Doctor Who is back on our TV screens next Saturday, and now there’s a prologue out to whet our appetites.
We’ve had prologues and prequels before. Whatever you want to call them, they are great little teasers that help to set the tone of the upcoming season. The prologue released by the BBC today is nothing short of ominous.
Now, as anyone who watched last season knows, Peter’s Capladi’s rendition of the Doctor is not cute, cuddly, or warm. Matt Smith’s Doctor had the innocent and child-like playfulness. David Tennant’s Doctor was always quick with a smile and a witty turn of phrase. In the reboot era, Capaldi’s Doctor is a lot closer to the brooding Doctor that Christopher Eccleston provided with his take on the Doctor.
In today’s prologue, it’s obvious that something is weighing on the Doctor’s mind as the mystery woman who is with him talks about his history with others: friends and enemies.
Mystery Woman: “He has asked to see you, his servants seek you everywhere. Will you go?”
Doctor: “No.”
Mystery Woman: “Why do you always lie?”
Doctor: “Why do you always assume I’m lying?”
Mystery Woman: “It saves time. The truth. Will you go?…Did something happen? Was it recent?”
Doctor: “Yes”
Mystery Woman: “Whatever it was, you owe that creature nothing.”
Doctor: “He and I have known each other a long time.”
Mystery Woman: “You’ve been enemies for all of it.”
Doctor: “An enemy is just a friend you don’t really know yet…Sorry, was that me being cynical again?”
It would be easy to assume that, their above conversation references the Doctor’s longstanding, cantankerous, and complex relationship with the Master (Michelle Gomez). Despite being always at each other’s throats, and the Master’s propensity towards mass murder and destruction, there’s also definitely a love-hate dynamic that is mutual. The Doctor still wants to save the Master from him/herself.
The only potential sticking point is this Master theory, is that the conversation uses the pronoun “he” to reference this longstanding adversary of the Doctor’s. The last time we met the Master, the Master was a woman in the guise of Missy (Michelle Gomez). So, is the conversation of the Doctor and Master’s complex history, or not? Given that for most of their history the Master was a man, it could make sense for the Doctor to use a male rather than a female pronoun. At the same time, maybe we are all being played, and the conversation isn’t about the Master at all.
The other notable event that takes place surrounding these musings on friends and enemies is that the Doctor gives this mystery woman, who he clearly states that he doesn’t like, some sort of disc stating, “You know who to give that to. I won’t go straight away, I’ll hang out for a bit.” The mystery woman accepts the Doctor’s item.
Before their parting, the mystery woman warns the Doctor, “You are embarking on an enterprise that will end in your own self-destruction.” When the Doctor retorts, “You could say that about being born.” the woman replies, “Wherever you go, there are people who care enough to find you…Anyone can hide from an enemy, Doctor. No one from a friend.”