Russell T Davies, showrunner of Doctor Who, has explained why the legendary Time Lord, Omega, looked so different in The Reality War, the finale of the latest season.
Omega used to be made of antimatter and struggle with a corporeal form, being at one point invisible/not existing (The Three Doctors) and at another, looking like Peter Davison (Arc of Infinity). In The Reality War, he was a giant boney creature, apparently intent on eating his species.
Davies says:
“You don’t need a man in a big cloak when you’ve got Archie Panjabi and Anita Dobson being their own Time Lords [the Rani]! A third one was just going to make it slightly mad.
“These things do grow in legend. They become the legend. That is the point of the Wish World, and the point of the Underverse actually. It’s a continuing thing across the entire two series. That wishes and hopes come true.”
Of course, this sort of thing should’ve been tackled in the episode itself, not in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine, and if an additional Time Lord muddied things too greatly, you just don’t add that Time Lord.
Russell went on to say:
“You have to accept that 40 years have passed. The Time War came along and everyone’s history got changed. So that’s what Omega is now. You can reinvent it.”
Yes, time has passed, but this was the same episode with Billie Piper popping up, seemingly as the Doctor’s next face, so let’s not pretend the show isn’t leaning on its past. Similarly, “That’s what Omega is now” is similar to what Davies said about Davros’ return a few years ago.
Russell further added:
“There was plenty of fuss made about Winston Churchill being in Doctor Who [in Victory of the Daleks and, briefly, The Pandorica Opens], when there’s plenty of history to suggest he wasn’t such a good guy. And that’s always the way. Our history of slavery, our way of walking through the world, is constantly being re-analysed.
“So I like to think it’s the same on Gallifrey. That’s happened, over the eons; Omega has been recontextualised, and the story gets bolder and changes over time. We don’t want to repeat the past; we want to push it forward.”
There’s a lot wrong with that last bit. (Gosh, Churchill was a grey area, a life consisting of good and bad things — who’d have thought it?) So let’s not even bother to delve into it, eh?
Just shrug and move on, I guess…
