Doctor Who Series 12: Ten Huge Questions After The Haunting Of Villa Diodati

5. Do Ghosts Exist In The Doctor Who Universe?

Ryan speaks for many a long-in-the-tooth fan when he says there will be a logical explanation, there always is. It is the Doctor Who way - introduce a mystery or miracle and then provide a scientific or alien explanation. Ghosts, especially, have been debunked on numerous occasions, such as when the Cybermen from the void were mistaken as such in Army of Ghosts. So it was a fun twist in the tale when, at the close of the episode, we were reminded that Graham had seen two ghostly figures who had nothing to do with the Cyberium’s psychic activity or the lone Cyberman.

Graham’s ‘ghosts’ even leave him with some much needed food in the material world. The Doctor, early in the story, dismisses ghosts as mythical creatures, but by the end she teases that maybe the girl and woman were phantoms after all. The Doctor will know and accept that there are apparitions all over the universe. She encountered one type on her home planet Gallifrey – the cloister wraiths. How they come to exist and what they are made from is a different ‘matter’ altogether.

Speculation that tries to explain their appearance is all over social media, including the idea that the girl could be another incarnation of the Doctor – or the Timeless child. But there should be room for the unexplained, and it would be an unnecessary joining up of the dots if Chibnall does go there.