Doctor Who 10: 7 Big Questions About The Pyramid At The End Of The World
5. Is Donald Trump The POTUS In Doctor Who?
Doctor Who has always taken place in a parallel Earth, which
more or less reflects the real world. It’s a useful conceit to cover up
historical inaccuracies, so redolent in 1960s Doctor Who. It’s also caused confusion when it comes to dating
events, with much of 1970 Doctor Who being set in the 1980s. Trying to come up
with a consistent Earth chronology in the Doctor Who universe is nigh on
impossible.
This series has been notable for the sheer number of cultural references. Last week we learnt the answer to the Doctor’s question about what Nardole does in his spare time. He watches Star Trek and plays Grand Theft Auto. But some fans were disappointed that the dark-haired simulant POTUS was clearly not Donald Trump.
At the time of filming Extremis the US elections were still in full swing, so understandably the producers hedged their bets with an in-universe president who bore no resemblance to either Clinton or Trump. When it comes to US presidents, the Earth of Doctor Who mostly mirrors our own (e.g. Lincoln, Hoover, JFK, Nixon, Obama) though famously in The Sound of Drums, we were introduced to a fictional president in Arthur Winters.
Trump isn’t mentioned directly in Pyramid but when Bill takes a snipe at the ‘orange’ president the implication is clear. Why the simulated world of the Monks gets it wrong is hard to fathom, unless it’s set in a post-Trump future. It’s hard to argue that the simulation is wrong, given that it correctly predicted the end of the world as caused by the seemingly insignificant actions of a drink fuelled all-nighter and a broken pair of glasses.