Sure, BBC\u2019s sci-fi classic has a ton of iconic bad guys to choose from, like the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Weeping Angels, etc. But the one that always stands out for me is the Doctor\u2019s arch-nemesis, the renegade Time Lord known as the Master. For as long as the Doctor has been around to protect the universe, the Master has been trying to conquer and rule it with his own, twisted vision of perfection, and nowhere is this more apparent than in his most recent incarnation, portrayed in Series 3 and 4 by John Simm.<\/p>\n The \u201cMaster Trilogy\u201d at the end of Series 3 will always be one of my favorite moments in modern Doctor Who <\/em>purely because of Simm\u2019s show-stealing breakout performance. While the Master is obviously crazy and evil, he shows genuine moments of tenderness when conversing with the Doctor, and shares the same joyful and wild (albeit darker) energy that makes the hero so appealing to viewers. The Master is great because he clearly loves playing the villain. Good for him\u2026 I guess.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Moving away from established villains, we next turn to a character who first came on the CW in a bit part and now has a starring role in one of its most popular shows. Seriously, where would Supernatural <\/em>be without Mark Sheppard\u2019s snarky, sadistic demon overlord Crowley? Not nearly as successful, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n What makes Crowley such a great villain is that he will do anything\u2013absolutely anything\u2013to serve his needs, including teaming up with the \u201cgood guys\u201d of the series on multiple occasions before he inevitably turns on them again. This makes the King of Hell more dangerous than any other enemy Sam and Dean have faced, in that his loyalties and motives are completely unpredictable. Crowley may do a good thing from time to time, but the show also serves up a reminder every now and again of what a brutal and deceitful being he really is\u2013in his own sneaky, smarmy way. He\u2019s the kind of villain you love to hate, and one that\u2019s not getting dull anytime soon.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Speaking of evil masterminds (and major spoiler alert to any GOT <\/em>fans who aren\u2019t caught up yet), it turns out that everyone\u2019s favorite traitorous royal treasurer has pretty much been behind every big plot point in the show so far: the execution of Ned Stark, the murder of Joffrey at his own wedding, the killing of Jon Arryn\u2026the list goes on. The honest truth is that, without Littlefinger, the story of Game of Thrones<\/em> would never have happened.<\/p>\n Littlefinger is power-hungry, merciless, and scary smart\u2013pretty much everything you\u2019d expect from the architect of a conspiracy of such magnitude. And the best part is that he has really never been anything but upfront with the other characters about what he\u2019s up to; he\u2019s just so unassuming and flies so far under the radar that everyone overlooks him. He\u2019s the least emotional and least prone to violence of anyone in Westeros, but causes the most bloodshed. He\u2019s the one that no one ever counts on, and that\u2019s what makes us watch what he\u2019s doing so intently.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s pretty rare that the villain of a piece is actually said piece\u2019s main character, but if there ever were such a case, it would be ruthless politician Frank Underwood in Netflix\u2019s DC drama House of Cards<\/em>. Portrayed brilliantly by veteran actor Kevin Spacey, the whole allure of the show, and of Underwood\u2019s character, is that the audience is simultaneous rooting for his sinister plans to succeed and for the ostensible \u201cgood guys\u201d (if there really are any) in the story to catch him at it.<\/p>\n Underwood is incredibly interesting in that he\u2019s not really your textbook bad guy: he just wants what he wants, and he\u2019ll stop at nothing to get it, even if it means stepping on other people along the way. It\u2019s clear that he wants power, but what he plans do with that power once he gets it is a mystery. And in spite of his obvious ambition, he has a strict code of conduct and morality, as skewed as it may be, that drives his actions by principle rather than partisanship. Maybe he won\u2019t be so bad as President. But that\u2019s probably wishful thinking.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I should be clear that I\u2019m kind of stretching the definition of \u201cvillain\u201d when it comes to BSG<\/em>\u2019s Gaius Baltar. Baltar\u2019s not inherently a bad guy, or even a bad person, although he is certainly more flawed than most. The major reason he is included here is due to his overwhelming sense of self-preservation, in that he only cares about himself and will do whatever he needs to in order to survive, including things that most other people wouldn\u2019t. The worst part for him is that he sometimes even has good intentions behind what he does; but as we all know, the road to hell is paved with plenty of those.<\/p>\n Besides his overdeveloped sense of self-preservation, Baltar\u2019s main crime is that he is weak, often too cowardly to take responsibility for what he has done, and self-centered to the point of narcissism. Oh, and he caused the near-annihilation of the human race through his own carelessness. Even when he tries to do good, it turns sour on him. But bad guys are best when they\u2019re dynamic, and Baltar is definitely that: in fact, by the time the series is over, he actually redeems himself by almost single-handedly saving humanity. Baltar takes us through a roller-coaster ride of bad to good and then back to bad again, and all the while maintaining an awkward, quirky style that proves to be quite endearing. If there was ever a villain to cheer for, Gaius Baltar is the one.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Channel Chaser is written by Kyle Robertson. You can check out more of his work on his\u00a0<\/span>website<\/a>. Check back every Friday for new articles.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello everyone, and welcome back to another week\u2019s edition of Channel Chaser! Since I seem to enjoy doing list articles a lot, I decided to just make said articles a recurring segment called \u201cThe Countdown.\u201d And for today\u2019s topic, I\u2019d like to thank the staff of Dorkly.com for providing me with an interesting topic for [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1518"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1528,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518\/revisions\/1528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"DocWhoMaster\"](\"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/DocWhoMaster.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCrowley (Supernatural<\/em>)<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nPetyr \u201cLittlefinger\u201d Baelish (Game of Thrones<\/em>)<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nFrank Underwood (House of Cards<\/em>)<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nGaius Baltar (Battlestar Galactica<\/em>)<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n