Doctor Who: 9 Big Questions We Still Have After The First Disney+ Season's Finale
Warning: SPOILERS for the latest season of Doctor Who are ahead!
Doctor Who only just wrapped up its inaugural season for Disney+ subscription holders, and I'm already begging for more episodes to answer the questions left behind. While the final two episodes answered a good deal of the reason so many coincidences were cropping up, the answers led to more questions we can't help but ponder while waiting for more episodes.
With the gap between the finale and upcoming Christmas special, now is as good of a time as any to talk about all the things still on my mind following Doctor Who's latest season. I suggest readers be asking the same questions as we wait for more episodes because I think the fun of Ncuti Gatwa's run as The Doctor has only just begun.
Who Is Mrs. Flood?
After 2023's Christmas special, I had theories about the true identity of Mrs. Flood, and it feels like both a good and bad thing that none of them were ruled out thus far. We learned so little about the character, and the fact she was privy to so many supernatural events and could break the fourth wall was so bizarre. Is she a friend or foe of The Doctor? I'm not sure I can answer that at this point, so hopefully future seasons give us more insight.
Will The Doctor Explore His Own Origins?
Ruby Sunday found her birth mother, and while Russell T. Davies admitted he borrrowed from Star Wars to help create that story, I think it opens the door to a brand-new story Doctor Who story. I theorized that Ruby's positive reunion with her birth mother would encourage The Doctor to look into his own birth origins, but we have no guarantees that will happen. Given the reveals of the Timeless Child arc, I think there's no better direction for The Doctor to go than into his own past to find out where he came from. Hopefully Davies feels the same.
Is There Something Special About Ruby Sunday?
The Doctor Who season finale confirmed that Ruby Sunday has a normal biological mother, but does that mean she is also normal? I find that hard to believe, given she was able to make it snow, and we still never got a real answer for why that was happening like Russell T. Davies promised. I don't believe the story of Ruby and why mysterious things happen around her is over, especially now that we know actress Millie Gibson will return in the next season.
Who Is Ruby's Birth Father?
Doctor Who dropped a small tease that Ruby was going to meet her birth father, William Garnett, at the end of the season, and while her mother wasn't anyone noteworthy, perhaps her father is. At the risk of getting fans all riled up and expecting a reveal that could underwhelm, I have to wonder if there's some big reveal coming that her birth father is some mysterious being or possibly someone already introduced in the series. I've seen the speculation that her father is the would-be tyranical Prime Minister Roger Ap Gwilliam, which would be a pretty wild twist given Ruby prevented his reign of terror in an alternate timeline.
Will We Ever See Rogue Again?
Jonathan Groff gave a stunning performance in his first Doctor Who episode, and the fact that "Rogue" was established as The Doctor's new love interest opened the door to a return in the future. Unfortunately, all we know for certain after his episode is that the character was transported to a different dimension, and it'll be very hard for The Doctor to track him down. Of course, who better than the Time Lord to track him down and maybe learn his actual name when they reconnect. Does anyone else get the vibe Groff might be the new Captain Jack Harkness?
Did Sutekh's Defeat Undo The Events Of Flux?
When The Doctor defeated Sutekh, he made a point to say that in defeating a god of death, he was then creating life. This made me think back to Doctor Who: Flux, in which we learned that half of the entire universe was extinguished. The Doctor noted that entire planets were being restored as he dragged Sutekh along the galaxy, and even said The Ood were alive once again. if The Ood are back, I hope this means others are as well, and we'll see more Who villains that should be used more in the next season.
Is Varada Sethu Playing One Or Two Characters In Doctor Who?
We knew for a whlie that actress Varada Sethu will play a future companion of The Doctor on Doctor Who, but were completed blindsided when she popped up in "Boom." Don't get me wrong, actors who have previously appeared in the series have popped up in much more prominent roles down the line, but to do so this soon didn't feel like a coincidence. This makes me wonder, is Sethu's character in "Boom" the same as The Doctor's future companion, or does she also have a special link to time like Susan Triad and Ruby Sunday?
Will More Classic Villains Return In The Next Season?
Seeing a classic villain like Sutekh return to Doctor Who was quite a treat, but it hasn't quite satiated my hunger for seeing more familiar villains return to the Disney+ series. Granted, I'm not so sure I'm ready for the Cybermen or Daleks just yet, but given The Doctor's mention of The Ood, why not bring some antagonistic versions of them back for another adventure? There are so many villains we've seen over the years with limited appearances, like Sutekh, so it would be great to see Russell T. Davies start to incorporate more of them.
Will Audiences Outside The UK Ever Get Access To Tales Of The TARDIS?
The BBC and Disney+ both co-produce Doctor Who, but unfortunately, those outside of the UK have been robbed of some of the awesome additional content coming out from the episodes. Stateside fans cannot watch Tales of the TARDIS, which features companions and past Doctors revisiting their past adventures, and there are special commentary tracks for each episode that we can't access on Disney+. I would love to see those added for future seasons, provided Disney could work out a deal to obtain them.
Doctor Who is on hiatus right now, but the latest season is available on Disney+ and the Christmas special is going to air later this year. Here's hoping the wait for episodes beyond that won't be too long, though with production pretty deep into the next season, I can't imagine it will be as long as the wait from previous years.