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Friday, October 10, 2014

Who Is Missy?

Ah, yes. The mysterious woman who keeps popping up at the end of this series's Doctor Who episodes, welcoming those who have fallen in the Doctor's wake to the afterlife.  Obviously, she's being set up to be the big bad, but just who is she?  And is it really heaven?

What follows is rife speculation on the identity of the mysterious Missy.

God.  I mean, it is the afterlife, and all.  Supporting this is that, when the cop who died in 'The Caretaker' looks out the window, he says 'My God.' We then cut to a quick shot of Missy crossing a hallway, and Oliver Reeder says something to the effect of  'She's busy today', which suggests that she is meant to be some kind of god--whether the big G Herself or just the god of death/the underword, we'll have to see.

The Devil.  There's really only two other ways the above scene could play out.  If Missy isn't in charge of actual heaven, there's always the other place.  So what's she doing collecting all the perfectly innocent who've died around the Doctor?  Creating his own personal hell, maybe? Or....

Nicola Murray. The worst DoSAC secretary the goverment has ever seen (maybe she's aged/had plastic surgery/is secretly a Time Lady?) and Oliver team up spectacularly to get their revenge on Malcom Tucker. I mean, the Doctor does keep wondering where he's seen his face before....

River Song. Can we really be sure we've seen all of her regenerations? We know that she and the Doctor have a wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey relationship, so maybe Missy is a past incarnation of Melody Pond out to ensnare the Doctor. I mean, she does call him her boyfriend after all.  And why do we assume that this afterlife is a physical place?  Mightn't it be a giant library database? And as to why she has a different face if this is after River died, well, wibbly-wobbly bullshitty-wullshitty.

Another 'Psychopathic' Woman with a Love/Hate Relationship to the Doctor Who Is Basically River Song.  You know, just like the one in 'The Time of the Doctor'.  I mean, Moffat's been pretty good this series about not using his worn out crap (or, at least, if using it, using it in fresh ways), so we're due a let down sooner or later.

The TARDIS. In this case, Missy would be an interface for the time-and-space machine, collecting souls/memories of all the people for who knows what reason.  Storing up faces for the Doctor to use in future regenerations, maybe? Moffat has said this season we'll get to find out why the Doctor looks an awful lot like a couple of guys we've seen already in the Whoniverse.  Although I don't particularly care for this one, it's got two things going for it.  A) The TARDIS pretty much is the Doctor's girlfriend, and B) storing dead people in the TARDIS memory banks actually makes sense.

The Rani.  We've had Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Davros, Silurians, Ice Warriors.  What classic villains are left? No, not the Zarbi! The evil genious Time Lady who's the Doctor's old school friend (the other one) turned... um... third? most important arch nemesis!

Another Random Time Lady. Ever since the show came back in 2005 people have been crying for the return of Romana/Susan/Flavia/Iris Wildethyme, etc.  Heck, who says Missy even has to be a formerly female character? She could be the Monk, the War Chief, Omega, or even....

The Valeyard.  Yes, the evil version of the Doctor that's supposed to spin off between his 12th and 13th regeneration.  Peter Capadli is the 12th Doctor, but thanks to Handy (a.k.a. Metacrisis Doctor), he's the Doctor's 13th regeneration.  So... IT IS TIME.  WHERE IS THE VALEYARD, MOFFAT?? WHERE ARE THEY???

All this is rather interesting, but there's one rather obvious answer that I've saved for last.  If feel that, quite probably, Missy is....

The Master.

If you look at it, it's pretty obvious.

First of all, we haven't seen the Master since 'The End of Time Part 2'.  Moffat's due a Master story.

Second, gathering up people who've died in the Doctor's name, probably to torment him? Sounds like a Master-ish thing to do.

Third, she's wearing all black, or at least dark colours.

Fourth, she calls him her boyfriend.  I mean, have you not seen that phone conversation in 'The Sound of Drums'? I mean, the Master's always trying to get the Doctor's attention, so why wouldn't he have been like, 'Well, if you like your Earth girls so much... *goes all glowy*'

Fifth, a female Master would be a good way to open people up to the possibility of a female Doctor in the futre.

But finally...

MISSY = MISTRESS = MASTER

I mean, it does rather stare you in the face, once you realise.

Personally, I think a female Master would be brilliant.  And if she's not brilliant, at least she couldn't possibly be as bad as when she was American.
Sweet Jesus, no, please no.