Peter Capaldi is the new Doctor Who.
Steven Moffat launched Series 8 with Deep Breath a frightening tale with story hints from The Girl in the Fireplace and The Bells of St. John.
Moffat introduced his longer running storyline and big bad villain for this season leaving fans with a question:
Who is Missy?
Spoiler Alert!
If you have not seen “Deep Breath” yet you may want to stop reading now.
OK
Here it comes:
Producers revealed Michelle Gomez is playing the Gatekeeper of the Nethersphere and she will appear in the two-part season finale with the dreaded Cybermen.
In the epilogue of Deep Breath the cyborg villain awakens in a garden with Missy, who refers to the Doctor as her boyfriend and tells the cyborg he’s in the promised land, heaven, paradise.
Missy oozes evil charm and menace like a twisted Mary Poppins. Is Missy a brand new enemy or regenerated member of the Doctor’s classic rogues gallery?
After reviving Daleks, Davros, Cybermen, Sontarans, The Master, Silurians and my personal favorites, Zygons, is Team Who bringing back another classic enemy?
Let’s look at the possibilities:
The Rani A renegade Time Lord and scientific genius who believed in putting everything including murder as secondary to her research and lust for knowledge. The Mari’s backfired genetic experiments led to her exile from Gallifrey. Kate O’Mara played her in Mark of the Rani and Time and the Rani. It’s hinted the Rani and the Doctor are the same age and were once lovers.
Omega An evil Time Lord who once sat on the High Council on Gallifrey. He was a stellar engineer who developed the Hand of Omega as a way to manipulation reactions within stars and became one of the Time Lords’ greatest heroes but trapped in an antimatter universe growing bitter and evil. He first appeared in The Three Doctors and was last seen in Arc of Infinity, in which his body was destroyed but like all Time Lords – he could regenerate.
Black Guardian The personification of chaos in constant battle with the White Guardian and order. The two opposing forces appeared in the Fourth Doctor’s search for the hidden objects that would recreate the Key to Time. He would later force Turlough to be his spy and plot to kill the Fifth Doctor.
The Master The Doctor’s childhood classmate and greatest rival. The Master was last seen following the Lord President into the Time War. While it felt like Russell Davies “wrote the book” revealing the back story and giving the Master his final revenge on the High Council in The End of Time, you can’t keep a scientific genius/sociopath down! The Master defined Time Lord genetics and gave himself a new body after his 13th and finale regeneration. Marvel did the cross-gender twist to great effect in Thor when Loki took the form of Lady Sif. Some fans have argued why not a female Doctor Who so why not have a female Master?
The Ultimate Mistake?
Missy, Gatekeeper of the Nethersphere, could be the personification of something inside the Doctor.
In the trailers and first episode Peter Capaldi appears to be a darker, morally ambigious hero who may have pushed the cyborg off the ship in the finale to kill it. The Twelfth Doctor admit he’s “made mistakes” and he’s going “into darkness” and asks Clara if “he’s a good man?”
Is Missy a living representation of the Doctor’s ID allied with the robotic enemies the Doctor is sworn to fight? (Remember in X-Men when Onslaught was the merging of Professor X’s dark side with Magneto!?)
While we wait, anticipate and speculate we don’t have to wait for one classic enemy. Into The Dalek is next week’s episode!
Stay tuned for more!
By Editor