10 REAL Mysteries That Would Make Great Doctor Who Episodes

6. The Identity Of D.B. Cooper

Doctor Who Tenth Doctor Charlie Chaplin time traveller
Public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)

From Breaking Bad to Loki, D.B. Cooper has been referenced in popular culture for decades.

On 24 November 1971, Cooper hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305. He claimed to be carrying a bomb and demanded $200,000 in ransom, and after securing the money during a brief stop in Seattle, the plane took off again. Around 30 minutes later, Cooper opened the aircraft's door, and escaped via parachute.

To this day, nobody has been able to track down Cooper, nor discover his true identity.

But hang on a second... a master of disguise with a penchant for aircraft? We know from Time Flight and Spyfall that the Master is partial to some casual airline piracy. Could D.B. Cooper be the Master? And if so, what purpose would they have for hijacking this Northwest Orient flight?

A thrilling 1970s-set Doctor Who story could answer this question. Imagine Ncuti Gatwa dressed in 1970s fashion, trying to stop the Master from detonating his "bomb" aboard the plane. An entire Doctor Who story set onboard a plane would be a great, budget-friendly idea in and of itself – think Midnight, but it's the Doctor versus the Master, 35,000 feet in the air.

The possibilities – like the list of D.B. Cooper's potential identities – are endless.

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Citizen of the Universe, Film Programmer, Writer, Podcaster, Doctor Who fan and a gentleman to boot. As passionate about Chinese social-realist epics as I am about dumb popcorn movies.