They’ve arrived!
*Warning: Spoilers for Doctor Who’s The Legend of Ruby Sunday ahead.*
Questions have been answered and the terror we’ve been waiting for is here in the form of Doctor Who’s Pantheon of Gods and the returning villain Sutekh (voiced by Gabriel Woolf).
The Legend of Ruby Sunday saw the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) encounter the ageless villain, first seen in the 1974 story Pyramids of Mars, after a shock reveal featuring the mysterious Susan Triad (Susan Twist).
But, during that chilling reveal, fans also caught the names of the other gods in the Pantheon – and it’s safe to say, this is not a small family. Fans have also noticed that we’ve met some of these gods before – most recently, the Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris) and Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon), but also the Trickster and the Mara.
So, as we wait with baited breath for the finale episode, Empire of Death, here’s everything we know so far about the Pantheon of Gods, and particularly the Trickster, who we’ve seen before in The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Who is the Trickster in Doctor Who?
The Trickster is the main antagonist in Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures.
While his origins are not entirely known, we do know he’s immortal (much like Sutekh) and part of the ‘Pantheon of Discord’, a group of god-like figures who were banished from the known universe.
The Trickster, also known as the God of Traps, makes bargains to change history, feeding on the inevitable chaos that ensues.
In the Sarah Jane Adventures, the Trickster attempted to remove Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) from the timeline to stop her preventing a meteorite crashing into earth and wiping out humanity.
In a dark turn of events, he manipulated Sarah Jane’s childhood friend Andrea Yates (Jane Asher/Francesca Miller), who died in her youth, convincing her to agree to a bargain that would see her swap places with Sarah Jane, and cause her to die young instead.
The Trickster also sought to remove Sarah Jane’s impact on the world from the timeline, meaning all the aliens she encountered would never come to earth, her son Luke would not exist, and he even threatened to remove the Doctor from existence.
However, Sarah Jane defeated the Trickster before he could remove her from the timeline, with an alien puzzle box that allows the opener to remember memories that have been removed from them.
With Sarah Jane being restored to the timeline, Andrea retracted her deal with the Trickster, returning the timeline to normal.
The Trickster went on to seek revenge on Sarah Jane by taunting her with the prospect of a world where her parents never died in a car crash. As Sarah Jane prevents this fixed event in history from happening, the Trickster is able to feed on the chaos to return to his physical form, and create an alternate future where the Trickster turns the Earth into a barren wasteland.
Sarah Jane’s friends Rani Chandra and Clyde Langer were able to use Sarah Jane’s puzzle box to strike a deal with Krislok, a graske who the Trickster was holding captive, in exchange for him opening a time portal. Rani travelled back in time through the portal to warn Sarah Jane. With her parents realising that their deaths were the key to saving humanity, they sacrificed themselves, once again defeating the Trickster.
The Trickster was then banished in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, after making a bargain with Peter Dalton (Nigel Havers). He sought for Peter to marry Sarah Jane, for her to stop fighting aliens, and thus for chaos to ensue. However, he was stopped by the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and Clyde Langer, with Peter ultimately sacrificing himself to retract his bargain when he discovered the truth.
The Trickster also has servants, including the Jackals of the Backwards Clock, which appeared in Farewell Sarah Jane, and the beetle-like creature in the Doctor Who season 4 episode Turn Left, which created a parallel world around Donna Noble (Catherine Tate).
Who are the Pantheon of Gods in Doctor Who?
Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies had previously teased that Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor would be going up against a fantastical “pantheon” of gods and later confirmed that, despite appearances, the Toymaker was not “the supreme being” of the pantheon, known as the Gods of Chaos.
Instead, it is Sutekh who commands the collective – and The Legend of Ruby Sunday also reveals the identities of the rest of the group. We happen to have met some of them before!
They are as follows..
- the Toymaker, the God of Games
- the Trickster, the God of Traps – as previously seen in The Sarah Jane Adventures
- Maestro, the God of Music
- Reprobate, the God of Spite
- the Mara, the God of Beasts – as previously seen in Kinda and Snakedance
- the threefold deity of Malice and Mischief and Misery
- Incensor, the God of Disaster, and her children called Doubt and Dread
Reference is also made to “gods of skin and shame and secrets” – so it’s possible that the above does not cover the Pantheon’s entire membership.
It remains to be seen if any more of Sutekh’s minions will appear on-screen, but either way, the Doctor will certainly have his hands full in next week’s finale Empire of Death.