WMG / Doctor Who Series 14

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Potential villains

• RTD has mentioned in an issue of Doctor Who Magazine (DWM) that a new Dalek design is in the works.
• Jinkx Monsoon is confirmed to be playing a music- or piano-themed adversary of the Doctor (judging by the costume).
• Jonathan Groff's casting was announced with an emoji of a potato - perhaps his character is in league with the Sontarans.
• "The Duchess" is the Rani (someone had to say it...), or at the very least, a villainous Time Lord. They probably aren't an incarnation of the Master. Rani (raanee) is an Indian title, and Duchess translated into Hindi is Rani.
  • "Rani" is closer to "queen" than "duchess", but nonetheless has similar connotations.
• The Meeps. The Meep says the Doctor will be hearing from the Boss, signalling that the Meep wasn't the only Meep that swears vengeance.
  • Beep the Meep is the last of the Meeps. "The Boss" is likely the Toymaker, who appears in The Giggle, the last 60th Anniversary episode.
    • This is not confirmed in "The Giggle," and it's indicated that the Toymaker hadn't even entered reality when The Meep was on Earth. Also, David Tennant claimed he didn't know who "The Boss" was, suggesting it might be somebody different.
  • Alternatively, in keeping with the "two hearts" theme, the Meep's boss is the Master. Especially since he was imprisoned in the Toymaker's tooth and was then seen being taken by an unknown woman...
• The One Who Waits, the unknown being who the Toymaker is afraid of.
• The Great Intelligence. Kate's mention of "Yetis" in "The Giggle" seems a little suspect, especially since she hasn't personally dealt with them on the show.
  • However her father did deal with them, and may have shared some tales.
• The Valeyard. Bi-generation could potentially explain how he came to be.
• The Trickster. It will be revealed that he's a member of the Toymaker's legion, but either managed to enter the universe early or, because of timey-wimey, came after the Toymaker's most recent defeat but interacted with the Doctor before it.
• The Gods of Ragnarok. Of all their many, many foes, Fifteen specifically brings them up, and RTD suggested the idea that they're part of the Toymaker's pantheon.
• Fenric. Like the Toymaker, he's a cosmic being even more ancient than the Time Lords, so he could come back as part of the Toymaker's pantheon.
• The Great Vampires. Eldritch horrors defeated by the Time Lords who make their return, plus vampires fit in with the new fantasy angle.
• Faction Paradox and/or the Enemy.
• The Toymaker will escape at some point and demand a rematch with the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors.
  • If this is the case, he most likely won't be Neil Patrick Harris — the BBC probably couldn't afford him for a more regular role.
• The Black Guardian, now free from the Toymaker's control. Or, for a revisionist take, maybe the White Guardian is actually evil now.
• God himself will become an enemy of the Doctor.
• The Daemons, or even The Beast. Apparently one of the episodes is called "The Devil's Chord," suggesting that one of Who's devil figures could return.
• The Fendahl. RTD has previously said he wished he'd brought it back during his previous tenure as showrunner, and the trailer shown after "The Church of Ruby Road" features creatures that look a lot like updated Fendahleen.
• Davros will return with a younger clone body in line with his appearance in Destination: Skaro.
• Adipose. Episode 1 is titled "Space Babies," and that describes the Adipose pretty well.
• Silurians. Looks like the Doctor's heading back to the Mesozoic, and we haven't actually seen Silurians during their heyday yet.

Potential returning characters

• Kate Stewart is confirmed.
• Mel Bush is confirmed.
• Susan Foreman has been hinted at in a social media post from RTD before the 60th specials aired. Since she didn't appear in the 60th specials, she could appear in series 14/season 1.

Potential non-contemporary/non-Earth settings

• In DWM, RTD has revealed that the first scene of Episode 7 of Series 14 is set in a coffee bar in the USA, in 1947. Perhaps this episode is about Roswell?
• Gallifrey. RTD teased that his second era would feature "brand-new stories about a Time Lord’s life" - perhaps this is a reference to meeting more Time Lords.
  • The Doctor is often referred to simply as "a Time Lord" and the readers immediately understand which Time Lord is meant; it's a large stretch to thus assume Series 14 features other/new Time Lords, much less that Gallifrey is a setting.
• The 1960s music scene and the Regency era have been confirmed.

The identity of Ruby Sunday

• Yet another contemporary British human.
  • Confirmed... but are her biological parents?
• A contemporary, non-British human.
• A non-contemporary British or non-British human.
  • A human from the future, perhaps a time in which pop culture such as the Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday" is now only a distant, highly corrupted memory. She was named after the song, whose original title was forgotten by then.
  • Maybe she's not from Earth, but from a human space colony.
  • A human from the past, possibly the 1960s to 80s.
  • A human from an alternate universe, in which the song "Ruby Tuesday" is called "Ruby Sunday".
  • A genetically altered human like Luke Smith, who was named by their creator as a play on the song.
  • Somehow related to Roger ap Gwilliam, whether as a family member or just someone from his time period who's involved in that storyline.
• An alien.
  • One whose parents have only a vague knowledge of human culture a la Mister Copper with his "first class degree in Earthonomics" from Voyage of the Damned.
  • An alien (or alien-human hybrid) raised like a human who has no idea she's an alien, much like Gavin from The Sarah Jane Adventures.
  • A Time Lady who survived the Master's ravaging of Gallifrey and the Death Particle.
    • Well, Millie Gibson (who plays Ruby) has said that Gatwa's Doctor and Ruby Sunday will have a more equal dynamic - "like two schoolgirls gossiping" - so...
    • Susan Foreman. (Someone had to say it.) It does help that RTD commented "whatever happened to her 🤔" on an Instagram post shared by the BBC's official Doctor Who promotion account which was a clip of the scene where the Doctor leaves Susan on Earth and promises to return.
    • Ruby Sunday is amazed that the TARDIS is bigger on the inside, and finds the idea of (the Doctor) time travelling especially novel and wondrous. But then she could be bluffing, or maybe she's been Chameleon-Arched...
• Rose's daughter with Tentoo (or Handy, or whatever you want to call him). I don't particularly want this to happen, but it fits with the amount of RTD-era nostalgia bait, and she certainly looks the part. You can get around the incompatible biology by saying that, as a Metacrisis, he's close enough to human for it to work. The parallel universe thing might be harder to get around, but I'm sure there's a way.
  • "Ruby" and "Rose" are both shades of red; if the two were connected in some way, that would fit her introductory episode's theme of coincidences.
  • Some further support for this theory:
    • In the same way previous companions have referenced classic stories or fairy tales (Amy, Ace), Ruby could be a reference to "Little Red Riding Hood." Ruby and/or Ruby Rose is frequently the name of the title character in some adaptations, and an integral part of the character is that she has a bedridden grandmother... not to mention the Big Bad Wolf.
    • Lots of attention is drawn to the coincidences in the origins of the Doctor and Ruby, mainly that neither of them are aware of their parentage. But it may go deeper: both originate from a different dimension as well.
    • In terms of the parallel dimension making it difficult for Rose and Tentoo to interact with this world, the Doctor has been toeing the line to other dimensions lately (the Division trying to bring her to one), and going to the edge of the universe in "Wild Blue Yonder." His invocation of the superstition may have messed some things up to allow the two dimensions to interact again.
    • Ruby is nineteen years old, the same age as Rose in the beginning of her tenure.
    • Ruby and Rose Noble are likely to strike up a friendship in the next series, another hint about "coincidences."
    • In a bit of meta support, Bad Wolf Studios has become co-producer of the series, so the words "Bad Wolf" show up at the end of the credits in each episode now.
• Perhaps "Ruby Sunday" isn't even her real name!
  • It could work as an interesting Line-of-Sight Name. Maybe there are gemstones involved ("ruby") and either a calendar or newspaper ("sunday") at some point in her introduction.
    • The name of her debut episode being The Church on Ruby Road makes this all the more likely.
    • And the Doctor and Ruby meet on a Sunday...
    • Confirmed in that it's indeed a Line-of-Sight Name: she was found as a newborn on the steps of the eponymous church. As for her surname, it comes from her adoptive mother and the fact that the adventure happens to take place on a Sunday adds to the episode's theme of coincidence.

Roger ap Gwilliam is the Minister of War

The nature of Jinkx Monsoon's character

• A Time Lord - possibly one we already know (although likely not the Master), or a new one. She does have a big collar, though it doesn't stick up above her neck quite as far.
• An Eternal with reality-warping powers similar to the Toymaker.
• The One Who Waits — potentially compatible with being an Eternal.
• She is the Master - though this one will happily call herself "The Mistress".
• A Daemon, the Beast, or a new Satanic Archetype. Since the character is music-oriented, it seems likely she could be the villain of "The Devil's Chord" and therefore a devil-like figure.
• The Black Guardian, or another Guardian.
• Xanxia, who will get confirmed to be the master and ranis daughter

The episode in which Jinkx Monsoon appears will be a musical episode.

• At the very least, it will feature copious singing/music.
• It will feature a falling piano gag.
• Jinx's character can cause musical numbers a la Music Meister or Sweet from Buffy.

One of the episodes will be entitled "The Talking Door".

• RTD mentioned that an episode of Star Trek coincidentally name-dropped the title of one episode.
• Jossed – the name-dropped title is "Space Babies".

Mel Bush works for UNIT now.

• Confirmed as of the 60th Anniversary specials.

The Timeless Child is mentioned as the Doctor and Ruby Sunday bond over both of them being adoptees.

• Murray Gold mentioned that Ruby is a "lost soul searching for her parents".
  • Overall confirmed. The Timeless Child isn't explicitly name-dropped but the Doctor does mention being an adoptee while talking with Ruby and her mother.

Jonathan Groff's character

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Groff's character will appear in the episode set during the Regency era, and his casting was announced with an emoji of a potato; Mozart is the name of a variety of potato.
• Captain Jack Harkness, re-cast following the controversies surrounding John Barrowman.
• A Rutan in disguise/after shapeshifting.

Ruby Sunday is literally lost in time and space.

• See the above quote about her being "a lost soul searching for her parents." She was separated from them accidentally, or at least believes it was accidentally, and wants to get back to them. Whether they're looking for her depends on how cynical the writer and showrunner of the episode that reveals the answer are.
  • Jossed, she's a foundling who was abandoned as a newborn.

If the Master shows up, they'll bi-generate or even tri-generate

• The Master, being the Master, will decide to follow the footsteps of the Doctor by bi-generating into two separate incarnations who'll serve as the Big Bad Duumvirate of this series (or perhaps a Big Bad Ensemble if they don't get along). Alternatively, the Master will try to one-up the Doctor and pull off a tri-generation, leaving behind three Masters for the Doctor to deal with.
  • Of course, this could also lead to an easy defeat, since the Doctor will just pit the two/three Masters' egos against each other.

The woman who took the Toymaker's tooth containing the Master is Jinx Monsoon's character.

The Watcher will be explained.

The Fourth Doctor's regeneration was a little odd because of the Watcher, that strange figure that appeared from nowhere and completed his regeneration by merging with him as he died to become Five. But how come no other regenerations have featured this? My theory is that the Master will do something to poison the Doctor's regenerations— specifically, go after Fourteen and stop him from properly becoming Fifteen, hopefully wiping out Fifteen before they face each other. In order to both save the Doctor and keep the timeline complete, the Doctor that would be Fifteen will be turned into the Watcher. The Watcher will then be sent back in time, struggling to re-enter his own timestream and only succeeding in a moment where the Master defeated the Doctor once before— killing him in "Logopolis". The Watcher will fully emerge and re-enter the Doctor, giving him the lifeforce necessary to complete his own regeneration while also gestating over a billion years into Fifteen (giving a double meaning to his exclamation of "I'm really me!" when he bi-generates from Fourteen).

The episode with the Goblins will be both fantasy and the typical sci-fi.

The Goblins started as an alien species that crash landed on Earth centuries or millennia ago and eventually evolved into the creatures we see in the show, completely forgetting they aren't native to Earth. Due to their appearance, it's possible they came from Raxacoricofallapatorius, or Clom.

• Or both, since the normal Goblins look more like the Raxacoricofallapatorians, while the King resembles the Abzorbaloff(s?), with some understandable similarities between them likely from inter- or cross-breeding.
• Jossed, the origins of the Goblins (and whether they're aliens or Earthlings) aren't dwelled on. The Doctor says that they operate on a different language of physics that looks magic to the human eye for a dose of Doing In the Wizard, however.

There will be an episode around Norse Mythology, Fenric, and the Gods of Ragnarok

RTD stated the show will lean into genuine fantasy, so actual Aesir isn't inconceivable. He also stated the Toymaker is just one god in a pantheon, which he hinted fellow previous villains are a part of. "Fenric" sounds like "Fenris/Fenrir", the wolf son of Loki destined to eat Odin, and the Gods of Ragnarok obviously evoke the Norse apocalypse.

Guardians will feature heavily, and a Guardian will be the Big Bad

The Black Guardian will return as a villain, only for it to be revealed that he is not the most powerful of them. As in the EU, the Toymaker will turn out to be the Crystal Guardian, and the One Who Waits will be the most powerful Guardian of all and the new big threat to the universe. Maybe it could even be revealed that the Doctor himself is actually yet another Guardian.

Mrs Flood is...

• The Master. An elderly regeneration who's successfully completed the Heel–Face Turn that Missy started - like Fourteen, she's done the work. She may slip into villainy for the next regeneration but, this time, she's an ally of sorts. Her name is an anagram of "Mrs of old" with Mrs possibly being a homonym for "Missy".
• Or alternatively, Mrs. Flood is an incarnation of the Rani.
• Mrs. Flood is a future companion - but her adventure with the Doctor will happen between her first appearance in The Church on Ruby Road and the proceeding ones. Considering she's incredibly bitter about the Police Box the first time she sees it, but after that point she's both happy to see The Doctor and the TARDIS and very familiar with them. My wager is that she'll be the companion for 2024's Christmas special, which takes place during 2023's.
• Alternatively, a companion of a pre-Hartnell Doctor.
• An older and wiser version of River Song. You have, Amy Pond and River Song, so Mrs Flood being an older version of River Song could make a lot of sense, her name an anagram of "Mrs of old". Although River dies during on the Library when she first meets the Tenth Doctor, so this theory could be Jossed.
• A regenerated Susan.
• A regenerated Romana.
• Ruby's biological mother. She knows about the TARDIS because the Doctor talked to her off-screen when he went back in time.
• Not a returning character at all and just a human who knows about the Doctor.

A young Cherry Sunday will be a future companion

Partly because a name like that is too good to pass up and clearly Fifteen was charmed by it. It could also lead to an ironic twist about the last Doctor she knew trying to kill her - plenty of companions could say that about their own Doctors affectionately, and Cherry seemed more torn up about her lack of tea than Fifteen's presence.

Cloaked person

It's Ruby from some point in the future. The Ruby and the Doctor will at one point either in the far past or in the far future meet Ruby's biological parents but they die and leave baby Ruby behind. Cue Current Ruby leaving Baby Ruby behind at the church door on a Christmas Eve.

How Ruby Sunday came to be

Just who are her biological parents?

• One or both of Ruby's parents are from the future. The reason their DNA isn't in a database is because they have not even been born yet.
• Alternatively, Ruby's parents are from the distant past.
• Ruby has an artificial human genome. Ruby Sunday's DNA isn't a particular match for anyone in any database, but it also doesn't stand out as "not human" from the rest of the samples in the database. (Unless someone lied to Davina McCall.) So she has *some* combination of the gene variants that the tests use to determine heritage/relatedness, but not a combination that matches anyone in the database, anywhere?
  • Could a Chameleon Arch do this?
    • This could link the theories that Mrs Flood is a Time Lord/Gallifreyan, and that Mrs Flood is Ruby's biological mother.
  • Originally wondered if her genome might be some kind of artificial "average" but I would actually hate if the show decided an average human was white and blonde. Also it's not the only possible explanation for not having a close enough match anywhere to determine relatedness.
    • Luke from The Sarah Jane Adventures had an artificial genome which was an "average human genome", but that was a different time...
• Ruby is a clone of someone who's never been to Earth - whether they're from the distant past, distant future, or a human colony.
• Ruby is a clone...of herself. An infant version of herself will be created near the end of the upcoming series and The Doctor will realize that she's a human Bootstrap Paradox and tell her that she needs to give the baby to the church to preserve causality, but she won't be able to bare surrendering herself to such a fate. The result will be the events of The Church on Ruby Road playing out again, but this time she'll be able to see the damage caused and realize not only how important her life was to those around her, but that the hurt she felt at being abandoned will eventually pale in comparison to the love she receives from the Sundays and The Doctor. Thus the woman leaving Ruby at the church on Christmas Eve is, in fact, Ruby.

Stepping on a butterfly will somehow cause Silurians to not retreat underground and interbreed with humans, resulting in Lizard!Ruby from the trailer

Mrs Merridew AKA the weird face line woman from 73 yards (its the same person!)

She is from Welsh mythology\a Welsh mythological creature so I decided she is possibly a Selkie and if she's Luvic's grandma then Luvic's quarter Selkie