10 Doctor Who Mysteries You Didn't Know Were Answered
You've heard of Chekhov's gun, now meet Steven Moffat's duck pond...
Doctor Who is the question that must never be answered, but that's no excuse for leaving so many unanswered questions all over the place for the past 60 years. However, the answers to some of these mysteries have been provided – you just need to know where to look.
In the modern media landscape, it seems like every screenwriter is interrogated in the press, forced to explain any glaring "plot holes" or bits of ambiguity. We've seen Russell T Davies do this at San Diego Comic-Con recently, trying to diplomatically answer an ill-tempered question about the Shalka Doctor.
Often, various mysteries remain unanswered due to production reasons – lines of dialogue being cut for time, filming locations being unavailable, things like that. It's frustrating, but it's an unfortunate reality of making a TV show as demanding as Doctor Who.
Thankfully then, our Doctor Who showrunners, actors, and writers of spinoff media are always on hand to explain what the answers to some of these tantalising mysteries are, while other answers are easily missed within the show itself!
10. Who Was The Woman In Abu Dhabi?
There are a couple of lines in The Star Beast that feel like they might be setting up something for the future, such is the curse of online discourse. For example, was Donna's assertion that you should never trust a man with a goatee a hint that the Master was around, or was it just some solid life advice?
Also, Donna's extended riff on the grown woman from Abu Dhabi who is "obsessed with gonks" never went anywhere in The Star Beast, or the remainder of the 60th anniversary specials.
It's been theorised that she might've been one of Sutekh's Susan Triad minions, but this was never explicitly stated. So who was this mysterious woman? And why was she obsessed with gonks?!
Well, Gary Russell's novelisation of The Star Beast reveals the woman's identity as Leila Krishnam. It's revealed that Leila's father is very impressed by Rose's work, and that her gonks make Leila the envy of all her friends.
So quite why Rose has to slum it doing admin work for UNIT on weekends rather than establishing thriving business links with Abu Dhabi to sell her toys is anyone's guess.