Shortly before Doctor Who's three 60th anniversary specials premiered, key plot details for all of them found their way online (including confirmation of that controversial bi-regeneration). Now, another - unearthed by a user on the r/gallifrey Reddit page - may have pulled back the curtain on Ncuti Gatwa's stint as the Fifteenth Doctor.
The entire story for this month's Christmas Special is out there if you go looking, and while it's best to take this latest with a pinch of salt, we have good reason to believe it could be legitimate. Why? Well, the leaker in question was right about a lot of what we saw in "The Star Beast," "Wild Blue Yonder," and "The Giggle."
Before we get to the Whoniverse's potential new big bad, it's said (via SFFGazette.com) that Ruby Sunday's (Mille Gibson) boyfriend, played by The Little Mermaid star Jonah Hauer-King, falls for the Doctor as the series progresses. Showrunner Russell T Davies is supposedly looking to move away from the expected romance between the Time Lord and his female companion, and a love triangle is unexpected.
As for the larger arc he has planned for Doctor Who, it will reportedly see the Fifteenth Doctor regenerating into an evil version of himself called the Valeyard.
That's a real deep dive into Whoniverse lore as, in the original Doctor Who series, he was essentially a version of the Doctor who regenerated with his darker impulses no longer pushed down. The hero eventually managed to overcome and bury that facet of his personality, but it seems Davies now intends to put a new spin on the concept.
Somewhat confusingly, it's said a future version of the Fifteenth Doctor - perhaps the Fourteenth Doctor after he regenerates? - will then have to travel back in time to try and get the Valeyard to turn back into his heroic self, with Davies hoping to enlist several previous Doctor actors to send Gatwa's iteration out in style. Presumably, that means the actor is just sticking around for a three-season run (which seems to be the maximum in this modern era).
Finally, the leak also claims there are plans in place for the Daleks to return in next year's season 1.
We'll see if this leads anywhere but it's certainly intriguing to think about where Doctor Who could be taking us in the years ahead. Recently, Davies shared his thoughts on that big bi-generation twist leaking in advance.
"It’s kind of leaked. So a lot of fans will know about this, but that’s just fans," he said. "And my sister will still sit there screaming [because] there will be an awful lot of people who don’t know what’s going to happen. The vast majority. And it plays with them so much here. 'What’s going on?' What a laugh."
Doctor Who's Christmas Special, "The Church on Ruby Road," will premiere on BBC and Disney+ on Christmas Day.