Doctor Who Season 10: 7 Big Questions After 'Extremis'

7. What Was Real And What Was Part Of The Simulation?

The quick answer would be that the only real world events are the flashback scenes with Missy’s execution, and the Doctor receiving the e-mail in the pre-credits sequence, and acting upon it at the end of the episode.

That will have disappointed some who liken the episode to those ‘it was all a dream’ stories so hated by Russell T Davies. But of course it isn’t quite that simple. For starters the results of the simulation experiment lead the Monks to start the real world invasion. And secondly, the Doctor’s sim has found a way of getting the message out there. By the end of the story, both sides have good reason to think they have won. The Doctor has exposed the plot and the Monks have flushed out the biggest threat to achieving their plans for world domination.

But on a more philosophical level, we are being forced to question what is real. The sims might be limited by a lack of randomness, effectively demonstrated by the ‘pick any number’ game, but they are designed to be real enough to have the potential to break out of the system, and to cross into different portals, like Nardole and Bill. At the end of the day, the real question is ‘what is reality anyway?’

Just as with the ending to Last Christmas where a doubt is raised as to whether the dreams have ended, so too here alternative realities may still be in play, perhaps even colliding with each other. A quick glance at the synopses for the next two episodes suggests this may well be the case.