Doctor Who: 10 Huge Questions After Spyfall Part One
7. Who Was O?
Sacha Dhawan, of Marvel’s Iron Fist fame, played the role of
O. Named as such because Stephen Fry’s C used to say ‘Oh god’ whenever he came
into the room. But all was not as it seems, for on his first day at MI5, before
he’d even set foot in the door, the new employee was replaced by the Doctor’s
nemesis, the Master.
We know very little about O’s life before the Master switched places with him, not even his real name. O, also known as Horizon Watcher, was the Master from the start. The Doctor had met him once in a former incarnation but says she had kept in touch via text. She was even able to hook up with him via WhatsApp. She knew the real ‘O’ was a good runner in his youth, but was completely taken in by the Master’s fake identity, even though she warned her fam to trust nobody.
It is also odd that despite the advanced tech that O was using, the Doctor never questioned his background. If the house was the Master’s TARDIS, how did the Doctor not realise it? The real O, miniaturised by the Master’s Tissue Compression Eliminator, was kept as a trophy inside a matchbox and then casually discarded once the Master had showed his handiwork off to the Doctor.
We don’t know how many years the Master carried on the disguise, but it’s hard to imagine him wanting to maintain a family life in another person’s skin. There’s a good possibility he selected a loner, someone with minimum social connections. If he did have a family, there is no evidence that any of them questioned his hermetic lifestyle.