A lot of ideas left mid-sentence here, but let’s have a go. Next week, I’ll probably
Resolved
We’re likely to get more information on these, but their big questions are essentially answered.
- Calm Down, The Actress Is Just Called That: Susan Twist — “a comms officer in the planet Pacifico del Rio,” “someone’s mum in Finetime,” “an ambulance,” “a portrait,” “a Sloogma,” “a Griffin,” “a Bleet,” and then, Susan Triad — is revealed to be one of Sutekh’s harbingers, alongside Harriet Arbinger of the UNIT archive. Susan Triad remembers her other lives as dreams.
- The Boss Is Not Rhetorical: The Boss, and the One Who Waits, are revealed to be Sutekh, who is positioned here as the “mother and father and other” of a Pantheon of Gods.
Still Open
- Sweet Christmas Baby: A thorough attempt is made to uncover the identity of Ruby’s mother through the UNIT time window, though they never quite figure out a way to actually see her face. Ruby again makes it snow. Dr Who brings up that not only his memory of his visit to Ruby Road but the actual history changed. Sutekh was there, as was a second of Dr Who’s TARDIS.
- Lady of the Water: Mrs Flood — “Mrs F,” Carla calls her. Fenric? — takes an ominous turn at Cherry as soon as Carla and Ruby are out of the house. She warns that there’s a storm coming in, and says “He waits no more.” Notably, we don’t see her after this.
The Unresolveables
- The Pretenders: The name Susan and S. Triad being an anagram of TARDIS is a misdirect, and the real clue — “Call me Sue, pet.” — is Sue Tech. Whether the storm around the TARDIS is part of the time window’s hologram is a question that’s raised, though obviously it’s got red elements that the window doesn’t appear to do. Harriet from the UNIT archive is one of Sutekh’s harbingers, and says she was “born for this” — she’s positioned perfectly to bring about Sutekh’s return.
- Still Figuring It Out: Dr Who opens up a little to Kate about his relationship to Susan. He used to be different, a “great enigma,” but he’s trying to shake it off. He thinks he himself is a harbinger of disaster, but Kate disagrees. :’) Dr Who throws a tantrum, and Mel tells him to get over himself.
- UNified Intelligence and Skyscraper-Building Taskforce: The Vlinx, who was all rusty last time we saw it, has been upgraded with “hot metal.” UNIT has a secret time window. Morris Gibbons is UNIT’s new scientific advisor. UNIT have been watching Susan Triad because of the TARDIS anagram. Mel has been scanning her DNA on a daily basis. UNIT’s scanning equipment at the time window can’t parse Sutekh’s storm form.
- Knowledge Lord: A lot of limits to Dr Who’s knowledge in this one — he’s picked up on seeing Susan Twist everywhere, but doesn’t know who or what she is, he didn’t know there was a second TARDIS at the Church on Ruby Road.
- Guardians of the Playground: Sutekh’s Pantheon includes, from recent episodes, the Toymaker and the Maestro, from previous stories, the Trickster and the Mara, and all-new names, Reprobate, Incensor, and Incensor’s children Doubt and Dread.
- The State of the Home Planet: Susan Triad dreams of orange skies; Kastarion 3? Or Gallifrey?
Theories
- Theory One: What character archetype in RTD’s take on Doctor Who does a lot of Waiting? Jackie, a year, not knowing. Francine, a year, for a shot. Sylvia, for Donna, for so long. What if the One Who Waits is the Toymaker’s mum?
- Close but no e-cig. Nothing about the Sutekh reveal really plays into this thematically. Gonna say I’m wrong here.
- Theory Two: Ruby Sunday is an experiment engineered (or, perhaps, a story told) to infiltrate the TARDIS. The nominative similarity with Mundy Flynn, played by future companion actress Varada Sethu, links them explicitly — Mundy may be another experiment in the series. They also feel like they’re in an RTD and Moffat mode, respectively — Ruby very much a Rose type, Mundy’s early appearance fairly explicitly invokes Clara. Keep an eye out for a funny grey-haired white guy called Tuesday.
- I think this is probably one for 2025, though obviously Sutekh could turn out to be responsible for the experiment.
- Theory Three: I think Susan Twist is part of some kind of cosmic corrective, the spellcheck chasing down a typo. The cosmic corrective may be the result of the damage done to the TARDIS by Donna spilling coffee on it.
- Could still be something to this — the exact relationship between Sutekh and the TARDIS is still unclear — but if Sutekh is out to spellcheck Dr Who, it’s more of a wiping the whole document clean type of thing.