‘Doctor Who’s new episode titles may have revealed a reality-bending twist
Doctor Who season 15—or season 2, if that’s what you want to call it—is almost upon us. We’re just a few short weeks away from reuniting with Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor and meeting his new companion, Varada Sethu’s Belinda Chandra. As promotion for the upcoming season ramps up, the official Doctor Who X account has teased more of what’s to come by releasing the titles for all eight season 15/season 2 episodes.
They are as follows:
- “The Robot Revolution”
- “Lux”
- “The Well”
- “Lucky Day”
- “The Story & The Engine”
- “The Interstellar Song Contest”
- “Wish World”
- “The Reality War”
It seems this season will include very few historical episodes, which hurts me personally, as those are always my favorites. Nevertheless, I will persevere, because, quite frankly, I love Gatwa’s Doctor, and I’m excited by the possibilities of his tenure’s overarching narrative. So many mysteries still need to be solved, like why we’ve seen Belinda’s face before on a distant alien planet, who the so-called “Boss” that the Meep mentioned is, and, perhaps most baffling of all, Mrs. Flood’s (Anita Dobbs) real identity. What if they’re all connected, though?
Two episodes (at least) seem to be about the Doctor interacting with film and television. “The Interstellar Song Contest” will feature British television host Rylan and an intergalactic version of the Eurovision Song Contest. The second episode, “Lux,” will feature Alan Cumming as a sing-a-long cartoon known as Mr. Ring-a-Ding who suddenly manages to escape the confines of the big screen. Coincidence? Some social media users think not.
X user Bad Wolf Archives believes the finale, “The Reality War,” is linked to “Lux,” and that it will be about “Mrs. Flood making the doctor realize HE’S inside a TV show. And that’s why she can break the fourth wall and talk to us directly and knows how his story will end.”
Another user, @milkandglitter, reckons that Mrs. Flood will be revealed to be the Master of the Land of Fiction, with a different, retconned name. In Doctor Who lore, the Master—a deity, really—can turn people from the real universe into fictional characters within the pocket dimension known as the Land, harness the power of imagination, and even control it by being connected to a computer known as the Master Brain. The episode title “The Story & The Engine” also feels like a hint, right?
So, what if these theories are true? What if the Doctor truly is trapped in an extraterrestrial Truman Show situation? Well, it would undoubtedly be a massive twist, one with huge repercussions not just for Gatwa’s iteration of the Doctor, but the entire NuWho era. How long has the Doctor potentially been stuck in this TV reality? The Doctor will never meet a bigger threat than the threat of their reality never having been real. Any monsters, aliens, or “gods” the Doctor might meet after that will be small potatoes in comparison.
Mrs. Flood being the Master of the Land of Fiction would fit in with Doctor Who’s most recent big bads; those with the power to bend reality to their will. Neil Patrick Harris’ Toymaker, Jinkx Monsoon’s Maestro. Games, music, and now fiction in general. Why not?
Another user, The Earlham Review, even theorized that this potential story might go as far back as the episode “The Mind Robber,” which premiered in 1968 and saw the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) fight against the Master Brain in the Land of Fiction. You might think, “How could they ever make a story that old work in conjunction with this new canon?” Remember that Sutekh first appeared in an episode from 1975 and clung to the TARDIS without being detected until 11 other Doctors had come and gone.
Of course, this is all just speculation, but it certainly feels like showrunner Russell T Davies is working towards what may be Doctor Who’s biggest reveal yet. The question is, when all is said and done, where will the show go from there?
Doctor Who season 2 (15) premieres on BBC iPlayer, BBC One, and Disney+ on April 12.
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