I was channel hopping just last week when I suddenly spotted a familiar phrase on a t-shirt: "The Angels Have The Phone Box".
What was striking about this was the fact I had come not upon the BBC, or a sci-fi or vintage themed channel, but a crafting one. The product on sale was a machine that cut out pieces of vinyl (letters, numbers or shapes) which you could then stick onto a plain garment, thus personalising it. The presenter was clearly a Doctor Who fan, as they had created their own Blink inspired shirt, and here they were using it to help sell the machine.
In its first couple of seasons, the revived series had struggled to introduce any monsters that could hold a candle to those of the classic era. Indeed, Series 1 had relied on the Daleks, and Series 2 the Cybermen, whilst Series 3 was building up towards the return of the Master.
Russell T Davies had decided that there would be no purely historical stories, and each new story was to have a monster, as that was what the kids were tuning in to see. This led to a number of one-off monsters, often tied to their particular episode and unusable for a rematch elsewhere.
The Slitheen had failed to take off, due to their weakness of threat. The farting aliens were more of a joke, and in their second appearance RTD opted to focus more on the outwardly human aspect of Margaret Slitheen. They would quickly find their natural home on the Children's BBC series The Sarah Jane Adventures.
The Ood arrived in Series 2, but they were a slave race who were benign when left to their own devices. Unless you were going to have them possessed once a year (which is pretty much what would happen) their threat potential was pretty limited.
Of the one-off monsters, two had stood out as being particularly scary - even if neither of them could really be used again. The Gas-masked zombies, led by the "Empty Child", and the Louis Quinze Clockwork 'Droids were both the brainchild of Steven Moffat.
For Series 3 RTD had wanted him to write the Dalek two-parter but he had declined - offering to cover the difficult Doctor-lite episode in recompense. How lucky we were that this happened (though it would have been interesting to see what Moffat might have done with Daleks in 1930's New York), because we might never have got Blink and the Weeping Angels.
The look of the Angels came from a statue Moffat had seen in a graveyard whilst on holiday, their modus operandi came from a children's game, and the basic story structure derived from an old short story he had written.
He would go on to create other distinctive monsters based on childhood fears, especially once he got control of the series.
The Weeping Angels were the first big successful new monsters of the revived series. Indeed, some polls since 2007 have placed them as favourite monsters of all time, beating even the Daleks and Cybermen.
Had there been a new version of Target's Doctor Who Monster Book, they would have featured near the front.
Written by Terrance Dicks and first published in 1975, this publication gave a run down on the principal monsters up until that time, followed by a miscellany of others based on when they had first appeared. Coming from Target, monsters which had featured in their novelisations were prioritised over others, and some pages were illustrated with their artwork rather than BBC photographs.
The Daleks naturally got the opening, though some of their associated creatures were also mentioned - Exxilons and Ogrons.
Their pole position was down to the fact that they were the most popular monsters, universally accepted, and had also appeared in the most stories. They'd even starred in a couple of movies.
After the Daleks came a section titled "Monsters Who Came Back For More!".
This led with the Cybermen as the second most popular monsters, and the ones who had featured in the most stories after the Daleks. Third came the Ice Warriors, as they had appeared in four stories.
The book then covered the creatures which had made two appearances apiece - Yeti, Autons and Sontarans. Silurians and Sea Devils were included here, despite at this point only appearing once each, as they were a connected species. Then came the mixed bag of one-off monsters, from Sensorites to Zygons.
The reason for the Ice Warriors coming after the Cybermen was down to their number of appearances - and for many years - thanks to this publication - it became the norm to think of Daleks, Cybermen and Ice Warriors as the top three greatest monsters.
However, the Martians vanished almost immediately from the series, and the Sontarans were brought back for a third, and then a fourth appearance. They came to match the Ice Warriors.
For Series 4 of the revived Doctor Who, RTD announced the return of the Sontarans as that year's big classic return monster. We got several more stories featuring them - with no sign of the Ice Warriors until 2013, playing a very belated catch-up.
In the interim, as well as the Sontarans featuring more frequently, the Weeping Angels made a return appearance, followed by a few cameos (such as The God Complex, Time of the Doctor).
Since then they've had another full 50 minutes to themselves, albeit part of the overall Flux storyline - which brought back the Sontarans as the main villains.
A new Monster Book would certainly continue to have the Daleks front and centre, with the Cybermen following in second place. But it would then go on to cover the Sontarans and the Weeping Angels next, as a new Big Four. The Ice Warriors, who have only managed two appearances in the revived series, so six stories overall, would be relegated further down the mix.
We don't know very much about the 60th Anniversary Specials, or Series 14 (and they've already started work on Series 15), so we have little information about the monsters the 14th and 15th Doctors will face (save for the Toymaker - allegedly - and Beep the Meep - confirmed). What might return and, of the new monsters, will any come to match the Angels?
We used to think that you weren't really the Doctor until you had met the Daleks, but they have been overused of late, so nowadays it might be more likely to be the Weeping Angels who are used as the benchmark.
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