Doctor Who fans convinced they've worked out what shock villain is plotting
The penultimate episode of the season ended on a cliffhanger (Picture: BBC Studios/Bad Wolf)
Doctor Who fans think they might have figured out what the Rani are up to, after the BBC aired the penultimate episode of the sci-fi show's 15th season.
Spoilers follow.
The seventh episode, Wish World, saw the bigenerated Rani (played by Anita Dobson and Archi Punjabi) reveal themselves to a disorientated Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa).
Except it wasn't the Doctor, it was one John Smith (we're at the end of the season, so the idea-well is drying up), who was happily married to Belinda (Varada Sethu) with a sprog to boot.
Into this picture of domestic bliss burst the villain-filled reality Whovians are accustomed to – and they had a monologue up their sleeves.
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Reya's (Punjabi) speechifying might have been self-aware – with a playful 'exposition' joke in the mix – but it still fell into the sticky cliché of having a villain tell you who they are and what they're about to do to save the writers the job of ceding that information organically.
It was here that the Rani finally revealed what exactly they're up to. Sort of. But Whovians think they've gone the extra mile and figured out the rest.
The Doctor and Belinda had a child called Poppy (Picture: BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Dan Fearon)
Our new Rani made her debut (Picture: BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/James Pardon)
The dastardly Rani plans to dig beneath the surface of this reality to find Omega, an all-powerful entity from olde worldy Time Lord history.
In trying to jog the Doctor's memory after his humdrum suburban fugue state, Reya explained: 'We are the last Time Lord and the last Time Lady from the planet Gallifrey.'
She also enigmatically added: 'The tragedy is we were never enemies. Every villain you ever fought wanted death. I only wanted life. Remember?'
This wrinkle has left many fans wondering if the Rani might be out to resurrect Gallifrey and the Time Lords, instead of the classic laying waste MO we get from most villains.
Ardent Whovians immediately sprung on Reddit to theorise what it might all mean. @Grafikpapst wrote: 'She wants to bring the Time Lords back. He is the scientist that created the Timelords. He is also the greatest mind Gallifrey ever had, so The Rani is probably a very big fan, seeing as she too is a scientist at heart.'
The Doctor and Belinda were in an alternate reality (Picture: BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Dan Fearon)
Villains assemble! (Picture: BBC Studios/Bad Wolf)
@yeblod agreed, writing: 'I get the vibe she wants to recreate/repopulate Gallifrey, especially with all the focus on The Doctor and the Rani being the last two of their species.'
A third @Marcuse0 echoed: 'She does specifically tell the Doctor his other enemies wanted death and she wants life. Bringing Gallifrey back again seems like a safe bet for her intentions.'
However, this wasn't the only theory floated. One @acetrainerandrew suggested the reveal could tie back into last season's Wild Blue Yonder, writing: 'My guess is that she's trying to figure out how magic works so she can undo what the Doctor did in Wild Blue Yonder and put the universe back how it was before magic was a thing.
'Omega is one of the Time Lords who helped establish the Laws of Time as they exist now, so maybe he's a necessary part of that plan?'
We'll have to tune in next Saturday to know for sure.
The Doctor Who finale, The Reality War, airs on Saturday, May 31, on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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