Dread Doctors

**Notice:** This **article** uses content directly taken from the Dread Doctors **article** at the Teen Wolf Wiki, and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.

## Information

### Members

* The Surgeon
* The Pathologist
* The Geneticist

### Species

* Human

**The Dread Doctors** were the main antagonists of Season 5, though their influence on the supernatural world lingered throughout Season 6 as well. They first appeared in *Creatures of the Night*, when they were seen admonishing Belasko, a Werewolf-Garuda hybrid, for failing to kill Scott McCall and take his Alpha powers. From then on, it was quickly revealed that they were experimenting on teenagers and turning them into hybrid creatures that became known as Chimeras, an artificially-created pseudo-supernatural being made up of parts of different creatures. Among those they turned into Chimeras were Theo Raeken, Belasko, Tracy Stewart, Donovan Donati, Lucas, Josh Diaz, Selena Parker, Hayden Romero, Corey Bryant, Beth, and Noah Patrick.

In addition to these hybrid creatures, the Dread Doctors also performed procedures on several true supernatural creatures as well, including shocking Scott McCall in the chest to exacerbate his wolfsbane-induced asthma attacks and weaken him, summoning a lightning bolt to channel through a lightning rod inserted into Kira Yukimura's eye to superpower her Kitsune spirit, and giving Liam Dunbar an infusion of a special type of wolfsbane in the form of a black fluid through an IV pump.

At the end of the first half of Season 5, the Dread Doctors uncovered what appeared to be a prophetic fresco painting hidden behind a tiled wall in their operating theater that depicted a Hellhound fighting against the Beast of Gevaudan, which foreshadowed the battle yet to come in the second half of the season. In *Damnatio Memoriae*, it was revealed that the Dread Doctors did, in fact, resurrect the Beast (Sebastien Valet) by placing his spirit into the body of the first and only successful Chimera, which was eventually revealed to be Mason Hewitt in *The Beast of Beacon Hills*. According to the Dread Doctors, Mason was their only successful Chimera due to the fact that he was a truly good person, and they had learned from their experimentation on Theo Raeken that true evil can only come from corrupting something truly good.

Using vibrational frequencies, the Dread Doctors forced Mason to transform into the Beast multiple times, causing him to grow in strength and physical power (as well as allowing Sebastien's spirit inside of him to remember more and more of his true identity) and go on several large-scale massacres before his body morphed into the Beast without prompting and subsequently mauled the Dread Doctors to death. The Surgeon survived just long enough to reunite with the newly transformed Sebastien, revealing that The Surgeon was, in fact, Sebastien's former best friend and comrade from the 18th century, Marcel. Sebastien then continued the new life given to him by his friend until the Banshee Lydia Martin managed to use her voice to force Sebastien to turn back into Mason, ending the Dread Doctors' dream of resurrecting the world's perfect killer.

## Early Lives

Almost nothing is known about the Dread Doctors' lives before they gained the esoteric powers that allowed them to experiment on teenagers and turn them into Chimeras. The only member whose early life is somewhat known is The Surgeon, who was formerly a French soldier in the Seven Years' War named Marcel who fought alongside his best friend and comrade, Sebastien Valet in North America in 1760. He was present when Sebastien transformed into the Beast of Gevaudan, the world's most ferocious and violent Werewolf, by accidentally drinking rainwater from a wolf's paw print in the forest during their time serving in what is now known as Montreal, Canada.

Upon their return to their hometown of Gévaudan, France some time later, Marcel helped Sebastien cover up the hundreds of victims he killed throughout his reign as the Beast, even after Marcel was caught by Sebastien's sister and Gévaudan's best huntress Marie-Jeanne Valet and Sebastien's lover, Rebekah Mikaelson, who initially believed Marcel to be the Beast before ultimately realizing that he was simply covering up for Sebastien.

After Sebastien/the Beast was killed by Rebekah and Marie-Jeanne in 1767, it is assumed that Marcel decided to dedicate his life to becoming a surgeon (if he was not one already) and worshiping the supernatural, with the ultimate goal of resurrecting his dear friend Sebastien, as he believed the Beast to be the world's most perfect killer. He became known as The Surgeon, and, in his experiments, he managed to harness electromagnetic forces within a steampunk-style mask, bestowing upon himself the power to manipulate electromagnetic fields, which he used to various effects, including controlling electricity and magnetism, manipulating the memories of his test subjects, and extending his lifespan far beyond normal limits. It is assumed that he was eventually joined by two more physicians who eventually became known as The Pathologist and The Geneticist, who also gained the same powers that The Surgeon possessed. The three then began to work together to resurrect the Beast of Gevaudan.

Sometime around the World War II era, the Dread Doctors settled in Russia, where they engaged in experimenting on pregnant women and their unborn children to use science to replicate the supernatural. Whatever they accomplished while in the country was so disastrous that the Russian government covered up their experimentation by claiming their laboratory was a dangerous nuclear site with unhealthy amounts of radiation. However, this cover-up didn't convince everyone, and graffiti at the site, which read "They come. They come for all of us," suggested that the legends of the Dread Doctors have not been forgotten.

They also managed to capture a Nazi soldier in the German military who was also an Alpha Löwenmensch (a lion-wolf hybrid shapeshifter). The Doctors called this man *Der Soldat*, which is German for "the soldier," and they somehow utilized the healing factor in his blood (which continued to bleed through wounds caused by the Ghost Riders that wouldn't heal), mixing it with the original version of the regenerative green serum the Doctors had already created so that they could use to further improve their health and extend their lives in conjunction with their existing electromagnetic powers.

They kept the soldier in a large tank of the green serum for seventy years, during which time the serum made him stronger while his blood made the serum more potent. In Season 6, it is implied that Der Soldat was a severe burn victim and that the Dread Doctors used heliox therapy to keep him breathing normally while they used his body to augment their experiments; it was then later revealed that he had actually been lashed by the Ghost Riders' whips, causing wounds that wouldn't heal due to the nine venoms coating the weapon.

At some point in the early 2000s, the Dread Doctors made their way to Beacon Hills, where they met the eight or nine-year-old Theo Raeken. It has been implied that they were attracted to him as a test subject due to his willingness to kill at such a young age, and as a result, they watched as Theo allowed his sister to die of hypothermia in the woods and decided to change their methods in their experimentation.

According to Theo, the Dread Doctors lied to him and told him that his sister wanted him to have his heart in order to motivate him to kill her, but Stiles believed that Theo actively wanted to kill her and used the Dread Doctors' plans as justification; however, it remains unknown which version of events is the actual truth, though the traumatic hallucinations experienced by Theo during his time in the underground prison seem to imply that he might not have lied about the Dread Doctors' manipulations.

The Dread Doctors then harvested Theo's sister's heart before transplanting it into young Theo's body, which gave him genetic chimerism (or when a human has two sets of DNA, in this case the DNA he was born with along with his sister's DNA as well), a condition that was necessary in order to be turned into the Doctors' first pseudo-supernatural Chimera; in Theo's case, a Werewolf-Werecoyote hybrid.

Though Theo was not a suitable vessel for the Beast, he was the closest that the Dread Doctors came to creating a "successful" Chimera until they finally achieved their ultimate goal of resurrecting the Beast of Gevaudan in the autumn of 2012. Since he survived his transformation without any difficulties, the Dread Doctors apparently allowed him to live in exchange for his help in creating more Chimeras.

At some point in their lives, they crossed paths with Gabriel Valack, though the nature of their relationship remains unknown. However, Valack has held a grudge against the Doctors ever since, and he dedicated himself to finally stopping them from then on, even going so far as to write a novel, titled *The Dread Doctors*, to help those victims of their experiments to recover the memories that the Dread Doctors repressed of their experimental procedures in hopes of exposing them for who they are.

## The Doctors

The Dread Doctors consisted of three members, each with their own apparent role likely based on their respective medical specialties.

### The Surgeon

The Surgeon, originally known as Marcel, was the first Dread Doctor and the creator of the trio, and as such was their leader. He was in charge of determining their course of action and often was the one who spoke for the group in conversation with others. He presumably became The Surgeon at some point after his best friend Sebastien Valet, the famed Beast of Gevaudan, was killed by his sister in 1767.

### The Pathologist

The Pathologist was the second male member of the Dread Doctors who acted primarily as the muscle of the group, using his enhanced strength to hold down their test subjects so that The Surgeon could perform his experiments on them.

### The Geneticist

The Geneticist was the only female Dread Doctor and seemed to work more on the materials the Doctors used in their experiments more so than doing the experiments herself. She was often seen giving the other Doctors injections of the green serum they created using *Der Soldat's'* healing factor, which helped them maintain their health and longevity in addition to the longevity gained from their electromagnetic manipulation powers. Despite her more passive role in the trio, she was still a very talented fighter and was defeated by Hope Mikaelson.

## Personalities

The Dread Doctors revealed very little of their individual personalities, instead of working as a collective whole with a single-minded focus on resurrecting the Beast of Gevaudan. They were obsessed with the supernatural and cared about the results of their experiments; they had no tolerance for failure and did not give second chances, as evidenced by the fact that they killed their Chimeras as soon as it was evident that they were rejecting their transformations. Because of this solitary focus on their ultimate goal, they regarded anything outside of it as inconsequential and would typically not waste their time on any issue that didn't contribute to their mission of resurrecting the Beast.

For this reason, they typically did not kill bystanders or witnesses unless they got into the way of their goals, and only seemed to want to harm the McCall Pack because of their interference with their experiments. However, they were willing to make deals in order to facilitate their goals, such as working with Theo Raeken, who agreed to help keep the McCall Pack distracted in exchange for the Doctors' help in turning the pack against their Alpha, Scott McCall so that Theo could steal his Alpha powers, become a real Werewolf, and take control of the pack for himself. They wanted Hope Mikaelson's blood to be able to live forever, they didn't care that it would make her stronger. All they cared about is living forever to serve The Beast.

Though they were not concerned with killing unless it served their agenda, they seemed to genuinely be awestruck by the Beast, regarding him as the perfect killer and doing anything in their power to bring him back, to the point where they even seemed unconcerned by the prospect of their own deaths when the Beast finally realized its true identity and fatally mauled them all.

## Physical Appearances

The Dread Doctors were nearly always seen wearing their helmets and armor, which had a very steampunk style; this included bronze or brass helmets, which had rusted with verdigris as it aged, wool peacoats, brocade vests, and silk shirts with utilitarian slacks. Their color scheme was predominantly dark colors such as black, forest green, and navy blue, though The Surgeon would wear a gold and pink brocade vest with a light pink silk shirt under his jacket.

The Geneticist, as the only female, wore black skirts with fishnet stockings and platform boots with numerous silver buckles, making her style more modern and trendy than her cohorts and possibly indicating that she may be the youngest of the Doctors. All three Doctors also wore robotic gloves and gauntlets over their hands to hide how scarred and aged their skin had become through their extended lives.

However, their true appearances were seen on two occasions. The Geneticist was briefly seen without her helmet, revealing her skin was scarred and covered with age spots, with her head nearly bald and covered with sparse patches of white hair. She also had a small hole drilled into her skull behind her ear, suggesting that she may have performed trephination on herself to further augment her abilities like Gabriel Valack.

Sebastien Valet removed The Surgeon's helmet to reveal that he was actually Sebastien's former best friend Marcel; his skin was mottled, wrinkled, and scarred just like The Geneticist's due to his advanced age, with a bald head that had sparse patches of white, brittle hair; even Sebastien remarked that the Dread Doctors' form of immortality was unattractive due to the fact that they did not have eternal youth to go with it.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

Over the nearly 250 years that the Dread Doctors have existed, they have managed to bestow upon themselves numerous supernatural abilities through scientific experimentation, which they can use for numerous effects. The source of their powers comes from both the harnessing of electromagnetic currents as well as creating a serum from an Alpha Löwenmensch known as *Der Soldat.* The Dread Doctors have displayed the following:

* **Electromagnetokinesis:** The Dread Doctors gained the ability to manipulate electromagnetic fields once The Surgeon figured out a way to harness the electromagnetic forces through their helmets, which they can use to create electrical and/or magnetic currents from their hands. They used these abilities to shock Scott McCall in the chest to cause an asthma attack; unlock various doors locked with RFID card readers; remove surveillance video footage by manipulating EMF currents; generate protective force-fields out of electromagnetic energy, and create a wall of metal furniture by magnetically linking them together and then causing an electrical current to go through them, essentially creating an electrified fence.
* **Super Strength and Durability:** The Dread Doctors, through their various forms of experimentation, gained superhuman strength that is superior even to that of an Alpha Werewolf, allowing them to break through chains and stone walls, as well as to throw grown adults across a room with ease. This strength also extended to superhuman durability as well, as they were able to withstand punches, kicks, and other kinds of blows without sustaining any injury; in fact, those who hit them would instead usually bruise their hands or even break their bones in the process.
* **Longevity:** The Dread Doctors possessed lifespans far beyond the normal limits due to a combination of their electro-magnetokinesis and regular infusions of the green serum derived from *Der Soldat's* accelerated healing factor. As a result, they managed to live over 250 years of age until their deaths in 2012. This serum also appeared to heal their wounds and generally improve their health, giving them an enhanced healing factor and an immunity to toxins and diseases.
* **Phasing:** Using electromagnetic forces, the Doctors were able to phase through solid objects by vibrating their cells at an enhanced frequency.
* **Memory Manipulation:** The Doctors possessed the ability to manipulate the memories of others, which could be used to either prevent bystanders from perceiving them (as evidenced when they experimented on Kira on Route 115 and when they captured Corey and took him out of the hospital without anyone paying attention to what they were doing) or by erasing any memories of their experimentation from the Chimeras they created after the fact, as evidenced by Tracy Stewart, Hayden Romero, Corey, and others having no memory of their time with the Dread Doctors until they were informed of it.
* **Super Senses:** The Doctors appeared to have an enhanced sense of sight, likely due to their ability to manipulate electromagnetic forces. This was demonstrated when they were able to find and kill Corey even despite the fact that he was using his ability of supernatural camouflage to blend into the ambulance against which he was leaning.
* **Illusion Casting:** The Dread Doctors possessed the ability to inflict powerful illusions on others in the form of horrifying hallucinations, which were usually caused to weaken and/or incapacitate people who were interfering with their work. They used this ability on Scott McCall, Lydia Martin, Jordan Parrish, and Malia Tate in order to prevent them from fighting back when they captured Hayden Romero and Liam Dunbar.

### Abilities

The Dread Doctors also possess a multitude of human abilities in addition to their supernatural powers. Because they are all physicians, they all are experts in the field of human medicine and are able to perform various procedures based on their specialties in surgery, pathology, and genetics. Additionally, The Surgeon, in particular, is very adept at creating scientifically-based objects and machinery that can be used for supernatural means, such as the modified mercury that turned humans with genetic chimerism into pseudo-supernatural Chimeras, the masks that harnessed electromagnetic forces, and the goggles that allow them to hone in on a specific frequency to locate a person.

## Weaknesses

* **Telluric Currents:** The Dread Doctors, due to their powers of electromagnetic manipulation, were unable to enter buildings that were situated on top of powerful convergences of telluric currents, such as the convergence that runs under Eichen House. As a result, they were forced to overpower Kira Yukimura, a Thunder Kitsune, with a lightning bolt before luring her to Eichen House so that her presence and involuntary production of foxfire could temporarily disable the currents' effects on them and allow them to enter.
* **Ultrasonic Emitters:** Because the Dread Doctors' powers were based on certain electromagnetic frequencies, they could be disabled by conflicting frequencies, such as the ones used by the Argent family in their ultrasonic emitters. This was proven when Gerard Argent used one of their emitters to prevent the Doctors from using their powers against him.