A version of this feature was first published in 2025.
Following the news that the Doctor Who Christmas special has been cancelled and that the show is being put out to competitive tender, fans are understandably wondering what’s going to happen to the various storylines left up in the air.
Ncuti Gatwa’s last season of Doctor Who brought a number of long-running plot threads to a close, including the identity of the mysterious Mrs Flood.
However, following on from the dramatic season 15 finale, there are still plenty of threads left hanging – and we’re not just talking about that major Billie Piper-shaped cliffhanger.
So, as showrunner Russell T Davies steps back, and we await more news on Doctor Who’s future, here are all the unanswered questions we have.
7 Doctor Who questions that need answering following The Reality War
1. What the Billie Piper?
Obviously, the biggest question fans will have following The Reality War is what on Earth (or not, as the case may be) is going on with the Doctor’s latest regeneration.
The final moments of the episode saw Ncuti Gatwa regenerate in the TARDIS, stood in the doorway looking out to the vast universe and to Nicola Coughlan’s Joy, still a star in the sky.
As the regeneration energy faded from the Doctor’s face, the new incarnation was revealed as being played by none other than Billie Piper!
Piper, of course, most notably played Rose Tyler between 2005 and 2008, and returned in 2013 as the Moment, a Gallifreyan weapon and artificial intelligence which had taken on the form of Rose to appear to the War Doctor.
When she returned, it appeared she may have been cast as the next Doctor.
However, there was a big caveat to that. Where previously, Doctors have usually been credited in their opening episode with the words “Introducing X as the Doctor”, The Reality War’s credits simply said “Introducing Billie Piper”.
Could this be some sort of twist, where Rose has somehow hijacked the Doctor’s body from the parallel world on which she lives with her family (and another David Tennant Doctor – there’s a whole lot of lore to get into here).
Will we ever find out?
2. What happened with Susan?
Carole Ann Ford’s return in The Interstellar Song Contest was monumental, but as it turned out, short lived.
The Doctor’s granddaughter Susan appeared to him in a vision in that episode, speaking on board the TARDIS and guiding him to go back to the space station. The Doctor seemed to shrug this off, and he never divulged what he saw to Belinda, or in fact anyone else.
She later appeared briefly on a TV screen in Wish World, but in The Reality War, in spite of seemingly everyone else turning up, Susan was absent.
So why was Susan calling out to the Doctor? Where is she? And will we see her again?
Speaking to Radio Times following her return, actress Carole Ann Ford said of the finale: “It was quite different to how we had filmed it. We’d filmed it the year before, and I had to pop back and do some extra filming, which I couldn’t do with everybody else, which I was really disappointed about – I was in America at the time.”
She added: “I think enough people out there know by now that something extra was filmed and wasn’t shown.
“So yes, of course there were a couple more [scenes] which, because of some changes that had to be made, didn’t make sense once the changes have been made. So they obviously had to film something else that went with those changes.
“[It’s a] shame though – I’d love to have done it, and the bit I did do, I really enjoy doing, and I love seeing it. I sort of looked as if I was floating in space. And you’ve still got to find me, grandfather! I’m waiting for that!”
3. Who is The Boss?
This one has been a slow burn, ever since the first episode of Russell T Davies’s new era of the show. In The Star Beast, the Meep noted that the Doctor having two hearts is “such a rare thing”, before saying it would tell “the boss”. The Doctor noted this was “cryptic” and that he hated it.
Since then, little has been heard about “the boss”, whoever it is. There was one brief potential mention in the episode Rogue, in which the title character told the Doctor that his “job has so much paperwork ever since we got that new boss”.
The most recent mention came in The Reality War, when Time Hotel manager Anita, upon departing the 21st century, told the Doctor that “They say hello, by the way”. When the Doctor asked who does, she simply replied “The Boss,” leaving the Doctor confused and concerned.
Given the show’s recent track record of returning villains from the classic era (Sutekh, the Rani and Omega), we wouldn’t be at all surprised if this turned out to be another. Maybe it’s the Master, somehow pulling the strings once more across time and space (more on that later).
There were multiple villain teases to come out of the show’s 2023 specials, from the Toymaker’s legions to Mrs Flood. The boss is one of the only ones remaining.
4. What now for Mrs Flood?
Midway through The Reality War, Archie Panjabi’s newly bi-generated version of the Rani freed Omega, only to be immediately gobbled up by him.
This left her previous incarnation, known as Mrs Flood and played by Anita Dobson, still alive. As the Doctor made Omega aware of her presence, she simply said, “So much for the two Ranis. It’s a goodnight from me!”, before putting on her time travel/teleportation device and getting out of there.
Will we see her again?
5. Is Rogue dead and will we ever see him again?
Things weren’t looking so good for the dashing bounty hunter and the Doctor’s love interest when last we saw him.
After sacrificing himself at the end of Rogue, that episode’s title character returned in Wish World, having become stuck in a “hell dimension”. He told the Doctor the dimension was “sliding into the pit” and that he didn’t know if he was going to survive.
So will we see him again, to find out what happened to him? Unfortunately, this love story seems like one which might be slightly doomed.
Rogue’s story was so intrinsically linked with the Fifteenth Doctor that having him pop up again to meet the next Doctor, whether it’s Billie Piper or anyone else, likely wouldn’t have the same effect, or recreate the dazzling chemistry Jonathan Groff shared with Gatwa.
There’s also the matter of the actor himself. Groff is a pretty big star, surely not an easy get, and with some pretty filled up schedules. It’s not impossible he could return to Doctor Who, but right now it just doesn’t seem likely.
6. What happened to the tooth containing The Master?
While the Master had seemed to perish in 2022’s The Power of the Doctor, it was revealed in The Giggle that he had been snatched out of time by the Toymaker, forced to play a game in order to extend his life, but had lost. Following this, he had been trapped in the Toymaker’s gold tooth.
When the Toymaker was defeated by the 14th and 15th Doctors, he was banished from reality, but the tooth remained, falling to the ground on the UNIT tower. It was subsequently picked up by a mysterious, unseen figure with red-painted fingernails.
Since then, nothing has been heard of the Master, which isn’t hugely surprising. Davies has largely avoided using the show’s most iconic villains, including the Daleks and Cybermen, in his new era.
Davies told RadioTimes.com in 2023: “The Master is kind of parked for the moment. There’s been a lot of the Master recently, so it’s time to start again and have a fresh start to the show.”
This means he currently falls in to the same category as the Rani – ready and available to come back, with a fairly simple explanation, but that might not happen imminently.
7. Will we ever see Ruby and Belinda again?
For now, it seems Ruby and Belinda’s stories have come to a close.
Belinda is now raising her daughter Poppy, and her journey is complete. She had wanted to get home all season, and now she’s back. At the end of The Reality War, she asked the Doctor whether she would ever see him again, and he said that he hoped she would, but there’s no certainty there.
Meanwhile, in a behind-the-scenes video, Davies has noted that Ruby’s journey has come “full circle” by the end of the episode, with her family having been expanded by the addition of a new baby, Joseph, who was previously the God of Wishes, but now was purely human.
In that same video, Gibson noted that Ruby was now “chilling with her band”, but that she could also have a job with UNIT. Davies said she could now “lead her own stories”.
This perhaps means Ruby’s return is more likely than Belinda’s. She has more ties to UNIT and the rest of the Doctor’s world than Belinda, and seemingly has more of a taste for adventure.
Put these two in with the Master and the Rani. They’re currently “parked”, it would seem, but in the world of Doctor Who, where the Doctor’s first ever companion Susan just returned 62 years after she was first introduced, never say never.
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