Doctor Who Flux: 10 Huge Questions After The Vanquishers

Like a soap opera that keeps promising a reveal, dragging out a tired storyline as long as possible, Chris Chibnall has repeatedly teased the audience with opportunities for the Doctor to get her lost memories back. This week, the Fob Watch that supposedly contained them was opened to great fanfare. But instead of a new revelation, we were greeted by a familiar rickety old house. The Doctor had already seen it twice, once when Swarm made a psychic connection with her and later when she travelled through time with the Mouri. It suggests that the house could be accessed independently of the watch.

It’s a physical form to keep the many forgotten lives of the Doctor inside, but its spooky appearance adds to the fear that these memories are going to be bad ones. It doesn’t help that in a conversation with Karvanista, the Doctor discovers that she once abandoned him. The Doctor is known for blocking out aspects of her past that she is ashamed of, even pretending that the War Doctor was not a genuine incarnation (The Day of the Doctor). But in this case the memory wipe was carried out by the Division, to protect their secrets not the Doctor.

Part of her still wants to open the Fob Watch, but she decides to make that easier said than done by throwing it deep inside the TARDIS. So is that the end of it then? Will events leading to her regeneration overtake any nagging desire to open the watch and step inside that house?

It will feel like a huge cop out from the writer to just let this one go, so it’s unlikely to be the end of it. There are various scenarios that could play out. The TARDIS could be adversely affected by the watch, someone else could still get hold of it – Yaz, or perhaps even the Master. But can we trust its contents even if we do get to see inside the house?