10 Doctor Who Fan Theories That Became Fact
6. Sutekh Clung To The TARDIS
Steven Moffat wasn’t the only modern showrunner who canonised one of his own fan theories.
Though the recent revelation that fearsome God of Death and very bad doggo Sutekh had been hitching a ride on the TARDIS ever since his apparent ‘death’ at the end of the 1975 serial Pyramids of Mars was a tad unnecessary and made Doctor Who history even more convoluted than it already was, it did at least allow Doctor Who super-nerd Russell T Davies to formally introduce an idea he’d had in his head ever since he was a child.
Speaking during the official video commentary for Empire of Death, RTD explained that from the very first time he watched Pyramids of Mars in the ‘70s, he’d believed that Sutekh, who was banished to a space-time tunnel by the Fourth Doctor, had simply jumped onto the Doctor’s TARDIS when it entered the time vortex moments later.
Almost 50 years and a full RTD Doctor Who era later, he finally introduced this theory into Doctor Who canon in the Season 1 finale, while completely failing to address questions like, “What happened to Sutekh when the TARDIS exploded in Frontios and The Pandorica Opens?” and perhaps more importantly, “Was the Twelfth Doctor sitting on top of Sutekh in Listen?”
Forget Mrs Flood, those are the questions that need answering!