Halfway Out of the Dark: The Series 9 Arc (Part 1)

Guest contributor Woody McFarland explores what we know about this year’s story arc so far.

So, here we are, seven episodes into what I consider to be the best series of New Who yet. We’ve seen the return of Missy, Davros, and the Daleks. We’ve been spooked by ‘ghosts’, visited the Vikings, and explored the consequences of immortality through
 Ashildr, or as she now prefers, Me. And finally, we’ve been treated to a Zygon Invasion, and the promise of a villainous Clara this weekend! Halfway through the series (if you count Christmas as part of the series), or, as Kazran Sardick might say, “halfway out of the dark”. So, what have we learned so far? What loose threads have yet to be woven into the narrative of the overall series? Well, folks, it’s speculation time!

I love speculation. As a writer myself, I find it an interesting practice to try to predict what another writer will do next. People tend to look at me strangely when I go off about how “such and such totally foreshadows the return of so and so”. Even my Whovian friends think me a little bonkers (but aren’t we all?). But the few hints we’ve been given so far as to what will happen in this year’s finale have my head absolutely exploding with theories. So, I’m going to attempt to outline my favorite in a (hopefully) comprehensible manner.

To start, let’s take a look at what hints we’ve been given in these first seven episodes:

The Doctor’s Confession Dial

The last will and testament of the Doctor was delivered to the Master, supposedly on the eve of his final day. As we all know, the Doctor survived his confrontation with Davros, and retrieved his Confession Dial, which hasn’t been seen since. But one has to ask, what secrets does the Time Lord’s will hold?

The Hybrid

During his wonderfully scripted conversation with the Doctor, Davros spoke of an ancient Time Lord prophecy about a Hybrid, two great warrior races fused into one, more powerful than either. He thought this would be the Daleks and the Time Lords, but the hybrid resulting from Davros’ plan was quickly destroyed. Recently, we’ve been led to believe that Ashildr, or possibly Osgood, is the Hybrid. But is it really one of these two? And if not, then who or what is?

The Minister of War

In Before the Flood, O’Donnell hinted at an adventure the Doctor’s not yet had. Could we be seeing this adventure at some point this series? Personally, I think this is probably just a throwaway line blown out of proportion. We’ve heard about adventures that we never actually saw (River’s diary, anyone?). Nevertheless, I will attempt to work this into my theory.

Immortality/The Doctor’s Mortality

This series, we’ve had a fair amount of talk about immortality, specifically in relation to
 Ashildr. The Woman Who Lived had a lot of intriguing dialogue scenes discussing the challenges of living forever. But the other half of this point may surprise you. “But the Doctor isn’t mortal!”, you say. Yet, we’ve already seen the Doctor’s apparent death twice this series, and his will is a major part of this arc (and it’ll only open when he’s dead). So what does that mean? Will this series bring about the end of our time-­traveling hero? Unlikely, but I’ll explain my thoughts on this in a moment.

“The Rules”

There have been several mentions of the Doctor’s rules, and what happens when he breaks them. Could we be about to see him commit his greatest infraction yet?

Clara’s Departure/Death

There’s been a great deal of foreshadowing of Clara’s exit at the end of the series. So, what will happen to Clara? Is her doom on the horizon? Will she die, be stranded away from the Doctor, or leave of her own free will? Or, for that matter, will she actually leave? I would go so far as to call this the singular most important part of the series arc. There is in fact so much to talk about here that I’ve decided to dedicate the second part of this article to this topic.

Spoilers…

Yes, there are a few things we know that we probably shouldn’t. We’ve seen various filming pictures, press releases, trailers, and the infamous Radio Times previews. I’ll be incorporating a few of these into my theory, so tread carefully if you’re trying to stay completely spoiler­-free from this point on.

So, now it’s time to outline my theory. But first, I must address the apparent deaths of our main characters.

Now, the Doctor’s (conveniently off-screen) death is incredibly easy to explain away. He easily survived a very similar circumstance in last year’s Death in Heaven, in an identical plane, no less (By the way, I have to say, why take a plane when you have a TARDIS?). And we’ve already seen the Doctor’s parachute in filming, so it’s easy to see where this is going.

Zygon­-Clara also boasted that the real Clara was dead. This one is harder to explain, but still fairly simple. The most obvious explanation is, Zygon­Clara lied. Chances are, the real Clara is safe and sound inside that pod, and her Zygon counterpart just wanted to brag. Another possible theory is that another switch has been pulled. This is a shapeshifter story, and as a writer, I will say it’s incredibly fun to mess with the audience’s minds by swapping out the original and the copy several times. The version of Clara we saw in the final scenes of The Zygon Invasion could be an imposter of the imposter. After all, Clara knows as well as we do that the Doctor can escape the plane, so she just might destroy it to preserve her cover. After all, what better way to take down the Zygons than to use their own trick against them?

The Theory

(Please take note, this theory regards only the last three episodes of the series. I haven’t the foggiest of what might happen in Episodes 8 and 9, as I imagine they won’t be very arc-­heavy.)

So, this theory begins at the end of Episode 10, Face the Raven, and more specifically, with the Doctor’s death. And I don’t mean ‘Doctor’s ghost/hologram shows up’ or ‘Zygon­-Clara shoots a rocket at the Doctor’s plane’ kind of death. I mean real, actual, on­screen, non­-regenerative death. What do I base this outrageous claim on? Several things, actually. First, Moffat’s claim that the cliffhanger will be ‘a whopper’. Second, the Doctor’s confession dial, which will only open when he’s dead. Really, actually, dead. My other reasons come from Moffat’s previews. In the synopsis for Face the Raven, we’re told that one of the three main characters of the episode (The Doctor, Clara, and Rigsy) must die. With the recent reveal of Maisie Williams’ character appearing in the episode, she is another potential victim. Now, the most obvious choice to die is Rigsy, as he’s easily the most disposable of the characters. But two things about Episodes 11 & 12 make me believe the Doctor will be the Raven’s victim:

•  The Doctor is alone. Of course, this has happened quite a few times this series, but hear me out.
•  The titles of the episodes, Heaven Sent and Hell Bent. Both are death-­themed.

But the last time we had death­-themed titles, we were introduced to the Nethersphere, which we never actually found out the fate of. Could it be that, when the Doctor dies, his mind is uploaded to the Nethersphere? This would leave the Doctor a chance of survival, but allow his confession dial to open (as he is actually dead). The preview for Episode 11 also says the Doctor is in a world unlike any he’s seen, which could very well be the Nethersphere. 
So, the confession dial opens. But the big question is, what does it say? Here I have two thoughts. The first is fairly simple: the dial reveals that the Doctor broke one of his rules, on a spectacular scale, and this brought about the main villain of the finale (The Minister of War, perhaps?) 
But we have to remember, the confession dial is a will. It documents the Doctor’s last wishes. And it was not delivered to Clara, but to the Master. Why? Because only a Time 
Lord can carry out the instructions given in the Doctor’s will. Here, I turn to Clara.

We already know Jenna Coleman is leaving the show this series, so something is inevitably going to happen to her character. My question here is, what lengths might Clara go to if the Doctor was dead? I imagine she would almost definitely be in an extreme state of depression. Last season, we saw her lose Danny Pink, and one need only watch the first few scenes of Dark Water to see what that did to her. Imagine what kind of anguish she would be in if she were to lose the Doctor as well. She said it herself in Before the Flood, the Doctor is essential to her. So the Doctor would take precautions to ensure that she be spared this torment. How? By telling the Mistress to erase Clara’s memories of him, letting her move on and live a normal life (Which could lead to the d iner scene we’ve glimpsed in filming photos).

This brings us to the conflict of the episode. The Doctor is trapped in the Nethersphere, completely conscious, and knowing what might happen if he doesn’t escape. What if Missy decides she’d rather just kill Clara? Admit it, she would. The Doctor must escape before it’s too late.

And as Episode 11 draws to a close, the Doctor finds a way out of the Nethersphere. But like the bracelet Danny had, it’s one-­way, one-­person. And just as the Doctor is about to escape, guess who shows up? Clara, freshly dead (I’ll expand more on how next time). And for once, the audience actually fears for the lives of both our main characters.

Of course, the Doctor would never take such a selfish chance, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Clara forced him to. And it also wouldn’t surprise me if the Doctor wanted revenge on whoever or whatever killed her. Which would lead quite nicely into the question asked in Moffat’s synopsis of H ell Bent:

If you took everything from him, and betrayed him, and trapped him, and broke both his hearts… how far might the Doctor go?

Thus, Part 1 of my article draws to a close. “But what about the Hybrid!?” You ask. Don’t worry, I’ve not forgotten about it. I’ll be presenting my theory regarding the Hybrid in Part 2 of this article.

So, what do you think of my theory(ies)? Let me know in the comments! And be sure to check back tomorrow for Part 2, in which I’ll be examining a couple of theories regarding the departure of Clara Oswald.