'Doctor Who': 7 Unresolved Plot Threads From The RTD 2 Era

After months of speculation, fans have received confirmation that the next Doctor Who Christmas special, originally scheduled for release for Christmas 2026, has been cancelled. Unfortunately, the Christmas special cancellation did not come as a surprise.. historically, the specials would have already been filmed and in post-production at this point in the year to have a chance at a Christmas release.

What did come as slightly more of a surprise was Russell T. Davies decision to depart the series, ending his second tenure as Doctor Who showrunner. Davies' production company, Bad Wolf, has also ended it's partnership with the series. Usually, the showrunners have wrapped up most major storylines introduced during their tenure before they leave the show, or are at least leaving a complete story arc.

Unfortunately, this era, dubbed RTD2 by fans, is ending with quite a few threads left hanging.

1. The Meep's Boss

The RTD2 era opened with a trilogy of specials celebrating Doctor Who's 60th anniversary, starring David Tennant, previously The Tenth Doctor, as new incarnation The Fourteenth Doctor, and Catherine Tate as returning companion Donna Noble. The first special, 'The Star Beast', a loose adaptation of a 1980 comic strip, features The Doctor protecting, and then battling, a character known as Beep the Meep.

After Beep is captured and is about to be transported to prison at the end of the special, it cryptically promises to report it's encounter with The Doctor to 'The Boss'. Fans assumed the identity of this Boss would be a recurring sub-plot, but apart from Time Hotel employee Anita also mentioning a mysterious Boss. in Season 2/15 finale 'The Reality War', the matter has been left unresolved.

2. The Master trapped in The Toymaker's Gold Tooth

The third anniversary special, 'The Giggle', featured the long-awaited return of Classic Who villain The Celestial Toymaker. During a game with The Fourteenth Doctor, The Toymaker claims he once defeated a dying Master at a game, and trapped them inside his gold tooth as his victory prize.

When The Toymaker is defeated and imprisoned, the Gold Tooth is left behind. An unknown, seemingly female hand collects the fallen tooth.

Many fans assumed that the salvaged tooth foreshadowed The Master's release and return at some point. However, the identity of the woman who picked the tooth up was never revealed, and The Master, apart from the reference in 'The Giggle', is entirely absent from the RTD2 era.

3. Rogue's whereabouts

'Rogue', the sixth episode of series 14, details The Fifteenth Doctor's encounter with Rogue, a time travelling Bounty Hunter played by Jonathan Groff, at an English Ball in 1813. Once Rogue establishes that The Doctor is not the shapeshifting alien Chuldur he had been hunting, the two agree to work together, forming an unexpected romance. Some fans even theorised that Rogue may be the next River Song.

Unfortunately, the romance is cut short when Rogue makes a heroic sacrifice, allowing himself to be zapped to a parallel world in place of Ruby Sunday. Before disappearing he asks that The Doctor come find him, but The Doctor tells Ruby that given the sheer number of Parallell universes, finding Rogue is unlikely.

Rogue appears one more time in series 15, in a brief cameo in 'Wish World', where he is seen on Television attempting to deliver a warning to the trapped Doctor. Rogue himself remains trapped in an unnamed Hell dimension, where, sadly, he will most likely stay.

4. The Return of Susan Foreman

During season 1/series 14 of Doctor Who, The Fifteenth Doctor is briefly led to believe that the mysterious inventor Susan Triad may actually be Susan Foreman, the granddaughter he left behind many years before in the First Doctor story 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth'. This doesn't turn out to be the case.

However, in series 15/season 2, beginning with the episode 'The Interstellar Song Contest', The Doctor experiences occasional visions of Susan Foreman, played by original actress Carole Anne Ford, asking him to come find her.

Originally, 'The Reality War' was going to end with the reveal that Susan is the child of Poppy, The Doctor and Belinda's miracle Human-Time Lord hybrid daughter from the Wish World. Footage of this reveal may even have been filmed. Sadly, when delays and uncertainties prompted Fifteenth Doctor actor Ncuti Gatwa to leave the series, 'The Reality War' ending, and as it turned out, the ending of the RTD era, was rewritten entirely to accomadate Gatwa's regeneration.

This means that Susan's story is left up in the air.

5. Kate Stewart's inner darkness

Since her official onscreen introduction during the Eleventh Doctor era, Kate Stewart, current head of U.N.I.T and daughter of The Doctor's late close friend Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart, has been a steady, reliable recurring figure in The Doctor's adventures. However, over the course of Doctor Who series 14 and 15, fans took note of the fact that Kate seems to be becoming increasingly jaded and reckless in her work.

This path seemed to be continuing in Sea Devil-centric spin-off The War Between Land and Sea (currently unaired outside of the U.K). Some fans believed this could lead to a darker era or even a villain arc for Kate, but with the sudden end of RTD2, it's most likely just another dangling thread.

6. No Goodbyes for Ruby Sunday

Ruby Sunday, The Fifteenth Doctor's first companion, ends her regular travels with him at the end of Series 14. However, they make clear that this is not intended to be a permanent goodbye, and Ruby continues to appear in the series on a recurring basis throughout series 15, now working for U.N.I.T.

Ruby plays a vital role in series 15's two-part finale, 'Wish World'/'The Reality War'. She is one of the only characters to realise that Conrad's wish world isn't real, and it is Ruby's wish that is used to restore true reality. In 'The Reality War', Ruby is the only one to remember Poppy when she disappears, convincing The Doctor to shift reality to restore her.

When his plan is complete, The Fifteenth Doctor, soon to regenerate, makes a visit to Belinda Chandra and the restored, now fully human Poppy for a final farewell. However, Ruby Sunday does not get a similar visit.

Some fans hoped the lack of a final scene for Ruby meant there was a role for her in the now-cancelled 2026 Christmas special. As it now stands, she is the only NuWho companion who did not get some form of Goodbye with their Doctor. The questions of how Ruby was able to recognise the falsehood of Wish World, and why she was the only one to notice Poppy's fading from existence, also go unanswered.

7. Hello.. Billie Piper?!

Series 15 ends with Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor seemingly regenerating into Billie Piper. Seasoned Whovians will of course best recognise Piper for playing inaugural NuWho companion Rose Tyler. She also played The Moment, a sentient weapon using Rose's form to appeal to The Doctor in 50th Anniversary Special The Day of The Doctor.

Fans generally agreed that Piper was stepping in to act as a bridge until a permanent new Doctor could be cast, similar to David Tennant in the 60th anniversary specials. Some even speculated that she may even be playing The Moment or Bad Wolf rather than a true Doctor. With the RTD2 era so suddenly over, its possible we may never know.

For now, all fans can do is hope Doctor Who does not remain off screens for too long, and that some of these loose ends will eventually be wrapped up.