Doctor Who Series 8: Who Exactly is Missy?

Villordsutch wonders who exactly Missy is in series 8 of Doctor Who….

Missy

Within series 8 of Doctor Who a recurring character has appeared, already giving this season its first obvious story-arc, and I am cautious to use the word “menacing” as anybody that serves tea and cake in my book isn’t high on the evil scale.  The character in question has given herself the moniker of Missy (played by Michelle Gomez) and as yet we know not one thing about her except she claims to be the boyfriend of the Doctor. That and she likes to bring a select chosen few – who have fallen near the Doctor – to the Promised Land/Heaven.

TARDIS The Rani

 

Being a Doctor Who fan of old I have my own theories of who Missy could be.  My bets are the TARDIS itself from the Doctor’s Wife, who is in the process of removing certain people at the moment before they are killed (as we witnessed the Doctor do similarly with Journey Blue), in an attempt to return them at a point to either judge or save the Doctor sometime in the near future. Or The Rani, a Time Lord, whose morales are somewhat questionable. However what are the five top theories on who exactly Missy might be? For that answer I turn to the Doctor Who social networks to see what they think…

The Eternals (namely Death) (Suggested by Mik Furie)

The Eternals

The Eternals were encountered way back in the Fifth Doctor story “Enlightenment” where the race of Eternals had become so bored that they where amusing themselves by using human beings for entertainment. They were at the time competing in a Edwardian-themed, space-yacht race in an attempt to win the knowledge and wisdom of everything.  Mik Furie suggests that in this case it may possibly be the Eternal, “Death”, who has stalked the Doctor, and plagued him within the expanded Lore of Doctor Who books.

The Master, the old adversary of the Doctor (Suggested by Nil Zero)

The Master

The last time we saw the Master (played by John Simm) he was fighting with Timothy Dalton in the final David Tennant episode. It was here that the Master supposedly fell back into a time-locked Gallifrey never to be seen again.  As fans of Who will know the Master is not one for staying dead – even when he is out of regenerations, he’ll just take somebody else’s body.

River Song

River Song – suggested across two boards by Rebecca Brotherton & Akeel M

We haven’t seen River Song since the goodbye kiss with Matt Smith in “The Name of the Doctor”, however I doubt myself this could be River as to my knowledge if Missy was claiming anything she’d claim to be the wife of the Doctor.

Tasha Lem

Tasha Lemm and The Papal Mainframe

Another connection across the boards congregated around the idea of Tasha Lem and the Papal Mainframe (suggested by Mik Furie and Stephie Buckingham).

Both Tasha Lem and the Papal Mainframe were last seen in the Matt Smith Christmas Special, “The Time of the Doctor”.  Tasha Lem was the Mother Superious of the Papal Mainframe, and both she and the Doctor and know each other extremely well; so well that she is allowed and can pilot the Doctor’s TARDIS.  The Papal Mainframe itself is a space church with its own military force.

Clara Oswald

Clara Oswald

The final and I’d say best suggestion (over than the evil Mary Poppins from IrishDalek124) is that Missy is in fact Clara Oswald herself.  This theory was given again from two boards from the brains of Travis Ridenour and Michael Shannon.

Travis highlights that the Garden in the Promised Land/Heaven looks similar to where Amy Pond was trapped in “The Girl Who Waited“. So it could be a case of Clara has once again been forgotten and become trapped in the same Medical Centre, and here she has learnt how to manipulate it and capture those people, to possibly later teach the Doctor a lesson.  Michael too feels it’s an aged alternate Clara as she was the woman who gave Clara the Doctor’s phone number, but that’s just his guess. After thinking about it I am erring toward Clara or the TARDIS as this does sound like a very possible final closing chapter with the rumoured departure of Jenna Coleman during this series.

Who do you think Missy is? Let us know your thoughts below…

Thanks to the communities at:

The Doctor Who fan community on Google+. Bigger on the inside.

Doctor Who The only Doctor Who community you’ll ever need.

The Whovians The Doctor Who Sanctuary

Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit hiswebsite and follow him on Twitter.

 

Originally published September 3, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.