Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary Specials have officially concluded! The final special, “The Giggle”, brought the Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna Noble’s (Catherine Tate) story to a close. It also finally introduced Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor after being announced in May 2022. Not only did we see new doctors, but we also got some cryptic clues to an upcoming sinister new villain. It seems that Doctor Who Sets Up a New Villain in The Giggle. A villain that even The Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris) was too scared to face. Who could this be? Could it be a returning villain or someone brand new? Let’s break down everything we know so far…
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
The Toymaker’s cryptic line
The Toymaker returned triumphantly to Doctor Who after 57 years in the final special “The Giggle”. They wreaked havoc across the human race and caused everyone to believe they were right. This was due to the puppet Stooky Bill’s giggle embedding itself into everyone’s brain. During all of this, the Doctor challenged The Toymaker to a game. The Toymaker began talking about the destruction he’d caused across the universe. “I turned galaxies into spin-tops”, “I gambled with God and made him a jack-in-the-box”.
He then came across someone while in hiding. “The one who waits”.
Not much was said about who this is other than The Toymaker ran from them. After the Doctor asked who it was, The Toymaker said, “That’s someone else’s game”. That means that it’s someone so sinister even The Toymaker was scared to face them. Who could have that much power? It seems that this could potentially be a recurring theme throughout the Fifteenth Doctor’s era.
Who could it be?
Whenever Doctor Who starts dropping cryptic hints about a new villain, we know that it’ll lead to an explosive reveal. So, who is “the one who waits”? In the first Doctor Who 60th Special, “The Star Beast”, The Meep mentioned their ‘boss’. In the in-vision commentary, the executive producer Phil Collinson said that this ‘boss’ will be a big event in the next series. Could the boss be someone employing other villains to do work for them? A bit like the Division. Someone so adamant at bringing down the universe/the Doctor.
This is an interesting one. After the Master loses one of The Toymaker’s games, he traps them inside his gold tooth. It hasn’t been long since we last saw the Master, after appearing in Jodie Whittaker’s final episode, causing her Doctor to regenerate. However, Russell T Davies did say in the commentary for “The Giggle” that the Master isn’t coming back in the next couple of series. Even if “the one who waits” isn’t the Master, this seemed to set up some return in the future…
After Both Doctors had defeated the Toymaker, his gold tooth fell out. Then, a mysterious hand picked it up. Whoever this is, it looks like a callback to when someone picked up the Master’s ring at the end of series three.
A new powerful elemental being?
”The one who waits” could be anyone. It has a broad spectrum of meanings. However, one option could be that it’s a sinister elemental being with immense power. There have been elemental beings in Doctor Who before, including the Black and White guardians who first appeared in 1978 during the 16th season, appearing a further two times.
More recently, during 2020’s “Can You Hear Me?”, the Thirteenth Doctor fought an immortal ‘god’ called Zellin who was haunting humans’ dreams.
Looking to the future
The next series is set to bring many new villains to the show. Including ‘The Duchess’ played by Indira Varma, who still remains a complete mystery. Could they all be connected to ‘the one who waits’? Are we getting another Professor YANA moment? When it comes to Russell T Davies, he’s partial to a series theme, and it looks like we’re getting a whole new one. Whoever ‘the one who waits’ is, let’s hope we don’t have too long to wait to find out who they are. We’ve also got Jinkx Monsoon‘s mysterious character. Perhaps they picked up The Master’s ring?
Doctor Who returned on November 25th 2023, with “The Star Beast“, the first in three special episodes as the show’s 60th Anniversary headliner event. David Tennant returns as the 14th Doctor alongside Catherine Tate as Donna Noble. Ncuti Gatwa’s first episode as the Fifteenth Doctor will air over the festive period, while his series 14 will debut in 2024 with Millie Gibson. Disney+ will be the exclusive home for new Doctor Who seasons outside the UK and Ireland.
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