Doctor Who spoilers: Burning questions you may have after Spyfall

Gallifrey. The Timeless Child. The Master. We have a lot of questions regarding Spyfall, Doctor Who’s opening story for Series 12. (Spoilers for Spyfall: Part 2 follow.)

Who would have thought it? After Series 11’s distinct absence of classic Doctor Who elements, Series 12’s opening story Spyfall does a sharp 180 by giving us a new incarnation of the Master and the return of Gallifrey in a huge way. This new status quo in the Whoniverse gives us much to anticipate and discuss – more than anyone could have expected coming into the series. Here are some of the burning questions that I believe are swirling around many people’s heads.

Who is the Timeless Child?

So, it turns out the mutterings of the Remnants in The Ghost Monument weren’t gibberish or just simply referring to the Doctor. The Timeless Child will indeed be a feature moving forwards, but who is it? Many, including myself, speculated it could be the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan whom he left behind on a future Earth. But, given that the Master said Time Lord civilisation was built on lies, we’ll be going way further back to the Rassilon Era of Gallifrey.

This was when Gallifreyan society, as we have come to know it, essentially began. This makes me speculate that the Timeless Child may possibly pertain to Omega, the stellar engineer whose work manipulating stars was integral in establishing access to time travel. If anyone built Time Lord civilisation, Omega would be one of the main candidates.

Either way, it seems Chris Chibnall wants to delve deep into Doctor Who’s mythos. This makes me both excited and anxious. It could be an interesting and enriching development or it could tarnish the legacy of the show.

The Timeless Child was first referenced back in Series 11 episode The Ghost Monument. But what could it mean for Series 12?

Photo credit: BBC Studios/BBC America

What is the status of Gallifrey?

The last time we saw Gallifrey was in the Series 9 finale Hell Bent. In Hell Bent it is established that the Time Lords worked out how to escape from their pocket universe, by methods unbeknownst to us, to our universe (or N-Space). More specifically, they moved Gallifrey towards the end of the universe “give or take a star system” to lay hidden.

Chris Chibnall, interestingly, has retconned this development with Spyfall: Part 2. Both the Doctor and the Master make no reference to this, but instead talk of Gallifrey inhabiting a separate pocket universe – going back to the status quo established in The Day of The Doctor. To people who spend way too much time agonising over canon like myself, I would just assume the Time Lords could only have the power to escape temporarily and were snapped back to their previous location.

But what of the Time Lords themselves? It’s suggested that, once again, they’re all dead. Personally I hope they’re not and the Timeless Child arc will establish a renewed fight to restore them.

How did the Master destroy Gallifrey?

You may be wondering how the Master managed to accomplish such a deadly feat. Well, it’s likely that the Master raided the Omega Arsenal – a collection of forbidden and immensely powerful weapons crafted by the Ancients of Gallifrey. One such weapon we have seen in the show before is the Moment, the “galaxy eater” that the Doctor was contemplating unleashing in the final days of the Time War.

Why has the Master reverted to being evil?

On the assumption this new incarnation is post-Missy, it’s not unfair to ask what has happened to the Master’s psyche? After all, we witnessed Missy going through a rehabilitation process in Series 10, to the point where she sacrificed herself to help save the day. Chibnall has seemingly ignored the characters redemption arc.

I theorise that whatever the Master discovered about the Timeless Child, it relates to the Doctor in some way. To the point where he’d become engulfed with rage towards his old enemy once more.

How did the Master cheat death and escape?

This one will likely never be directly explained as the Master has a long history of miraculous recoveries – inexplicably cheating certain death, turning up later alive and well with a new Machiavellian plan. On the escape part, well, Missy probably summoned her TARDIS somehow as we know she/he has access to it.

Next. Why Sacha Dhawan is the most dangerous Master we’ve had in years. dark

Those are the biggest questions and theories we have after Spyfall. What are yours? What do you think the Timeless Child is? How do you think the Master survived? Are the Time Lords really gone for good? Let us know in the comments below.

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