Doctor Who has been around for such a long time, and juggles so many characters and storylines, that it’s surely not surprising it has more than its fair share of mysteries. Some of these have puzzled fans for literal decades, while others are mysteries that current showrunner Russell T. Davies is presumably planning to solve before the end of the season.
It’s fair to say that Doctor Who wouldn’t be the same without a mystery or two for fans to solve. Part of the fun of watching is trying to get one step ahead of the Doctor and work out what’s happening before he does. But not all the mysteries have neat tidy answers… or answers at all.
In the scene with 73 Yards, the woman is seen using British Sign Language (BSL) at various points throughout. The translations of her signs are as follows: “Bless you. Thank you so much, that’s so kind of you. When you gave me that little thing, it was just so precious. How am I ever going to repay you? But we will think of something.” This dialogue clearly ties into the overall plot, providing essential context and depth to the storyline.
When the viewer witnesses the transition into Tom Baker’s portrayal and sees the Doctor’s regeneration, Tegan remarks, “So he was The Doctor the whole time.” The narrative doesn’t offer any counterpoint to this revelation, which led me to interpret it as a projection of the forthcoming Doctor, similar to how Cho-Je functioned as a projection of K’anpo in the “Planet of the Spiders” episode. This interpretation aligns with the show’s established patterns of character projections and regenerations.
On a related note, I had a fascinating experience yesterday. I was contemplating the idea of WhoCulture creating a video about creepy or unsettling unsolved mysteries, both within the Doctor Who universe and in real life. Specifically, I was thinking about including incidents like the Max Headroom Incident. To my surprise, the very next day, a video on that exact topic appeared. What’s even more astonishing is that this unsettling event occurred nearly 18 years before I was born and in my home country, which makes the coincidence even more mind-boggling. It’s intriguing how sometimes our thoughts seem to align with external events in such uncanny ways.
