Doctor Who Christmas special 2017

An interesting theory emerges regarding Mark Gatiss’ role in Doctor Who’s Christmas Special

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An interesting fan theory has emerged regarding Mark Gatiss’ role in the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas Special, Twice Upon A Time. So interesting, in fact, that here we are relating it to you good self.

We’re not averse to coming up with a theory ourselves, from time to time, but we’ve probably never cooked up anything quite as well researched as Tumblr-ite Bazingaholmes98 (great name), who thinks they’ve cracked the part Gatiss will be playing.

The train of thought all started from Gatiss’ line in the teaser for Peter Capaldi and Steven Moffat’s swansong episode, where he comments that “These police boxes are awfully interesting, aren’t they?”

See, look, it’s right there.

Those who know the history of these uniquely British pieces of kit will happily tell you they were based on a 1929 design by a man called Gilbert Mackenzie-Trench – a fellow who, as our intrepid internet sleuth points out, bears no little resemblance to the physical appearance of Gatiss’ character. What’s more, Mr Mackenzie-Trench served in the army during WWI, which we know to be at least one of the settings for the story.

Should the theory be on the mark, and Gatiss be playing the man who would go on to create the design of the object the TARDIS disguises itself as, it would create the kind of paradox loved by time travel stories. Specifically, the possibility that the creator of the police box was inspired by seeing one of his own designs from the future. It’s a nice history lesson, too.

We’ll have more on Twice Upon A Time over the coming weeks, we’re sure.

You can visit Banzingaholmes’ site and read their theory for yourselves.

Update…

Over on the Twitters, there’s already some conjecture about the theory since it has been reported by the Radio Times… But we thought it was worth repeating.