Image Credit: Thomas Barker

Image Description: Society President Victoria Walker unveils the predictions of Series Twelve after The Timeless Children

Victoria Walker examines what the Oxford Doctor Who Society thought might have been going to happen in Series Twelve

Another series, another set of WhoSoc predictions! As a society, we were lucky enough to once again be able to come together for, and discuss, a new series of Doctor Who, with many ideas flying about at each weekly meeting. In a change from our regularly scheduled predictions, we took the time to collect sealed envelopes before, and after, Fugitive of the Judoon. Some were right, some were wrong. Some were serious and some were seriously funny. So what exactly did WhoSoc predict for Series Twelve?

To set the scene, before Fugitive of the Judoon, we had been introduced to the Timeless Child arc, the Master had revealed that “everything you know is a lie,” and Benni was already a solid fan favourite. Despite this, we were still relatively in the dark, and so it was impressive that three different people correctly predicted that the Timeless Child would be the source of the Time Lords’ power of regeneration. Other successes included the prediction that the Doctor would once again square up against the Master towards the end of the series, with one member correctly placing him in the finale itself, while someone else,very rightly in my opinion, suggested that the reveal of the Timeless Child would be rather anticlimactic. There were also a few near-misses, such as one person predicting the existence of a secret Time Lord organisation running something behind the scenes, although they presumed the mastermind behind it would be the Timeless Child. A better insight into the history of the Time Lords was also correct, even though I don’t think they predicted the avalanche of deep lore we would be spoiled with. Interestingly someone suggested that the Timeless Child invented TARDIS technology, enabling time travel, which, depending what Tecteun got up to, could be right I suppose. To round out our Time Lord predictions, we have a couple that are truly arguable: the Time Lords are not all dead – which depends on how you consider the CyberMasters™ and if they, along with the Master, escaped Gallifrey – and the deep lore does not prove Lungbarrow, even if I honestly think it does. Despite her lack of development at this point, Yaz did pretty well in predictions, with speculation ranging from her leaving the show, us not being reminded she is a police officer and that she would not be central to any specific episode – only the latter of which is true.

We also asked for some less serious predictions. Of course, the Timeless Child once again made an appearance, with predictions suspecting that it was to be so timeless as to be born in Call the Midwife, which many argued to be true after Ascension of the Cybermen. The Timeless Child could also, according to WhoSoc members, been Adric, Omega, the Valeyard (sort of true!), any of the fam, Benni, or, in a missed opportunity from Chris Chibnall, be born from Gallifrey’s moon, which was secretly an egg, of course. Others stared into the untempered schism of lore, predicting that the Rani would return as an old man, or even the Watcher, the latter a projection of Graham this time. Indeed, eighties Who was doing pretty well in our predictions, with one member desperately hoping that the last thirty minutes of the finale would be Chris Chibnall finally reaching his ideal potential and remaking The Ultimate Foe part two. However, the nineties were not to be outdone, with many references to the New Adventures’ Looms being made. After Orphan 55, one predicted a speech to camera from Jodie Whittaker, who would proclaim that “Looms are canon, and Marc Platt was right.” On the other end of the spectrum, someone else said that Looms will not feature – which, while being technically correct, hides the fact they are now more likely than ever. Another hangover from Orphan 55 was new society favourite, Benni, who featured a couple of times. Some simply wrote his name down the side of the page, while a more pragmatic member predicted, very accurately, that he shall live on only in our memes. Looking to Chris Chibnall, one predicted that a post-Ghost Monument TARDIS would go rogue for a story, while there was a bold prediction of the finale’s title as: ‘The Battle of Kvlmngh Zhr Kmvth’ with the main villain named ‘Kvryc’ – clearly someone must have been away when all the vowels were being given out. 

We also took a selection of predictions after Fugitive of the Judoon, some of which ended up scarily close to the mark. One person suggested Jo Martin’s Doctor was from a parallel universe, which I would argue is correct, while many others suggested she was pre-Hartnell, with an intervening memory wipe, which is totally correct. The suggestion that Time Lords have been breaking their own laws was an astute, but not particularly difficult, prediction to make, while someone was determined to rock the boat of lore even further, suggesting that the Time Lords are some form of future humans. While it may seem far-fetched, the ending of The Timeless Children does leave open that possibility. Though we may have wished it, Captain Jack was correctly predicted to not make a return this series, while guesses that Rassilon and Borusa would be namedropped were on the money.

So, was the Oxford Doctor Who society right this time? Well, ish. With the wave of deep lore emanating from The Timeless Child, it’s hard to get anything right, but I think we did pretty well. I shall round this out with the only joke I have for after Fugitive of the Judoon (which has its roots in long and unnecessary discourse in our chatroom, An Unearthly Chat): “Vor foreshadows the Timeless Child, as the Time Lords ate her to gain her powers.”

The double issue of Tides 45/46 is, at time of publication, available to buy through this link