DOCTOR WHO Series 9 Gets a Prequel

A staple of Doctor Who in recent years has been that of prequels, or ‘in-between-quels,’ or epilogues, or spin-offs – pretty much anything that’s short and can be slapped online. These typically serve to set up an upcoming new series or episode, and in some cases have been pretty damn important (see: Night of the Doctor starring Paul McGann). The BBC have churned out another one for Series 9 – which starts next Saturday – and it links to the above prologue in a very interesting way.

In that prequel to Day of the Doctor, Paul McGann returned as the Eighth Doctor and visited the Sisterhood of Karn, where he drank some magical shit and forced his own regeneration into the War Doctor, because he daren’t call himself the Doctor while he went around shootin’ up Daleks in the Time War. This new short sees the Doctor returning to that same planet and meeting Ohila, the High Priestess of the Sisterhood. I’m not entirely sure what they’re discussing, but it’s very atmospheric and could be setting up something interesting in regards to the new series.

Because I’m incompetent and can’t embed iPlayer videos, click here to watch it on their website, or watch this YouTube upload I found which has a crappy introduction – and it’s for you folks who don’t live in the UK. Every cloud has a silver lining.

All of this talk of an ‘enemy’ who is also a friend and referring to him as a ‘creature’ suggests that this is all about the Master – or rather, Missy. It’s been a while since I was into the swing of Who speculation so I’m not entirely sure how this would all add up timeline-wise, however the idea of there possibly being some kind of Missy/Sisterhood of Karn sub-plot isn’t a new one, and I’d wager we could see perhaps even just a flashback of John Simm drinking some magical potion like No. 8 did. But really, I have no idea – that’s just my own inference from the clip.

However, the one thing I did take away from the prequel is how settled in Peter Capaldi feels as the Doctor. Whenever a new one comes along, you always spend the first series feeling attached to the previous guy and not really viewing whoever this new one is as ‘the’ Doctor. Capaldi now feels totally at ease in the role, and when I think of the character I think of him. He’s sarcastic and snarky and I love it. Bring on September 19th!!