Who is The One Who Waits in Doctor Who? So, David Tennant’s second era as The Doctor is over, and his final adventure was everything we’d been hoping for, and more. A terrifying villain? Tick. Drama and emotion? 100%. A happy ending? Abso-bloody-lutely.
However, with Doctor Who things are never simple. A happy ending can’t just be a happy ending, and some tantalizing plot threads are left dangling, ready to be picked up by Ncuti Gatwa as he takes over the role as the next version of The Doctor: the 15th Doctor, to be precise. Yes, just like you, we’re still thinking about The Toymaker‘s reference to a mysterious character called The One Who Waits. Let’s speculate on who that might be.
Who is The One Who Waits in Doctor Who?
The One Who Waits is a presence so intimidating and powerful that even The Toymaker fled from it, however, that’s all we know.
For some context, The Toymaker is bold enough to battle The Doctor (three times) as well as other deadly intergalactic opponents. “I played them all Doctor. I toyed with supernovas, turned galaxies into spin tops. I gambled with God and made him a jack in the box. I made a jigsaw out of your history,” he told The Doctor.
“The Master was dying and begged for his life with one final game and when he lost I sealed him for all eternity in my gold tooth. There’s only one player I didn’t dare face: The One Who Waits.” He concluded, “I saw it hiding and I ran. That’s someone else’s game.” So, you can bet your house that The One Who Waits is going to be a big, bad villain looming over The Doctor’s next round of adventures.
In all likelihood, The One Who Waits is a new enemy never seen or encountered before by The Doctor. We’re expecting The Doctor will run into this new threat, and be forced to save the galaxy once again: a new era needs a new villain, too. Our best guess is that whatever The One Who Waits ends up being, it’ll also be Beep the Meep’s boss and tie both those threads up together.
The alternative is that The One Who Waits is a villain we’ve seen before with a fresh alias. Could it be some enemy from The Doctor’s past with immense power like The Rani, or The Trickster, or The Beast? Unlikely, but just about possible, theoretically.
That’s all we know about The One Who Waits. For more on Doctor Who, read our explainer on the TARDIS, or our ranking of the Doctor Who companions. Or, see our picks for the best sci-fi series.