As we reach Season 8’s halfway point, CultBox thought it was time to review Missy’s appearances so far and make a few more wild stabs in the dark at her agenda and identity…
Missy who?
Doctor Who fans love speculating about the potential return of characters from the past, and enjoy looking for hints that might indicate the Doctor meeting another of his race or an old friend.
We’ve already suggested a few contenders, namely The Master, The Rani, the unnamed Woman from ‘The End of Time’, the TARDIS or River Song. We have a few further ideas too…
Clara
While she appeared variously throughout the Doctor’s timelines, trying to warn him and save him, it was always in her own form. However, Oswin Oswald from ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ was turned into a Dalek, so who is to say a Clara fragment might not have been somehow transformed (or aged) into Michelle Gomez’s Missy?
We still have to resolve the question of who placed the advert that brought the Doctor and Clara together at the restaurant in Victorian London. Additionally, there is the longstanding matter of who gave Clara the TARDIS phone number when she was having problems with her computer way back in ‘The Bells of Saint John” – as referenced again at the start of ‘Time Heist’. Could that have been Missy (or ‘Miss’, as Clara’s Coal Hill pupils would call her?) ensuring her own creation?
Romana
Last seen choosing to remain in E-Space (another universe) towards the end of the Fourth Doctor’s era, former companion Romana has always been ripe for a return.
If she was in E-Space during the Time War, might she have found a way back and be wondering where the heck Gallifrey has gone? Romana was a Time Lady and we have seen here regenerate once, might she have done so again?
Susan
The Doctor’s Granddaughter left the TARDIS to make a life with a human man at the end of ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’.
It would certainly be darned odd for her to refer to her Grandfather as her “Boyfriend”, but as a member of the Doctor’s race she might have the ability to regenerate.
The AI from Apalapucia
Based solely on the fact that Missy’s Heaven appears to be the same garden as the one at the Two Streams Institute from ‘The Girl Who Waited’, we have seen suggestions that the computer that Amy hacked could be after the Doctor for revenge.
After all, he rescued young Amy and terminated that timeline… but then wouldn’t that mean the AI was never hacked? Let’s park that one there.
Some of the other ideas – drawn from comments on CultBox – are even more interesting, suggesting variously that Missy might be Tasha Lem, Mercy Hartigan, or a young Madame Kovarian.
Or how about Susan’s grandmother (the Doctor’s real wife), an aspect of the Doctor’s mind like the Dream Lord or even Jenny the Doctor’s Daughter (suffering from partial amnesia) who has become, er, worryingly confused about her relationship to her father.
One commenter suggested Missy is Death personified – the Doctor’s everlasting companion – but our favourite has to be a bitter, jilted TARDIS… the one which didn’t get stolen from Gallifrey by the Doctor due to Clara’s intervention and has been hunting him for two thousand years. Brilliant!
Whatever the answer, we are sure to find out very soon. In the meantime, would you like some tea? Little splosh? Lovely.
> Order Season 8 on DVD on Amazon.
> Order Season 8 on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Who do you think Missy is? What is The Promised Land? Let us know below…