Adam Kendrick looks through the predictions for Series 15 which members of the Oxford Doctor Who Society sent in before broadcast.

On 26 February 2025, the BBC confirmed that Ncuti Gatwa’s second series of Doctor Who (henceforth referred to as Series 15) would return in mid-April, leaving fans on tenterhooks with six weeks filled with speculation and rumours. It had already been known for nearly a year that the Doctor would have a new companion called Belinda, played by Varada Sethu. Varada had already appeared as an Anglican Marine called Mundy Flynn in Boom (2024). And there were still plenty of questions to ponder over. Would we finally find out who Mrs Flood really was? Which villains would make a return from the past? And could the Doctor suddenly regenerate in the series finale? To put the Oxford Doctor Who Society’s collective powers of precognition to the test, we reached out to members and asked them once again to send us their predictions for what they thought would happen based on press releases, episode titles, official synopses, trailers, and gut feeling. In total, we received 90 individual predictions ranging from the eerily accurate, to the completely outlandish, to the cerebrally metatextual.

General predictions

Before we cover the predictions for individual episodes, we’ll start with some general guesses. It was once again predicted that Mrs Flood would turn out to be the Rani, a long-running fan-theory which was finally confirmed in The Interstellar Song Contest, and that as the main villain of the series, she would be responsible for the Doctor losing control of the TARDIS. However, it wasn’t true that Mrs Flood was responsible for bringing Belinda and the Doctor together, much like how Clara and the Doctor were paired up by Missy in Series 7. Moving on to UNIT, two members suggested that Kate Stewart and Colonel Ibrahim’s relationship, seemingly established during the climax of Empire of Death, would be further developed. One member guessed that UNIT would incur a stern reprimand from the Doctor after being caught doing some shady business involving aliens kept inside jars, while another expected Susan Triad to return as UNIT’s newest tea lady – something which became true in Wish World. Speaking of possible returning characters, although the foretold return of Roger Ap Gwilliam from 73 Yards (2024) did not happen, a different member successfully predicted that Carole Ann Ford would make a surprise cameo appearance as Susan Foreman, 60 years after leaving the TARDIS. Indeed, the Doctor’s granddaughter made brief appearances in The Interstellar Song Contest and Wish World (but curiously enough, not The Reality War), although the Doctor has yet to fulfil his promise to one day come back (Big Finish’s An Earthly Child (2009) notwithstanding).

One lengthy prediction suggested that the entire series – and indeed, everything which had happened since The Church on Ruby Road (2023) – would ultimately be revealed to be “a false reality taking place inside a TV show.” Both Ruby and Belinda have soap opera-style mysteries and it was possible that “the adventures have been heightened for in-universe TV ratings.” According to this fan-theory, Mrs Flood would represent divine entertainment (or perhaps the God of Stories, as another member suggested). However, the culprit behind the false reality would ultimately be either The Trickster from The Sarah Jane Adventures or the Gods of Ragnarok from The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (1988). Another fan similarly predicted that the cliffhanger to the series finale would consist of “the Doctor stumbling on a TV set playing his own intro theme”, perhaps mirroring the continuity announcer that was briefly heard introducing a new science fiction series in Remembrance of the Daleks (1988). Surprisingly enough, Lux would feature a scene where the Doctor and Belinda escaped from a television set and discovered that they were supposedly fictional characters from a much-loved television show, although this was ultimately revealed to be a mere trick by the God of Light.

The Robot Revolution

Most of the predictions submitted before The Robot Revolution focused upon Belinda Chandra’s possible background and characterisation rather than the plot itself (with the exception being the member who predicted a Terminator-style plot about alien robots travelling backwards in time to prevent organic life from spreading beyond the solar system). Two members guessed that Belinda was a distant ancestor of Mundy Flynn, with this revelation inspiring her to be similarly brave; while the bloodline between these two characters was explicitly confirmed during the episode’s final scene, their “amazing” genetic link was left unexplained. Another member, highlighting the lack of casting announcements for her parents and other family, speculated that Belinda would turn out to be an orphan whose parents passed away during lockdown (similar to Joy’s mother in Joy to the World) and as a result, motivated her to dedicate her life to nursing work; however, Belinda’s own parents were mentioned to be alive and well, with her mother appearing in both Wish World and The Reality War (with her father’s scenes being cut entirely). Finally, there was a rather pessimistic prediction that Belinda would experience a particularly traumatic adventure which would cause her to stop enjoying her travels with the Doctor and ask him to take her back home – right before heading into the series finale.

Lux

All the predictions which were submitted for Lux addressed the possible identity and motivation of Mr Ring-a-Ding, a cartoon character from the 1930s who comes to life and was seen climbing out of a cinema screen during the trailer. The most accurate fan-theory was that he would be revealed as The God of Movies and wanted to enter 1950s America to experience the real-world. Another member guessed less successfully that Mr Ring-a-Ding would be “a fading cartoon star whose popularity peaked in the 1930s and decides to make a comeback in the 1950s by breaking the fourth wall.” Multiple predictions suggested that while he would not be an evil character, he would nonetheless cause chaos through cartoon antics, such as dropping anvils onto people’s heads and leaving deadly banana peels on the ground. As for the animated segments which were briefly seen in the trailer, one member ambitiously proposed that this would be the result of Mr Ring-a-Ding erasing the actual episode itself, in a metatextual nod to how many of Doctor Who‘s missing episodes have since been reanimated. Finally, there was one member who thought that the episode would act as a commentary on fandom, but that it would be “specifically how fans expect science fiction to be fossilised in the past and not ever change. Mr Ring-a-Ding will symbolise conservatism.” While Lux did indeed offer some fandom commentary during the scene where three Doctor Who fans met their hero in person, the tone was more heartfelt and celebratory by comparison.

The Well, Lucky Day, and The Story & the Engine

The episodes which aired halfway through the series didn’t receive too much attention, possibly due to a lack of pre-broadcast information. The Well received a solitary prediction that wondered whether this episode would be inspired by The Ring (1998) on the sole basis that the latter features a well from which a vengeful monster climbs out – something which isn’t too dissimilar from what happened on the planet 6-7-6-7. With Lucky Day, the scene in the trailer in which Ruby Sunday speaks with her presumed boyfriend in a cafe led to speculation that the Doctor’s previous companion had been body-swapped or otherwise turned evil, while one member highlighted the significance of the TARDIS landing in London 2007 – perhaps the Racnoss from The Runaway Bride (2006) would make another return? Sticking with oversized arachnids, we had an incredibly close prediction for The Story & the Engine; a member guessed from Inua Ellams’s background and the episode’s Nigerian setting that the giant Spider would be the Akan god, Anansi, a new addition to the Pantheon but one portrayed sympathetically, with the real villain being somebody else. As it turned out, the story’s antagonist, The Barber would briefly claim to be Anansi (amongst other gods) before admitting that he was merely the storyteller who helped spread their myths before being cast out, eventually being treated as a more sympathetic character. This same member also predicted a light-hearted reference to how film prints of missing Second Doctor serials were discovered in Nigeria (specially, Enemy of the World (1967-1968) and The Web of Fear (1968) in 2013). If there’s anything that unites our members, it’s a sense of metatextual humour!

The Interstellar Song Contest

Naturally, lots of members predicted that The Interstellar Song Contest would lean into the tropes of Eurovision, such as the Doctor himself performing on stage and either winning the contest or receiving nul points – the lowest possible score was also predicted for the United Kingdom (or at least its successor state or planet). Some fans were hoping for an oblique reference to, if not an outright remake, of Bang-Bang-A-Boom! (2002), a Big Finish audio in which the Seventh Doctor and Mel solve a murder mystery backstage at the Intergalactic Song Contest. More accurately, one member believed that the episode would become the darkest of the entire series despite its cheerful presentation, while another predicted a song which would result in disaster if sung, similar to the Carrionite plot from The Shakespeare Code (2007). Considering that the villain’s plan was to kill three trillion lifeforms by broadcasting a Delta Wave across the galaxy, a heinous act that led to him being repeatedly electrocuted by an enraged Doctor, both these predictions can be considered as wins. Finally, while the Turlough fan who had hoped that Mark Strickson would make a cameo appearance as Trion’s representative would have been left disappointed, a special mention must be given to whoever submitted my personal favourite prediction for this series – that Rylan Clark, the television personality who played a fictional version of himself, would have “a massive emotional arc, give an incredible performance and pivot to serious acting”.

Wish World

As the end of the series drew near, viewers witnessed Mrs Flood bi-generating into a new incarnation of the Rani, played by Archie Panjabi. Noticing the immediate subservience to her younger counterpart, two members predicted that “Mrs Flood will eventually get fed up with being bossed around by the Rani and turn against her. With the Rani defeated, Mrs Flood then returns to being a friendly, cryptic neighbour who periodically breaks the fourth wall.” Another member suggested that the blending of reality and fiction since Wild Blue Yonder (2023) would allow Dimensions in Time (1993) to be canonised, although this was achieved through the inclusion of a short clip of Kate O’Mara during a montage rather than “a brief aside about the time the Doctor and Rani were trapped inside of a soap opera.” With regards to the enticing title, there was a prediction that the Wish World would turn out to be the Land of Fiction from The Mind Robber (1968), with Mrs Flood revealed as the Mistress of the Land of Fiction. More successfully, it was predicted that Conrad Clark would return and have opinions which were “so awful that they cause the Earth to self-destruct out of sheer cringe.” As for the return of Poppy from Space Babies (2024), perhaps the space babies would become “populators of a new Gallifrey” or be revealed as a laboratory experiment – or maybe the Doctor would give birth to a space baby through his forehead, mirroring how Athena was born from Zeus in Greek mythology.

The Reality War

With the stakes raised, it was up to our members to guess what exactly would happen during the series finale. Predictions that either Mel or Conrad would be killed off, with the latter being thrown under the bus by the rest of the Unholy Trinity within the first ten minutes, failed to materialise. Other members guessed that Belinda would initially leave the TARDIS but then change her mind afterwards, much like Tegan in Resurrection of the Daleks (1984), or that she would “be shortchanged”. Two different members predicted that the Daleks would make a surprise return so that Ncuti’s Doctor would finally face them; although the episode included archive footage of the Third Doctor being interrogated by the Daleks in Day of the Daleks (1972), the Fifteenth Doctor has yet to encounter his greatest enemies on-screen. With the impending return of Omega, one member unsuccessfully guessed that he would actually be Susan communicating telepathically with the Doctor, while another correctly guessed that, having insisted that he “should have been a god” in The Three Doctors (1972), “he will become one, probably for five minutes as a CGI monster.” Finally, another fan predicted that “Deep Lore will be changed and fans will argue for the next few years while we wait for another series” (to which, I can only suggest that readers look up the original ending which was allegedly planned for this episode).

With the future of Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor in question at the time and a potential hiatus on the horizon, many of our members’ predictions focused upon the uncertain future of the show. Guesses for the final scene ranged from an open-ended conclusion a la Survival (1989), the Doctor announcing that he would take Ruby and Belinda to Blackpool, and the Doctor regenerating, possibly by “absorb some kind of Pantheon/God energy” and concluding the long-running Pantheon storyline, before ending with “a freeze frame of the regeneration since no replacement has been announced”. It’s safe to say, therefore, that very few members beyond those who follow the rumour-mill would have foreseen the return of Billie Piper!