Doctor Who Series 9: Five Mind-Blowing Fan Theories

Could this be the Dalek City on Skaro? (Credit: BBC)

With each new series of Doctor Who comes plenty of thoughts and theories from fans about what’s to come. Series 9, though, has been a virtual gold mine for speculation, with almost zero information officially released and shockingly little in the way of studio leaks.

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In this exclusive first-look photo from the Doctor Who Series 9 premiere, star Peter Capaldi says “the Doctor about to make a mistake that has cataclysmic repercussions.”

(Credit: Entertainment Weekly)

The Murder of Davros

This was one of the earliest rumors surrounding Doctor Who Series 9, and it involves the series premiere two-parter ‘The Magician’s Apprentice’/’The Witch’s Familiar.’

In April, British tabloid the Mirror reported that Series 9 would open with an extremely dark storyline featuring the Doctor contemplating the murder of a child. Not just any child, though — more specifically, a young Davros, creator of the Doctor’s archenemies, the Daleks.

Supposedly, the story would see the Doctor return to a battlefield on Skaro sometime in the distant past, where he will come face-to-face with a younger version of Davros. The brutal decision for the Doctor is whether or not to kill his rival before he ever has the chance to create the Dalek race. It’s a variation of the classic Hitler Paradox — meaning, if you could travel back in time and kill Hitler as a child, would you? You would save countless lives, but at what cost?

The new story is said to be based around a quote from the Fourth Doctor in the classic 1975 serial, ‘The Genesis of the Daleks’:

"“If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you and told you that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?”"

At the time, it was easy to dismiss as tabloid fodder, especially since the Mirror has a less than stellar track record and gave no source for their information. But as time has gone on and more information has been revealed, this theory has started to make more and more sense.

When the Series 9 photo above was released to Entertainment Weekly, Peter Capaldi described it as showing “the Doctor about to make a mistake that has cataclysmic repercussions.” Then, at Comic-Con, Capaldi gave an even more telling description:

"“The picture hints at a battle, it hints at the Doctor being in a very traditional battlefield, in which he tries to help a victim of war… but it backfires.”"

That sounds shockingly similar to the Mirror rumor, doesn’t it? We know Missy is back in the series opener; could she be responsible for sending the Doctor back to Skaro to make this terrible decision?

Next: Who Frowned Me This Face?

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Peter Capaldi as Roman merchant Caecilius in ‘The FIres of Pompeii.’ (Credit: BBC)

The Return of Caecilius

Here’s another rumor that’s been making the rounds for a while — maybe even longer than the Davros story.

Actually, Steven Moffat first hinted that Peter Capaldi’s prior Doctor Who/Torchwood appearances would be explored all the way back in 2013:

"“We are aware that Peter Capaldi’s played a part in Doctor Who before and we’re not going to ignore the fact. I’ll let you in on this. I remember Russell told me he had a big old plan as to why there were two Peter Capaldis in the Who universe, one in Pompeii and one in Torchwood. When I cast Peter, [Russell] got in touch to say how pleased he was, I said ‘Okay, what was your theory and does it still work?’ and he said ‘Yes it does, here it is’. So I don’t know if we’ll get to it… we’ll play that one out over time. It’s actually quite neat."

"“The big fun question is, we know that the Doctor when he regenerates, the faces, it’s not set from birth, it’s not that he was always going to be one day Peter Capaldi. We know that’s the case because in [Second Doctor story] The War Games he has a choice of face and all that. We know it’s not set so where does he get those faces from? They can’t just be randomly generated because they’ve got lines and they’ve aged… so where did that face come from?”"

Of course, after that we went through all of Series 8 with no explanation whatsoever, though the Doctor’s line “Who frowned me this face? Do you ever look in the mirror and think I’ve seen that face before?” in ‘Deep Breath’ seemed to indicate it would be addressed eventually.

Earlier this year, Steven Moffat stoked the flames when he responded to a reader’s question in Doctor Who Magazine about whether the Doctor’s recurring face would be brought up in Series 9, saying, “Yes, we’re coming back to that idea. In fact, we’ll be shooting the scene in question really quite shortly…”

Last week, though, Peter Capaldi gave us the best indication yet that Series 9 will tackle the subject when speaking at a fan event in Germany:

"“With regards to my Roman alter-ego, there will be a — he may appear again… he will certainly be invoked.”"

So what’s the explanation? The leading fan theory stems from another quote from Russell T. Davies, justifying the decision to have Peter Capaldi play government official John Frobisher on Torchwood, when he’d just appeared as Caecilius on Doctor Who:

"“We were so lucky to get Peter Capaldi. We hesitated for a second because he’d been in Doctor Who recently. He’d been Caecillius in ‘The Fires of Pompeii.’ I like to think that he’s a long lost descendant over 2,000 years of the man the Doctor saved from Pompeii, and actually it’s just time catching up ‘cause actually the whole family line gets killed. It took 2,000 years, but Caecillius’ relatives died in the end.”"

Since Moffat himself has said Davies is responsible for the theory connecting Capaldi’s faces, it stands to reason that the Doctor subconsciously chose the face on purpose to remind himself of the dangers of tampering with the timeline. To what end? Who knows? Possibly it’s in regard to finding Gallifrey or in reference to his actions in ‘The Day of the Doctor’ that prevented The Moment from being activated.

Next: A Resurrection or an Imposter?

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Ingrid Oliver returns as UNIT scientist Osgood in Doctor Who’s Series 9.

(Credit: BBC)

Osgood is (or was) a Zygon

In the Series 8 finale, ‘Death in Heaven,’ fans around the world cried out in horror as Missy vaporized one of the show’s most popular characters, nerdy UNIT scientist Osgood. There was a glimmer of hope, though! Osgood had been introduced in ‘The Day of the Doctor,’ the 50th anniversary special that featured (among other things) the return of those classic shape-shifting aliens, the Zygons.

In fact, Osgood was even replaced by a Zygon in that very episode. So it’s possible that Missy hadn’t killed Osgood after all, but rather another long-serving Zygon doppleganger! Not so fast. Responding to that very theory in Doctor Who Magazine last December, Steven Moffat had this to say:

"“Nah. If it had been a Zygon, she wouldn’t have been killed so easily. Dead, I’m afraid.”"

Fast-forward five months, and the BBC made the shocking announcement that actress Ingrid Oliver would be returning to Doctor Who in Series 9 after all, in a two-part story again featuring the Zygons. Moffat even referenced his earlier remarks when talking about her return:

"“Osgood is back, fresh from her recent murder at the end of last series. We recently confirmed that Osgood was definitely dead and not returning – but in a show about time travel, anything can happen. The brilliant Ingrid Oliver is back in action. This time though, can the Doctor trust his number one fan?”"

“Time travel?” Nice try, Moffat. The best theory out there has it that Moffat lied (not for the first time either, mind you) when he initially addressed the Zygon rumor, and that was in fact a Zygon duplicate killed by Missy last year.

Of course, there’s also the flip side of that theory: Osgood really is dead and the Osgood we’ll see in Series 9 is actually a Zygon duplicate. That would certainly explain Moffat’s quote about the Doctor being wary of trusting her.

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Who is Maisie Williams playing on Doctor Who Series 9? (Credit: BBC)

Maisie Williams is Susan/River Song/Jenny/Romana/Clara/Missy

Ever since popular Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams was announced as part of the guest cast for Series 9, fans have been working themselves into a frenzy trying to figure out who she’s playing.

The cast and crew have been extremely secretive regarding her role, dropping only cryptic hints. When her casting was announced, Steven Moffat gave this juicy tease:

"“We’re thrilled to have Maisie Williams joining us on Doctor Who. It’s not possible to say too much about who or what she’s playing, but she is going to challenge the Doctor in very unexpected ways. This time he might just be out of his depth, and we know Maisie is going to give him exactly the right sort of hell.”"

Every hint from Moffat and his cast since then has basically been a variation of that same quote. The next big clue, though, came from the end of the Series 9 trailer, where we got our first glimpse of Maisie in action. The Doctor reacts to her in surprising recognition, exclaiming, “You?!” And Maisie responds with the playful question, “What took you so long, old man?”

The two most popular theories are that Maisie is playing either the Doctor’s wife River Song or his granddaughter, Susan. River is, of course, dead, but that doesn’t mean Maisie couldn’t be a previously unseen regeneration (though that makes little sense) or a mysteriously revived version of the character. Susan, meanwhile, hasn’t been seen since she departed the TARDIS way back in the 60’s (save for an appearance in the 20th anniversary special, ‘The Five Doctors’).

Other theories include the Doctor’s cloned daughter Jenny, former companion/Time Lady Romana, or a younger version of Clara or Missy. I’ve even seen theories suggesting she’s a new regeneration of Susan’s son Alex, from the Big Finish audio series!

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The Valeyard, as seen in Doctor Who’s ‘Trial of a Time Lord.’

(Credit: BBC)

Return of the Valeyard

This is a relatively new theory, but it makes a lot of sense.

One recurring theme mentioned by Peter Capaldi and his cohorts in regard to Series 9 is that a “darkness” or “shadow” is following the Doctor throughout the season. Capaldi gave the most succinct remarks on the matter when speaking on the Doctor Who panel at Comic-Con:

"“There’s something stalking him, that will make life less pleasant for him…There’s been lots of great moments, there are a couple of classic monsters that I’ve got to work with and one in particular in a very special way which will make you, um, have to think carefully about regeneration.”"

Fans have a couple of different theories on what this means, but the leading theories are that it’s either the Black Guardian or the Valeyard. The leading argument against this theory is Capaldi’s use of the word “monsters,” which doesn’t necessarily describe either of those past foes. But remember, Capaldi was speaking off-the-cuff here and “classic monsters” is a pretty simple way to describe a collection of past foes, whether some or all are actually alien or otherwise.

Assuming it is one of these two that’s stalking the Doctor, the Valeyard makes much more sense. Originally created for the Sixth Doctor story ‘The Trial of a Time Lord,’ the Valeyard is “an amalgamation of the darker side of the Doctor’s nature,” somehow created between his “twelfth and final incarnations.” The Valeyard created an elaborate ruse to order to rob the Sixth Doctor of his remaining regenerations.

Well, considering Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor was the twelfth incarnation (thanks to the non-numbered War Doctor) and had lost a regeneration to the Meta-Crisis Doctor when he died, that makes Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor the thirteenth incarnation of the Doctor. And he only exists at all due to the Gallifreyan High Council reaching through the time lock to grant the Doctor a new cycle of regenerations. If ever there was a strange event that could’ve resulted in the Valeyard’s creation, that was it.

Not to mention, if the Valeyard is desperate for new regenerations to preserve his life, the Twelfth Doctor’s complete new set would be mighty tempting.

Doctor Who returns on September 19 on BBC One and BBC America. Be sure to check out our comprehensive guide to every Series 9 episode, ‘Doctor Who Series 9: Everything There is to Know So Far.’

What do you think? What’s your favorite Series 9 fan theory? Do you have a theory that’s not on the list? Sound off in the comments below!

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