Tags: Doctor Who »»»» Doctor Who Season 12
When Capt. Jack told us about a single remaining Cyberman, and The Master told us about the Lie of the Timeless Child, and we saw Gallifrey destroyed, and we met a previously unknown Doctor incarnation, we knew that season 12 would be a game changer. As is usual for Doctor Who, what any of this means is extremely inscrutable until we see it aired on television, and of course even that will leave lots of unfilled details. For now, we have episode titles for the rest of Season 12, and most of the synopses, so let the guessing games begin.
NOTHING HERE IS BASED ON ANYTHING OTHER THAN STATEMENTS FROM THE BBC. THERE IS NOTHING HERE FROM OTHER SOURCES LIKE ON-SITE PICTURES DURING FILMING ETC. NO SPOILERS IN OTHER WORDS.
The complete show information for Season 12 is (thanks to Wikipedia and the BBC):
| Title | Synopsis | Directed | Written | Airing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spyfall, Part 1 | Intelligence agents around the world are under attack from alien forces, so MI6 turn to the only one who can help: the Doctor. | Jamie Magnus Stone | Chris Chibnall | 1 January 2020 |
| Spyfall, Part 2 | In part two of this epic spy thriller, a terrifying plan to destroy humanity is about to reach fruition. Can the Doctor and her friends escape multiple traps and defeat a deadly alliance? | Lee Haven Jones | Chris Chibnall | 5 January 2020 |
| Orphan 55 | The Doctor and her friends discover that the luxury resort where they are holidaying is hiding a number of deadly secrets. What are the ferocious monsters attacking Tranquillity Spa? | Lee Haven Jones | Ed Hime | 12 January 2020 |
| Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror | 1903. Who or what is sabotaging Nikola Tesla's generator plant at Niagara Falls? And has this maverick inventor really received a message from Mars? | Nida Manzoor | Nina Metivier | 19 January 2020 |
| Fugitive of the Judoon | Ko Sho Blo! Trigger-happy space police the Judoon are targeting 21st-century Gloucester. The Doctor, Yaz, Ryan and Graham race back to Earth in order to prevent them doing too much damage to the cathedral city. But who are they looking for, and what did they do to incur the wrath of the Judoon? | Nida Manzoor | Vinay Patel and Chris Chibnall | 26 January 2020 |
| Praxeus | What connects a missing astronaut in the Indian Ocean, birds behaving strangely in Peru and a US naval officer who washes up on a Madagascan beach? Team Tardis investigate. | Jamie Magnus Stone | Pete McTighe and Chris Chibnall | 2 February 2020 |
| Can You Hear Me? | From ancient Syria to present day Sheffield, and out into the wilds of space, something is stalking the Doctor and infecting people’s nightmares. | Emma Sullivan | Charlene James and Chris Chibnall | 9 February 2020 |
| The Haunting of Villa Diodati | Lake Geneva, 1816. Lord Byron and the Shelleys prepare for a night telling ghost stories, but their villa proves to have ghostly presences all its own. | Emma Sullivan | Maxine Alderton | 16 February 2020 |
| Ascension of the Cybermen | ? | Jamie Magnus Stone | Chris Chibnall | 23 February 2020 |
| The Timeless Children | ? | Jamie Magnus Stone | Chris Chibnall | 1 March 2020 |
As of writing this the most recent episode was Praxeus, and Can You Hear Me is due to be aired tomorrow.
During the season there were a couple bombshell pieces of information:
- In Skyfall 2 we had The Master telling us about The Lie of the Timeless Child and how everything they'd been told about Gallifrey and the Time Lords was a lie
- Skyfall is not Skyfail in Doctor Who Season 12 first episode
- Skyfall 2 tries to have us forget The Redemption of Missy thanks to The Master's violence
- Did The Master kill UNIT in Doctor Who Season 11?
- The Master destroys Gallifrey because of a lie about The Timeless Child
- The Ruth-Doctor's and The Master's discovery of the 'lie of the Timeless Child' launches Doctor Who into massive rewrite
- The Timeless Child was first mentioned in The Ghost Monument during Season 11, but the description there was vague and inscrutable just as was The Master's statement.
- In Fugitive of the Judoon, Capt. Jack Harkness delivered a warning about The Last Cyberman, telling us about how the Cybermen were apparently finally about to be defeated. But there is a single surviving Cyberman, and apparently The Doctor was to not trust that one, and not give it what it wanted.
- In Fugitive of the Judoon, we met a previously unknown incarnation of The Doctor
The synopses of Can You Hear Me? and The Haunting of Villa Diodati do not suggest that either story will contribute to understanding what is coming.
In Doctor Who Magazine #548, Chris Chibnall was interviewed and said:
“Ascension of the Cybermen is set at the end of the great cyber war. This is a conflict that’s reduced both the Cybermen and humanity to barely anything. It’s the last remnants of the Cybermen against the last refugees of humanity in this corner of the universe. These refugees are on the run from the particularly relentless and ruthless Cybermen who are on their trail.”
Okay, this is vague and unclear - but - we've never heard anything said before about The Cyber War. What might that be?
In the same article, Chibnall refused to say anything about the final episode, nor anything further about The Timeless Child.
The season finale is a two-parter, meaning that The Timeless Children should be connected to Ascension of the Cybermen as a joint story. Especially as the two episodes have the same director and writer.
