Doctor Who Series 10: 7 Big Questions We're Asking After 'The Eaters Of Light'
2. Can The Doctor And MIssy Become Friends Again?
“That’s the trouble with hope. It’s hard to resist.”
The Doctor clearly knows that his mission to save Missy is unlikely to end well. He may have put an end to the Time War and saved the universe itself from destruction, but this is by far his biggest challenge yet. Is Missy truly redeemable and if so is the Doctor really the best person to be acting as facilitator and confidant?
From a starting point of mutual respect and grudging admiration, the conflicts between the two Time Lords have become increasingly psychological in recent years. No longer content with outmanoeuvring each other in a straightforward good versus evil struggle, they are hell bent on becoming allies. Up to now, the Master has been more driven by that cause than the Doctor.
Missy has tried various schemes in her efforts to turn the Doctor, gifting him with both a Cyber-army and the control freak companion, Clara. But every single one of them has been doomed to failure. The only chance of the two restoring a friendship lost since childhood, would be if the Doctor took the lead. Hope in Missy’s salvation is so tempting for him, because if he can harness her latent goodness, then he’d be saving himself too. As it stands, Missy is the personification of what the Doctor could easily become, and as much as anything, he could do without the reminder.
Could the Doctor have more success than Missy? He certainly seems to be making a difference and in case we doubted the genuineness of her tears in The Lie of the Land, this time she’s at it again as she dares to hear the song of the gatekeepers. But the omens don’t look good: with another Master set to return next week, the Doctor might soon be finding himself hopelessly outnumbered. The BBC have tweaked an old 50th anniversary photo of three Doctors by replacing them with the Master, Missy and the Twelfth Doctor. A hint perhaps that the Doctor will be the one to turn?