Doctor Who Season 10: 6 Big Questions We're Asking After 'The Pilot'
2. So What's The Deal With Nardole?
In order to keep Pearl Mackie’s Bill centre stage, Nardole was in the background for most of the series opener. It would be a mistake to dismiss Matt Lucas’s character as the Jar Jar Binks of Doctor Who, only there to look stupid and to provide comic relief. The actor has already revealed that Nardole has a very specific reason for being with the Doctor, one which will become clear as the series develops.
The fact he is there at all is odd to say the least. Nardole is really only Nardole from the neck up. His head was cut off and turned into a surrogate for cyborg King, Hydroflax. In a manner reminiscent of the rogue Time Lord, Morbius, the Doctor put him back together again. Judging from the bolts falling from Nardole in The Pilot, he shouldn’t give up the day job.
Nardole had far more to do in The Return of Doctor Mysterio. There he seems to know the Doctor well enough to psychoanalyse him and is even able to fly the TARDIS. The Pilot adds little else, other than the fact that the Doctor clearly trusts his creation.
Described as an ‘anti-companion’ might he have something to do with the Master’s return? In 2005 the BBC produced Scream of the Shalka, a webisode starring Richard E Grant as the Doctor. The most notable aspect of Shalka was that the Master, voiced by Derek Jacobi, was now an android, having been rebuilt by the Doctor and forced into playing the companion’s role. The similarities are uncanny.