Tonight’s Doctor Who season opener might have stripped the show back to basics, but that doesn’t mean to say writer Steven Moffat didn’t seed a number of new mysteries in the story.
Here are some big questions we have following ‘The Pilot’ that need to be answered during the next eleven episodes of Season 10…
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1. What’s behind the door?
The Doctor is on a secret mission and, if Bill’s information is right, has been for the last fifty to seventy years. He’s holed up at St. Luke’s University, Bristol working as a lecturer – but why? Is he keeping something (or someone) safe, or trapped in the basement vault?
Whatever he has behind the door, those years sound like a tasty gap for Big Finish and other extended fiction to exploit once Capaldi’s gone!
2. The scorch marks
Who or what visiting Earth in the ship which left the scorch marks and the Space Engine Oil that caused so much trouble?
Given the TARDIS-like abilities of the Oil to travel the universe in search of its quarry, we assume it was the member of a highly sophisticated race.
3. Nardole
He appears to have assumed the role of the Doctor’s assistant and the pair bicker gloriously, but what precisely is the nature of the duffle-coated Nardole (Matt Lucas) now?
First encountered working for River Song, we know that he was decapitated, his head attached to King Hydroflax’s robotic body, and we are told that the Doctor reassembled him.
Dropping a component in the opening scene might be a hint that he is a cyborg of sorts and he refers to Bill as a human, so clearly he does not identify as one himself. As seen last Christmas, we know he can fly the TARDIS too!
Whatever he is, we cannot help but think that there he may have a pivotal role this year…
4. Bill
Is Bill Potts really the perfectly normal girl from Earth she is being presented as? We hope so, because after the ‘Impossible Girl’ and the temporal complexities of Amy Pond’s Doctored childhood, that would be highly refreshing.
However, the Doctor has already been back through her past, taking photos of her late mum (albeit with the best of intentions) and Bill’s orphaned status makes us wonder if there is more to her situation. Might we be meeting other members of the Potts clan before the season is done?
5. Heather
The girl with a star in her eye seemed incredibly enigmatic even before she encountered the Space Engine Oil and became its avatar. Did Heather (Stephanie Hyam) simply just hate university life or was there more to her constant desire to run away?
Possibly not, but we wonder if that is not the last we have seen of her and her shape-changing abilities? Might her affection for Bill cause her to return before Ms Potts’ time is done with the Doctor?
Pre-order the new season on DVD on Amazon here.
Pre-order the new season on Blu-ray on Amazon here.
What are your Season 10 theories? Let us know below…