… starts now. Cue the pointless speculation!
With the TX of WEAT there are only two more Twelvy Episodes before he turns into whoever he’s going to turn into, which will be the next big BBC announcement. Given that filming is getting underway on the Xmas Special as I type this, it can’t be long before the name of Capaldi’s successor either gets leaked or is announced. Perhaps during the Live Q&A after WEAT goes out?
Let’s look back at what The Moff wrote in his Radio Times preview for Series Ten:
Friendship drives the Doctor into the rashest decision of his life.
That can only refer to his pretty bonkers decision to put Missy to the test and have her pretend to be Doctor Who and see how she gets on when given the option of saving the universe instead of destroying it. His friendship with Missy has been a running theme of the Vault Arc this series and it’s clearly intended to be his main character flaw that he hopes for the best in Missy when we all know she’s gonna turn on him first chance she gets…
or will The Moff play against our expectations and actually have Missy almost go to the good until Simmo turns up and convinces her to stay on the dark side? Given that one of the teasers shows the two of them doing what looks like an audition for Strictly Come Dancing, my money’s on Missy almost making it before being tempted back by Simmo.
…he witnesses the death of someone he is pledged to protect.
The general assumption is that this refers to Bill but I’m not so sure we’re in for Kill Bill in WEAT. Admittedly the shots of her in the hospital ward with the topknots look rather ominous, and she does drop some none too subtle hints such as “just don’t get me killed” in the Next Time trailer for WEAT. And who can forget her “…if it kills me” line from the “A Time For Heroes” promo trailer in the library with all the exploding books. But is the Doctor pledged to protect Bill? I don’t think so, but he is under oath to guard Missy’s body for 1,000 years…
So what if it’s Missy who dies and not Bill?
Yes, I know Michelle Gomez is listed in the cast for TDF, but that could be flashbacks, or some sort of timey-wimeyness given that time is passing at two different rates at either end of the ship. We do know, from the BBC America teaser, that Missy and Simmo do at least meet before she snuffs it, if that’s what happens, with time enough to run through their Strictly routine. Perhaps Simmo and Twelvy will have to team up to save Missy instead of Bill?
And it’s not been confirmed that Bill isn’t in Series Eleven, we’ve all just assumed that she won’t be, that The Moff will leave the Doctor on his own for The Chibster just like RTD did for him. But maybe Chibs wants Bill to stay, at least for his first year. Evahbody luvz Bill, so maybe we’re all being misled on purpose. And we know The Moff bottled it when it came to killing off Clara so repeating the same plot points with Bill as Twelvy tries to save her seems a bit unlikely.
And what about Nardole? We know from the opening of The Pilot that his body isn’t his own and is at least partly robotic, so maybe he gets converted into a Cyb? And why are there at least three versions of the Cybermen in the story? Do the Mondas mob upgrade themselves quicker at one end of the ship than the other?
It’s time for the Doctor’s final battle.
Only it isn’t ‘cos he’s still got his final bow at Xmas to go yet, so what does The Moff mean by that?
Only four more days until we start to get some answers!
