Doctor Who Flux: 10 Huge Questions After War Of The Sontarans

6. What Did The Doctor Do To Knock Out The Soldier?

At one point in the episode, the Doctor, very politely it has to be said, takes down a soldier with one finger, making the poor man’s eyes look almost alien-like before he collapses into a deep sleep. That particular effect seemed new, but it’s not the first time the Doctor has poleaxed someone so easily.

The third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee was something of a master of Venusian Aikido and one of the moves involved touching a pressure point on the neck to paralyse an assailant. Chris Chibnall brought that particular move back to the Doctor’s repertoire in The Ghost Monument, where the Doctor only needed to use one finger. She calls herself a ‘grandmaster pacifist’ trained by clever Venusian nuns.

What might be significant is that this is another point of comparison between the Doctor and the mysterious Azure and Swarm. Whilst the Doctor’s hand is not as brutally destructive as theirs, it’s tempting to wonder whether there is a relationship between the apparently supernatural powers on show. Could the Doctor’s training be a cover story, masking the true origins of her powers?

In Arachnids in the UK, the Doctor did tell Yaz she had sisters once, adding ‘I used to be a sister, in an aqua hospital. Actually turned out to be a training camp for the Quistin Calcium Assassins’. It could be nothing, a throwaway reference to an untold adventure, but you never know… Chibnall is redefining the Doctor’s roots and at this stage we cannot be sure of anything.