See Doctor Who Bring Classic Galactic Monster To Life
UK mainstay Doctor Who is celebrating its 60th Anniversary with a brand new special that promises to not only celebrate the Doctor’s history but also break new ground as well. A promotional image for the special featuring several of the Doctor’s old familiar foes—and at least one that’s never before been seen in live-action—popped up on social media recently courtesy of an official Doctor Who account. The picture includes a relatively obscure villain known as a Wrarth Warrior standing next to the longtime Who baddies the Cybermen.
The insectoid Wrarth Warrior, with its bulbous red eyes and giant lobster claw hands, looks absolutely menacing and fits right in with the other scoundrels surrounding the Toymaker.
The picture also teases appearances from the Weeping Angels, the rhino-headed Judoon, and, of course, the Doctor’s arch nemeses, the Daleks. Standing in front of the gaggle of villainous goons looking pleased as punch is Neil Patrick Harris as The Toymaker, a previously one-off Doctor Who enemy returning to plague the Doctor once more.
The insectoid Wrarth Warrior, with its bulbous red eyes and giant lobster claw hands, looks absolutely menacing and fits right in with the other scoundrels surrounding the Toymaker.
The Wrarth Warriors Make Their Live-Action Debut
If you’ve never heard of the Wrarth Warriors you’re not alone. First appearing in the Doctor Who Weekly comic book, the Wrarth Warriors first appeared in a 1980 storyline titled “Doctor Who and the Star Beast,” where they were introduced as galactic police officers in pursuit of a genocidal alien called a Meep. The Wrarth Warriors only appeared in that one storyline, although they did have one other non-Doctor Who appearance.
The fearsome-looking Wrarth Warriors followed their debut in the Doctor Who comic with a cameo in the Marvel UK title Death’s Head. Despite featuring the word “Marvel,” the UK imprint of the popular US brand of comic books is still considered fairly obscure, and even some die-hard Marvel Zombies aren’t aware of its existence.
What will be interesting is finding out how the Doctor Who special turns the previously heroic Wrarth Warriors into villains.
In a nutshell, Marvel started a European imprint of their stateside brand initially to publish reprints of American Marvel stories, but eventually, Marvel UK started producing original material separate from the US continuity.
One of Marvel UK’s original titles was Death’s Head, featuring a robotic bounty hunter who, himself, first appeared in an issue of Marvel UK’s Transformers comic book. Given that Marvel UK was also the publisher of Doctor Who Weekly, it only made sense that characters from one title could pop up in another.
Of course, the chances of the Wrarth Warriors, who are set to show up in the Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Special, making any reference to their ties with Marvel Comics are exactly zero.
What will be interesting is finding out how the Doctor Who special turns the previously heroic Wrarth Warriors into villains. Seeing as how the image features the word “FOES” in large letters as well as having the Wrarth Warrior sandwiched between a Cyberman and a Judoon, it’s safe to say it’s not a mistake on the part of the special’s creators. Perhaps Neil Patrick Harris’s Toymaker holds the key to the Wrarth Warrior’s turn to the dark side? Only time will tell.
The Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Special will air sometime later this year, although the exact date has yet to be announced.
