The penultimate episode of Doctor Who season 11 aired tonight and it brought with it a rare link to the show’s wider history for the typically standalone Jodie Whittaker era. And in doing so, it may’ve just answered a mystery that fans have been wondering about for years.
The main threat of episode 9, “It Takes You Away,” turned out to be the Solitract – essentially, a sentient universe that’s separate from our own. The Doctor was bowled over to encounter it as she revealed to companion Yaz that she’d been told bedtimes stories about it as a child by her grandmother. Apparently, the Doctor had seven but “Granny 5” was her favorite and the one who told her about the Solitract.
We’ve never heard about this apparently important woman who played a key role in the Doctor’s development before. Or at least, we thought we hadn’t. Back in David Tennant’s two-part swansong, “The End of Time” though, a mysterious Time Lady known only as The Woman flits through the story attempting to help the Doctor without him knowing. During the big showdown, the pair finally meet and exchange a long meaningful look, clarifying that these two have history.
So, what if The Woman was actually Granny 5? This idea was pitched by Digital Spy and actually syncs up pretty well. Writer Russell T. Davies has said in the past that he intended her to be the Doctor’s mother, but wants fans to make up their own minds, too, so the Granny 5 theory is a valid one if you want to make it your personal head canon.
If you’re wondering how the Doctor can have multiple grandparents, the exact rules of Time Lord families have yet to be explained, but you could theorize that the character’s using the name as a term of endearment rather than to describe someone with a biological connection to her. 2014’s “Listen” depicted the Doctor as a lonely boy sleeping in the barn of a Gallifreyan orphanage, so maybe the seven grannies were kindly women who worked there?
When put together with the “timeless child” stuff from episode 2, it seems that showrunner Chris Chibnall might be going somewhere with this talk of the Doctor’s childhood. Maybe there’ll be more to come on the topic in the Doctor Who season 11 finale or the New Year’s special? Time will tell, but for now, you can color us intrigued.
