Doctor Who: Who is The One Who Waits?

The Giggle – the third and last of the show's 60th anniversary specials – saw the Doctor (David Tennant) once again face off with old foe The Toymaker (now played by Neil Patrick Harris).

The events of previous episode Wild Blue Yonder saw the Doctor unwittingly allow the Toymaker – an elemental force who exists beyond the rules of the universe – entry into our universe.

In The Giggle, the cruel Toymaker was able to provoke the Doctor into challenging him to a game – as the two prepared to match wits, the villain taunted the Time Lord with tales of his accomplishments.

"I came to this universe with such delight," he said. "I played them all, Doctor – I toyed with supernovas, turned galaxies into spinning tops, I gambled with God and made him a jack-in-the-box."

We even discover that The Master – last played by Sacha Dhawan in last year's The Power of the Doctor – fell foul of the Toymaker, losing a game to the villain and ending up trapped, apparently for all eternity.

But then, the Toymaker makes a confession: "There's only one player I didn't dare face – The One Who Waits.

"I saw it, hiding, and I ran."

The Doctor attempts to question the Toymaker further, but he shrugs off his earlier comments, telling his nemesis: "That's someone else's game."

So who is The One Who Waits?

The Toymaker is established as having power almost without limit, able to manipulate the atoms of the universe and conjure up his own magical domain – in The Giggle, we saw a shaken Doctor uncertain if he'll be able to best his enemy once again.

The fact then that, whoever or whatever they are, The One Who Waits is capable of striking fear into the heart of the Toymaker is pretty terrifying. Could an even more powerful being exist in the Whoniverse?

Interestingly, in a social media post made in October, the official Doctor Who account appeared to refer to the Toymaker himself as "the one who waits" – but it's made clear in The Giggle that he's referring not to himself but to some other figure.

Of course, the Toymaker isn't the only all-powerful, ever-living being to exist in the worlds of Doctor Who...

Making their debut in the 1983 story Enlightenment, the Eternals are a race of elemental beings of immense power, capable of manipulating matter and creating objects out of thin air.

These amoral creatures act purely for their own amusement, manipulating "Ephemerals" (read: mortal beings) for fun.

Then there are the Guardians, who first appeared in Doctor Who's 16th season in 1978, a series of interlinked stories which saw the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) on a quest to find the legendary Key to Time.

Transcendental beings who embodied aspects of the universe, immortal and indestructible, we met the White Guardian (Cyril Luckham) – who represented light, order and structure – and his eternal opponent the Black Guardian (Valentine Dyall) – the personification of darkness, entropy and chaos.

Most recently, 2020 episode Can You Hear Me? saw the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and friends lured into a trap by Zellin (Ian Gelder), an immortal "god" who was haunting the dreams of humans, all to feed his beloved Rakaya (Clare-Hope Ashitey).

Could one of these creatures, or something like them, be "The One Who Waits"?

It's also possible, of course, that Russell T Davies has invented an entirely new menace. In the episode The Star Beast, The Meep (voiced by Miriam Margolyes) revealed itself to be in the employ of a figure it referred to as "the boss".

David Tennant later admitted that he remains oblivious to the identity of "the boss", which suggested that this reveal would be held back until Ncuti Gatwa's time in the TARDIS.

The Meep's admission and the Toymaker's confession in The Giggle could be the start of something much larger and entirely unexpected...

Gatwa will return as the Doctor in 2023 Christmas special, The Church on Ruby Road, airing at 5:55pm on Christmas Day on BBC One.

The special will see the Fifteenth Doctor, played by Gatwa, take over the TARDIS and be joined by new companion Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson, with the pair encountering "mythical and mysterious goblins".

Doctor Who is available to watch on BBC iPlayer and on BritBox – you can sign up for a 7-day free trial here.

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