Doctor Who Season 2 is proving to be a real treat for classic era fans. First, Episode 6, “The Interstellar Song Contest,” confirmed the long-standing fan theory that Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson) was The Rani. The character even bigenerated a new incarnation, played by Archie Panjabi. Second, Doctor Who is treating fans to two Ranis in the Season 2 penultimate episode, “Wish World.”
Throughout her full episode, Panjabi delivers an outstanding performance as the rogue Time Lady. In this case, Panjabi commands the presence of the original Rani, played by Kate O’Mara in the 1980s. This is a nice contrast to the more whimsical Mrs. Flood.
The Rani’s plan for the Doctor Who Season 2 finale, however, is even more exciting for classic era fans: she plans to bring back Omega, the first Time Lord. This effectively confirms the other fan theory about which Time Lords are returning for the finale.
Omega, the First Time Lord, Explained
Omega originally debuted in the Doctor Who Series 10 story “The Three Doctors.” This story also celebrated the show’s 10th anniversary in 1973. Also known as Peylix, Omegon, and Ohm, Omega was believed to be one of the original founders of the Time Lords. In most Gallifreyan records, Omega was depicted as the solar engineer whose scientific theories facilitated time travel technology. More specifically, Omega developed the supernova that gifted the Time Lords with the ability to travel through time and space.
Ironically, this technology also proved to be Omega’s undoing. When he blew up a star as part of his work on time travel, his starship, the Eurydice, was compromised in the explosion. This sent Omega down the black hole to the antimatter universe, where he remained until the arrival of the Second and Third Doctors. The malleable nature of the antimatter universe allowed Omega to mold it to his will like a god. Unfortunately, this also ate away at his body, which left Omega without a form.
The events of “The Three Doctors” revealed that isolation took a toll on Omega’s mental health, and decided to return to his source universe – the positive matter universe. Unfortunately for the three Doctors, Omega had no intention of reclaiming his place on the Time Lord High Council. Instead, he sought to destroy his native universe as retribution for his perceived abandonment by the Time Lords. This mentality was further exacerbated by Omega’s belief that he should be a god.
Omega Is Doctor Who’s Most Dangerous Time Lord
Realizing that Omega’s return to the positive matter universe would be catastrophic for all life, the Second and Third Doctors were forced to kill the ancient Time Lord. They achieved this by giving Omega a force field generator containing the Second Doctor’s recorder. In knocking down the generator in anger, the recorder fell out of the force field. This caused the recorder’s positive matter to interact with antimatter, which destroyed the antimatter universe.
Omega managed to survive the explosion, but remained trapped inside the antimatter universe for another decade. His second and last known attempt to leave this dimension occurred in the Series 20 story, “Arc of Infinity.” In this story, he did successfully leave the antimatter universe with the arc of infinity, but not for long. Despite taking on the appearance of the Fifth Doctor, his new body began to quickly disintegrate. It turned out his transference from the antimatter universe to the positive matter universe was not as stable as he thought. This forced the real Fifth Doctor to once more send Omega back to the antimatter universe.
With The Rani now looking to destroy the positive matter universe to access the antimatter universe in “Wish World,” this will do more than bring back Gallifrey’s deadliest Time Lord. It will also force Doctor Who to revisit a question from Jodie Whittaker’s era: Who is the actual first Time Lord?
Omega May Once More Address the Timeless Child Question
As far as the Doctor is aware, he is the original Time Lord. As he learned in Series 12 (2020), his adoptive mother, Tecteun, stole his DNA to create the Time Lord race. Bringing back Omega seems to hint at Russell T. Davies retconning Tecteun and the Timeless Child as the original Time Lords. But since Davies fully embraced the Timeless Child storyline, this may not be the case. He may instead seek to bridge the gap between Tecteun’s creation of the Time Lords and Omega being the first Time Lord.
Apart from the fact Davies consistently acknowledged the Doctor as the Timeless Child in his second era, he’s also been hinting at Omega’s return since the 60th anniversary specials. The Meep already teased his return when it said its “boss” was “interested in a being with two hearts.” Likewise, the Doctor invoked a superstition at the edge of the universe, where he encountered the Not-Things. The Not-Things were aware of the Flux event destroying part of the universe, effectively weakening it. Additionally, the Toymaker was able to escape his dimension and enter the universe.
Does The Rani Know The Doctor Is the Timeless Child?
Not only has Davies been building off of the Flux, but godlike entities entering the universe is continuing to explore the consequences of that event. Since the Master was the first to become aware of The Doctor being the Timeless Child, he may be the reason The Rani is choosing to finish the job Tecteun started in Doctor Who: Flux.
Since the Rani has always been science-minded, she may be seeking the straight answer to the origin of the Time Lords question. Did it start with The Doctor or Omega? Is Omega a past incarnation of The Doctor before his mind wipe by Division? There are many places Davies could go for the Season 2 finale. Whatever ends up happening, there’s no doubt it’ll lead to a shocking revelation.
Doctor Who airs new episodes every Saturday.
