches them to control their thirst and use their powers for good.
Joss Whedon was/is a massive fan of Blade and Tomb of Dracula and has mentioned it as an influence on the tone and style of Buffy.
Of course Angel would also add a lot to this character too. He would add more of a romantic aspect to this character, which wasn’t really there with Blade.
There have been a few other female examples of this type of character aside from Vampirella. Lilith, Dracula’s anti hero daughter in Tomb of Dracula, who predated Blade was another example. In fact Lilith in some ways actually has more in common with the Blade of both Spider-Man the animated series and the later films than the comic book version did.
She like him is a half human, half Vampire that shares all of their powers, and none of their weaknesses. She also shares their thirst which she struggles to control, and she regularly feuds with her parent who is a Vampire (Dracula in her case, Mirum in Blade’s.)
Lilith, the original Daywalker.
Ruby played by Lucy Lawless (Xena the Warrior Princess) from Ash Vs Evil Dead also loosely fits this template.
Still overall this character is usually male, perhaps because it tends to be more popular among female viewers ironically when it is male.
It makes sense in a way. As this character will also often be in love with, or utterly devoted to someone to the point where it takes over their entire character like Cole and Spike, a lot of young female viewers would probably find it demeaning to see a woman chase a guy all the time, and even get punched in the face by him, yet still come back for more.
When its a guy however, then that coupled with the fact that he is a badass monster killer, ( and not completely just some creepy guy who is obsessed with her.) And is willing to die for her, get tortured for her, fight off being a monster for her, can lead to this character becoming something of a romantic fantasy for young girls.
I’m not knocking the fan girls for this of course. Everybody has pin ups, its completely natural, and hey the need for this type of pin up has led to some great stories, like the whole Buffy and Angel story arc (which is my favourite story arc from Buffy.)
Still I think this could explain why this character is overwhelmingly male. It was really once the romantic aspect was added to this character from Angel on, that his fate as, as well a he, was solidified.
3/ The Reluctant Vulnerable Strong Female Hero
Originator: Rachel Van Helsing
Other Notable Examples: Buffy Summers, (Buffy) Charmed Ones, (Charmed) Cordelia Chase (Buffy and Angel), Mandy (Mandy the Monster Hunter), Annie (Being Human)
This character is in many respects the polar opposite to the Cushing/Giles type of Vampire Killer.
This character to start with is obviously a woman. She is also much younger, more vulnerable and also above all else does not want to be a Vampire killer.
She just wants to have a normal life, and will still try to have one, even whilst fighting Vampires. In contrast to Van Helsing who devotes his every waking minute to reading about Vampires, this Vampire killer will be desperate to still go to college, have a relationship with someone who is not aware of the supernatural, have a family, and have a career outside of monster busting.
At the same time however, whilst she might be more reluctant to fight the paranormal, she will also be the greatest Vampire fighter of them all. She’ll kill scores and scores of them without breaking a sweat, and strike fear into their hearts like no one else.
We can see these traits replicated in Buffy, the Charmed Ones and Cordelia Chase (who develops into this type of character on Angel) and Mandy the Monster Hunter. Incidentally whilst this character is obviously almost always female, we do see a few male counterparts too. Sam Winchester from Supernatural, in the earlier episodes at least tended to fall into this category.
Buffy was obviously the character who propelled this type of Vampire hunter into popular culture, but it is worth noting that she was not the first character like this. Rachel Van Helsing who appeared in Tomb of Dracula in the 1970s was kind of a proto Buffy in some ways.
Rachel was obviously the descendent of the legendary Vampire hunter, Abraham Van Helsing. The Van Helsing family in Tomb of Dracula were Vampire hunters even before Abraham, with Rachel merely being the latest in a long line.
Like Buffy however at first she doesn’t want to follow in her predecessors footsteps, but she soon ends up becoming Dracula’s new archenemy. Like Buffy she also has a Peter Cushing style, stuffy old English mentor who becomes like a father figure to her (Quincy Harker) and later a boyfriend (Drake) who feels inadequate compared to her as a Vampire hunter like Buffy’s boyfriend Riley.
Rachel much like Van Helsing was also created to try and reverse the image of the little blonde girl in horror movies who would always be lured away and torn to bits by the monster. This would be a common trait among other similar characters that would follow in Buffy’s wake too. They’d often take what had been seen as a weak, demeaning role for women and make it strong, such as Cordelia who was the stereotypical valley girl even after she matured.
From Rachel Van Helsing, to Buffy Summers, to Mandy, to Phoebe Halliwell, the stereotypical image of young blonde women in Vampire and horror stories has certainly improved quite a bit in the last few decades.
Obviously of the two, Buffy was the better character, and again I’m not knocking Joss Whedon for possibly taking influence from Rachel Van Helsing. Everyone takes inspiration from something else and at the end of the day, for me Buffy and Angel are the greatest supernatural themed television series ever made.
Still its quite interesting that a lot of the things that Buffy became an icon for, Rachel Van Helsing did about 20 years earlier.
Whilst there are undoubtedly many reasons why Rachel is still relatively obscure and Buffy is beloved, I think that ultimately it can be boiled down to the fact that Buffy was her own character whilst Rachel was kind of trapped in the shadow of her more famous relative.
This Buffy/Rachel type of hero has really become the third main Vampire hunter character alongside the Cushing style exposition guy, and the freak hybrid Vampire hunter. Whilst Buffy is easily as well known as Van Helsing (and far better known than Blade or Angel or any other similar character.) Ultimately as this type of character was more recently introduced than the others, then we haven’t seen quite as many imitators yet.
There are some areas where the Buffy/Rachel type of character is superior to other Vampire hunters and others where she is weaker, depending on your tastes.
The Buffy type of hero will tend to drag supernatural stories into soap opera territory. Obviously a part of her character is that we focus on how she juggles her everyday life with being a monster hunter. We’ll see her struggle at college, at school, at her job, going on dates, or even just spend a lot of focus on her relationships with the people around her like her friends, her family etc.
Many fans and critics have said that they prefer this take on not just a Vampire hunter, but a superhero in general, as it helps to flesh these larger than life characters out more, make them seem more human, or even relatable.
Spider-Man similarly made a huge impression on young male readers for being a more vulnerable, down to earth, relatable hero back in the 1960s. In many ways Buffy is kind of like a female Spider-Man.
On the flip side however some people have criticised the likes of Buffy and the Charmed ones for being too whiny.
Whilst I agree at times we did see Buffy complain a bit too much about her calling, in some respects I think this actually made her seem more heroic than other Vampire killers.
The thing you have to remember about the Peter Cushing/Giles type of character is that they actually in some ways like the life they are living. Yes okay no one wants to see their loved ones hunted by Vampires, but as we have been over for a character like Van Helsing, Giles or even Helga from the Witches, they are actually interested in the supernatural. Their free time is spent reading books on paranormal creatures, they can’t wait to give a big bit of exposition about Vampires or Witches.
With the good guy Vampire character like Blade meanwhile, we similarly have someone who chooses to live that kind of life. Okay he doesn’t really have a choice, but still he doesn’t want to, or even know how to just settle down. He wants to go out there and kill monsters almost every second of every day.
With the Buffy/Rachel type of hero however, we have someone who could give it up if they wanted to, who never asked to be part of a war against the forces of evil, and who is basically having to give up all of her aspirations, hopes for a normal life, maybe even her loved ones simply because other people have decided her fate for her.
Its understandable that in contrast to a guy like Van Helsing, Buffy would be a little bit more bitter, and even just terrified. Still the fact that she always without fail, overcomes her fear, if anything makes her more heroic, and yes more human too.
I think the reason that Buffy/Rachel type of character, the Blade/Angel type of character, and the Cushing/Giles type of character have become kind of the big three for Vampire killer characters, aside from the fact that they have starred in the most popular Vampire franchises, is also because they all go really well together.
The Buffy/Rachel type of character being younger, more unsure of herself, obviously needs a paternal figure, and someone to tell her all about monsters, which obviously the Cushing/Giles character can do.
At the same time the Cushing/Giles type of character who is often older, even quite frail needs someone young and strong fight the strongest monsters and creatures out there, so the Buffy/Rachel character is just as useful to him.
Finally the Buffy/Rachel character and the Blade/Angel type of character are obviously a fantastic pair to put together. It can get complicated when you have a Vampire in love with a human, but having a Vampire be in love with the greatest Vampire killer of them all just makes it all the more uncomfortable for both characters, and consequently a more exciting dynamic for the viewers.
These three characters despite being polar opposites in some cases, are such a brilliant fit for one another that its no surprise that they are almost always put together.
The Buffy/Rachel type of character is unquestionably the most popular Vampire hunter of them all to more modern fans and viewers at least.
Young girls obviously love her, because she is not only an empowering role for women, but she is presented as being strong because she is feminine too.
Young boys meanwhile like her because of, well obvious reasons. She’s beautiful, strong, intelligent, down to earth, and brave.
Again the fact that she is more recent than other types of Vampire killers is why we haven’t seen quite as many imitators, but give it time.
The Buffy/Rachel character manages to bring Vampires and Demons into everyday surroundings like no other before her and so in that respect I think she will always be one of the most popular.
4/ The Vengeful Crusader
Originator: Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter
Other Notable Examples: Blade (Blade), The Winchester Brothers (Supernatural), Jack Crow (Vampires), Tom McNair (Being Human), Kelly (Ash vs Evil Dead) Charles Gunn (Angel), Robin Wood (Buffy) Hansel and Gretel (Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters)
This character is probably the most prolific after the Cushing/Giles character.
This character hunts Vampires and Demons because they killed somebody close to him in the past, usually a family member.
This character will have devoted the rest of their life to exterminating every single Vampire or Demon they find. They will often kill them in far more brutal ways too. In complete contrast to Cushing and Lam Ching Ying respectfully performing the last rites over a slain Vampire, these guys will blow bits of them off while they are alive, stab them hundreds of times, and burn them in holy water.
They will usually have the most impressive arsenal of Vampire and Demon hunting weaponry. Guns that fire stakes, bombs that filter out UV light, even water pistols filled with holy water!
The Vampire or Demon that killed their loved one will often be their archenemy who they spend years chasing. It will also often not just be any old Vampire or Demon that killed their loved one, but a legendary, feared monster, maybe even the leader of their race. It makes sense really as if this character is supposed to be the ultimate Vampire/Demon killer, then the Vampire/Demon that manages to avoid them would have to be pretty special too.
Also there is quite a nice irony that perhaps the leader of the Vampires/Demons who thought he would lead his race to glory, ended up creating their kinds worst nightmare without even realising it.
This character will also perhaps be a bit more ruthless in terms of dealing with human allies of Vampires and Demons. He will kill and even torture ordinary humans who choose to side with Vampires and Demons just as often. Sometimes the writer will use these scenes to show how unstable they have become in their hatred for the undead.
This character was really created by the classic and underrated Hammer Horror film, Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter.
Captain Kronos was essentially like the Winchester Brothers of the 70s. He was dashing, handsome, swashbuckler who travelled from town to town, hunting and killing Vampires alongside his Cushing exposition style, father/mentor figure Professor Grost.
Kronos was motivated by the death of his mother and sister at the hands of Vampires. Both were actually turned into Vampires, though we never see the Vampire that turned them.
He had special anti Vampire weapons, and he often killed them in more explicitly gory ways that reflected his anger towards the undead.
Other characters who would follow this template include Jack Crow, the main hero of John Carpenters overlooked cult classic Vampires.
Crow, played by James Woods, became a Vampire hunter when his own father was turned into a Vampire and killed his mother.
Jack now leads a team of Vampire slayers who kill the undead, first by unloading tons and tons of bullets into them until they can’t move before dragging them helplessly into the sunlight. He also collects their charred skulls as trophies!
Jack is even more vicious than Kronos. In one character defining moment, he goes as far as to torture a priest who with holds information about the leader of the Vampires from him. He beats the Priest, cuts him and tells him how as he had no trouble killing his own father who had become a Vampire, then he would have no problem killing him. The priest gives in almost instantly as he knows Jack isn’t lying!
In some ways Jack was actually my favourite example of this type of character. Others like Kronos, and the later Winchester brothers were still a bit too polished for what is supposed to be a dangerous, fanatical character.
Jack Crow however did seem in some ways as unpleasant as the monsters he was facing. You got the impression that fighting Vampires had crushed almost every bit of compassion out of him. All that’s left is just raw anger and hatred and that’s the only reason he fights Vampires. Its not even because he cares about helping people anymore.
Blade also followed this template to a degree too. Again Blade also obviously not only followed, but helped to set the good guy Vampire character template in popular culture. Still as I said in the introduction, many of these characters can be merged together, and with Blade he obviously followed the Kronos template as well as his own too.
Blade’s mother had been killed by a Vampire, and so he hunted them because he hated them (as well as because it was the right thing to do.) His mother had also been bitten by Frost, the leader of the Vampires too.
As you can see Blade also tended to kill Vampires in a slightly messier, albeit more creative way than the likes of Buffy and Peter Cushing and showed no mercy to their human allies.
Other more minor examples of this character include Robin Wood and Charles Gunn in the Buffy and Angel franchise.
The Winchester brothers from Supernatural meanwhile are probably the definitive take on this type of Vampire killer for most people.
Supernatural is after all the longest running paranormal themed series of all time (stealing that distinction from Charmed.) Like all long running cult series, its quality has gone up and down at various points, but overall I would definitely rate it as a classic series, and Sam and Dean Winchester are both brilliant characters. Jensen Ackles and Jared Padelicki’s chemistry is truly unique and the show overall has also offered some brilliant new takes on old classic monsters like Vampires and Demons.
Still Sam and Dean follow the Kronos template almost beat for beat. Both hunt Demons because their mother (and fiance in Sam’s case) were killed by a Demon (much like with Blade and Frost, it was the king of the Demons, Azazeal that killed their mother.) Both travel the road trying to find this monster, whilst hunting other Demons. Both have a Cushing style, exposition guy (Bobby) to help them, both have special anti Demon weapons. Much like Kronos they are presented as a more romantic interpretation of this type of character, as opposed to Jack Crow.
Whilst this character is usually a male, there are some female examples. A recent female example is Kelly from Ash Vs Evil Dead. Kelly’s mother and father were both killed by, and turned into Deadites and so much like Kronos and the Winchesters not only is she motivated by hatred, but she tends to kill her the Deadites in a lot more explicit ways (which is really saying something considering the Deadites are ALWAYS killed in gruesome over the top ways.) Kelly is also hinted to be a bit unstable too.
Dean Winchester and Kelly would make a brilliant couple. They are probably the most well matched pair of Vampire/Demon hunters along with Cushing’s Van Helsing and Helga from The Witches.
This character is quite a good compromise of the main three types of Vampire killer, which is probably why it is so popular among both writers and audiences.
Like Cushing’s character, these Vampire hunters are often ordinary humans and so they can’t just curb stomp Vampires and Demons like Buffy and Blade. The monsters still retain their menace, but at the same time, as these characters are often younger, and are equipped with special Vampire killing weapons, then they can be involved in more action packed sequences than the Cushing Van Helsing character can.
Also as he is younger, then he can be a much more conventional, romantic character too as seen with the Winchesters and Kronos, so you can retain the pin up and romantic elements of characters like Angel and Buffy too.
This character doesn’t always have to hunt Vampires, as seen with Sam and Dean, who though Vampire hunters, still hunt Demons and evil spirits more. Demons are also the monsters who killed their loved ones and who they have obviously have more of a personal hatred for.
The grown up versions of Hansel and Gretel, from the horror/action movie Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters meanwhile fulfil this trope perfectly but they obviously hunt Witches instead of Vampires.
5/ The Slacker, Every Man, Bumbling Hero
Originator: Ash Williams
Other Notable Examples: Xander Harris (Buffy), Doyle (Angel), Fatman (Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind), Shaun (Shaun of the Dead)
This character is usually male. He’s not exclusive to Vampire stories, but since he does tend to pop up in a lot of Vampire/Demon stories then I felt he should be included here.
This character is obviously not the worlds greatest expert on the occult like Peter Cushing, he’s not the chosen, greatest hero of all time like Buffy, and he’s not a badass, super strong Vampire. He’s just an ordinary guy. He’s not even particularly fit or strong, and doesn’t seem to be that bright. In fact on paper he seems to be quite down on his luck, is maybe is a bit of a nerd, if he has a job, then its a low paying one, and even among his friends, he is generally seen as a bit of a moron.
He will also have an eye for the ladies, but unlike with Dean Winchester and Spike, they usually won’t like him.
Of course when the chips are down he will end up being brave, resourceful and a hero, though he may fuck up a few times along the way and even make things worse before he makes it better.
This character was really brought into the horror genre with Ash Williams, the main protagonist of the classic Evil Dead franchise, played by Bruce Campbell.
Ash was just an ordinary guy who had been thrust into a horrible situation, when all of his friends (and even his sister and girlfriend) are possessed by the spirits of Kandarian Demons.
He stumbled his way through the situation, fucked up lots of times, and even lost his hand (which he later replaced with a chainsaw.) Still throughout it all he did always try and do the right thing, and gradually over the course of the three movies and later tv series he did become a more competent hero, thought he never becomes a full blown conventional hero. He doesn’t always save the day, still tends to bumble his way through things, and also has a more childish, jokey attitude towards the paranormal than other characters like Dean Winchester or Van Helsing.
The massive influence of the Evil Dead series on popular culture would see similar characters like Ash emerge in heroic roles, such as Xander from Buffy, and Shaun from Shaun of the Dead.
All of these character thought distinct, do still kind of follow the Ash template of not being trained monster hunters, being more jokey in the face of danger, screwing things up and making them worse, being seen as an idiot by people around him, but still being brave and occasionally saving the day through his hidden intelligence.
Whilst Ash was really the template for this type of character in western horror movies, he was predated by Sammo Hung’s character, simply referred to as the Fatman who appeared in various Chinese horror movies, Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind, Spooky Encounters, and The Dead and the Deadly.
This character was a well meaning, but slow witted normal man, who again had to stumble his way through his battles with monsters, Demons and Vampires.
In Spooky Encounters, the Fatman would develop a father son relationship with Master Kau from the Mr Vampire series. The bumbling, every man hero often goes well with the Cushing style Vampire hunter. The Cushing character can serve as a stern father figure to him, give him a chewing out when he fucks up, and generally keep him in line, though at other times, the more down to earth, normal character can put the stuffy, pompous, Cushing style hero in his place too. We see this dynamic with Giles and Xander in Buffy too.
Whenever this character is the lead then the story has to be a bit more comedic. Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind, The Evil Dead, and Shaun of the Dead are all horror comedies, and Xander also tended to bring the comic relief to many episodes of Buffy.
6/ The Magic Junkie
Originator: Father Shandor
Other Notable Examples: Willow Rosenberg (Buffy), Sam Winchester (Supernatural)
Though not as common as other examples, this character has appeared in a few prominent pieces of Vampire fiction.
Essentially this is someone who tries to fight fire with fire. They’ve seen how their friends struggle against the forces of darkness and come to believe that ordinary people will never be able to take down Vampires, Demons and Monsters, so they will turn to the black arts to fight them.
Their friends will warn them about this. Maybe even fall out with them, or shun them, or abandon them over it, but they will still think they are doing the right thing.
Father Shandor, who first appeared in the Hammer movie, Dracula Prince of Darkness was really the first example of a character like this.
In the movie he was played by Andrew Keir, and was a bad tempered, shotgun wielding monk who had little time for the idiots around him. Despite his rough manner however, he was still nevertheless a brave and heroic individual who eventually slays the newly resurrected king of the Vampires, Count Dracula.
The character proved popular enough that he would be given his own spin off comic book series, Father Shandor Demon Stalker. In this series Shandor travels to a Demon dimension in order to rescue his friend who has become trapped there after a spell went wrong.
Shandor is despised by all of the other priests in his monastry for using the black arts, even though he only does so to fight Demons and Vampires. Though Shandor is successful in rescuing his friend from the hell dimension. In the process he is cursed by a Demon and when he returns to our universe, he finds that he cannot touch anything without killing it.
Banished from the Monastry and human society, Shandor goes on to travel the world using his new Demon powers to continue to fight the forces of darkness.
Whilst Shandor was a very original character at the time, sadly he is a relatively obscure character today. It would really be Willow Rosenberg that would propel this character into being one of the classic stock paranormal hunters.
Willow, played by Alyson Hannigan, was Buffy’s best friend. Though initially being nothing more than a computer whizz, Willow over the course of the shows 7 seasons, slowly became an incredibly powerful Witch.
Much like Father Shandor, Willow initially believed that she had to use her magic to battle the forces of evil, and she was a valuable ally in this respect. Her magics are what bring down the main villain of season 4, Adam.
However eventually the magics consume her, she becomes reckless, arrogant, abuses her powers, and at one point even brainwashes her girlfriend, Tara (and attempts to do the same to Buffy.) Though she does try to control her addiction to magic, eventually after the death of Tara she goes insane and becomes Dark Willow, who nearly destroys the world!
Willow’s descent into Dark Willow, much like characters such as Angel and Blade’s attempts to control their thirst, is treated very much as a metaphor for drug and alcohol addiction, (with Willow even crashing a car she and Dawn are in whilst driving under the influence of Magic.)
Supernatural would go down a similar route with Sam in season 4. Sam much like Willow discovers that he has magical powers. Specifically the ability to draw Demons out of their host bodies and destroy them completely. At first Sam thinks he is doing great work with his new powers. Not only can he destroy the Demons, but he can save their hosts too.
Of course Dean thinks that Sam’s powers are evil, and even turns on him at one point. Things get worse however when it is discovered that Sam’s powers are fuelled by drinking the blood of people possessed by Demons.
Just like with Willow, Sam’s dependence on his powers, as well as the Demon blood that gives him them is treated as a metaphor for addiction to drugs.
These stories were among the interesting and nuanced in both series. They served as a more sympathetic metaphor for addiction, as we saw how two good people fell into such bad habits.
Indeed in both cases you can understand and even agree with them at first when they start using this dark power. Willow’s dark magics allow her to take on Glory, and play a key role in the hell Goddesses downfall, whilst Sam’s Demon powers allow him to remove the Demon without killing the humans they take over.
However as time goes on you can see how not only reckless they are, but how it begins to change who they are too, slowly but surely, and how ironically whilst their addiction only happened to make themselves seem stronger, its now brought them to their lowest point, with Willow sprawling on the floor begging Buffy not to leave her, and Sam being dependent on the blood of the monsters he used to fight or else he’ll go crazy.
Of course both stories were very controversial among fans, particularly fans of Willow and Sam who naturally hated seeing their favourite characters in such awful states, and doing such awful things, like Willow’s cruel taunting of Dawn, telling her everybody would be happier if she died, or Sam turning his back on his brother for a Demon!
But again personally I thought it was better to have two such normally reasonable and kind people be seduced by the dark forces, as it showed how strong they were, and again was a better metaphor for addiction, by showing how it can affect people who have everything to live for.
Its not just the stereotypical image of addicts being either criminals, or even just people who are depressed and drink and take drugs for distraction. You can get people who have the best quality of life, like Willow who has brilliant friends, a loving girlfriend, yet still ends up falling into this bad habit.
7/ Genre Savvy Hero
Originator: Peter Vincent
Other Notable Examples: The Frog Brothers (The Lost Boys), Bruce Campbell (My Name is Bruce), Ghostfacers (Supernatural)
This character is someone who knows about Vampires, monsters and the supernatural from movies. He might be a huge geek, or he might be someone who stars in monster movies, but the point is he’ll have a more romantic idea of what its like being a Vampire killer before he actually encounters one.
He’ll be shit scared at first, but much like the everyman hero he will eventually become more heroic and brave, though never a conventional hero.
The movie that really brought this type of character into popular culture was Fright Night.
Released in 1985, Fright Night revolved around a young fan of horror movies, Charlie Brewster discovering that he lives next door to a Vampire named Jerry Daindridge. Charlie is forced to go to his favourite horror actor, Peter Vincent for help. Peter Vincent was named after and based on Peter Cushing, with Vincent much like Cushing being known for playing Vampire killers
At first Vincent is portrayed is terrified, but as time goes on he rises to the challenge and helps Charlie save his girlfriend Amy from Jerry.
Fright Night though only released as a B-movie proved to be very successful and influential on the genre. It was the first of its kind really, to poke fun at the genre in an affectionate way, yet also be a good Vampire movie in its own right.
The fact that its characters were either fans or had starred in Vampire movies meant that they could recognise a lot of the cliches and staples of Vampire movies when they were encountering them themselves.
Among the other examples of these types of characters in Vampire and supernatural films and television series include the Frog Brothers in The Lost Boys and The Ghost Faces in Supernatural.
The Frog Brothers, much like Charlie Brewster are big fans of horror movies, though unlike Charlie they tended to fancy themselves as big macho Vampire killers, but of course they get a rather nasty surprise when they meet a real Vampire and much like Peter Vincent, even when they kill a Vampire its a clumsy, awkward fight where they constantly panic.
The Ghost Facers meanwhile tend to take after the Frog Twins more in that they are wannabe monster hunters who’ve seen Peter Cushing and Buffy kill monsters on tv and think it looks easy. Though even when they do encounter monsters it doesn’t burst their bubble and they even attempt to make a tv show out of their battles against the supernatural which goes about as well as their attempts to be big sexy monster hunters.
Finally Bruce Campbell’s ficitonalized version of himself in My Name is Bruce is essentially a more sleazy version of Peter Vincent. Like the real Bruce Campbell, he is known for playing monster hunters and is asked to fight a real monster by one of his fans. Like Peter he chickens out at first before stepping up and doing the right thing.
This type of character would prove popular enough to appear in stories beyond the Vampire and even horror genres.
Galaxy Quest for instance, though not a Vampire movie follows the Fright Night template bit for bit.
Both Fright Night and Galaxy Quest revolve around actors who are known for playing monster hunters/heroes, who are down on their luck (and are parodies of real life genre icons, William Shatner and Peter Cushing.) Both are asked by their fans to help fight a real life example of the type of monsters/villain they always beat on tv. Both at first think their fans are just having a joke, and when they discover the truth they both want to run away, before finally facing their fear and becoming the hero their fans always thought they were.
These characters are popular, as for those who like the genres they are parodying, then they can be as effective heroes as any other for serious stories, yet to people who don’t like the genres they are parodying then they can be quite enjoyable send ups of all the cliches and staples of the genre.
8/ Vampire Detective
Originator: Hannibal King
Other Examples Angel: (Buffy and Angel) Nic Knight (Forever Knight)
The Detective genre has been merged with the Vampire genre more frequently and more successfully than any other.
The Detective genre and Vampire genres tend to take place in similar, gloomy, gothic surroundings. Little dark alleyways, seedy little bars, corrupt, crime laden underbelly’s of big city’s where someone can go missing and no one will even notice are the perfect environments for down on their luck detectives and Vampires.
The first ever Vampire Detective was Hannibal King, a recurring character in Marvel Comics series Tomb of Dracula. Hannibal had been turned by Deacon Frost, the same Vampire that killed Blade’s mother. Unlike all other Vampires he resisted the urge to feed on humans, and still continued to function as a detective tracking down both regular and paranormal criminals.
King eventually came into conflict with Blade who mistook him for a common Vampire at first. Blade eventually saw that King was different and together they would form a paranormal agency, the Nightstalkers who faced Dracula, Frost, and various other supernatural threats.
Hannibal King would go on to influence Angel, when the latter gained his own series and became a Vampire detective. Angel and Gunn’s relationship was somewhat similar to Hannibal King and Blade’s.
In both cases you have a character (Gunn, Blade) who live on the streets, hunt Vampires and who despise them fanatically because a family member was killed by Vampires (in both cases it was a young female relative who later became a Vampire and who they then had to kill.) This character then meets a goodguy detective Vampire who is a more reserved, quiet, contemplative character (Angel, King) and at first they try to kill them, and refuse to believe that a Vampire could be a good person, before eventually coming to see that King and Angel are different, after which both Blade and Gunn become part of a paranormal detective agency with Angel and King.
Another example of a Vampire Detective was the Canadian series Forever Knight. Here the Vampire in question, Nick Knight much like the later Angel, is on a quest for redemption after having spent hundreds of years killing people.
Forever Knight was somewhat different however in that he did not face other Vampires or supernatural creatures that often like Hannibal King or Angel. His series was often actually a straight detective series, though much like Angel there were often flashbacks to his mysterious past.
Other examples of Vampire Detective stories include the short lived American fantasy series Moonlight, another Canadian series named Blood Ties, and finally Nightwalker: The Midnight Detective, a Japanese series that revolves around a private detective who is secretly a Vampire named Shido and who by night fights Demons and other monsters including the Nightbreeds.
The Vampire Detective is an effective trope, but it can end up getting a bit more repetitive than some of the other examples on this page, as it is obviously tied to a specific genre.
9/ The Romantic, Conflicted Vampire
Originator: Carmilla Karnstein
Other Examples Angel (Buffy), Spike (Buffy), Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles), Dracula’s Daughter (Dracula’s Daughter), John Mitchell (Being Human), Salvatore Brothers (The Vampire Diaries), Gary Oldman’s Dracula, (Dracula 1992), Frank Langella’s Dracula (Dracula 1979), Edward Cullen (Twilight)
Now obviously there can be overlap between this good guy Vampire and other characters like the Vampire Detective and superhero Vampire character.
Still I feel that this character is their own trope that doesn’t always have to be associated with the other two types of heroic Vampires.
This Vampire character can be either male or female just as often, unlike other characters who tend to largely be one gender.
This character will be a centuries old Vampire who in the past may have been one of the most evil. However they will renounce their evil ways when they meet someone they fall in love with who is good.
Unlike Blade who wants to control his thirst for human blood because its the right thing to do, this character is motivated solely by being in love which in some ways can make them seem more unsympathetic, yet in an odd way more human and relatable.
As a result of this, this character isn’t a Vampire hunter per se. They might be, but most of the time this Vampire just wants to try and live as normal a life as they can. Compare Mitchell from Being Human to Blade for instance. Yes Mitchell occasionally helps people and takes on Vampire kings like Herrick, but he’s not out every night actively hunting Vampires like Angel or Blade. Same applies to Carmilla, Lestat, and the Salvatore brothers.
These characters are more likely to be involved in a love triangle than in fighting monsters and they all tend to be quiet, mopey and brooding characters.
Finally this character may also be LGBT too. Carmilla, Dracula’s Daughter, and Lestat are all bisexuals.
In fact Dracula’s Daughter was even advertised as giving female viewers “a weird feeling”.
Of course some have naturally interpreted the association of Vampirism with homosexuality to be homophobic. It doesn’t help that they refer to women being attracted to women as “that weird feeling” in the poster for Dracula’s Daughter.
Still I think that most of the time, certainly in stories like The Vampire Chronicles and even in the older works, like Carmilla and Dracula’s Daughter, the good guy Vampire was used as a sympathetic metaphor for LGBT people. Much like LGBT people would have been at the time films like Dracula’s Daughter and stories like Carmilla were made, then the reformed, romantic Vampire is a character that is rejected by everyone simply because of who they are.
Humans obviously view them as freaks, but so will regular Vampires. Their love is also be seen as forbidden by all around them too.
Obviously its not a perfect metaphor, as in all fairness its understandable that humans might reject a Vampire, since they are monsters that kill people! Still no metaphor is perfect. The mutants in the X-Men are used as a metaphor for LGBT people (and other persecuted minorities.) However much like with Vampires, and unlike with LGBT people, you can kind of understand why some people might be a bit scared of mutants considering they can (and frequently do) shit like this.
Similarly the Daleks are good metaphors for racial hatred and the Nazis, but again they are obviously far more cartoonish, over the top and evil than even the most twisted and bigoted humans throughout history.
So no metaphor is completely perfect, but still at their core this type of Vampire character would have undoubtedly captured the feelings of loneliness and having to hide the knowledge of who you love, and ultimately just who you are that many LGBT people would have sadly been forced to live with.
This type of Vampire lead is the most popular among mainstream audiences. Most people like a good love story, and these characters are also often played by conventional attractive leads too.
Among hard core genre fans these characters tend to be a bit more polarising however. Obviously some examples such as Angel and Spike are very popular, but others tend to be viewed as more sappy, weak characters. I think a lot of genre fans also prefer Vampires to be evil monsters, so again something like True Blood which turns Vampires into sexy, misunderstood, tormented anti heroes, is obviously not going to be that popular among the Buffy, Peter Cushing crowd.
10/ Agent of Anti Paranormal Organisation
Originator: Hellboy
Other Notable Examples: Gabriel Van Helsing (Van Helsing), Riley Finn (Buffy)
This type of hero isn’t that popular. Hellboy is practically the only major iconic example. The 2004 Van Helsing though having developed a cult following, was largely a flop, whilst Riley is similarly one of (if not the) most disliked character in Buffy.
I think the reason as to why this character is less popular is perhaps because they are less vulnerable than other Vampire hunter characters.
The likes of Sam, Dean, Peter Cushing, even Buffy and Angel, all kind of had to do it themselves in terms of finding things out about monsters, getting weapons to fight them, and even just convince the authorities that they weren’t serial killers!
With this character however they have the backing of an entire organisation behind them, so they have access to an endless supply of weaponry, knowledge on Vampires and even cover ups for the police. There’s very little that can actually threaten them.
Still that’s not to say you can’t ever make these characters work as we have seen with Hellboy, but I think its more of a challenge than with other more famous Vampire hunter characters.
The Darkhorse character Hellboy who worked for the organisation called the B P R D really laid down the tropes that later versions of this type of character would follow.
There are many similarities between Hellboy and the Hugh Jackman version of Van Helsing for instance. Both are supernatural beings (a Demon and an Angel respectively) who arrived on earth under mysterious circumstances. Neither knows why they were sent to earth, and both were found by an organisation that hunts the paranormal, who took them in, and trained them to be warriors for their cause, whilst helping them try to understand their past.
Both also have a connection to their archenemy too, Rasputin and Dracula, though we don’t find out much about either’s mysterious link to the head Demon, or Vampire.
I think the fact that Jackman version of Van Helsing followed this template was why it didn’t really work. Its an enjoyable monster mash, and Hugh Jackman as always is great in the role.
However he isn’t really Van Helsing. Obviously I don’t expect Van Helsing to always be the same in every adaptation. The Cushing Van Helsing was younger and more dashing than the one from the novel.
However the two defining traits of Van Helsing’s character are that he is the greatest expert on Vampires, and that unlike Buffy and Blade, he is just an ordinary man who hunts Vampires. He followed in a long line of scholarly, gentlemanly heroes like Sherlock Holmes, and he was created to be Mr exposition and a way for Stoker to develop his supernatural world and creatures.
The Jackman version of Van Helsing doesn’t know anything about Vampires, Demons or monsters. In fact he has his own standard Cushing/Van Helsing who tells him about Vampires, called Carl.
He also is not just an ordinary man, being a former Angel, who becomes a Werewolf and kills Vampires using his superpowers.
Whilst the Cushing Van Helsing did do something new with the character, it still stuck to the core principles of his Stokers version, but when you look at Jackman’s version you can never imagine him as Van Helsing.
If the Jackman Van Helsing had been a totally original character then I think he would have been better thought of. Its kind of like the 98 version of Godzilla for instance who similarly did not resemble the character he was supposed to be.
The Bad Guys
1/ Vampire Supremacist
Originator: Bram Stokers Dracula
Other Notable Examples: The Master (Buffy), Herrick (Being Human), Deacon Frost (Blade), Alpha Vampire (Supernatural), Mr Snow (Being Human), Valek (Vampires), Azazel (Supernatural) Muriel (Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters)
My favourite type of Vampire villain. This guy is the antithesis to the romantic, conflicted Vampire who just wants to be human.
This Vampire will LOVE being a Vampire. He will regard his species as the ultimate race, obviously far above humans, but also above other supernatural creatures too. (If there are Werewolves around he will usually hold them in a special kind of contempt.)
He will want to create a world where humans are rounded up into cages like animals, bled slowly, and tortured for the Vampires amusement. (Again other supernatural creatures may get a similar treatment too.)
There will often be an alternate what if scenario where we see the Vampire Supremacist has succeeded and created this “perfect world”. All of the main heroes, (except for one who is able to turn things back) will either have been killed in the most horrific ways, or worse become the Vampire Supremacists most vicious minions, such as in the Buffy episode The Wish or Being Human’s 4th season.
This Vampire will be fond of going into big grandiose speeches about the superiority of Vampires and why they should rule the world such as the following.
Buffy: The Wish
The Master: Behold the technical wonder that is about to alter the very fabric of our society. Some would say such an advancement goes against our nature. I say to them. Well I don’t say anything to them because I kill them.Vampires! Undeniably we are the worlds superior race. Yet we have always been to parochial. Too bound to the mindless routine of the predator. Hunt and kill, hunt and kill, titilating? Yes. Practical? Hardly. Meanwhile the humans with their truly plebian minds have brought us a truly Demonic concept. Mass production!
Blade
Frost: Let me tell you what we are. We’re the top of the fucking food chain. Tonight the blood gods coming and everyone in his path will be turned. How are going to cure the whole fucking world.
He will also get angry when his human enemies think they can threaten him. He won’t just look down on humans, he will literally regard them as filth, and may even live under ground because he can’t stand being among them. He will absolutely despise any display of “humanity” he sees among his Vampire minions too.
Supernatural
Alpha Vampire:When your kind first huddled round the fire, I was the thing in the dark, and you think you can harm me!
Of course he will be a complete hypocrite too in many of his beliefs. He will regularly murder his Vampiric minions in the most horrific ways for trivial failures, in spite of all of his brotherhood of Vampires shit, and will generally show no regard for them whatsoever.
The reason for this is because his belief in Vampiric superiority stems simply from the fact that he is one. If he were a human then he would be the most fanatical Vampire hunter. In some ways this kind of character reminds me of Eric Cartman in the classic South Park episode Ginger Kids.
In this episode Cartman goes on about how much he hates red haired people (he even compares them to Vampires), until Kyle sticks a red wig on him in the middle of the night. Believing he has suddenly become a ginger, Cartman leads a “red power” movement to conquer and exterminate all non red heads. He even says “I will not be part of a god damned minority!”
That is pretty much what the Vampire Supremacist character is. He’s not going to be part of a race that skulks in the shadows, lives in fear of their existence being found out by humanity. He’s going to make sure that his people are the master race for himself.
Yet another example of this characters hypocrisy is the fact that whilst he will often rant about hating human emotions and weaknesses etc. He will still have a favourite lackey that he will love like a child, and whose death may even break him.
Physically this Vampire also may look more monstrous (The Master, Mr Snow) again to highlight how little humanity he has and how much older he is.
This guy will also be far more powerful than any other Vampire. In fact he will probably be immune to most of their weaknesses and whenever our hero tries to take him on in a straight fight it will end in a curb stomp in his favour unquestionably. He will also kill various other Vampire hunters to show how badass he is. The hero will have to use some kind of trick, or dirty tactic to finally take him out.
He will also be very fond of badass boasts too like commenting on all the Vampire hunters he’s killed. He might even boast about having killed a famous figure in history. His age will never be revealed, but he will casually mention having been at an event which establishes him as truly ancient, like the fall of Rome, or he might even mention having met cavemen!
This character to me is the best type of Vampire villain for many reasons. To start with he can give us a Vampire villain that is evil, yet we can kind of understand in a way.
In many ways we don’t really have the moral high ground against Vampires. At the end of the day Vampires kill what they regard as lesser creatures to survive, just like we do. Indeed considering human beings don’t actually have to feed on animal flesh, where as Vampires in many pieces of Vampire fiction DO have to survive on human blood, humans actually could be considered worse.
Of course you might argue that Vampires treat their human victims worse than we do our animals, but really that argument doesn’t hold much water when you consider how poorly animals are treated.
So really in what way are Vampires worse than us? Obviously yes we are not going to root for Vampires, because we are their prey, but at the end of the day, we can’t really say that Vampires are worse than human beings. As Doctor Wu said in Jurassic World “monster is a relative term, to a canary a cat is a monster. We’re just used to being the cat.”
If Buffy, Peter Cushing and Dean Winchester go home and have a chicken leg, or a lamb chop or a cheese burger or a few strips of bacon for tea, well then they are complete hypocrites. This Vampire character will be aware of that, which can lead to a very interesting confrontation that does genuinely make the viewer question the heroes righteousness, even though they are up against a monster that is genuinely evil.
Added to that this Vampire also being so powerful, can help Vampires to regain some of their menace too in things like Buffy and Blade, where we see regular Vamps get overpowered and killed easily all the time. This guy will show you that a Vampire, provided its able to live long enough, can still be a truly unstoppable foe, even against the ultimate Vampire killers.
The great irony is that it was Bram Stokers version of Dracula that created this type of character, yet almost all versions of Dracula are not depicted this way.
Stokers Dracula is not a romantic character. He is an arrogant monster who has lived for hundreds of years, and he seeks to make Vampires the dominant race on the planet. This is why he travels to England as he hopes to use the British Empire to spread Vampirism like never before.
Like all of the usual Vampire Supremacists he has his favourite lackeys, but is willing to abandon them for his own safety. He also gets angry when people like Van Helsing think they can threaten him, famously ranting “They would play their wits against mine. Me who commanded armies and nations before they were even born. Fools!”
Sadly however for some reason this aspect usually gets left out of Dracula’s character whenever he is adapted, and many versions actually turn him into more of a low key villain, pursuing someone out of revenge, or because he is in love with them. It would be nice to see someone actually portray the original Vampire king properly on the big screen after all this time.
This character doesn’t always have to be a Vampire. You can have a Demon Supremacist who fulfils all of the same tropes too.
Azazel the Yellow Eyed Demon from Supernatural is a Demon version of this type of character, beat for beat.
Azazel believes that his kind, Demons should rule the earth, and regards humans as little more than filth. He spends years trying to bring this plan about by freeing his father, Lucifer himself.
Azazel also looks unique (with his yellow eyes) and is immune to many standard Demon weaknesses too. He is a sadistic monster who enjoys killing women in the most horrific ways, yet much like the Master with Darla, he does genuinely love his Demonic children, Meg and Tom.
Azazel: (To Dean) As far as I’m concerned this is justice. You know that little exorcism of yours? That was my daughter. That one in the alley? That was my boy. You understand.
Dean: You’ve got to be kidding me.
Azazel: What? You’re the only one who can have a family? You destroyed my children. How would you feel if I killed your family? (Smiles at Dean.) Oh that’s right I forgot, I did. Still two wrongs don’t make a right.
Dean:You son of a bitch.
Azazel:You know, you fight, and you fight, and you fight for this family, but the truth is they don’t kneed you. Not like you need them. Sam? He’s clearly John’s favourite. Even when they fight that’s more concern than he’s ever shown you.
Dean: I bet you’re real proud of your kids too huh? Oh wait I forgot, I wastedem.
Azazel really walked into that one!
Another non Vampire and non Demon example is Muriel, the Grand High Witch and main antagonist from the movie Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.
Muriel wishes to allow her kind to rule the earth, and she is obviously far stronger than your average Witch. Also whilst preaching about how her kind should come together to rule the world, she memorably sends her minions through the booby trapped woods to see if its safe!
Generally speaking however this character is usually a Vampire, though much like with other stock Vampire characters, a Demon is most commonly used in place of a Vampire as seen with Azazel.
2/ The Just Want To Watch The World Burn Vampire
Originator: Christopher Lee’s Version of Dracula
Other Examples: Angelus (Buffy and Angel), Evil Hal (Being Human), Frost (Blade), Count Karnstein (Twins of Evil)
The most frightening and vicious Vampire villain of them all. This Vampire is a monster right through to his core. He will have no redeeming features, and no plans or ambitions except to torture and kill people.
These monsters will be dangerous to everyone and everything around them, even other Vampires and their most loyal servants. Most of the time he will kill someone not for food, but for his own amusement. He will also prolong his victims torture for as long as he possibly can.
When these Vampires plan something big, then it will be the destruction of the entire world. We’re not just talking about the end of human society like a Vampire Supremacist. His plan will literally kill everything on the planet, including all other Vampires too, and even himself, but he won’t care. For him it will be the ultimate act of horror and the perfect way to go out.
Finally this Vampire will also get the most horrific death. A simple stake is too good for him. In order to really make the audience happy after building him up to be the most evil monster this Vampire will need to really get his just deserts.
Christopher Lee’s Dracula was the one who established this type of Vampire in popular culture. Lee’s Dracula was a bloodthirsty monster who in contrast to later versions of the Vampire count, had no love or affection for the women he went after.
Indeed Lee’s Dracula was probably the least romantic version of the Vampire there has ever been. He didn’t always kill his victims just to feed. In many movies such as Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, Taste The Blood of Dracula and Dracula AD 1972, Dracula attempts to turn his female victims into Vampires just to torture their father, fiance or relative who had wronged him in some way.
Lee’s Dracula would also rape his female victims too, as he would force them to sleep with him using mind control. Furthermore after making them into Vampires he would always discard, beat, or even kill his brides because he didn’t want to have to share his kills with them.
In Scars of Dracula, Lee stabs his Vampire bride Tanya to death with a silver blade, and has her body burned in acid, whilst in Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, he regularly beats Zena, his human bride and demeans her. Later when she fails to bring him another woman he plans to make into a Vampire, he tortures her and makes her into a Vampire, before ordering his servant to burn her to death!
In Taste the Blood of Dracula meanwhile he brutally murders one of his Vampire brides when she attempts to get close to him, and dumps her body in the canal for her brother to find. Finally in Satanic Rites of Dracula he is shown to keep his Vampire brides chained up in a cellar, with all of them having been reduced to the level of animals.
Lee’s Dracula also didn’t always kill his victims to feed on them. He often killed for his own amusement, and he often killed his victims in the most horrific ways.
In Scars of Dracula, Lee’s version of the Vampire dispatches a horde of bats to devour all of the women and children in the town. Its one of the most disturbing moments in any Vampire film, as the men of the village, having believed they have finally rid themselves of Dracula after burning down his castle, arrive back at the church where they believe their wives and children were safe, only to find their mangled remains scattered all over the former house of god. Even the local priest himself declares the church to now be a place of evil!
Dracula’s treatment of Klove, his most loyal servant is no better meanwhile. Whenever Klove steps out of line, Dracula beats him with a whip, and then sticks a burning hot sword into his whip wounds! In Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, another example of his horrific treatment of his servants can be found in the way he forces a priest to do his bidding through mind control.
The weak willed Priest is forced to carry out such horrors on Dracula’s command as burning young women alive, bludgeoning other priests to death, and kidnapping young women for Dracula to rape, kill and make into blood drinking monsters! The priest is awake throughout all of it, yet can’t resist the Vampires sadistic commands.
In Satanic Rites of Dracula, the Vampire finally decides to end the world. Having grown bored of his immortal existence, Lee’s Dracula desires to rest forever, but naturally wants to not only go out in a blaze of horror, but take down the entire world with him.
So he creates a plague that is spread by touch, and kills its victims in the most horrific way possible. It literally eats the flesh from the bones, and it stimulates the pain receptors of its victims to the absolute maximum they can be stimulated. It also kills its victims over the course of several days, and can infect and destroy any animal on the planet, not just humans.
Dracula intends to exterminate every single life form on earth with the plague, using his four carriers, (one of which he intends to be his archenemy Van Helsing, with Jessica Van Helsing meanwhile being turned into a Vampire, so that she will be immune to the plague, and be forced to watch as everyone and everything she knows and loves is destroyed!)
Dracula’s servants believed that he was only going to use the plague as a deterrent to force the world powers to obey their commands, and when one of them protests, Dracula actually forces him to infect himself using his mind control. Its one of the most gruesome scenes in the entire Hammer Dracula catalogue as we see the virus slowly eat away his flesh.
Finally Lee’s Dracula would also always suffer an extremely painful and humiliating death too. He was burned in the sun, drowned, impaled on a cross and melted into a puddle of blood, struck by lightening and set on fire, and trapped in a hawthorn bush and shredded.
Lee’s Dracula was the ultimate horror movie monster. A totally evil creature that was devoid of any conscience, who was as cruel to his servants and brides as he was to his enemies and victims, and killed people in the most horrific and painful ways, whilst also dying in the most spectacular and over the top ways too.
He made a huge impact on the horror genre, and naturally we started to see other Vampire villains created in a similar mould, including Count Karnstein from the Hammer movie, Twins of Evil.
Karnstein is shown to be a sadistic, bloodthirsty maniac even before he becomes a Vampire. He kills not just to survive, but for fun and has no regard for his Vampire brides who he regularly beats and sacrifices for his own survival.
There were also elements of this in Frost’s character from Blade. Whilst he wanted to take over for the good of his people, Frost was still an unrelenting sadist who didn’t always kill just to feed as seen here.
Frost also just like Lee’s Dracula suffers a truly heinous death (its definitely the most horrific out of the three main Vampire villains in the series.)
Vampires in general following Lee’s Dracula were made to be more sadistic monsters. For instance in Buffy all Vampires are shown to enjoy torturing their victims. To be fair though this was as a result of the rise of the Vampire hunter as a major character. If we are going to root for the person who kills Vampires, then the Vampire itself has to be a monster that we don’t mind be killed in the most horrible ways regularly.
Still Lee’s Dracula was really the first such example and in many ways the template for those who came after.
Definitely the most successful and iconic example of this type of Vampire after Lee’s Dracula was Angelus, Angel’s evil counterpart from the Buffy/Angel franchise.
Angelus is every bit as evil and twisted as Christopher Lee’s Dracula. He enjoys torturing his victims in the most brutal ways for hours, possibly days on end. He also enjoys breaking his victims psychologically as seen with the likes of Drusilla and Holtz whose loved ones he kills, and who he both drives insane. Angelus is also shown to take a particular delight in torturing and raping his female victims too such as Holtz’ wife or the gypsy girl he spent an hour torturing and raping to death.
Angelus: Chicks just love a good accent. Makes em all buttery in the nether regions. Isn’t that right Fred? You know I had a bit of an Irish brogue back in the day. If you like I can use it on you when I rape you to death!
Angelus also is shown to kill people more often for his own amusement than to feed. Arguably the most infamous example of this can be seen when he murders Jenny Calendar, Giles’ girlfriend and later places her corpse in Giles bed, setting things up to look as though she is waiting for him up stairs.
We later find out he has done this to his other victims too, including one instance where he snapped the necks of several infants and laid them in their crib for their father to find. It was only when the father leaned in to kiss them goodnight and felt how cold they were that he found out the truth.
Finally Angelus is such a bastard that even other Vampires hate him because he is just as cruel to them too. When Spike is in a wheelchair, Angelus sleeps with his girlfriend Drusilla, and taunts Spike about it for months on end until Spike eventually turns against him, allies with Buffy and beats Angelus with a crowbar.
Spike: Have you forgotten that you’re a bloody guest in my bloody home.
Angelus: And as a guest if there is anything I can do for you, any responsibility I can assume while you’re spinning your wheels… (looks over at Drusilla) Anything I’m not already doing that is.
Spike: NOW THAT’S ENOUGH (leans out of his chair to punch him, Angelus laughs.)
Similarly when he first meets the Master he insults the elder Vampire to the point where he beats him to a bloody pulp. I love the way Angelus as you can see here literally can’t stop being an asshole no matter what. Even when he is in the presence of someone like the Master who could kill him in like three seconds flat, he still insults him because he doesn’t know how to not be an asshole.
One thing the Master, Giles, Spike and Buffy all have in common is wanting to smash this bastards face in.
Finally Hal’s evil persona in Being Human is similar in that much like Angelus he enjoys killing for fun. We can see this when he calmly chokes the Werewolf Larry to death, taunting him before hand, and calmly telling Larry “this is the real me!”
The just want to watch the world burn Vampire is obviously not the most complex Vampire villain, but he is still nevertheless by far and away the most terrifying.
He really takes advantage of what it is that makes Vampires such effective monsters. Monsters like Zombies and Werewolves are not really evil. They are just animals who kill for food.
A Vampire however is a thinking creature that is aware that it has to kill other sentient creatures to survive. There are obviously many avenues you can go down as a result of this that you can’t with something like a Zombie, or even other thinking monsters like Demons and Witches who don’t have to kill to survive like a Vampire.
You can obviously have a Vampire try and find another way to survive, or you can have it look at it from a practical way of what its doing is no worse than what humans do to animals, or you can have it actually enjoy having the power to take people’s lives like Angelus and the Lee Dracula, which is all the more terrifying.
This character can obviously only be featured in the darkest type of Vampire story.
3/ The Broken, Vengeful, Twisted Vampire Killer
Originator: Daniel Holtz (Angel)
Other Notable Examples:Gordon Walker (Supernatural), Kemp (Being Human)
The dark counterpart to the vengeful crusader. This character is also quite a nice counterpart to the Vampire Supremacist as he is essentially the same character, just on the other side.
This character will hate Vampires because his loved ones were killed by them. There’s a good chance that he will have had to kill his loved one who was turned into a Vampire too. He will often carry something around that reminds him of his deceased loved one.
This character will seem like a hero at first, as ultimately he just wants to rid the world of Vampires like Buffy, Blade or Van Helsing. However as time goes on we will see that he is far more unstable and fanatical. He will want to kill any Vampire, or Demon regardless of its alignment, and he will also be willing to murder innocent people too. This character will also often suffer an ironic fate, maybe being turned into the very monster he hated, or being punished in the same way as he did others.
Daniel Holtz from Angel was really the first example of this type of character. Holtz was inspired by Xena’s archenemy Callisto. Callisto was a warrior who had been driven insane when Xena burned her village to the ground and killed her family. Callisto is even more embittered when Xena reforms and becomes celebrated as a hero, and tries to make Xena pay through any means necessary.
Holtz was a Vampire hunter whose family were murdered by Angelus. Much like Callisto, Holtz is even more embittered when the murderer of his family reforms and becomes a hero, and still tries to ruin his life any way he can. (Both Holtz and Callisto target the children of Angel and Xena, and ironically are only able to thanks to the misguided, but ultimately treacherous actions of the heroes best friend, Wesley and Gabrielle, both of whom the hero tries to kill afterwards.)
Holtz was a truly fantastic villain who was played superbly by Keith Szarabajka. Holtz would lay down almost all of the tropes that this type of character was to follow.
At first he seemed like he was a genuine hero, as he hunted Vampires to protect the innocent, and even in his feud with Angel he at first wanted to slay the Vampire to actually free his human soul from the torment he was in.
However as time goes on it becomes obvious that all he actually cares about is revenge, and worse he is willing to take away an innocent child’s life and turn him against his father, as well as manipulate other, broken and damaged people for his own ends, and even kill innocent people like Wesley.
Holtz is aware of how twisted he has become, even saying to his right hand woman Justine that he knows he is going to hell before he makes her kill him.
It was a great twist to have what would normally have been the main hero in any other Vampire story become the villain. Holtz is the same as Captain Kronos, Jack Crow, even Blade. All 4’s loved ones were killed by and turned into Vampires and all 4 have as a result devoted themselves to destroying them. With Holtz however unlike those characters he not only comes across a Vampire that isn’t evil, which throws the righteousness of his crusade into question, but its actually the same Vampire that killed his loved ones and so sadly he ends up becoming seen as a villain by the audience.
Another character that would follow a similar template was Gordon Walker from Supernatural. Walker much like Holtz lost a loved one to Vampires, his sister, who was also turned and who he later killed.
Walker at first seems like just another hunter, and he and Dean Winchester even bond. However it soon becomes apparent that much like Holtz he is a fanatic who views all supernatural creatures as being the same.
We see this when he captures and brutally tortures a reformed Vampire named Lenore (played by Amber Benson, best known as Tara on Buffy.)
Later Gordon tries to kill Sam Winchester when he finds out that he has Demon blood, though in the process he ends up getting a wonderfully ironic death when he is turned into a Vampire as punishment for the Vampires he has killed in the past.
Gordon is condemned to an eternity as the thing he hates. In Supernatural, the souls of monsters such as Vampires, Werewolves, Ghouls, Shapeshifters, and Djinns go to Purgatory when they die instead of heaven or hell.
Purgatory essentially resembles a giant never ending forest and the monsters hunt each other there for all eternity. Whenever they die in Purgatory, they will come back to life again and thus are doomed to die over and over again forever.
To me this was the greatest piece of lore from Supernatural, as it made the Vampires and Werewolves far more terrifying than ever before. In other pieces of Vampire fiction when someone becomes a Vampire its tragic, but at least they are freed when they are slain. Here however when you die you are still a Vampire, and worse, you are sent somewhere where you will never see your loved ones ever again, and be forced to fight and kill other monsters.
It doesn’t matter if you were a good person as a human before you became a Vampire, and it doesn’t even matter if you are a heroic Vampire who uses his powers to fight other members of your kind like Blade. Similarly you can be a Werewolf who does his best to make sure that you never escape on the night of the full moon and live a perfectly otherwise normal life, like George Tully from Being Human or Oz from Buffy.
When you die you are still going to Purgatory, away from your human loved ones who go to Heaven, where you will be stuck in your wolf or monster form, having to fight other monsters for all eternity.
With this in mind it truly is the perfect fate for Gordon a man who spent his entire life hunting Vampires, to spend eternity in the forests of Purgatory as a Vampire, hunting them and all of the other monsters.
On the one hand its his worst nightmare being the thing he hates, yet on the other, killing Vampires is what his idea of heaven would look like anyway. One can only imagine he will be chasing the Vampire who turned him forever, though at the same time he will be chased by many of the Vampires who he killed, including his own sister! That will be an awkward family reunion to say the least.
Finally another example of this type of character is Kemp from Being Human. Kemp much like Holtz saw his wife and children killed by Vampires and devoted the rest of his life to destroying them. Though he views Vampires as the most abhorrent supernatural creatures, he is still shown to want to wipe out Werewolves and Ghosts too, regardless of their moral alignment.
Kemp is also shown to be willing to murder innocent people in his quest, including his own assistant who he brutally stabs to death in order to exorcise Annie, and later Jaggat who he kills simply for associating with a Vampire, a Ghost and a Werewolf.
Much like Holtz, Kemp keeps a reminder of his wife and children’s death. Holtz would often sing the lullaby he used to sing to his daughter (and that he sang to her the final time he held her in her arms, after she had become a Vampire, just before he threw her into the sun.)
Kemp meanwhile carries the blood soaked bible he used to ward off the Vampires that killed his family.
Finally Kemp like Gordon Walker also meets a fitting end when Annie, a ghost he exorcised against her will, brings him into her dimension.
This character is obviously always paired against a more heroic Vampire or supernatural creature to show what a fanatic they are, but I think it would be interesting to see this type of character go up against the Vampire Supremacist too.
Obviously you’d still always need a good guy Vampire there, or else this character would just end up being the hero.
Still I’d love to see a Kemp/Holtz/Gordon Walker go up against a Master/Frost/Herrick/Dracula type of character. There’d be room for some brilliant conflict between these two fanatics, who in many ways are just the same, but on different sides.
4/ The Romantic, Conflicted Vampire
Originator: Dracula’s Daughter
Other Notable Examples: Jerry Daindridge (Fright Night), Count Dracula (Gary Oldman Version)
This Vampire is obviously similar to the good guy, conflicted romantic Vampire character like Lestat, with the key difference being that he just simply isn’t strong enough to give up feeding on humans.
He hates being a Vampire, will actually feel guilt over his actions, and will even fall in love, but ultimately he or she just won’t be strong enough to overcome being a monster. When they die they will often have a look of peace on their face, and may even thank the person who killed them.
Of course this character will still ultimately be a villain, and will still do absolutely horrific things. The fact that they will also often be a love rival for the main hero may also cause them to behave in a more deplorable way than other Vampire villains, as after all love makes us do crazy things.
This Vampire tends to be a polarising villain among fans of the genre. Obviously in some ways he can be a more complex type of villain than say the want to watch the world burn Vampire, but at the same time he can also be a bit more mopey, and is extremely limited compared to other Vampire villains as all he can really be in are love triangle stories.
5/ The Young Upstart Vampire
Originator: David From The Lost Boys
Other Notable Examples: Spike (Buffy and Angel), Frost (Blade film series only)
This type of Vampire much like the Vampire Supremacist LOVES being a Vampire, but its in a different kind of way.
Where as the Vampire Supremacist will develop an ideology about why his people are the rightful rulers of the earth, this guy will love being a Vampire in a more shallow way. He will love having super strength, being young and sexy forever, being able to fly, being able to drink loads, and smoke and not have to worry about his health etc.
He will be an adrenaline junkie, and have a real love for aspects of modern popular culture, like television series, music, and will often dress in modern clothing too (as opposed to other Vampires who tend to dress in more extravagant, old fashioned clothes.)
Finally this Vampire will be in some kind of conflict with the more old fashioned type of Vampire. Perhaps it will be because he is drawing too much attention to them with his antics, but whatever the case he will not behave in a way Vampires are supposed to, much to the annoyance of his fellow Vampires, and Vampire hunters alike.
David from the Lost Boys who was played by Kiefer Sutherland really pioneered this type of character. Though he wasn’t technically the main villain of the film, he was still nevertheless its most popular character and he would along with Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious be one of the three main inspirations on Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Spike’s relationship with Drusilla was inspired by Sid and Nancy, but James Marsters said he based his swagger, and cocky attitude on Johnny Rotten, even telling Joss Whedon “I’m going to give you Johnny”)
One of the main influences for Spike.
Still despite the influence of the Sex Pistols two front men, there is a lot of David in Spike. Even just physically the two are very similar, with their platinum blonde hair and dark leather coats.
Spike’s whole character is based on challenging what we think we know about Vampires. He rejects the Master and the Order of Aulerius’ way of life from the start, even declaring “from now on there is going to be a lot less ritual and a little more fun around here”. He is also shown to embrace human culture, and have genuine romantic feelings for Drusilla. Later he is even shown to fall in love with a Slayer.
Spike went against what people believed Buffyverse Vampires could do, both in universe and in the real world, which is what made him both a popular and controversial character.
Finally another example of this type of character was Frost in the original Blade movie. As we have seen Frost embodied elements of other Vampire stock characters too, but there were definitely traces of this type of character in him too.
In the comics Frost was a much older, more mature character, and a Vampire supremacist, but for the 98 film he was a much younger, more modern, upstart who wanted to challenge the Vampire traditions of remaining hidden and blending into human society. Much like Spike did with the Anointed One, Frost kills the stuffy, more old fashioned Vampires and takes charge.
This type of Vampire villain though not as common as other types tends to still be very popular among fans and viewers. Not only is he often a lot younger, and more attractive than the stuffy old, often inhuman Vampire kings, but he is also a lot more fun too. He isn’t mopey, doesn’t spend all his time skulking in a crumbling old castle or a crypt. He actually does make it look like its cool being a Vampire. You get to play by nobody’s rules but your own, stay up all night, and kill anyone who pisses you off. What’s not to like?
The fact that he also doesn’t follow the usual Vampire traditions and expectations means that he is also obviously a much more unpredictable character than any other type of Vampire villain too.
6/ Hiding in Plain Sight Villain
Originator: D.D. Denham (The Satanic Rites of Dracula)
Other Notable Examples: Grand High Witch (The Witches), Dick Roman (Supernatural), The Mayor (Buffy), Wolfram and Hart (Angel)
This monster will be a villain who not only has resources, but is a respected public figure. They will be a philanthropist, known to the public as a kind, generous person in their private life and be the last person anyone could suspect of any wrong doing. Of course behind closed doors they will be the worst, most deplorable monster.
D.D. Denham in the last (and in my opinion one of the greatest) Hammer Draculas really pioneered this type of character.
D.D. Denham was Dracula’s latest alias. To the public he was a powerful, eccentric, reclusive, but generous millionaire, but in secret he was not only capturing girls, torturing them and making them into Vampires, but he was also creating a plague to wipe out humanity!
In a way D.D Denham can be seen as an unintentional metaphor for men like Harvey Weinstein who abuse women and are able to use their connections and influence to not only get away with it, but actually be seen as respected and admired figures in most people’s eyes.
Lee’s Dracula was always portrayed as a sexual predator. He does rape his victims as well as kill them, and the fact that he can now get away with it in the modern world, (and even keep young women essentially as his sex slaves in the dungeon of his house.) Actually makes him more terrifying than ever before.
Like so many of the victims of scumbags like Weinstein, or the victims in grooming gangs in places like Rochdale, Denhams victims are completely ignored, with even Van Helsing not being aware for two years that Dracula is preying on these girls, who quickly go on the missing persons list and are then quietly forgotten about.
The Grand High Witch from Roald Dahl’s novel and the later film adaptation (where she was played by Anjelica Huston) may be an even more disturbing example meanwhile.
She was the head of the leading charity to help children in the United Kingdom. Furthermore all of the other board members of said charity were her minions. In Dahl’s story, Witches are Demons who hate children and use their magics to torture and kill them in horrific ways (like trapping Erica in the painting, or worst of all in the novel, turning children into hot dogs and feeding them to their parents whilst they are still conscious!)
There is a frightening moment in the book, when Luke is playing with his pets in a room the charity for children’s safety is about to take place in, and assumes that these people who love children, won’t mind a little boy playing with his pets whilst they set up their meeting.
He of course gets a rather nasty surprise when they take their faces off! (In the novel this essentially costs him his life, as unlike the happy ending of the film where he is turned back from being a mouse. In the book he remains a mouse at the end and is told that he will die in about 8 years, meaning he’ll only live to 16!)
Just as D. D. Denham was a perfect metaphor for sexual predators like Harvey Weinstein, then the Witches are a perfect metaphor for twisted individuals that target children such as Jimmy Savile who use their public status as a supposed “friend to all children” to both make themselves untouchable and gain access to victims.
Much like with D.D Denham and his victims who suffer in silence, what the Witches do to children as flamboyant as it may seem, has a certain real horror to it in scenes like this.
Here we have a boy attending a meeting that his parents think is made up of people who love children, but who actually want to do him harm, and who are relishing in the fact that he is alone in their company.
The Mayor in Buffy meanwhile is obviously similarly a metaphor for not only how politicians behind closed doors can have shadier personalities and motives, but also how they may even be in the pocket of a criminal underbelly who’ve helped them get to power (with Mayor Wilkins being a Demon worshipper who by paying tributes and making sacrifices to the monsters of Sunnydale has gained the influence and supernatural powers he has.)
Whilst the Mayor was a great villain of course, he was a slightly more humorous example of this type of character than the Grand High Witch and D.D. Denham. In one scene we see that he actually keeps human skulls and bones in his closet!
Joss Whedon played with this trope again in Angel of course with Wolfram and Hart, the Demonic law firm. Wolfram and Hart much like Mayor Wilkins could be used in a humorous way, with the joke obviously being Lawyers as Demons. Still there were obviously darker elements such as a senator who is served by Wolfram and Hart being willing to brainwash her rival into being a pedophile.
Being Human and Charmed also play with this trope too with Herrick, the Vampire king being the head of police, and Cole being both a Demon and a Lawyer too.
The Leviathans meanwhile in Supernatural were also corporate monsters, who played on conspiracy theories of those in the top trying to brainwash us by spiking our food and control how the masses think and act.
These villains bring monsters into our modern world like never before, and so naturally as the setting of Vampire and Demon stories has shifted to modern day, then these villains have become among the most common.
This Vampire villain is almost like a Ghost. They will creep about in the shadows, live in old crumbling castles, and a greater emphasis will be placed on their hypnotic powers.
Unlike other Vampires who use their super strength and physical powers, these guys will instead place people under their thrall with just one glance.
There will always be a certain romantic aspect to these Vampires personalities. They may not be in love in with their victims, but they will at the very least not hate them. They will view turning someone into a Vampire as a positive thing as they are making them young and beautiful forever.
This Vampire will also often be somewhat more exotic looking and very beautiful physically, yet there will be a certain stiff, cold aspect to their mannerisms and appearance.
These were among the original movie Vampires and in some ways set the template for almost all who followed.
Bela Lugosi, the original and for many still the greatest Dracula, pioneered this type of Vampire in the original Universal version of Stokers novel. Lugosi’s Dracula was an alluring, attractive, icey character in contrast to the more savage, powerful monster from the book.
Lugosi even became something of a sex symbol for his role (at one point he received more fan mail than even Clark Gable!) This would of course twist the public’s perception of Vampires into being more attractive creatures in popular culture, setting the stage for later more romantic Vampires.
For the next few decades almost all film Vampires would similarly be portrayed as more hypnotic, otherworldly, charming characters.
Gradually however these types of Vampire characters would be phased out following the onset of the Hammer movies.
Hammer focused more on the Vampires physical powers, such as their superhuman strength, and the horror around Vampires was more visceral and explicit. Rather than watch Vampires creep about in the shadows, and hypnotise people, we would see them burst into a room with blood stained fangs, grabbing people by the throat and tossing them across rooms.
As the decades rolled on, later Vampire films and television series would expand on what Hammer started to the point where we have modern day Vampires jumping hundreds of feet in the air and ripping people to pieces.
You can see how Vampires physical prowess and powers overall have changed over the years.
This brilliant sketch from Armstrong and Miller pokes fun at how much Vampires have changed over the years.
Whilst this type of character may be seen by some as old fashioned, it still nevertheless set the template for romantic and appealing Vampires in general in popular culture, whilst the image of Dracula is still largely Bela Lugosi too.
The black widows peak, the long flowing cape, the penguin suit, and the thick Hungarian accent all come from Lugosi, rather than the Stokers novel.
Occasionally writers may return to this model such as the Buffyverse version of Dracula.
8/ Jiang Shi (Chinese, Hopping Vampires)
Originator: Chinese Mythology
Other Notable Examples: The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, Mr Vampire, Mr Vampire 2, Encounters of the Spooky Kind, Mr Vampire 4, Vampire vs Vampire.
The Jiang Shi were originally completely different monsters to Vampires. They were undead monsters from Chinese mythology who fed on the souls of their victims. They were as single minded as animals, never spoke, only roared and had hideous rotting faces. Myths about the Jiang Shi developed entirely independently from European myths about Vampires, but when Western stories about Vampires began to make their way to China, then the Chinese began to associate European Vampires with their own Jiang Shi. Dracula was even referred to as a blood sucking Jiang Shi in the Chinese translation.
It would be in the 1970s Hammer movie, The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires that the Jiang Shi would actually be made into Chinese Vampires for the first time. The Jiang Shi in Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires were as single minded as animals like the Jiang Shi from myths. They also had hideous rotting faces, and whilst they drank blood, they could also steal people’s souls and turn them into mindless zombie servants (who like the Jiang Shi from myths would hop up and down when they moved.)
The Jiang Shi make their film debut.
Whilst The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires did introduce the Jiang Shi to film audiences and gave them more Western Vampire traits such as a thirst for human blood. It would later be the Hong Kong Mr Vampire film series that would cement their place as a classic movie monster around the world.
Starring the late Lam Ching Ying, the Mr Vampire film series led to a massive horror boom in the East, comparable to the one that Universal kicked off in America in the 30s and 40s, and that Hammer studios kicked off in Britain in the 50s and 60s.
The Jiang Shi from the Mr Vampire movies were referred to as both Jiang Shi and Vampires, and they had a number of traits of both European Vampires and Jiang Shi. They feed on blood like European Vampires rather than souls, but they have hideous rotting faces, are as single minded as animals, and move by hopping up and down like the Jiang Shi of myths.
Their weaknesses are also a combination of European Vampires and Jiang Shi. They are killed by piercing the heart like European Vampires, but are vulnerable to Chinese herbs and enchantments like the Jiang Shi.
The Mr Vampire films were hugely successful in China and Hong Kong, and they would develop a very strong cult following in the west too. From that point on the Jiang Shi have not only appeared in some Western works such as Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula series, but they are now almost always referred to as Chinese Vampires.
The Jiang Shi are almost always depicted as villains, but the most common heroic Jiang Shi in films is a friendly Jiang Shi child. This character will often be presented in a more comical way. He will be a sweet friendly boy who likes using his Vampire powers to play harmless tricks on people. The first example of this type of character was Wee Okay Boy in Mr Vampire 2.
Whilst there are myths about undead Demons that feed on people to survive in almost every culture. the Jiang Shi have undoubtedly become the most famous around the world, alongside the classic Western Vampire and Zombie.
Other Notable Examples: Baron Meinster (The Brides of Dracula), Doctor Ravna (Kiss of the Vampire), Count Karnstein (Twins of Evil), Count Mitterhouse (Vampire Circus), Dracula (Marvel Version)
This Vampire is most commonly found in British fiction, and in many ways they could be considered British Vampires, the same way the Jiang Shi are Chinese Vampires.
These characters will have been aristocrats in life, and probably cruel, horrible people before they became Vampires too. In contrast to the Lugosi Dracula who lives in crumbling castles, these Vampires will live in polished, luxurious castles, filled with beautiful art and fancy furniture. He will be pompous, arrogant and dress in fancy over the top clothes. He will also be a colossal pervert, with his crimes almost always being sexual in nature.
Everyone in the local village will know this character is a Vampire, and they will want to kill him, but will be too terrified to even lift a finger against him. It won’t just be because of his power as a Vampire but his influence as nobleman or a count.
The Vampire will be aware of this and will always taunt and laugh at the villagers for being pathetic cowards.
Whenever the villagers do finally rise up and strike out against him, then it will end very badly for them. We see this in Scars of Dracula of course when the villagers attempt to burn Dracula’s castle, and in response Dracula sends bats to slaughter all of the women and children in the village who are hiding in a church, and in Vampire Circus, where Count Mitterhouse after being staked, curses the villagers that they will all die, their children will die and their town will die (all of which comes true!)
This character grew out of Hammer’s habit of portraying their villains as vicious members of the upper class. In movies like Taste the Blood of Dracula, The Curse of the Werewolf, and Frankenstein Created Women, the monsters are all created by spoiled rich brats, land owners and lords.
These Vampire characters continued this tradition brilliantly and served as the perfect metaphors for corruption and decadence at the top of society.
10/ Fists and Fangs, Thug Vampires (American Vampires)
Originator: The Lost Boys
Other Notable Examples: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blade, Supernatural
The opposite to the British, Aristocratic, pompous Vampire. This Vampire will live in crappy, rundown, abandoned warehouses, mouldy old crypts, or even in the sewers.
They will grab people off the streets at night and kill them, though they may also take them back to their lair and torture them for their own amusement.
These Vampires can look human but will almost always revert to a more monstrous form when feeding. They will tend to dress in more toned down, normal clothes like leather coats and they will talk in a more casual, common way.
These Vampires are used as a metaphor for thugs, street predators, rapists and gang violence. A classic example of this can be found in the Angel Episode, Warzone.
Here the fight between Vampire hunter Charles Gunn’s team and a local pack of Vampires is written as being more like a gang war than anything else. When the Vampires all pile on top of Charles Gunn’s sister to feed on her, its treated almost like a gang rape.
Just as the British Vampires were the perfect metaphors for corruption at the top of society, these Vampires were excellent metaphors for the worst kind of scum at the bottom of society.
These Vampires only tend to pop up in American series like Blade, Supernatural and Buffy. Thus just as the Jiang Shi are the Chinese Vampires, the perverted, corrupt Aristocrats are British Vampires, then these guys can really be seen as the modern day American Vampire.
11/ Vampires Who Can Make Their Blood Into Weapons (Asian Vampires)
Originator: Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl
Other Notable Examples: Vampire Detective
These Vampires appear to be quite common in Asian films and television series such as the Japanese film Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl and the South Korean television series, Vampire Detective. They have the power when to turn their blood in weapons such as axes, swords or projectiles that can cut their victims to pieces.
These Vampires however are almost always presented as the protagonists, as after all a Vampire this powerful would be a lot harder for Buffy, Peter Cushing or Blade to kill.
These Vampires will tend to be somewhat more surreal, over the top and even somewhat comical compared to other Vampires.
Asian Vampires are fucking awesome!
12/ Ugly, Freak, Outcast Vampire
Originator: Count Orlock (Nosferatu)
Other Notable Examples: The Master (Buffy), Count Orlock (Klaus Kinski version), Nomak (Blade 2), Kurt Barlow (Salem’s Lot)
This Vampire character is utterly repulsive to look at. He will be bald headed, have rat like teeth, pale skin, and long, dirty talons.
He will usually be an evil Vampire that despises humanity and is not presented as being romantic on the surface, but underneath unlike the Vampire Supremacist he might be full of self loathing and guilt. He will only be so evil, and twisted because he has been rejected for ever his appearance, and knows he will never fit in.
This Vampire will show us how horrible it actually is being a Vampire. In a lot of other works Vampires can end up being more of a teenage fantasy. Being a Vampire can even look quite cool. You get super powers, never get sick, never age. Yes there’s the whole bloodlust thing, but even that often looks quite easy to control in certain films and tv series.
This type of Vampire however shows a different side to the myth. Here when you become a Vampire, you end up as an ugly, foul smelling, rotting, beast, condemned to spend eternity alone.
These monsters are both terrifying and pitiful, and ironically despite their more demonic appearance, in some ways they can end up having the most complex personalities of any Vampire villain.
In many ways this is the second most popular image of Vampires in popular culture after the attractive, alluring Vampire. In some ways, all Vampire characters can broadly be split into these two categories.
13/ Monster God
Originator: The Old Ones (HP Lovecraft)
Other Notable Examples: The Old Ones (Buffy and Angel), Lucifer (Supernatural), Eve (Supernatural), Captain Hatch (Being Human), La Magra (Blade) The Dark Ones (Ash vs Evil Dead)
This character is an ancient monster responsible for creating the main race of monsters in the franchise, be they Vampires or Demons. He will have been sealed away in another universe many centuries ago and passed into legend, even among the supernatural.
Still the Vampires and Demons (who he may have created as a way of escaping) will naturally worship him, and seek to bring him back to our world so he can overrun humanity and allow the Vampires or Demons to finally rule the earth.
The great irony is that this monster will often not care for the Vampires or Demons he created. He will view them as nothing but cannon fodder at best, and may even be disgusted at them for some reason, and ultimately seek to wipe them out once they have fulfilled their use.
The Old Ones from Buffy followed this template beat for beat. They were the original Demons who ruled the earth and were far more powerful than any other breed. They created Vampires, after feeding on and infecting a human, who became the first Vampire.
Many Vampires want to bring the Old Ones (who were banished to another universe before human history began) back, including the main season 1 villain The Master, who in the season finale manages to open the Hellmouth and briefly bring the Old Ones back into our world.
The irony is however that the Old Ones are shown to regard Vampires as nothing but half breeds, and look down on the greatly as seen with the Old One Illyria. Had the Master succeeded in bringing the Old Ones back it probably would have spelled trouble for him and his kind, as they would have been Z-class citizens at best in the world the Old Ones would have created.
In Supernatural we see a similar relationship between Lucifer and the Demons (the main antagonists of the series.)
Lucifer created Demons in Supernatural before he was sealed away in hell. Azazel and many other Demons not only view him as their god, but seek to free Lucifer from his cage.
Unfortunately for Azazel and the rest of his Demons, Lucifer actually despises them. He does just regard them as cannon fodder to use in his war against the Angels, but actually despises them. Lucifer in Supernatural after all hates humanity because he views them as corrupt and decadent. Imagine what he must think of his own children!
Unlike the Vampires in Buffy however, at least one Demon in Supernatural, Crowley comes to this conclusion and tries to help Sam and Dean stop Lucifer, simply to save his own skin.
CROWLEY:I want you to take this thing to Lucifer and empty it into his face.
DEAN:Uh okay and why exactly would you want the Devil dead?
CROWLEY:Survival. Lucifer isn’t a Demon. He’s an Angel remember. An Angel famous for his hatred of humankind. To him, you’re just filthy little bags of pus. If that’s the way he feels about you. What can he think about us.
SAM:But he created you?
CROWLEY:To him we’re just servants. Cannon fodder. If Lucifer manages to exterminate humankind, we’re next.
In Being Human, Captain Hatch (The Devil) similarly created Vampires, Ghosts and Werewolves and is shown to regard all of them as nothing more than fodder and a food supply.
Finally Eve in Supernatural is similarly the mother of all monsters, though unlike Lucifer she does actually care about her “children”. Still she fulfils the same basic idea of being a monster God who was sealed away for many centuries only to be brought back by her monster followers in the hopes that she can create a world where they will rule.
The original monster Gods were of course the Old Ones created by HP Lovecraft. The Old Ones were ancient monster gods who were banished from this universe and imprisoned centuries ago, with many of their servants wanting to bring them back.
Not only did the Old Ones serve as the inspiration for other primordial monsters, but other franchises such as Buffy and The Evil Dead would actually utilise Lovecraft’s Old Ones themselves.
3/ Other Supernatural Creatures
1/ Other Vampire Breeds
Originator: Hammer Films
Other Notable Examples: Marvel Comics, American Vampire, Fright Night 2011
Some pieces of Vampire fiction will play around with the idea of there being several different Vampire species.
There are many advantages to this of course. First and foremost it can allow you to to do various different types of stories, and it can also allow you to explore different Vampire myths too. As we have explored almost every culture appears to have its own myths about undead monsters or demons that exist by feeding on the blood or life essence of people. In India its the Vetala, in China its the Jianghsi, and in Europe its Vampires, but they are all essentially the same. Monsters who were once people, who have returned from the grave, who now feed on blood or at least the life force of the living, can only be killed by certain rituals, and are weak against certain herbs, foods and religious symbols that are sacred to their culture.
When you have multiple Vampire breeds you can obviously incorporate aspects of all of these wonderful myths and stories about Vampires from all over the world, and throughout history into your work, and it can also be quite interesting seeing how these different Vampire breeds view each other. For instance maybe the British style Vampires would view the American and Chinese Vampires as nothing more than runts, whilst the American Vampires may view the British Vampires as degenerate, stuck up, pompous cowards.
At the same time you can also show us how certain Vampire hunters might only be useful against certain breeds. For instance Buffy and Van Helsing wouldn’t know how to deal with a Jiang Shi that would be immune to all of their usual anti Vampire repellents, whilst the reverse would be true for Master Kau going up against a Western Vampire.
The Hammer movies were really the first to explore this wonderful idea. In The Brides of Dracula, the second entry in their Dracula series, Van Helsing reveals that there are many different types of Vampire and that the Vampire he is facing, Baron Meinster is of a different breed to Dracula’s.
Meinsters breed of Vampire is able to shapeshift and has greater hypnotic powers than Dracula’s, but they also lack super strength which Dracula’s obviously had.
In the later Hammer film Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter, Professor Grost reveals that there are as many species of Vampire as there are birds of prey, and the Vampire in question is shown to drain its victims youth rather than blood.
Finally The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, the final Hammer Dracula film, sees Cushing’s Van Helsing travel to China where he battles Chinese Vampires who just like the myths are as single minded as animals, have hideous rotting faces, and can steal people’s souls.
Fittingly in the later Chinese horror movie, Vampire vs Vampire, the east’s greatest Vampire killer, Master Kau would come up against Dracula himself.
Vampire vs Vampire was actually intended to be an unofficial sequel to The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, though Dracula is obviously played by a different actor.
Just as Cushing’s Van Helsing was inexperienced in dealing with Chinese Vampires, then Kau at first struggles to deal with Dracula as all of his usual anti Jiangshi weapons don’t work on the Count.
Marvel comics meanwhile would also play with the idea of there being various different Vampire breeds too, as would the recent comic book American Vampire written by Scott Snyder and Stephen King.
The idea of there being multiple breeds of Vampires is yet another idea that Hammer movies pioneered in Vampire fiction.
2/ Second, Feral, More Powerful Vampire
Originator: Nelapsi (mythology)
Other Notable Examples: Reapers (Blade 2), Turok Han (Buffy), Apocalypse World Vampires (Supernatural)
Obviously this is a similar idea to there being more than one species of Vampire, but this is a little bit more specific. This Vampire is the only other species of Vampire to the main one, and it is far more powerful, vicious and all around dangerous than the regular kind of Vampire.
It will also be far more hideous and monstrous looking than regular Vampires and will be as single minded as an animal, living for nothing but the kill. Regular Vampires will live in fear of it, and it might even kill and feed on them regularly. It will essentially be the Vampires, Vampire.
The Nelapsi were the first such examples of a second race of more dangerous Vampires. They originated in Slovakian mythology and were said to be so powerful that they could kill you with just a glare. They also could not be killed and could only be prevented from rising at night through certain rituals.
Whilst the Nelapsi have gone on to appear in a few pieces of Vampire fiction, sadly the second, more powerful race of Vampires has not gone on to be featured quite as prominently in other pieces of Vampire fiction. I think its a great idea personally, but still it hasn’t caught on quite as much as some other tropes.
Still both Buffy and Blade featured Vampires that Vampires fear. In Blade there were the Reapers, an attempt to create the ultimate Vampire, which instead created a mutant race called the Reapers who fed on both human and Vampire blood. The Reapers entered into popular culture for their famous, 3 way leech like jaws.
The Turok Han in Buffy meanwhile were described as being to Vampires, what Neanderthals were to humans, an ancient and entirely separate race.
Both the Turok Han and the Reapers also looked quite similar too. Both had bald heads, monstrous features, both never spoke, only roared, and both had similar powers, with both having a bone plate over their chests which protected them from staking for instance.
The Nelapsi and the Reapers and the Turok Han are such a simple idea, which is probably why the are so appealing. What are the monsters that keep monsters awake at night?
3/ Monster Supremacists
Originator: The Scourge (Angel)
Other Notable Examples: Leviathans (Supernatural), Illyria (Angel), Glory (Buffy)
Similar to the Vampire Supremacist, this character will believe that his race are the chosen people, destined to rule the world and will seek to make humans into nothing more than cattle for his people, or wipe them out completely.
The difference is that he will be an original monster, and furthermore he will not only regard all of the classic monsters like Vampires, Werewolves and Demons to be lesser than his people, but he will regard them as inferior to humans as well. He may even plan on wiping them out, which will force humans and Vampires and Demons to enter into a very uncomfortable alliance with one another to bring him down.
The Scourge from Angel and the Leviathans from Supernatural both follow this template perfectly. The Leviathans are ancient monsters, older than Angels themselves. They are shown to view humans as nothing but cattle, but in quite an interesting twist they appear to view Demons and Vampires as being even less deserving of respect than humanity and memorably chew out both the leader of the Demons (Crowley) and Vampires (the Alpha Vampire) when they both attempt to make alliances with the Leviathans.
The Scourge meanwhile are pureblood Demons who despise any Demon species that is tainted with humanity and plan to wipe them all out (they regard Vampires as the lowest of all half breeds.)
Illyria meanwhile along with Glory from Buffy aren’t so much a monster supremacists like the Leviathans and the Scourge in that unlike either of those two examples, neither wants to kill other monsters that they regard as inferior per se. However they still demean them, have no quams about killing them, and regard them as filthy and repulsive.
Glory is shown to take a particular sadistic delight in torturing the Vampire Spike.
This monster can help flesh out the supernatural world the main characters live in as we can see how there is a hierarchy in the Demon world just like the animal kingdom and the monsters we fear the most like Demons, Vampires and Witches are ironically quite low on the pecking order.
Its also quite a nice irony to see Vampires, Witches and Demons that always seem so terrifying and powerful to us, get victimised and persecuted, like Spike and Tara ( a Witch) being tortured by Glory, or Crowley being helpless against the Leviathans who reject him as a bottom feeding mutation. It just goes to show you how there is always a bigger bully out there.
Even Christopher Lee and Anjelica Huston would be small fish compared to Glory.
4/ Werewolves
Originator: Return of the Vampire.
Other Notable Examples: Underworld Film Series, Being Human series, Van Helsing, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, Twilight
Werewolves are the favourite sparring partners of Vampires in popular culture. There are almost too many examples to list across all mediums, film, television and video games.
The irony is however that its really a recent thing in comparison to how long Vampires and Werewolf myths have been around. It only really begun in the 30s with Bela Lugosi, the most iconic (and for many still the greatest) Dracula who fought a Werewolf enemy in The Return of the Vampire. It wouldn’t be until the Underworld film series however that the trope became fully solidified in popular culture.
Vampires vs Werewolves has been used as a metaphor for everything from the Nazis persecution of the Jews such as in Being Human where we see Vampires in the bad future round Werewolves up into concentration camps, torture them, and brand them with L for Lycan. To even just rival football teams, such as in the comedy “What We Do In The Shadows” where the Vampire/Werewolf feud is presented as being more like mods and rockers, rangers vs celtic, IE a tribal, petty thing, than a full blown race war.
Still despite this, there are certain tropes that can be found in Vampire vs Werewolf stories. There will often be a love triangle between a Werewolf, a Vampire and a human woman. The Vampires will also have the advantage in terms of numbers and influence. It makes sense after all as Vampires have the power all of the time, whilst Werewolves usually only change on the full moon.
Vampires may even have driven Werewolves to near extinction, such as in Twilight and The Vampire Diaries and will often demean them in various ways (which can often lead to a Werewolf who becomes a badass Vampire hunter who kills scores of Vampires.)
Of course Werewolves and Vampires are often put together simply because they are also the two most popular monsters. Still over the years a number of writers have found a way to give the two monsters a very special relationship.
After Werewolves, Vampires tend to get paired with Demons the most. Vampires and Demons tend to more just regard each other with contempt however in things like Buffy and Charmed, rather than be sworn enemies like Vampires and Werewolves. Vampires and Demons may even in some instances be shown to be friendly with each other, such as in Angel, where the main Vampire hero works alongside several Demons.
Zombies meanwhile may often be paired with Vampires, but they will usually be their pets that they feed people too such as in the Blade film series or Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires.
Vampires and Ghosts meanwhile aren’t brought together that often in western popular culture (though there are a few exceptions such as Being Human and The Vampire Diaries of course.)
In Chinese horror movies however, the reverse is true, and Vampires and Ghosts appear together in many films. This is probably because Ghosts are far more popular film monsters than Werewolves in the east.
Rather than simply pit Vampires against Ghosts however, Chinese horror movies will often contrast their two most popular monsters by depicting them in entirely the opposite way, rather than simply have them fight.
The Ghosts in Chinese horror movies, are often female, and are presented as sympathetic characters. In the original Mr Vampire film for instance there is the Ghost of young woman who falls in love with Master Kau’s assistant after he lays a tribute by her grave. In life the woman had no family or friends. No one even came to her funeral, or notices her passing, except for Kau’s assistant which causes her to follow him home, where she eventually falls in love with him after seeing what a hero he is.
Unfortunately however because she is a Ghost, whenever they are together she ends up draining his life force, and Kau is eventually forced to chase her away. Even Kau however is shown to take pity on the lonely Ghost and ultimately spares her.
Spooky Encounters, a crossover film with Sammo Hungs Fatman character and Master Kau features a sympathetic Ghost lady who helps our main heroes defeat the evil Wizard.
The classic A Chinese Ghost Story film series meanwhile also revolves around a tragic female Ghost character, as does of course Rouge.
The Vampires meanwhile as we have been over in Chinese horror movies are almost always male, always presented as being utterly hideous in appearance, but as single minded as animals and have no desires except to maim and kill.
Thus Vampires and Ghosts in Chinese films serve as quite interesting foils for each others. The Ghosts are almost always beautiful, alluring and likable, whilst the Vampires are always scary, and monstrous. The Ghosts show Master Kau’s crusade as not being quite so black and white, as whilst he does ultimately have to exorcise them. Ghosts are not actually evil. They can’t help the fact that they will drain the life out of any human they get close too, so Master Kau can come across as cold and unfeeling when dispatching them. He is in a way murdering innocent people, but he has no choice as if he doesn’t then more innocents will die.
With the Vampires however it is of course completely black and white when Kau slays them, and we never doubt that is hero when he goes up against a roaring, bloodthirsty, ugly Vampire.
In some ways the first Mr Vampire movie almost feels like two different horror films merged together because of how it depicts its two main monsters. One a tragic, moving supernatural love story about a lonely Ghost, the other a straight forward, action packed Vampire flick.
Interestingly enough however, despite being two of the most popular supernatural creatures, Vampires vs Witches doesn’t tend to be a very popular pairing in any part of the world. They have appeared together in a few prominent works, like in True Blood, The Vampire Diaries and Buffy, but even then in a lot of cases they don’t have much interaction. Sometimes Vampires are depicted as being immune or at least having a greater immunity to a Witches Magic unlike other supernatural creatures.
We see this in Charmed, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Buffy (where Vampires are immune to some, but not all magics, such as Glory’s spell that makes people forget she and Ben are the same.)
It would be interesting to see Vampires pitted against other types of supernatural creatures in the future.
Settings
Monster Club
Originator: Monster Club (R Chetwynd Hayes novel)
Other Notable Examples: Caritas (Angel) Willies Bar (Buffy) LL Secundo (Supernatural) Blood Clubs (Blade film series), Titty Twister (From Dusk Till Dawn)
As its name would suggest, this type of setting is a club, or a bar where monsters of different kinds go to relax, enjoy a pint of blood and socialise with other abominations.
It was first featured in R Chetwynd Hayes novel The Monster Club and the subsequent 1980s film adaptation starring Vincent Price and John Carradine.
The premise sees a friendly Vampire named Erasmus invite a horror author to the local Monster club where he tells him three stories about monsters for inspiration.
The stories include one about a Shadmock ( a monster hybrid) who is used by two scam artists with tragic results, another about a Vampire family, and finally one about a horror movie director who ends up trapped in a town called Loughville, that is populated by flesh eating Ghouls.
I must admit the last story about the Ghouls terrified me as a child. In fact I’d go as far as to say that this sequence and Erica being trapped in the painting terrified me more than any other two scenes in a horror movie.
In this scene below the film director manages to escape to a small church where he finds the skeleton of a priest, as well as his diary which details how Loughville was overrun by the Ghouls.
Ironically it was priests fault. He found the first Ghoul in a graveyard, and whilst the rest of the villagers wanted to kill it, he hoped that he could rehabilitate the monster. Despite his efforts however, he later found the monster feeding on the remains of one of the villagers it had killed and chased it away, but by that point it was too late, and the monster returned with more of its kind to take control of the village.
The Priest ended up trapped in the church where the monsters couldn’t enter. He was forced to listen as they tore everyone else in the village apart, before he eventually died of starvation.
The reason these two scenes scared me was because of the idea behind them. Blood and gore is horrible to look at, but a horrible idea sticks in your head for longer and keeps you up at night.
I’d always be scared when I went to bed that I would wake up in Loughville in the Church and hear the howls of the ravenous Ghouls outside!
Whilst the Ghoul story was terrifying, the actual Monster Club itself was portrayed in a very comical way with the monsters all being very friendly. Vincent Price’s Vampire character is by far and away one of the most likable monsters in anything, and at the end of the film, he even manages to convince the Club to include his human friend as a member.
In both Buffy and Angel we’d see two more Monster Clubs, Carritas and Willies. Much like Wyndham’s Monster Club, these were both portrayed in a more comical way, with the monsters singing Karoke and having a fun time.
Supernatural also featured a monster club in what was intended to be the pilot episode for its first spin off, bloodlines.
The Blade film series featured blood clubs where Vampires would gather together and literally drip blood from their ceilings. They’d often bring at least one live person in there to torture and kill for fun.
Obviously unlike Caritas, or Price’s Monster Club this was a far more terrifying depiction of the idea.
Finally the monster club would be the premise for Quentin Tarrantino and Robert Rodriquez Vampire trilogy, From Dusk Till Dawn which features a bar run by Vampires that lures truckers and passers by in to feed on.
I’d definitely rather visit this Monster Club.
The Monster Club is a fun idea. I think overall it tends to lend itself better to comedy. Even the From Dusk Till Dawn movies have a certain tongue in cheek aspect to them (much like the Evil Dead films.)
Still overall it can be adapted for moments of genuine horror too. Its always a frightening idea when you are alone with someone who is secretly a monster. Now imagine being in a room full of monsters!
Anti Paranormal Organisation That Goes Evil
Originator: The Initiative (Buffy)
Other Notable Examples: The British Men of Letters (Supernatural) Men in Grey (Being Human) Kemp and Lucy Jaggat’s organisation (Being Human)
These characters will be part of a secret underground military organisation who not only hunt Vampires, Demons, and monsters, but capture and experiment on them. They may even try and cure them, though often these cures will be brutal and even possibly lethal. (Spikes chip, the attempts at curing Werewolves in Being Human.)
There will often be someone close to the hero who works for this organisation who is able to seduce the main character into working for them, or going along with them (Riley, Jaggat).
However it will become apparent that this company is disrupting the natural order and has sinister plans to use the monsters powers for their own benefit. They will almost always unleash a far worse threat (Adam, Captain Hatch, Mitchell and Daisy’s bloody rampage in revenge.) Eventually this organisation will be torn apart by the very monsters they hoped to contain in a spectacular way.
This type of setting tends to be a bit more controversial than others. The Initiative for instance is generally regarded as one of the weaker arcs in Buffy, whilst similarly season 2 of Being Human is often regarded as the weakest series.
I think a lot of fans tend to see this as a “humans are the real monsters” type of a story, which if not done right can end up as the most terrible cliche.
Personally thought I think it can be quite an interesting to see how the military can attempt to utilise magic and the paranormal the same way would any natural resource, only to learn the hard way how out of their league they are.
These stories can also I feel reinforce the threat of creatures like Vampires and Demons, as the failure of organisations like the Initiative and The Men in Grey, who have all the resources and weapons in the world, but still not only fall to the monsters, but also usually end up playing into a far worse evils hands, shows the audience how these monsters really cannot ever be underestimated.
Vampire Town
Originator: Vault of Horror
Other Notable Examples: Sunnydale (Wishverse version, Buffy), Loughville, (Monster Club), Purgatory (Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat),
An extension from the Monster Club idea. What’s scarier than one Vampire? A club of Vampires. What’s scarier than that? A whole town, maybe even city of Vampires!
Possibly the first example of this trope in action was the Amicus movie Vault of Horror. Vault of Horror, like many of Amicus’ best movies was an anthology piece, and the first story, called Midnight Mess saw a corrupt man named Harold Rogers murder his sister, Donna who had recently moved to a mysterious town in the middle of nowhere, in order to get their father’s inheritance.
When Harold explores the town, he is warned by the locals to get in before the sun goes down. Foolishly ignoring their warning, he then settles down in a local restaurant only to discover that it is run by Vampires when they ask him how he likes his blood clots!
The Vampires then string him up, and Harold discovers that Donna is in fact the leader of the Vampires and she personally cuts his throat open.
Like all of the stories in Vault of Horror, Midnight Mess was a great mixture of comedy and genuine horror. In the final scene its somewhat humorous watching a room full of posh Vampires talk about how blood is always the nicest when its fresh, but the final shot of Harold’s twitching corpse, strung up like an animal in a slaughter house, whilst his own sister drinks a glass of his blood, is truly disturbing.
Amicus would play withthis trope again in their final horror movie, The Monster Club with the town of Loughvile. Loughvile as we have explored was a town that was overrun by Ghouls.
Its not quite a Vampire town, but its obviously still a similar idea. A remote place where people are literally nothing more than cattle for a race of hideous, undead monsters that prey on humans.
Loughville for reasons I’ve explored terrified me the most growing up. Unlike the Vampire town in Vault of Horror, no people lived in Loughville, except for a Ghoul/human hybrid, called a humgoo.
The humgoo character named Luna is a young girl who is forced to help lure passing travellers into the monsters village. She is shown to befriend the film director however and helps him escape to the church for which the Ghouls attempt to devour her.
She later attempts to flee the village with the director, only to be killed by the Ghouls. In contrast to Harold, the Humgoo is a sympathetic and tragic character. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone, is constantly mistreated and abused by the Ghouls (including her own father) and yearns to escape to the city, only to be murdered seconds before she is about to finally escape her nightmarish existence.
In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode The Wish, we are introduced to an alternate version of Sunnydale, when Cordelia Chase inadvertantly makes a wish to the vengeance Demon Anyanka that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale.
This version of the famous town is not too dissimilar to the Vampire town in Vault of Horror. Unlike Loughville people still live here, but they obviously don’t go out after dark, and live very frightened, miserable lives.
The Vampires meanwhile just like those in Vault of Horror don’t just bite people, but drain their blood out through machines and serve them in glasses and cups!
Cordelia can be seen to occupy the role of Harold from Vault of Horror in that she is the ignorant outsider who doesn’t know why everything is so strange, and later discovers that her rivals are now Vampires. There’s even a similar scene where Cordelia is warned to get in before the sun goes down just like Harold.
Finally another notable example of this trope is the underrated cult classic Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat, which blends the Vampire and western genres together.
Starring Bruce Campbell and David Carradine this movie flips the Vampire town idea on its head by having the Vampires all be reformed, well most of them are. The film revolves around a civil war between the good guy Vampires (led by a rare heroic version of Dracula.) And those who don’t want to give up their old way of life.
One thing that the Vampire town stories all seem to have in common is bleak endings. The Wish, Vault of Horror and The Ghoul story from Monster Club all end with the main characters being killed (though Giles is able to undo the Wishverse, and Harold was a pretty horrible guy, so you don’t care that he ends up dying.)
Really I don’t think you can have a character escape a Vampire town, as it just ends up undermining their menace too much.
Post Apocalyptic Vampire Ruled Earth
Originator: I Am Legend
Other Notable Examples: Being Human (Season 4), Anno Dracula
The final extension from the Monster club idea. You can’t really top a planet of Vampires. This idea was originally conceived by classic horror and sci fi author Richard Matheison for his novel I Am Legend.
Its no exaggeration to say that I Am Legend is one of the most important horror novels ever written. Its up there with Dracula and Frankenstein in terms of helping to reshape the genre.
I Am Legend marked the first time that Vampirism was explained away through rational, scientific means, rather than supernatural. It also marked the first time that we saw the last human surviving in a world now populated by undead monsters that wanted to eat him!
Not only would it inspire 3 film versions, but it also inspired George A Romero, with his iconic Dead trilogy, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. All 3 films revolved around a similar premise of the last people on earth having to survive against hordes of undead monsters.
The only difference was that Romero called his monsters Zombies (and Ghouls in the original Night of the Living Dead) and had them eat their victims flesh instead of just drinking their blood. He also made them less intelligent too, but essentially the Zombies in the Romero movies were the same as Vampires in Matheison’s I Am Legend.
Both classic undead monsters, who are normally supernatural, but are now created as a result of science gone wrong. Both are horrible, shuffling, rotting corpses who physically are very weak and easy to overpower, but are scary because they move in packs.
Of course as we know the Romero films would spawn countless imitators, influence many other major franchises such as Resident Evil and The Walking Dead, and propel the Zombie to being one of the major movie monsters. There were Zombie movies before the Romero films of course, but they were to Zombies what Jurassic Park was for Velociraptors, in that they propelled them to being a monster everyone would know.
Essentially the modern Zombie genre grew out of a Vampire story. Its funny when you remember this article where Charlie Brooker said that Vampires were the worst monsters and Zombies were the only good ones.
“Real serial killers are so mental they can scarcely tie their own shoelaces. So bollocks to the screen version. And don’t even think about mentioning vampires, with their gothic pretension and crappy teeth. They’re annoying, not scary. Fuck vampires. But zombies — now there’s a threat I can relate to. Zombies are the misanthrope’s monster of choice. They represent fear and disgust of our fellow man. The anonymous animal masses. The dumb, shuffling crowd. Them — the public. They’re awesomely stupid. They have an IQ of one. Proper zombies can’t operate a door handle or climb a ladder. Toss one a Rubik’s Cube and it’ll bounce off his thick, moaning head. All they do is walk around aimlessly, pausing occasionally to eat survivors. The idea for the show came about one night in 2004 while I was watching 24. Jack Bauer was performing a tracheotomy on a terrorist with a splintered peg or something, and another terrorist came running through the door. ‘I’m enjoying this,’ I thought, ‘but these terrorists are just ridiculous. They’re like waves of Space Invaders. They might as well be zombies.’”
Oh the irony! The very Zombie genre he loves wouldn’t exist without a Vampire story. The Zombies he claims are the best monsters begun as just a variant of Vampire!
Of course while the modern Zombie has taken over the post apocalyptic genre, there are still a few examples of a Vampire apocalypse such as in Being Human’s 4th series.
Conclusion
As you can see there are a lot of tropes and ideas that pop up in Vampire fiction from time to time. Again nothing wrong with that, as long as you can provide a new and interesting take on it.
Of course it could be a challenge for a writer to try and write a Vampire story without ANY of these characters or ideas. Or alternatively, you could try and write a story that incorporates all of these characters and ideas which hasn’t actually been done yet.
Buffy and Angel I think incorporate the largest amount, but even then they leave out quite a few major tropes such as the Vampires vs Werewolves feud.
Stories about Vampire hunters have in many ways always interested me more than stories that focus on the Vampires themselves. I generally tend to prefer my Vampires to be evil, bloodthirsty, vicious monsters. Naturally something that’s about people who kill them is going to portray them that way rather than as misunderstood victims.
In this article I am going to run through my 10 favourite Vampire hunters. I will not be including Vampire hunters who are actually Vampires or monsters themselves such as Angel, Blade or Spike. I feel they deserve their own category. This will only be looking at human characters who kill Vampires.
10/ Peter Vincent (Fright Night)
Played by the late great Roddy McDowell (in what was one of his favourite roles.) This character was named after the horror actors Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. He was really more based on Peter Cushing however who was best known for playing Van Helsing.
Vincent is as a washed up horror star who hosts a late night tv series about horror movies called Fright Night. He is soon forced to deal with a real Vampire named Jerry Daindridge however when a fan of his called Charley Brewster, who is Jerry’s neighbour, comes to Peter for help.
It was a fairly original idea at the time of someone who was only a horror actor being forced to deal with a real monster, and one that we would later see replicated in other cult films such as My Name is Bruce and Galaxy Quest.
Though Peter starts out as a complete coward. Eventually he overcomes his fear and helps Charlie slay Jerry and save his girlfriend. I always liked Vincent not just because he was funny, but because he was a very human character. He certainly wasn’t a classical, dashing hero. At times he was selfish, greedy, and cowardly, yet at the end of the day he does do the right thing and helps to slay the evil demon.
I felt he was a more believable hero in some ways who always remained likable even in spite of his faults. Roddy McDowell managed to find the right balance of adding plenty of humour, yet some pathos to the character who in some ways was quite a sad lonely person longing for a time when he was relevant.
McDowell would go on to reprise his role in one sequel to the original which saw Vincent go up against Jerry’s Vampiric sister Regina. Sadly the sequel was not quite as strong, but it was still a fairly enjoyable horror flick overall. My only problem was that it really just the same story as the first film, but with a Vampire going after Charley rather than his girlfriend.
The character of Vincent would return in a 2011 remake where he was played by former Doctor Who David Tennant. This version of Peter was actually shown to know about Vampires and had an extensive knowledge of them. He still didn’t hunt them however as he was a miserable coward. By the end of the film however much like the original he faces his fear and helps Charlie slay Jerry. It was quite a nice twist to have a character know about Vampires and be interested in studying them, yet not actively hunt them. David Tennant put in a good performance, but the definitive Peter Vincent will always be Roddy McDowell to me.
9/ Gordon Walker (Supernatural)
The Vampire hunter isn’t always the good guy as seen with Gordon Walker who is in Dean Winchesters words “a sadistic bastard”.
Gordon began hunting Vampires when his beloved sister was abducted and turned into one of the undead. Gordon apparently later tracked her down and killed her. By his own admission. He didn’t blink once as he knew it wasn’t his sister anymore.
Gordon later earned a fearsome reputation among both Vampires and hunters. Ellen Harville described him as a good hunter the same way that Hannibal Lecter is a good psychiatrist.
Despite this when he first meets the Winchesters, Dean ends up taking a shine to Gordon after they kill a Vampire together. It doesn’t take Dean long however to see Gordon for what he truly is, when Gordon captures a friendly, reformed Vampire named Lenore and begins to brutally torture her. This causes both of the Winchesters to turn on him. Gordon soon comes into conflict with the Winchester a second time after finding out from a Demon that Sam is destined to be the vessel for Lucifer himself. Gordon goes as far as to try and kill Sam.
Following another showdown with Sam and Dean, Gordon is kidnapped by a Vampire named Dixon who turns him into one of his own kind as a punishment.
After becoming the very thing he hates the most. Gordon still tries to kill Sam and Dean for the greater good of humanity, but is ultimately killed by Sam who takes his head off with a piece of barbed wire.
Gordon to me was an excellent character. He was undoubtedly a villain, but at the same time you could understand where he was coming from. Ultimately he was right about Sam being the Anti Christ. Sam later frees the Devil himself! Unintentionally of course, but still he did kind of kick the apocalypse off. Whilst the Winchesters managed to stop the Devil, pretty much all of the shit that’s happened since, Eve being free, Leviathans being free, civil war in Heaven etc, has been fallout from the Devil getting free.
At the end of the day if Gordon had killed Sam, just think of how many people would still be alive today.
However the best thing about Gordon is his ultimate fate of being turned into a Vampire. It’s horrible the way that Gordon is completely aware of how evil he has become, yet is unable to control his Vampiric urges and ends up turning a young girl into a Vampire and tearing his best friends heart out with his bare hands!
Worse than that however is the way that as a Vampire his soul will be condemned to purgatory forever. In Supernatural supernatural creatures souls do not go to either heaven or hell. Instead they go to purgatory, which is an endless forest, where they are forced to hunt each other forever.
Gordon therefore will now be forced to roam those endless woods as the very thing that he hates the most, hunting, killing other monsters and being killed by other monsters only to be reborn again and again for all eternity.
He’ll also no doubt have to face the Vampires he killed as well as his sister again. I always loved this aspect of Supernatural lore as it was just so viciously cruel that the people who became monsters were truly damned for all eternity. In other works of fiction when someone who is a monster is killed, their soul is normally released, but here they are condemned to live in a place worse than hell regardless of whether they were a good person or not.
As bad as Gordon is, you can’t help but feel bad for him as he is some ways could be seen as the most tragic character in the entire series.
8/ Rupert Giles (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Okay I know what you are thinking. Giles is really more of a book guy than a Vampire hunter, but still he has killed more than his fair share of Vampires over the course of the series. He’s chopped their heads off, burned them, he even killed a Vampire with a twig!
Giles was always I’d say my fourth favourite character in the Buffyverse after Spike (1), Faith (2) and Angel (3).
I always liked Giles because he was like a modern day version of Peter Cushing as Van Helsing or Jon Pertwee’s version of the Doctor. Like them at first glance he didn’t seem that dangerous. He was much older, stuffy, posh, refined, wore tweed jackets, but underneath the fuddy duddy exterior he was someone that actually you really did not want to mess with.
Giles was responsible for killing and foiling some of the most dangerous villains of the series.
His most notable accomplishments include the following.
He broke the spell of a powerful witch who had given Buffy a magical terminal illness.
He fought off an old one with an axe.
He set fire to the warehouse of Angelus, one of the most dangerous Vampires of all time and savagely beat the Vampire to a bloody pulp with a flaming baseball bat.
He withstood torture from Angelus the most sadistic Vampire and didn’t break after hours. Angelus was eventually forced to use illusions of Jenny to trick him.
In an episode called The Wish, Cordelia unknowingly makes a wish to a Vengeance Demon called Anyanka that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale. As a result of this the Master rose and took over Sunnydale. Most of the population of Sunnydale are either turned into Vampires (including Xander and Willow), horribly killed, or kept in cages and tortured, Angel is kept in a cage and tortured every day by Willow who calls him her puppy, Cordelia is also horribly killed and when Buffy shows up she too is later killed by the Master who snaps her neck like a twig. Giles however figures out what has happened, summons Anyanka, steals her necklace (which is her power source) and smashes it, returning everything back to how it was. (As well as ridding the world of a powerful demon Anyanka too.) Had it not been for Giles all of the main cast would be dead.
He blew up the Mayor a 100 foot long snake.
He came up with the spell and the plan that killed Adam the main villain of the 4th series.
He broke one of Glory’s most loyal Demon minions in seconds by whispering something in his ear so horrible that he would rather betray Glory, a Hell Goddess, than not tell Giles what he wanted!
He technically killed Glory, a god with his bare hands when she morphed back into Ben, a human, by smothering him to death.
He faced Willow the most powerful witch in the series, granted he was given power by other witches but still.
Giles may not have been the most powerful character in Buffy but he still has a very impressive list of accomplishments nonetheless. He deserves a place on any best Vampire hunters list.
7/ Jack Crow (Vampires)
The star of John Carpenters somewhat underrated gore fest of a Vampire film. Jack Crow was played by James Woods and is really, really nasty guy. He isn’t an out and out villain, but he isn’t exactly a knight in shining armour either.
The character fits the violent, bleak tone of the film. Jack is someone who lives a hellish existence on the road, fighting with the most vicious and brutal Vampires.
Woods really holds nothing back in his performance and makes Crow every bit as vicious as the Vampires he kills. There is nothing he isn’t prepared to do from torturing priests to beating up women to get what he needs. Even his own team mates aren’t so keen on him. He is a true anti hero in every sense of the word.
6/ Faith Lehane (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Someone who would be too wild even for Jack Crow’s team of Vampire hunters, Faith is an all around excellent character who goes from an unstable wild card, to an outright villain, to a tragic mess, to a reformed hero.
The role made a star out of Eliza Dushku who would go on to star in two more genre series Dollhouse and Tru Calling, though she will always probably be the most remembered for Faith.
Eliza was absolutely sensational as Faith. She was sexy, frightening, tragic and vulnerable all at the same time. The great thing about Faith was even at her worst she was never evil. Just someone who couldn’t own up to her mistakes. When she killed someone, rather than admit what she did she just ended up digging herself into a bigger hole, where there is seemingly no way for her to return. Ultimately however Angel that ends up helping her to reform which later led to her saving him when he became Angelus in a nice twist.
Though Faith was a fully fledged hero who helped save the day by the end of her time in Buffy, sadly Eliza Dushku turned down the chance to star in her own series. Joss Whedon had intended for there to be a spin off about Spike and Faith travelling the world together but Eliza was busy with Tru Calling, so Spike crossed over into Angel. I would have loved a Spike and Faith spin off. They were by far my favourite characters and I really wished they had gone back to it after Angel finished, but sadly it was not meant to be.
Still Faith’s time on both shows is enough to establish her as one of the most interesting and nuanced Vampire killers of all time.
5/ Captain Kronos (Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter)
From Hammer’s underrated classic, Kronos is a swashbuckling hero who travels the world killing Vampires to avenge his family.
It is established that there are many different breeds of Vampire in Kronos, and often when hunting them he will have to try all the different options of killing them before he finds the one that works. One scene sees Kronos hang a Vampire, stake him and even try and burn him before he discovers how to kill it.
Whilst Kronos had more of a straight forward personality than some of the others on this list, the idea of a swashbuckling hero fighting various different types of Vampire around the world was an inspired idea and it’s a shame that it wasn’t expanded on.
4/ Rachel Van Helsing (Tomb of Dracula)
In much the same way as Cushing’s Van Helsing set the template for the later more cerebral, posh English Vampire hunter like Rupert Giles. Rachel was really the one set the template for the more physical female Vampire hunters like Buffy.
Rachel was the descendant of the original Van Helsing who battled Dracula in the 1970’s in Marvels Tomb of Dracula. (Joss Whedon himself has cited this series as one of his biggest influences on both Buffy and Angel.)
Though not quite as interesting a character as the later Buffy and Faith, Rachel nevertheless was a fairly original idea back in the 70’s of a more physical, female Vampire hunter. She was also the first to revert the idea of the helpless blonde girl who is torn apart by monsters. Finally Rachel much like the later Buffy was also a somewhat more reluctant Vampire hunter, who just wanted a normal life.
Sadly Rachel remains relatively obscure even to this day, though the character of Abigail Whistler in Blade Trinity was based off of her.
3/ Mr Vampire/ Master Kau (Mr Vampire Film Series)
Played by the late Lam Ching Ying, Master Kau or Mr Vampire as he was nicknamed was a taoist priest who used magical spells and enchantments to ward off demons, ghosts and Vampires.
He appeared in his own film series as well as a crossover film series which saw him team up with Sammo Hung’s demon fighter from Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind, who is simply nicknamed the fat man.
The Mr Vampire film series naturally incorporated Chinese mythology and therefore its Vampires were somewhat different to those we see in Western movies. They were as single minded as animals, couldn’t speak, could only roar, and could only really be killed by magic (Though they don’t like the sun.) They were hideously ugly as well and had virtually limitless strength. One entry in the series however, Vampire vs Vampire would see Mr Vampire take on a more European Vampire.
Lam Ching Ying was one of the best action stars there has ever been. The fight scenes are very creative, often a great mix of stunning visuals and dark humour.
If you haven’t seen any of these films then you should check them out. There are 5 Mr Vampire films, 2 Crossover films, Spooky Encounters and The Dead and the Deadly, as well as Vampire vs Vampire and Magic Cop. There is also a remake trilogy called New Mr Vampire and a Mr Vampire tv series too. Sadly I have not yet had a chance to view the television series. I’d say my favourites are the first two Mr Vampire films and Vampire vs Vampire, though they are all entertaining in their own way.
Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
One of the most iconic fictional characters of all time. Buffy Summers is Joss Whedon’s most enduring creation and was really in many ways the perfect superhero. She always felt like a real believable character regardless of how larger than life the situations she was in where.
Buffy is the chosen one, the one girl in all the world gifted with the strength and skill to hunt the Vampires, the Demons and the forces of darkness. Over the course of her own series she saves the world about 10 times, the entire multiverse once, and kills literally hundreds of Vampires, Demons, Zombies, and even hellgods!
Sarah Michelle Gellar who played the role for 7 years was excellent as the character. A large part of the reason the show was able to cross so many genres, was due to Sarah’s versatility as an actress. She could do everything from tragedy, to comedy, and above all else made Buffy seem like a grounded and relatable character. Almost 20 years on, Buffy remains a genre icon, with there having been more essays written about the Buffy series than any other.
Overall I’d Buffy is the most famous Vampire hunter of all time after only Van Helsing himself.
1/ Van Helsing, Peter Cushing Version (Hammer Dracula Series)
Van Helsing is the most famous Vampire hunter and by far away the greatest and most enduring version of Van Helsing is Peter Cushing’s in the Hammer Dracula series.
It was in many ways Cushing’s Van Helsing that made the character into the ultimate Vampire killer.
In the novel Van Helsing is an eccentric professor who has studied Vampires, but he does not actively hunt them. He has a normal life and does not devote his entire existence to destroying them. In fact he doesn’t even kill Dracula.
Cushing’s Van Helsing reimagined the character as someone who devotes his entire life to exterminating Vampires. He tracks them from town to town,fights with them, knows more about them than anyone else, and as a result has no normal life.
This would go on to influence nearly all future interpretations of the character as well as other Vampire hunter characters such as Captain Kronos, the Winchesters and even Giles.
To this day Cushing remains more associated with the character than any other actor, so much so that in many ways his name has become associated with Vampire hunters too.
Whilst Cushing brought many iconic characters to life from Winston Smith to Victor Frankenstein. I think its safe to say that Van Helsing was really his most iconic part and for me his Van Helsing is still the greatest of all Vampire hunters.
In this article I am not going to be looking at 10 individual Vampire characters. Instead I will be looking at ten different takes on Vampires, in ten different works of fiction such as Buffy, Blade, Discworld etc.
When used properly I think Vampires can be the most effective supernatural creatures, as more can be done with them than many others.
Hopefully you will see that in this list as I look at my ten favourite interpretations of Vampires.
As always all opinions are mine and tell me what are your favourite Vampires in the comments below.
10/ Doctor Who Vampires
Lesser Vampires
The Great Vampires
Haemovores
Venice Vampires
Also Known As: The Great Vampires, Haemovores, Satuynarians.
Powers and Abilities: The Great Vampires are indestructable and can only be killed by having their hearts completely destroyed. They can drain the blood of billions of worlds at once. Their servants meanwhile possess many of the standard Vampire powers, super strength, immortality, hypnotic powers, control over animals etc. Haemovores have super strength and durability, being capable of withstanding a round of heavy machine gun fire to the chest with no ill effect.
Weaknesses:Great Vampires can be killed by having their hearts completely destroyed, their minions are vulnerable to sunlight, and can be killed by a stake to the heart. Haemovores can be hurt by human belief in something. It creates a psychic barrier that prevents them from coming near.
How Do They Reproduce: The Great Vampires can turn people into creatures similar to them through their mind alone, regular Vampires have to mix their blood with other life forms to make them their own kind.
Unique Attributes:The Great Vampires can drain the blood from all of the life forms in an entire solar system at once.
Monster Relatives: None
Other Supernatural Creatures:Aliens obviously exist in the Doctor Who universe, and though they are not supernatural per se, many of them have given rise to myths about certain supernatural creatures. For instance many myths about Witches stem from extraterrestrials known as the Carrionites and Magic in Doctor Who is explained away as being a form of advanced science that uses words rather than numbers for equations.
Despite this however a few other genuinely supernatural creatures do still exist seemingly in the Whoniverse.
Demons appear to exist. There is an ancient Demon known as the Beast who claims to have come from before the Universe’s existence, and to be the source of all horned creatures in all mythologies across the universe including Satan. He also claims that there are many more giant Demons like him, buried and imprisoned all across the universe waiting to be released.
We later see one of these Demons called Abaddon in the spin off series Torchwood. A similar Demon named “The Destroyer” appears in the 7th Doctor story “Battlefield”. Finally there is also another Demonic entity named the Mara which has the power to possess people that appears in the 5th Doctors era.
Werewolves also exist in the Doctor Who universe, though one alien posing as a Werewolf appears in the 10th Doctor story “Tooth and Claw. A real Werewolf appears in the 7th Doctor story “The Greatest Show in the Galaxy”. Apparently they are quite common across the entire universe. Dragons also exist too. In fact the moon is revealed to be a Dragons egg!
There are also several god like aliens including the Black Guardian who is shown to be served by several Demonic creatures. Finally the Grim Reaper who is referred to as Durac also appears in the spin off show Torchwood.
Enemies: Time Lords are the arch enemies of the Great Vampires, having driven their race to virtual extinction.
Alignment:The Great Vampires and their minions are evil destructive creatures who are happy to sacrifice entire solar systems to satisfy their hunger. Similarly the Haemovores are for the most part depicted as bloodthirsty animals regardless of who they were in life.
Appearances: State of Decay, The Curse of Fenric, The Vampires of Fenice.
Vampires have appeared in Doctor Who on a number of occasions. Doctor Who always had a more surrealist, Brothers Grimm aspect to it than other Science Fiction series. Vampires were perhaps more a natural fit for it than other sci fi classics like say Star Trek.
Having said that however Doctor Who, whilst more surrealist in nature is still predominantly a science fiction series. Most of the supernatural creatures who have appeared throughout both Classic and New Who have been given a rational explanation.
Nevertheless there have been a few occasions where it has at the very least been hinted that the paranormal threat is the real deal, such as the Beast, Durac, The Mara and the Great Vampires.
The Great Vampires appear in the Fourth Doctor story “State of Decay”. This story was written by Terrence Dicks. Dicks had previously been the script editor for Doctor Who during the second and third Doctors era’s. He would also go on to write the novelisations of many Classic Who stories.
His contributions to the show are vast, but still despite this he actually only wrote a few stories by himself.
His stories I think tended to touch on horror themes. “The Brain of Morbius” is essentially Frankenstein in Space, whilst “The Horror of Fang Rock” is very much a haunted house story and “Robot” another story of his draws on yet another classic horror movie, “King Kong” for inspiration.
Its not surprising given his track record that Dicks would be the man to bring Vampires into the Whoniverse.
“State of Decay” see’s the Doctor, Romana and annoying stowaway Adric, all of whom are at this point trapped in another universe arrive on a primitive planet that is ruled by three tyrannical Vampires. It is revealed that even the Doctor was unaware that Vampires existed, though he had heard stories of them when he was younger.
Thousands of years ago there were gigantic green skinned demonic monstrosities called The Great Vampires who destroyed entire galaxies in order to satisfy their heinous thirst for blood. Though the Doctors people the Time Lords normally had a policy of non interference. The Great Vampires represented too large a threat to the rest of the universe. The resulting war between the Vampires and the Time Lords was long and bloody, but the Time Lords eventually eradicated the Vampires. The Time Lords using Bow Ships to strike at their hearts. All of the Vampires were destroyed except for one, their leader who escaped into another universe. E-Space.
There he crashed landed on a primitive planet. Unable to leave, he turned three wayward travellers into Vampires and used them to enslave the population. Not only did his three Vampire servants turn the populace of the planet into their food supply, but they also used them as slave labour to build a space ship that could allow their master to escape and terrorise the cosmos once again.
Fortunately the Doctor is able to destroy the King of the Great Vampires. He uses the very rocket that the Vampire intended to escape with, which he launches into the beasts heart. After he dies, his minions crumble into nothing but dust.
“State of Decay” overall is a brilliant story. The Vampires origins are left deliberately vague enough so that its really up to the viewer to decide whether or not they are the genuine article or just very powerful aliens. The Vampires are also menacing too, though at times I feel that Emrys Jame’s who plays the leader of the three Vampires, Aukon is a little bit over the top.
The Great Vampire itself is an interesting concept and fortunately we only get a fleeting glimpse of it. Normally that was Doctor Who’s mistake. It would get too ambitious and try to depict monsters that its budget simply could not portray realistically.
Sometimes this would negatively affect otherwise excellent stories like “The Caves of Androzani”, or the “Terror of the Zygons”.
Fortunately they learn their lesson here and we only see the monsters face on a computer screen for a few seconds, and later its hand reaching out, which gives the idea of a truly immense creature.
The Vampires would go on to serve as an interesting addition to the Whoniverse mythology. They would not go on to appear in future television episodes, but they have gone on to appear in spin off material which has gone into greater detail with their history with the Time Lords.
Apparently the Great Vampires lived during a period known as the Dark Times, when magic was the dominant force and vastly powerful destructive creatures such as the Nestene Consciousness and the ravenous Racnoss roamed the universe.
It was the Time Lords themselves who brought about the end of the dark times by destroying the Vampires and the Racnoss. This made the way for science to become the dominant force instead of magic, which in turn created a more rational universe.
It is also revealed in spin off material that whilst the vast majority of lesser Vampires perished when their great Vampire masters died. A few managed to survive on the earth and other worlds giving rise to Vampire myths on many different planets.
The Great Vampires would not be the only explanation for Vampires that Doctor Who would give us. In “The Curse of Fenric” we discover that certain Vampire myths originate from the Haemovores.
Now whilst “State of Decay” was a great horror story. “The Curse of Fenric” is probably one of the greatest Doctor Who stories ever made.
The premise of Curse of Fenric see’s an ancient Demon named Fenric bring about the extinction of humanity, by unleashing a lethal chemical in the future, which mutates most of humanity into hideous vampiric creatures called Haemovores. Eventually however even the Haemovores themselves die out, as the earth becomes too poisonous.
Fenric then brings the last of these creatures backwards in time and unknowingly uses it to unleash the very chemical that will destroy its own world. Fortunately the Doctor is able to warn it, and the creature instead uses the chemical to kill itself and Fenric.
Much like “State of Decay” Fenric mixes fantasy and science fiction to great effect. The Vampires this time are given a completely scientific explanation. Whilst “State of Decay” drew more on old Hammer movies for inspiration, I feel that Fenric to some extent draws on Richard Mathieson’s novel “I Am Legend”.
The world of the Haemovores, being a post appocalyptic wasteland populated by mutant Vampires is not to dissimilar to the world in Matheson’s novel. There are also obvious influences from John Carpenters “The Fog” as well, even in just how the Haemovores look.
Fenric still However has a fantastical element through Fenric himself, who is for all intents and purposes a Demon. The story also incorporates Norse mythology as well as with Fenric’s apocalypse being the source for Ragnorak.
The best twist this story offers on the Vampire myth is the explanation it has for why crosses affect Vampires. Now normally this is a weakness that most stories about scientific Vampires such as the Blade film series leave it out.
With sunlight and garlic you have it that they are allergic to them, but the cross by its very nature has to have a more fantastical reason for hurting Vampires.
Here however they explain it as being because human belief in something. It can be anything from a person to an ideology. Their faith will create a psychic barrier that prevents the Vampires from attacking. It’s not the cross itself therefore that fends the Vampire off, but a human’s belief in God, which is symbolised by the cross.
This explains why Vampires in other non Christian cultures were warded off by the holy symbols of other religions too.
During the time of the setting of the story World War 2, however the character of Reverend Wainwright’s faith in god has become shaken by the horrors of both World Wars.
Thus when he tries to use the cross to ward off the Vampires it doesn’t work and they rip him to shreds.
At the same time however a communist soldier named Captain Sorin is able to ward them off with his belief in communism. Even when he is without his symbol the Red Star his faith alone is strong enough to allow him to walk through the Vampires unscathed.
This is such a clever twist on the old idea of the cross and faith being able to repel Vampires. Having it that a communist is able to use the red star to ward off Vampires whilst a priest can’t with the bible, is one of the most daring things Who has ever done.
It serves as a nice comment on how in dark times one persons beliefs can shatter whilst another’s can grow stronger. The Reverend cannot possibly believe in an all benevolent creator that is watching over us in a time of global conflict, when innocent people are being slaughtered in ghetto’s and concentration camps. Even the allies are killing children in the bombing of cities like Dresden.
The Communist on the other hand’s beliefs are getting stronger as he believes not only will Russia win the war, but that afterwards there will be a time of great change and things can’t go on the way they are with two world wars in less than 50 years. He believes that people will turn to communism as he does genuinely believe that it is the way forward for mankind.
This story uses Vampires as a powerful comment on human belief as well as religion and man’s inhumanity to man, which is why it is not only one of the best Doctor Who stories ever made, but one of the best Vampire stories ever made as well.
Sadly the last of Doctor Who’s three Vampire stories “Vampires of Venice” is the weakest of the three. Don’t get me wrong its still a brilliant story, but compared to the other two it falls rather flat.
Its more of a lightweight run around type of story. Its not as creepy and atmospheric as “State of Decay” or as powerful and deep as “The Curse of Fenric”. Also I feel it is more of a standard “myths were caused by aliens” type of story. The Vampires in this story are just aliens who have arrived on earth to colonise it, after their own planet was destroyed. There’s no mix of fantasy and science fiction like the previous two Vampire stories.
Its still a good story though and the leader of the Vampires; Rosanna Calvierri, is a very well rounded and even sympathetic character, played superbly by Helen McRory. Unlike the Great Vampires demise; her death is actually very moving.
This story was written by Toby Whitehouse who would had earlier created the Vampire series “Being Human”. Personally I would say that this is his best Doctor Who story to date.
Overall Doctor Who gave us three very interesting takes on Vampires. Its quite interesting the way that not all Vampire myths come from the same source in the Whoniverse.
Most of them come from The Great Vampires, however the cross myths come from the Haemovores and the no reflection myth comes from the Vampires of Venice.
All 3 stories touched on different aspects of Vampire mythology and lore. “State of Decay” showed us powerful, evil, destructive Vampires, whilst Fenric showed us Vampires who were created through solely scientific means, yet at the same time gave us one of the best twists on one of the classic supernatural elements from Vampire mythology. Finally “Vampires of Venice” gave us a more sympathetic Vampire story.
Its just a shame really that Doctor Who which has only touched on Vampires briefly in 50 years has still managed to give us a much more interesting take on the idea than many series that are devoted to them have done.
9/ Supernatural Vampires
Also Known As:Children of Eve
Origin:Vampires were created by Eve, an ancient primordial entity that created the majority of other supernatural races including, Werewolves, Ghouls, Rugarru’s, Djinn’s, Crocotta’s, Wendigo’s, Shapeshifter’s, Vetala’s and Skinwalkers. The first Vampire claims to have been “the thing in the dark” when man kind “huddled around the fire”.
Powers and Abilities: Supernatural strength, greater than that of many other supernatural creatures including Ghouls, Wendigo’s, Skinwalkers, Rugarru’s and Shifters, as well as black eyed Demons as demonstrated by the fact that Gordon, despite only being a Vampire for a few hours was able to take on Sam and Dean single handed, whilst his Vampire bride who again had only been a Vampire for a few moments, was able to overpower Dean too. Ruby meanwhile a high ranking Black Eyed Demon was unable to overpower Dean in a one on one fight.
The older a Vampire gets the stronger it gets, with the Alpha Vampire being so strong that even after enduring hours of torture at the hands of one of the most skilled hunters who would know exactly how to hurt him the most, and being injected with enough dead man’s blood to down a nest of regular Vampires, it still took the combined might of three Demons to restrain him. Even then that was only after a further two shots of dead man’s blood to the neck!. Vampires also possess super speed, agility, healing and immortality and invulnerability with the only thing that can kill them being beheading.
Weaknesses: Dead man’s blood can paralyse, incapacitate and hurt them. Though it is not fatal, it has allowed hunters and Demons who were normally weaker to over power them.
Bullets, arrows and blades coated in dead man’s blood are very useful weapons against Vampires but cutting their heads off kills them. Sunlight hurts their eyes and hurts like a nasty sun burn. They can also be killed by the colt a magical gun that can kill anything, and Angels who can destroy them in a similar manner how they smite Demons.
How Do They Reproduce:In order to become a Vampire you have to consume their blood first. If you drink the blood of the vampire who turned you before you have drank human blood, then you will change back into a human.
Unique Attributes: Supernatural Vampires have souls and when they die their souls go to neither heaven nor hell, but to purgatory alongside other supernatural creatures souls.
Monster Relatives:Vampires are the children of Eve and thus are related to all other monster races she created, which include Werewolves, Ghouls, Shapeshifters, Wendigo’s, Khan Worm, Wraith’s, Skin Walkers, Djinns, Vetala’s and Crocotta’s. Many of these monster races share similar traits to Vampires, though their closest relatives are apparently the Vetala’s. Vampires are also distantly related to the Leviathans, ancient monsters capable of devouring Demons, Angels and just about anything else. It is believed Eve the creator of the Vampires came from the Leviathan’s or was related to them.
Other Supernatural Creatures:Aside from the other monster races, Demons, Ghosts, Leviathans, Angels, Gods and the Judeo Christian god all exist.
Enemies: Hunters are the primary enemies of Vampires, with hunters by the time of the first season having almost wiped them out. Demons were briefly enemies of Vampires in season 6 when Crowley the king of Hell wanted to know where Purgatory was, he began capturing Monster races and torturing them for information on Purgatory. One of those he captured was the Alpha Vampire. The Alpha however proved to be too tough and later escaped. He would remain Crowley’s enemy with Crowley even keeping tabs on him afterwards. Other than this though Vampires and Demons don’t seem to care about each other. Vampires were also briefly the enemies of Leviathans who wanted to exterminate all monster races to avoid competition.
Alignment: Most Vampires in Supernatural do not seem to mind killing innocent people, but still Supernatural Vampires are somewhat more sympathetic than other depictions. Many of them including Benny Lafette, Lenore and an entire clan of Vampires have shown restraint enough to stop feeding on human beings. Lenore continued not to feed even after one of her pack was killed and she herself was captured and tortured. They also can love and even mate for life and generally care for one another’s well being. One Vampire even killed himself after his clan was wiped out.
Supernatural is one of my all time favourite television series. I have been a fan since pretty much the start of its run.
Still having said that I have always had mixed feelings towards its depiction of Vampires. As Vampires are my favourite monsters I must admit I am always very particular in how I want to see them portrayed.
Vampires for me should always be evil. In fact I feel they should always be the most evil monsters. In Being Human, Werewolves and Ghosts are happy to live in peace with mankind, but its the Vampires who are the ones who want to tear human society down and also at the same time persecute other supernatural races.
In Buffy meanwhile there are good guy Demons of all kinds and good guy Werewolves and Witches, but no good guy Vampires, apart from Spike and Angel who are special occurrences. In the Buffyverse Vampires are the only monsters seemingly incapable of redemption on their own.
In Supernatural however its the very opposite. Vampires are the softest, most emo monsters.
All Ghosts end up as angry spirits in Supernatural. All Demons are evil, sadistic assholes, a good portion of Angels are complete bastards, and all other monster species are also shown to be total dicks too like Wendigo’s, Wraiths and Ghouls. There are no good guy Leviathans either. There are only really good guy Vampires and quite a lot of them too!
Added to that the bad guy Vampires in Supernatural are also very unimpressive. Luther a Vampire leader from season 1 spends more time shagging his girlfriend, and whining about how hunters hunt him than killing people. He is also too afraid to kill a hunter in case other hunters come after him and chastises his girlfriend for doing that.
Honestly what kind of a Vampire is that? Vampires should be bloodthirsty monsters who don’t give a fuck about hunters. If anything they should get angry at the idea that a hunter would dare to challenge them.
Then there is Dixon in season 3 who also spends more time whining about how hunters hunt him than actually doing any Vampire stuff too.
The only Vampires I have liked in Supernatural are Gordon Walker who seemed genuinely dangerous to everyone and everything around him, Benny who was likable and the Alpha Vampire.
The Alpha Vampire seemed genuinely formidable. Even when he was being tortured by Samuel Campbell, one of the worlds greatest hunters and also the king of hell himself.
He didn’t even scream or flinch for a second during the torture. My favourite scene is when he is in his cage and one of Samuel Campbell’s hunters is alone with him and he says calmly “are you afraid of me boy I would be afraid of me if I were you”.
How frightening do you have to be if your torturer is scared of you! Rick Worthy who played the Alpha was also perfect.
I love his confrontation with Sam and Dean, where rather than feel scared of these two notorious hunters who have taken down the Devil himself, he feels angry at the idea that they think they can frighten him. Even though he is the one who is seemingly completely powerless and locked in a cage.
Other than the Alpha Vampire who was brilliant and a few others however. Most of the Vampires in Supernatural were whiny bitches which was even worse as Supernatural ran right through the middle of the public’s obsession with romantic Vampires.
Even though Supernatural mocked the likes of Twilight in the episode “Live Free and Twihard” it seemed to me like that was now Vampires place in the supernatural pantheon to be the romantic, sappy, misunderstood, sympathetic monster, which is a shame as back in the days of Buffy they were always the main villains.
However Supernatural’s take on Vampires still gets major points from me for originality.
I liked the way the creators of the show were so bold as to throw out a lot of the traditional Vampire lore like cross, stakes etc. I think they came up with quite a few new cool ideas and weaknesses of their own. I liked the idea of dead man’s blood being a weakness. It was quite a nice irony that blood, the thing they fed on, under some circumstances could hurt them.
I also loved the lore of Supernatural that all the supernatural creatures could be divided up into different groups, kind of like how in the animal kingdom, we have mammals, reptiles etc.
Finally my favourite aspect of the Supernatural Vampires is what happens to them after they die. I love the idea that Vampire souls end up in Purgatory. It makes the idea of becoming a Vampire much more frightening.
Think about it in other Vampire stories when a person becomes a Vampire its horrible, but after they are slain they are released, their soul is set free. In Buffy their souls aren’t even in their bodies when they become Vampires.
In Supernatural however after you become a Vampire and you are killed by a hunter, your soul will end up in purgatory as a Vampire soul, where you will be forced to hunt other monsters forever. Thus you are truly eternally damned.
If your loved one is made into a Vampire then you will never see them ever again, as if you die you will go to heaven, whilst your loved one will go to Purgatory or vice versa.
If you become a Vampire regardless of how good a person you were in life, after you become a Vampire you will never see your loved ones. You will be stuck in an eternal forest hunting other monsters forever.
It doesn’t even matter if you are a reformed Vampire like Benny or Lenore, the fact that you are a Vampire will still mean that you end up in Purgatory forever. In this respect Supernatural Vampires and Werewolves for that matter are the most frightening of any interpretation.
When Gordon Walker a Vampire hunter is made into one as a form of revenge by a Vampire, then it truly is the worst fate for him as now he will be one for all eternity. Even if he is slain.
The poor young girl who is unknowingly turned at the start of that episode (played by Mercedes McNab, Harmony on Buffy the Vampire Sayer), who had no idea what was happening to her, will now be in Purgatory separated from all of her loved ones forever.
Similarly the werewolf Madison will never be reunited with Sam as when he dies. He will go to heaven, whilst she is in purgatory with the other monsters.
Thus whilst I have some issues with their moping, overall for me Supernatural has provided a very interesting and in some ways more terrifying take on Vampires.
8/ Reapers/ Blade 2
Origin: Created by Damaskinos a Vampire leader in an effort to create the ultimate Vampire.
Powers and Abilities:Super strength, speed and agility greater than that of all regular Vampires. They also possess a leech like three way jaw that allows them to paralyse their victims whilst they feed.
Weaknesses:Can be killed by sunlight and UV lights.
How do They Reproduce: Through a bite
Unique Attributes: Horrible ugly three way jaw (above)
Monster Relatives: Ordinary Vampire race and Zombies
Other Supernatural Creatures: Werewolves
Enemies: Regular Vampires, particularly the Blood Pack and Blade himself of course.
Alignment: The Reapers are savage, animalistic monsters that are a threat to everything and everyone around them.
The Reapers are one of my favourite Vampire variants in anything. They are just such an inspired idea. The Vampires that prey on Vampires. This actually does have some basis in mythology. The Nelapsi were said to be Vampires, who were more powerful and ferocious than regular Vampires, and were feared even by them.
The Reapers are everything people who can’t stand Twilight style Vampires could wish for. Ugly, monstrous, bloodthirsty animals. No one is going to fantasise about being bitten by these guys.
Their loathsome three way jaw has become iconic, and has even been replicated in other monsters such as Professor Lazarus in Doctor Who. Someone needs to show Charlie Brooker who said that Vampires are the worst monsters because they are pussies the Reapers. I like Charlie Brooker, but his article about why all Vampires are crap just because of Twilight is ridiculous. By that logic then all Ghost movies are sappy because of that Patrick Swayze movie.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer would later attempt to do its own take on the idea of there being a second more powerful, feral race of Vampires who regular Vampires fear the Turok Han.
Personally I think the Reapers were a much more effective interpretation of this idea. The Turok Han were scary in their first episode where we saw one beat Buffy almost to death and slaughter dozens of potential slayers. However famously when we saw an army of them in the final episode of Buffy “Chosen” they got thrashed very easily with even the likes of Xander, Dawn Summers and Andrew beating them up.
The Reapers were consistently scary and their leader, the only member of their kind to retain his intelligence Nomak played by Luke Goss has to rank as one of the all time greatest screen Vampires.
7/ Discworld Vampire
Now these Vampires are very different to the regular kind and I confess I don’t know everything about them yet which is why i am not going to do a bio on them unlike the others. I have only just got into Terry Pratchett recently (I know how could I avoid his work for so long).
Still these guys have to make the cut among my favourites, cause they are just so bat shit mental. Though they don’t always have the largest role, they are always immensely entertaining due to their more eccentric qualities, such as their need to give their prey a sporting chance.
Many have used Vampirism as a metaphor for addiction before but none to quite the same extent as Pratchett. His Vampires having support groups for their blood addiction and even go “Cold Bat”.
Whilst I generally like my Vampires to be evil I don’t mind more comical takes on Vampires either.
6/ American Vampire, Vampires
The Vampires in this criminally underrated comic book series are among the most interesting take on the creatures I have seen. Rather than come up with one type of Vampire with a set of strict rules. They have instead come up with the idea that there are several different species of Vampires, who have given rise to the many different Vampire myths.
For this reason we wont be including a bio of these guys either are there are simply too many to list. If you haven’t looked at this series yet you definitely should. One story is even written by Stephen King writer of one of the greatest of all Vampire stories “Salem’s Lot”.
5/ Being Human Vampires
Origin: Two brothers who made a deal with the devil to live forever became the first Vampires.
Powers and Abilities: Super strength, speed, immortality and healing.
Weaknesses: Can be killed by a stake through the heart, fire, beheading and cannot enter a house without an invitation if they do they will burn. They are also vulnerable to holy items though only in small numbers.
How Do They Reproduce: It only takes a drop of their blood to turn a person into one of their kind.
Unique Attributes: Werewolves blood is like acid on their skin.
Monster Relatives: Werewolves and Ghosts, who were created by The Devil like Vampires were.
Other Supernatural Creatures: Werewolves, Ghosts, Demons, Succubi, Inccubi, Zombies, Psychics and Warlocks and Witches.
Enemies: Werewolves are the sworn enemies of Vampires, though this is more on the Vampires part.
Alignment:Most of them are racist, chaotic, psychotic, sadistic bastards who enjoy not only torturing and killing people, but Werewolves and Ghosts too. Many of them are shown to violently attack Werewolves in the streets beating them up for no reason other than sadistic cruelty. However they are capable of controlling their bloodlust and a few have done so including Mitchell and Hal. It is implied that they all feel guilt for their actions at some point in their lives, but cover it up as its the only way they can go on.
When I say Being Human I am referring to the British version only here. I haven’t seen the American version. Maybe its good, I don’t know, but I am only talking about the British version.
I loved the Vampires in this series. I felt Toby Whitehouse really fleshed out their characters well, showing us how they integrate themselves into our society, and how they view other supernaturals, particularly Werewolves.
I loved the idea of Vampires hating Werewolves because Werewolves in wolf form were stronger, and also because Vampires were jealous to an extent that Werewolves had “time off”. They could remain human most of the time and live otherwise normal lives whilst Vampires were monsters all of the time.
Whilst the idea of Vampires vs Werewolves is certainly not original, I think Being Human did it best. The Dog fights they subject Werewolves to are truly disturbing. When the Vampires lock Werewolves in cages on the night of the full moon with innocent people, so that the Werewolves will rip them apart, it feels like the Vampires are trying to drag the Werewolves down to their level.
The Vampires know that they can never control their bloodlust and will be destined to be killers, so forcing Werewolves to be as well in some ways makes them feel better about themselves.
I also like the way that the Vampires are the most evil and dangerous supernatural creatures in the Being Human universe. Ghost’s, Werewolves, Demons, Succubi’s are all willing to live in peace with humanity (until the last series at least), but Vampires are constantly trying to create a world where they will rule over all other races. A world they actually do manage to create in an alternate timeline in series 4.
In this timeline we see the Vampires run a Nazi like regime, rounding up human beings and Werewolves into concentration camps, where they kill them for fun, torture them, burn L for Lycan and H for human into their skins, and force them to fight each other on the night of the full moon. They also presumably do the same to other supernatural races Ghosts, Demons etc, as they are shown to rule the entire world. That’s more what I like to see Vampires as the most evil of all the supernatural creatures that exist, rather than as the most sensitive, and caring, and wimpy like in Supernatural.
Also their leader Mr Snow played by Mark Gatiss is awesome too. Personally I think that’s Gatiss’s best performance in anything either comedic or serious. The leader of the Vampires in seasons 1-3 Herrick, played by Jason Watkins is also a brilliant villain as well. He’s a really nasty piece of work.
I mean we are talking about a guy who once stabbed a pregnant woman in the kidney, with a butchers knife, just to prove he hadn’t gone soft. Its even worse when you consider that said pregnant woman, was in fact the only person who was nice to him when he had amnesia, and even saved his life on a number of occasions too.
Other than a few exceptions Being Human Vampires are among the most evil and twisted of any interpretation and that’s why they are among my faves.
4/ I Am Legend Vampires
Origin: Strain of bacteria that can infect both living and dead hosts.
Powers and Abilities: None, they are slow moving and weak.
Weaknesses: Stake through heart and sunlight, they are also vulnerable to holy items due to a psychological belief that it can hurt them, but it ultimately has no real effect on them.
How Do They Reproduce: Through an airborne bacteria.
Unique Attributes: They are slow moving, weak and frail creatures, unlike the majority of other super strong Vampires we see in most works of fiction.
Monster Relatives: The infected who have managed to overcome their need for blood and aversion to sunlight.
Other Supernatural Creatures: none
Enemies: Robert Neville and the infected who recover and hunt them down.
Alignment: Not evil per se, they just want to feed. At the end of the book, some are able to overcome their infection and try and build a new society.
Richard Matheson was really the first author to have Vampires as being created by science, rather than magic, something which many other Vampire stories have since emulated.
I am Legend was also very influential on the Zombie genre too. Indeed it could be argued that it created the modern day Zombie genre, as George A Romero drew inspiration from this when creating “Night of the Living Dead” which did literally invent the modern day zombie genre.
The Vampires in this story are more like zombies, deformed, weak shuffling creatures who are scary when they travel in large numbers. Though the book has been filmed three times “The Last Man On Earth”, “The Omega Man” and “I Am Legend” only “The Last Man on Earth” retains the idea of it being Vampires.
Make no mistake however this is a Vampire story and I think it offers one of the most interesting takes on the Vampire myth as well as one of the most influential. When Charlie Brooker went on about Vampires being the worst monsters because they are wimps, whilst Zombies (the Romero flesh eating variety) are the best because they just kill people, someone better tell Mr Brooker that the modern Zombie genre he loves so much, practically comes from a single Vampire story.
The modern day Zombie is almost a variant of Vampire, and owes far more to this Vampire story, ironically than it does to the old Voodoo Zombie myths and legends.
3/Stokers Vampires
Powers and Abilities: Super strength said to be as great as twenty men, Immortality, shapeshifting, hypnotic powers.
Weaknesses: Wooden stake through the heart, cannot enter a house without an invitation, beheading, garlic, they are weaker during the day but, it does not destroy them, and they cannot cross running water at a low or high tide.
How Do They Reproduce: Through a bite, though it may take several.
Unique Attributes: None as everyone has copied the Vampires rules of this story in some way or another, though at the time it was very original.
Monster Relatives: None
Other Supernatural Creatures: Werewolves and Witches
Enemies: Vampire hunters
Alignment: Pure evil seek to overthrow humanity, though they do seem to be able to care for one another, as Dracula despite beating his wives claims to love them very much.
Whilst I would agree that Dracula is the best Vampire story ever written, there are other types of Vampires that I prefer. Still its no exaggeration to say that the majority of attributes of other Vampires come from this tale.
Stoker combines many different old legends together to create what are really the ultimate Vampires. Dracula himself contrary to popular belief, does not embody the seductive Vampire persona. He is a hideous old man, who gets younger the more blood he drinks, though his wives certainly do follow the seductive Vampire model.
The Vampires in this story are generally portrayed as evil monsters too, and it would be later versions of Dracula that would recast him as a more seductive, romantic and even sympathetic character.
Over the years Dracula has been portrayed on film more times than any other fictional character. Whilst there have some amazing films and performances, very few have actually remained completely faithful to Stokers original novel.
2/ Blade Vampires
Origin: Created by Drake though his origin is unknown.
Powers and Abilities: Super strength, speed, agility, healing to the extent where they can regrow limbs, immortality.
Weaknesses: Can be killed by a stake through the heart, or anything made of silver piercing the heart and brain, direct sunlight, UV lights and garlic.
How do they Reproduce: Through a bite only.
Unique Attributes: These Vampires can turn people into zombies as well.
Monster Relatives: Reapers, a mutant race of Vampires, and Zombies who are created when the process of turning someone into a Vampire does not work properly, and the person comes back as a living, rotting corpse with no higher brain functions, and a desire not just to feed on blood but to devour anything (including even other Vampires) that they come into contact with. Thus Zombies in Blade are merely an offshoot of Vampires.
Other Supernatural Creatures: Werewolves.
Enemies: Blade a human/Vampire hybrid who has the strength, speed, agility and healing of a Vampire (as well as their thirst which he keeps under control) but none of their weaknesses. Blade has been responsible for wiping out most of the Vampire race, as seen in Blade Trinity. Though he believed he had killed them all, he later discovered that a few had survived in Blade the Series. Blade is the Vampires main enemy, but there are many other Vampire hunters around such as Blade’s mentor Whistler and the Night stalkers.
Alignment: All irredemably evil except for Blade and that’s only because he is part human.
The regular Blade Vampires I feel deserve a seperate section from the Reapers, as they are a different race after all.
Now the Blade Vampires were effective villains in a number of ways. They were powerful, evil and brutal antagonists to the main hero with Frosts’ torture of Whistler alone demonstrating how vicious they are. However what really scores them so high on my list is the way they worked as a secret society.
I quite liked the idea of Vampires running things from behind the scenes, controlling our police force, covering up their crimes, framing those who hunted them, having human servants who use modern day weaponry.
It made the Vampires seem a little bit more menacing. In most Vampire fiction like Buffy and Supernatural the Vampires are just skulking around in old graveyards fighting anyone who comes near them with their hands. The Blade Vampires however were definitely a lot smarter, in that they would often be protected in their mansions, by hundreds of heavily armed guards, making Vampire hunters jobs a bit more difficult to say the least.
The Vampire society was also really fleshed out too in all three films. It was interesting to see how they had their own language and also how there were divisions in Vampire society, with the pure blood (those who were born Vampires) looking down on those who were merely turned.
1/ Buffy Vampires
Origin: Created when Maloker a powerful old one fed off of a human being infecting him and turning him into a Demon human hybrid who went on to infect others.
Powers and Abilities: Super strength which gets greater when they get older. Older Vampires possess strength far greater than that of most demons as demonstrated by the fact that Angel a vampire over 200 years old (which isn’t even that old for a Vampire) is able to overpower most of the Demons he comes across in his own series. He regularly slaughters entire packs of Demons at a time. Buffy Vampires are stronger than Werewolves too as Angel managed to kill one with spectacular ease using only a pen. They also possess super speed, agility, healing and the ability to morph between human and vampire form.
Weaknesses: The usual weaknesses, a stake through the heart, beheading, direct sunlight, fire, cannot enter a home unless invited, crosses and holy water are also effective.
Unique Attributes:Though they are immortal the passing of centuries does affect them. Their vampire face becomes more deformed and they eventually lose the ability to look human.
Monster Relatives:The Old Ones who created them and other Demon races as Vampires are classed as Demons therefore they are their relatives. There are also the Turok Han another more powerful second race of Vampires who are described by Giles “As Neanderthals are to humans the Turok Han are to Vampires an old an entirely seperate race”.
Other Supernatural Creatures: Many, Demons, Werewolves, Witches, robots and even aliens.
Enemies: The Slayer, one girl in all the world gifted with the strength, and skill to hunt them.
Alignment: Very, very, very evil.
My favourite Vampires, not too surprising, considering how much I love Buffy.
Buffy Vampires, in my opinion manage to combine all the great qualities of other Vampires. We have the tragic tortured Vampire in the form of Angel, the fun, sexy cool Vampire in the form of Spike, and the hideous deformed, bloodthirsty Vampire in the form of the Master.
The Buffy Vampires are also genuinely evil and demonic. Unlike other Vampires they don’t just kill people. They enjoy torturing them too.
Indeed Buffy and its spin off Angel has been responsible for some of the sickest and most nightmarish Vampires seen in any medium.
There is The Master, an ancient Vampire who seeks to exterminate the human race, by unleashing an ancient army of Demons onto the earth, and punishes any Vampire who fails him severely. What does it say when one cuts of his own hand to avoid being punished by the Master! The Master also in one episode that depicts an alternate timeline, is able to overrun Sunnydale, turning it into a place where Vampires rule and humans are kept in cages and tortured for fun. He later builds a machine that slowly and painfully drains the blood from still living human beings turning them literally into cattle!
Angelus meanwhile is a Vampire who thrives on killing and torturing people in all kinds of ways. One of the worst examples of his cruelty is when he snaps several young infants necks and places their corpses in their beds, so that when their father comes to wish them good night he only realises that they are dead, when he leans in to kiss them good night and feels how cold they are. Angelus also does this to Giles, after he kills his lover Jenny Calendar and places her corpse in his bed, and sets things up to make it look like Jenny is waiting for him upstairs.
Then there is Drusilla an insane Vampire who enjoys plucking people’s eyes out including her own servants.
Her lover Spike also earned his nickname by slowly torturing his victims to death with railroad spikes, whilst Marcus is a Vampire who created several of the worst torture methods and enjoys torturing anything, humans, Demons even other Vampires. He also most disturbingly of all enjoys torturing, molesting and devouring children!
The scene where he acquires the Gem of Amarra, a ring that will enable any Vampire who wears it, to become unkillable and selects a group of young children as his first intended victims in the daylight, is one of the most genuinely chilling moments in any Vampire story. When he says calmly “Hello Boys and Girls” with a perverse smile it never fails to send shivers up my spine.
In Buffy, no Vampire is shown to be capable of overcoming its bloodlust and evil nature. Angel only is because his human soul is returned to him, which allows him to feel remorse something which no Vampire is capable of otherwise.
Spike meanwhile only is because initially he has a chip in his head, that prevents him from hurting anyone as it causes him tremendous pain if he tries to. Even with this chip in his head Spike still doesn’t become a good guy.
He does plenty of evil things with a chip. He works alongside Adam, an evil cyborg killer to try and bring about the end of the world. He also later attempts to force a doctor to remove the chip, so he can kill Buffy, and later even when he is involved with Buffy, keeps Demon eggs that are capable of wiping out all of Sunnydale locked in his cellar, which he intends to sell on the black market.
Most telling however is a scene in season 6, when Spike believes his chip has stopped working and rather than tell Buffy that it has, and that he could be a danger to people. He lies to her, and then quietly tries to murder a helpless young woman. He even toys with her first, with it ultimately only being the chip that stops him from savagely ripping her throat out.
Then finally there is also the notorious scene where he actually attempts to rape an injured and seemingly defenceless Buffy.
It is only when he acquires his human soul something, which no other Vampire except for Angel has, that he finally becomes a good person.
Other than these two exceptions however, no Vampire in Buffy can find redemption and indeed no Vampire in Buffy is ever shown to want too either.
Unlike in Being Human where it is implied that all the Vampires do secretly want to overcome their evil nature but just don’t have the strength to do so, in Buffy they all relish in being as evil as they possibly can.
Its also made worse by the fact that they do not need to feed on human blood. They can get by just as easily on animal blood and thus could live in peace with mankind, but choose instead to prey on us.
Though Buffyverse Vampires can love only a very few of them have been shown too. Most only care for themselves as demonstrated by Darla hitting Angelus over the head with a shovel, and betraying him when they were cornered. Darla also became afraid that after she gave birth to her child, she would kill it as she was only capable of loving it when it was inside of her and its soul was affecting her.
The few Vampires who have been shown to be capable of love always do so in very twisted ways such anyway such as Spike. Though Spike did genuinely love Buffy, it was in a very selfish and perverse way as demonstrated by his attempt to rape Buffy.
The only occasion of a Vampire genuinely trying to better itself without a soul was when Spike won his soul for Buffy in the Demon trials. However even here it can be argued that soulless Spike’s motives were simply as Angel put it “to get into a girls pants”.
Like I said before the Vampires in Buffy are among the most evil creatures in the shows universe, as there are examples of many other types of Demon who are benevolent on their own, such as Clem and Whistler, but all Vampires are pure evil.
Whilst I liked the fact that Buffy’s Vampires were so evil at the same time, I also much preferred Buffy’s take on good guy Vampires too.
Often in other series like Being Human, as much as I like it I think it does look a little bit too easy for Vampires like Hal to suddenly stop drinking blood. I know they portray it like an addiction, but really Vampirism should be more than just an addiction its a curse after all.
The fact that Angel and Spike were only able to reform because of outside interference, such as a soul or a chip, makes the Buffy Vampires seem much more frightening. When you become one of them, you become a monster in every sense of the word.
Nothing of you remains. Its not as though, at one point you can regain your conscience like Hal or Mitchell did because you wont even want to!
Finally another area where Buffy Vampires where my favourites, was I feel their backstory was more fleshed out. Prior to Buffy I don’t think a lot of Vampire fiction had ever bothered to tell us where Vampires had come from.
Buffy however gave us a clear story, that they had been created by the old ones and gave us a full supernatural world for them to fit into. One where ironically, despite their power and evil nature, they were still looked down on by other Demons due to being Demon/human hybrids.
Other series have since followed Buffy’s lead and given us explanations for the monsters, such as Supernatural which has its own unique mythology, but I think Buffy was among the first to really tell us where do Vampires and Demons actually come from?
To me Buffy Vampires will always be the most effective. They are along with the Demons from Supernatural my favourite take on any Paranormal creature.
Mark Gatiss is a tv cult legend. Whether for his roles in “Doctor Who”, “Sherlock”, “Being Human” or “The League of Gentleman”, Gatiss has amassed a truly impressive body of work over his long career as a writer, director and actor.
However I’ve noticed recently that Gatiss frequently has something horrible happen to him in just about everything he is in. I suppose he could be called the John Hurt of comedy, as John Hurt similarly often played the victims such as Mr Olivander, Winston Smith, Kane, The Elephant Man and Quentin Crisp. (Ironically they even mention this about John Hurt in The League of Gentleman itself.) Gatiss similarly I feel often plays the victim and even when he doesn’t, something bad will still happen to him.
To date Mycroft Holmes is the only prominent role of Gatiss’s I can think of off the top of my head where he is not either, tortured, killed, humiliated or had all of his dreams crushed before him.
Here are what I feel are the worst fates that have befallen Gatiss’ characters throughout his long career.
10/ Mr Snow/ Blown up
A light one compared to some of the stuff that is to follow. Mr Snow is the leader of all the Vampires and seeks to overthrow the world. In an alternate timeline he actually succeeds and murders the Prime Minister on television. (Imagine watching Mark Gatiss rip David Cameron’s throat out on television. That doesn’t seem that bad a future after all.) Snow then establishes a Nazi like regime where Vampires rule over Werewolves and human beings. However his plans are foiled by the ghost Annie Sawyer, who detonates a bomb that destroys Mr Snow and all of the Vampires.
9/ David/ Turned into a Monster then burned to death
David is the son of Tubbs and Edward and at first is portrayed as a nice, charming well mannered individual. It’s hard to believe he could have come from Tubbs and Edward. Unfortunately however when David returns to try and take his mother away from his abusive father, Edward corners David alone and the next time we see him, David has become like his parents, a deranged “local” pig nosed freak.
One shudders to think what Edward did to him. By the time we next see him, David has degenerated further into a hairy, bestial monster that frequently eats people. Even Tubbs and Edward are scared of him. Ultimately however David is burned to death by the angry villagers of Royston Vasey on the night of his wedding to Barbara.
8/ Jason Griffen/ Strangled to Death
Gatiss appeared briefly in Pemberton and Shearsmith’s series Pscychoville as a bumbling actor who ends up stumbling into David and Maureen Sowerbutts flat. David and Maureen are essentially a mother and son version of Tubbs and Edward, with Shearsmith once again playing the more evil of the two. At first the two believe Jason to be a detective, but when they discover he is an actor, they don’t want to kill him. Sadly however when the actor discovers the body of another of their victims they are forced to strangle him to death. Though David is still reluctant, Maureen is absolutely loving it which just makes it even more disturbing.
7/ Scarecrow Man/ Strung up in a field
Andrew has an affair with Farmer Tinsel’s wife and in retaliation Tinsel strings him up in a field and tortures him for months on end. Later when two young girls stumble upon Andrew they decide to leave him there as they think if they released him he wouldn’t be their friend any more. It is not known what became of Andrew, but it can be assumed he either died or is still strung up in that field being tortured daily.
6/ Mr Chinnery/ Cursed for eternity
Poor Mr Chinnery means well, but after his ancestor, (also a vet) was cursed every animal he has treated has been killed in the most horrible of ways. Chinnery has put the wrong dog to sleep, pulled a cows guts out through its arsehole, and electrocuted fish, birds and even their owners on many occasions. Though it is implied that the curse is broken in the Christmas special, I can’t imagine that the writers of the show would have let him get off that easy.
5/ Gantok/ Eaten alive by flying skulls.
Gantok is a minor character who appears in the “The Wedding of River Song”. He is devoured by several flying skulls after he tries to kill the Doctor for beating him at chess. Despite this the Doctor does still try and save him, but he ends up getting torn apart anyway. This is probably Gatiss’s most OTT death, though not his most horrible.
4/ Hang Man Chan/ Eaten by crabs
An overlooked series in my opinion, Dr Terrible’s House of Horrible was a parody of all the old classic British Horror movies from Hammer and Amicus and also of other old classic British series such as Doctor Who and Jason King. By far and away my favorite entry in the series was the second episode, which featured Gatiss as the hilariously camp villain Hang Man Chan, known as the “Sinister bony fingered menace from the east”.
The character and the episode in general parodied some of the racism from these old British series, though not in a sneering way, as it is to be expected that television series from the 1960’s might not be quite as progressive as those of today.
Chang meets a very grisly end at the hands of Steve Coogan’s Nathan Blaze who is a send up of heroes like Jason King. First Blaze throws Chan several thousand feet onto jaggy rocks, but Chan survives thanks to his servants (the crabs) who give him a new crab arm. Blaze however then dips Chan’s clawed hand into boiling water and rips the skin off of it. Chan still survives and is then finally finished off when Blaze feeds him to his own crabs who pull him under water and rip him to pieces.
3/ Haig/ Eaten by David
Gatiss seems to get eaten quite a lot. Haig is some poor bastard who stumbles upon the local shop for a can of coke. After a disagreement over a “can of can’t” Haig awakens David, and Tubbs and Edward decide to make him David’s new “friend”. They capture Haig, take him upstairs and throw him in the same room as David who has now become a monster. Edward assures Tubbs that David will “like him to pieces” and Haig is last shown attempting to crawl out of Davids room before being pulled back in. As he is never seen again it can be assumed David devoured Haig, though as Tubbs and Edward meant “friend” as in wife, it is possible that David may have done other nasty things to him first.
2/ Les McQueen/ Ruined by his former bandmates
Les is arguably the most sympathetic character in the League of Gentlemen. He was once in a band called “Cremebule” who were on the verge of making it big, but were then blown away by the Sex Pistols and faded into obscurity. “Then punk rock came alongand that were the end of us“. He constantly tries to relive his glory days with disastrous results. In the last episode he appears, Les finally meets up with his old bandmates, who it is revealed don’t care about him and actually manage to con Les out of all his life savings a few days before his retirement. The look on his face before he is conned out of all of his cash is heartbreaking. In the live show which is of debatable canon he does manage to land a recording contract, but is electrocuted on stage at his first gig.
1/ Builder/ Tortured to death by Tubbs and Edward
Gatiss played many of Tubbs and Edwards victims including the young boy they burn alive and the police man who comes looking for him in the first episode as well as obviously Haig. However by far and away their most memorable victims are the two builders of new road, one of whom Gatiss plays. These two unfortunate souls are subject to excruciating and prolonged torture. Edward strips them, forces them to watch Tubbs breast feed a pig, smears seering hot tar over their naked bodies and performs insane rituals where Tubbs molests them, before Edward cuts the builders free and shoots them down like animals with a crossbow bolt.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of the most celebrated genre series of all time. Not only does it still maintain a devoted fandom almost twenty years on, but it has been cited as a major influence on countless other genre classics. From the 21st century version of Doctor Who, to Charmed, to Once Upon A Time, to even non genre series Nikita. They’ve all followed in Buffy’s footsteps in various ways. The show has also been the subject of more essays than any other television series.
Nevertheless one aspect of Buffy that I feel is somewhat overlooked are its horror elements. Critics tend to prefer to focus on the themes of female empowerment, its influence, or the relationship between Buffy and her two Vampire lovers. Angel, and Spike.
Whilst these are valid discussion points, ultimately Buffy was first and foremost a horror series. It was responsible for some of the most terrifying monsters, disturbing concepts and gruesome, visceral scenes of horror ever seen on television. At its best I think Buffy can hold its own with any of classic horror movies.
In this article I’ve decided to compile the most horrific deaths throughout all 7 seasons of Buffy. Please let me know what you think, and if there are any you feel I’ve missed.
10/ Celia, Buffy’s Cousin/ Killed by Death
Buffy’s cousin Celia is a victim of the demon called Der Kindestod, who can only be seen by people who are ill. Even more disturbing is the fact that Der Kindestod only targets children.
When the monster attacked Celia, Buffy was standing right there, but couldn’t see it and assumed that Celia was simply succumbing to her illness. It’s only years later when Buffy has an encounter with the demon herself in a hospital that she realizes what really happened.
The flashback we are later shown where Celia screams and panics as the invisible monster kills her is definitely one of the shows most terrifying moments. This is what Der Kindestod looks like by the way.
Imagine that thing bearing down on you whilst you are a child, ill and no one else, not even your family who are standing next to you can see it!
9/ Sunnydale Swim Team/ Go Fish
The Sunnydale Swim team are infected with a chemical that causes them to mutate into heinous monsters. It’s bad enough becoming a horrible fish man, who has to go and live in the ocean for the rest of your life. The way they change however is even more horrific. The monster they become literally bursts its way from under their skin.
8/ The Monk/ No Place Like Home
Not quite as creatively horrible as some of the other deaths on this list, it still earns a place for how brutal it is. This unnamed monk is the last survivor of the order of dagon, all of whom one by one are tracked down and killed by Glory, a hell goddess who is searching for the Key. The last of the Monks is tortured throughout the entire episode by Glory, and though Buffy does manage to rescue him. The Monk ultimately succumbs to his wounds not long after. Glory would torture a few other people including Spike for the location of the Key throughout series 5, but none of them died so evidently this poor monk got it the worst.
7/ Catherine Madison/ Witch
Unlike the previous victims on this list Catherine brings this on herself (literally, Buffy deflects her own spell back at her). Catherine ends up trapped in her own statue seemingly forever, unable to move or speak. I don’t know whether to class this as a death, as technically Catherine’s mind survives in the statue. Still she’s technically dead, as her body was destroyed. The statue is presumably later destroyed either when the school or Sunnydale are later blown up, so Catherine did later die anyway, but had to spend years trapped in a statue first.
6/ Spike/ Chosen
Spike’s death whilst noble and poignant is also pretty horrific when you think about it. The amulet he wears which destroys the Uber Vampires, also slowly burns him to death from the inside out, causing his skin to slowly burn off, his eye balls to melt in their sockets, his organs to explode and his bones to crumble to dust. Worse still Spike is conscious right until the end of it. Though to be fair Spike does relish in the mayhem he causes and unlike the others on this list, Spike’s death didn’t take anyway, as he later returned in season 5 of Angel.
5/ Rickie/Anne
Poor Rickie is a victim of the demon Ken, who captures runaway’s and forces them to work in a hell dimension for the rest of their lives, where they are brutalized and tortured to the point where they don’t even remember who they were. As time runs differently in hell dimensions, 100 years in hell is only 1 day on earth. Rickie is gone for only a few hours on earth before being spat out as an insane, aged old man who dies from the lifetime of abuse he endured.
4/ Student/ Hush
“You’re gonna die screaming, but you wont be heard”
A legendarily horrible scene from possibly the greatest of all Buffy episodes. The Gentlemen steal everyone in Sunnydale’s voices so that they can attack their victims in their sleep, and cut their hearts out without being heard. (They need 7 for some nefarious scheme that is never revealed.) One unlucky student is cornered by the monsters and has his heart cut out slowly by the grinning monsters, as he hopelessly tries to scream for help.
3/ Caleb/ Chosen
Caleb played by Nathan Fillion is the recipient of one of the most gruesome and emasculating deaths in the entire history of the series. Fortunately he is the one person who you not only don’t mind it happening to, but you are actually happy for it to happen too!
Caleb is one of the shows nastiest villains. Aside from blinding Xander in one eye, Caleb is also shown to enjoy brutally torturing and murdering young women for fun. His gruesome death at the hands of an iconic female hero like Buffy (who kills him by stabbing him in the balls with an axe and then slicing him up the middle) is therefore probably the least subtle death in the entire history of the show. Still it is nevertheless one of Buffy’s defining moments as both a hero and a feminist icon.
2/ Warren Mears/ Villains
Sometimes a pic isn’t enough.
I know what you’re thinking shouldn’t this be number 1? Well as nasty as this is I actually think there is one worse. (Which is really saying something!)
Much like Caleb, Warren is not exactly that sympathetic a character. Having already murdered his girlfriend in cold blood (after having attempted to turn her into his sex slave) and also having murdered fan favourite Tara Maclay. He was probably the best person to give this horrible fate to.
Warren is tortured by a vengeful Willow who strings him up, stitches his mouth together so that he cannot scream, and slowly sticks the bullet into his chest. Later when Warren pathetically begs for his life, Willow grows bored of him and strips the skin from his body, before burning him alive. It is later revealed however in the season 8 comic that Amy, an old witch rival of Willows teleported Warren to safety after Willow flayed him. He did still die however, as The First was able to take his form, so in his later appearances he is technically undead. Later however when magic is banished from our reality, Amy’s magic, the only thing keeping Warren alive after losing his skin, vanishes and he finally dies from the flaying.
1/ Skinned Teen/ Same Time Same Place
Buffy’s most gruesome death is another flaying, but this is even worse than Warrens. The perpetrator is a Gnarl demon that paralyses its victims with poison in its claws, leaving them unable to move or speak. The Demon then uses its claws to slowly peel the skin from its prey’s bodies piece by piece.
This seems to be a common theme throughout Buffy of being attacked, but being unable to call for help. Buffy’s cousin is attacked by Der Kindestod and no one but her can see it, The Gentleman take away your voices so no one can hear you scream when they tear your heart out, Willow stitches Warren’s mouth up so he can’t scream as she slowly sticks the bullet into his chest, and the Gnarl paralyses its victims to the point where they can’t scream for help.
This is definitely more horrible than the others however. Warren’s flaying whilst vile is at least over in a second, similarly the Gentleman’s victim and Celia’s deaths would have been over much more quickly. This however goes on for hours and added to that the Gnarl looks a lot uglier and nastier than even the Gentlemen or Der Kindestod. Willow ironically very nearly becomes a victim of the Gnarl, but Buffy manages to save her and gives the Gnarl itself a pretty horrible death by putting her fingers through its eyes.
Unfortunately at the start of this episode she is unable to save a young teen from the same fate which is our number 1 most gruesome death in Buffy, (if not anything.)
Christopher Lee has had a truly remarkable career spanning several decades. He has appeared in over 300 films and is still working at the age of 92. As you can imagine its quite hard to pick out just 10 memorable performances, but these nevertheless are still my favourites and I hope you agree with at least some of my choices.
10/ Mr Midnight/ The Return of Captain Invincible
By and large I found The Return of Captain Invincible to be somewhat dull, but I would still consider this to be one of Lee’s best performances nevertheless. Lee’s character serves as the main villain of the piece and the archnemesis to the titular hero Captain Invincible. He is a gloriously OTT, camp character who is assisted by a ridiculous looking Goblin and has a very unusual habit of bursting into song, well I suppose maybe its not so unusual in a musical.
By far and away the most memorable moment in the film is when Lee’s character is cornered by Invincible and with seemingly no other way of escape bursts into a song about how wonderful it is to get drunk. Invincible is a recovering alcoholic, and so booze is his Kryptonite. Mr Midnight not only sings about the wonders of getting smashed, but actually has a bar appear out of nowhere as well as several young women dancing around, all of which turns Invincible into a wreck. The song is named “Choose Your Poison” and is definitely one of Lee’s finest moments.
Here it is
9/ Franklyn Marsh/ Dr Terror’s House of Horrors
A very overlooked performance from Lee, Franklyn Marsh is a snooty art critic who is humiliated by artist Eric Landor (played by Michael Gough) and eventually runs him down, causing Landor to lose his hand. Landor later commits suicide, but his severed hand returns and later blinds Marsh in revenge. The thing I like the most about this performance is that unlike a lot of Lee’s other villainous roles, there is nothing even remotely charismatic or likable about this character.
He is just a snooty, pompous know it all who actually has no idea what he is talking about, hence why he is taken in by Landor’s prank where Landor shows him several splashes of paint on a canvas that Marsh believes is a modern art masterpiece, but which were actually made by a monkey instead.
The movie goes out its way to make Marsh seem hateful, even just in little ways like when we see how he never buys a round for his friends despite being loaded. Still despite this one can not help but feel sorry for him at the end when he loses his sight. Lee’s blood curdling scream when he is told he will be blind for the rest of his life is truly chilling. This performance for me always showed how Lee was not limited even in terms of the villains he played.
8/Saruman/ The Lord of the Rings Franchise
One of Lee’s most recent big roles. Saruman much like Grand Moff Tarkin did for Peter Cushing, brought Lee a whole new generation of fans at a later point in his career. However much like Tarkin, Saruman I feel somewhat suffers from a lack of character development. Saruman is simply evil and that’s that. There is nothing more to his character, and on top of that Saruman much like Tarkin isn’t really given that much to do in all 3 movies (his scenes were cut from the final film altogether.)
Nevertheless Lee makes the most of what little time he is given and is able to make Saruman a very memorable character. He has tremendous screen presence and menace particularly in the scenes where he brutally tortures Gandalf for information. Lee was very unhappy that his scene was cut from the third movie, but fortunately he is slated to appear in the upcoming “The Battle of the Five Armies” in 2014.
7/ The Creature/ The Curse of Frankenstein
The role that helped launch Lee’s career. Lee ironically almost did not get the part for being too small (he was an inch shorter than Carry on Star Bernard Bresslaw, their first choice.)
Throughout his career up until that point, Lee had been continually rejected for being too tall.
Imagine how bad Lee would have felt if having not got anywhere for years for being too tall, he lost his chance at the big time for being 1 inch too short. Fortunately as we all know Bresslaw dropped out and Lee’s career would take off after the success of “The Curse of Frankenstein.” The role of the creature in this film really wasn’t that much. Just a brainless monster as the focus was on Professor Frankenstein. However despite this I still think that Lee made the most of the role. There are just little moments in Lee’s performance where he is able to inject a real personality into the creature. Particularly when he confronts Professor Victor Frankenstein. The Creatures brain comes from a man Victor killed in cold blood and whilst its brain was damaged to the point where it has lost all memory of who it once was, when it see’s Victor, there is a real look of rage on its face that suggests it still remembers him in spite of everything else.
6/ Francisco Scaramanga/ The Man With The Golden Gun
Sadly “The Man with The Golden Gun” is not one of the most celebrated Bond movies. I myself enjoyed it, but its generally seen as a poor entry in the series when it was still trying to find its feet with new 007 Roger Moore. Fortunately Christopher Lee’s Scaramanga is generally seen as one of the better Bond villains. The antithesis to Franklyn Marsh, Scaramanga just oozes charisma and charm and is the perfect match for 007. Whilst I don’t think “The Man With The Golden Gun” is as bad as everyone makes out I do think that Lee manages to elevate it greatly and Scaramanga certainly has to go down as one of Bond’s most memorable villains.
5/ Nicholas Duc De Richleau/ The Devil Rides Out
One of the few heroic roles Lee has played throughout his long career. De Richleau is very much a Van Helsing type of character, the expert on the occult with a will made of iron. De Richleau has to stand among Lee’s best performances not only because “The Devil Rides Out” is an excellent film overall, but because it is so rare to see Lee playing a completely heroic role. Even his non villainous roles still often tend to lean towards the unsympathetic, but here Lee is given a chance to play a truly virtuous character. It almost makes you feel sad when you think just how well Lee could play the hero, yet he has been given so few opportunities to do so, then again at the same time its not as though he has ever been out of work either.
4/ Dr Charles Marlowe/Edward Blake/ I Monster
A lot of people forget Christopher Lee played Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, probably because his versions of the characters had completely different names. Still Lee for me gave along with Frederick March the best versions of the iconic characters outside of the novel itself. His “Jekyll” did seem like a genuinely sympathetic character whilst his “Hyde” was a genuinely terrifying monster. Most people I feel don’t know how to balance Jekyll and Hyde correctly. Often Jekyll is either too boring or too unsympathetic. Take Hammer’s two attempts at filming the novel “The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll” and “Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde”. Paul Masse’s Jekyll is bland whilst Ralph Bates Dr Jekyll is just as bad as “Sister Hyde”. Lee however I feel managed to get the balance just right an make Hyde seem like a frightening and chilling monster whilst at the same time not making Jekyll into a bland or boring character.
3/ Kharris/ The Mummy
One of Lee’s most distinctive performances, much like the Creature in “The Curse of Frankenstein” the role of the Mummy in this film was not really that well developed a part. However once again Lee was able to elevate it into being something more which was even more difficult considering this time his face was completely covered by a mask. Lee was able to inject a great amount of sorrow into the Mummy’s eyes and make us feel genuine sympathy for the monster at times even more so than the hero of the film played by Peter Cushing.
2/ Dracula/ The Hammer Dracula Film Series
Christopher Lee’s most iconic performance was as the Transylvanian Vampire in a total of 7 films for Hammer studios (though he also went on to play the role in other films too). The image we have of Dracula in popular culture comes solely from both Lee and Bela Lugosi’s performances. The cape, penguin suit, widows peak and accent as well as Dracula’s persona as a charming otherworldly gentleman all come from Lugosi, whilst the image of Dracula possessing fangs, having bloodshot red eyes and being incredibly tall comes from Lee.
The idea of Dracula actively seducing his victims also comes from Lee as well, though Lee’s Dracula was not in any way a romantic character. Far from it. In fact he was a vicious, sadistic animal who was dangerous to everyone and everything around him. Lee’s Dracula enjoyed beating and torturing his enemies, his servants and even his own wives. Lee also brought a much more physical side not just to Dracula but to vampires in general.
Though there had been stories in literature that depicted Vampires with superhuman strength, before Lee on film they had always been portrayed as more hypnotic creatures. Lee’s Dracula however was a monster who could effortlessly overpower his victims and toss them aside as though they were children.
Ironically despite the enduring popularity of his performances as Dracula, Lee was often dismissive of the Dracula movies he appeared in, believing that they didn’t stick closely enough to Stokers original novel. Despite his own personal feelings about them Lee will always be remembered as one of cinema’s greatest Dracula’s and really helped to define the character for all time along with Bela Lugosi
1/ Lord Summerisle/ The Wicker Man
Christopher Lee cited this as his favourite performance of his and its not hard to see why. He is perfect as the fanatical Lord Summerisle who is more misguided rather than an out and out villain like Dracula or Saruman. Lee apparently played this role for free, he was so impressed by the script. The Wicker Man remains one of Britain’s all time greatest horror movies and a large part of that is down to Lee’s stellar performance.
The way he plays off of Edward Woodwards character Sergent Neil Howe in particular is fascinating. Howe is a man with just as strong beliefs as Summerisle himself, and much of the film revolves around two deeply religious men remaining true to their beliefs, no matter what the odds.
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