Speculating on Series 9’s Big Cliffhanger (Part 1)
Guest contributor Sam Glover provides some theories.
Recently I compiled a run-down of my personal favourite cliffhangers in Doctor Who as preparation for series nine. Steven Moffat has gone on record as describing the cliffhanger towards the end of this year’s run as a “whopper” and one that he doesn’t think we’ll see coming. Well, with a healthy dose of “we’ll see about that” mixed with “if this is wrong hopefully people will have forgotten about it”, I thought it’d be worth looking at some possibilities. Let’s start with the more obvious ones and work our way out, shall we?
Gallifrey
This seems the most likely point to return to as a series arc, given its semi-prominence since “The Day of the Doctor”. It was obviously the major plot point in that episode and “The Time of the Doctor”, and was crucial to the Doctor at the end of “Death in Heaven” going into “Last Christmas”. So what cliffhanger would involve Gallifrey? The simplest would be… well, Gallifrey returning. Whether it’s coming through a crack in the skin of the universe, being dragged from a parallel universe a ‘la “Journey’s End” or another explanation, the physical and permanent return of the Time Lords, Ladies and Gallifreyans would shake up pretty much everything.
However Moffat is quite clear: he’s sure we won’t see it coming. So what else could a cliffhanger involving Gallifrey involve? Another possibility would be a return of a very much changed planet, for example one where the time war is still going, or the population of the planet is drastically different to last seen. Maybe those left behind have formed very strong ideologies based on the Doctor’s actions. After all, in “The Time of the Doctor”, Clara tells the Time Lords that they should “love him”, and subsequently they help him cheat death. Going back to “A Good Man Goes To War” (and the “first question” plot) there is emphasis on what the word “Doctor” could come to mean.
Returning Villain
Well, we know Missy is returning at some point. Given the speculation concerning Gallifrey the return of other characters would be made possible, particularly other Time Lords. Omega was given a passing reference in “The Day of the Doctor”, the Doctor himself has played something resembling the Meddling Monk, Rassilon hasn’t been seen since “The End of Time” and Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor could well be due for a meeting with the Valeyard. A moment with any of these – particularly the Valeyard – would be massive. The oft-mooted return of the Rani is also possible, as is a plotline involving the Guardians of Time (perhaps incorporating the Celestial Toymaker and even Fenric). There’s always Davros and those pesky Daleks who could so easily have escaped the rampant destruction in “Day/Time of the Doctor” as well.
Away from “classic” monsters and the Time Lords there are “modern” villains who could be due for a return. Madame Kovarian and the Silents might have some mileage left in them. Of late there have been many concepts of dreams, memory and of reality so they or the Dream Lord would be well placed to take responsibility for events that have already happened. What if Robin Hood was a Dream Lord invention? What if the dream crabs of “Last Christmas” have been in place for some time? What if the memory worms are more than a simple plot device? That notion could open up possibilities dating all the way back to “The Snowmen”. I don’t think that’s the case as it would set up many, MANY problems, but it would make for a serious rethink, particularly regarding Clara. We’ll get to her later.
Returning Companion
Where do we start? There are so many companions both modern and classic that could comfortably hold a cliffhanger on their own that I can’t possibly list them all. Of the classic era many have begged for the return of Susan – and it’s easy to see why. Left on Earth by the First Doctor, she has cropped up both in person and by name in many other Doctor Who media (such as the now-part-of-the-canon Big Finish series as well as comics), but was last seen on screen in “The Five Doctors.” Is her story done? We know where Ian Chesterton is if nothing else.
Of the RTD-era companions the top contenders must be Captain Jack Harkness, Martha Jones and Jenny (possibly throwing in Lady Christina and Donna Noble, though the former may not be “famous” enough and the latter appears to have run her story). Seeing the Doctor reunite with Jenny would be particularly sweet, and it would certainly be interesting should she get the opportunity to interact with Gallifreyans. John Barrowman has said he’d return “at the drop of a hat”, so there’d be no problem there, and his return would open up room for Martha and Torchwood especially. River Song and Rose’s stories are surely over.
For any of the above to fit Moffat’s criteria they’d almost certainly need to appear in a guise not seen before – possibly even as antagonists. What if Jack’s exploits had driven him over the edge? He’s certainly been through enough – just watch “Children of Earth” and “Miracle Day”. What if Martha’s freelance has set her at odds with her previous UNIT employers? What if what if what if… The details aren’t as important as the conflict itself. The closest we’ve come is Clara’s betrayal in “Death in Heaven”; and whilst it proved short-lived the sequence was fantastic for its “what the hell?” moment.
Clara
Jenna Coleman’s future had been up for much debate until very recently when her presence for the entire of series nine was confirmed, and one sure-fire cliffhanger would be Clara’s death. There have been several criticisms of “dead” characters not really being “dead” (Rose, Rory, Amy, Rory, Clara herself, Rory, Jack, Rory), so seeing Clara definitively killed off before the last episode could be devastating. There would also be great scope for how she died. The dynamic built between Clara and the Twelfth Doctor has been built so that each holds the other in equal esteem, so how much harder would her death be for the Doctor should her fate come directly through his own actions? I can’t help but think that the “good man” theme from Series 8 is one set to continue into Series 9, but his resolve could not be tested much harder than such an occurrence.
Her death wouldn’t be the only way that Clara could change things. I think it is unlikely that Moffat would retread Series 6’s path, but it is possible Clara is pregnant. We don’t know exactly how long it was between Danny Pink’s death and the end of “Last Christmas”, but the scope is certainly there for Clara to be pregnant and not yet showing. If Orson Pink is, as was quite strongly hinted, Clara’s distant descendent, she would NEED to be pregnant before Danny’s passing. Unlike Amy’s this pregnancy would surely need to be a visible one from the beginning of the series (or near it): the “Amy is a ganger” reveal from “The Almost People” isn’t one Moffat could really go near again.
She COULD, however, be a distant descendent/relative of someone. Someone who has referred to her as “my Clara”. Someone who put the Doctor and Clara together in the first place, and kept them there. Someone like Missy. One of the criticisms for “Death in Heaven” was Missy’s motive for keeping Clara and the Doctor together: a “control freak” for “the man who can never be controlled”… Could there not be a more straightforward, utterly parental, reason: she knew that the Doctor would keep Clara safe. This is Doctor Who, anything’s possible. [By complete coincidence this line of thinking would make a nice visual echo between Clara jumping into the Doctor’s time stream and The Master disappearing with Rassilon during “The End of Time”.]
A last potentially unexplored mystery around Clara is her relationship with the TARDIS. It has been noted more than once – particularly during series 7b – that the TARDIS and Clara haven’t exactly got on all the time. There’s an entire minisode devoted to the TARDIS making life difficult for Clara by hiding her bedroom. Some think this conflict was tied up in “The Name of the Doctor” with Clara jumping into the Doctor’s time stream – in doing so she became so entangled with the Doctor’s past and future that the TARDIS doesn’t like it. If that ISN’T the case we’d be left wondering why there is this conflict. Could it be that the TARDIS has sensed something in Clara’s future that’s potentially harmful to “her Doctor”, and she’s trying to stop it? After all, the TARDIS has always “taken the Doctor where he needed to go”…
The possibilities above are, vaguely, in the realm of “the plausible”. Come back for part two where we veer into less likely waters…
