{"id":9642,"date":"2022-01-06T18:44:54","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T17:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1545358"},"modified":"2022-01-06T19:13:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T18:13:13","slug":"is-it-time-for-doctor-who-to-embrace-the-multiverse","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/is-it-time-for-doctor-who-to-embrace-the-multiverse\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it time for Doctor Who to embrace the multiverse?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Steve O’Brien\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 06 January 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

The multiverse, the OED dependably informs us, is \u201ca hypothetical space or realm consisting of a number of universes, of which our own universe is only one\u201d.<\/p>\n

Of course, we barely need telling that now. These days, we\u2019re all multiverse experts. We\u2019ve had Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where a gaggle of Spider-Men, Spider-Women and, erm, a Spider-Pig from different universes bunch up to save our reality from the Kingpin.<\/p>\n

Then there was last month\u2019s Spider-Man: No Way Home<\/a>, which deftly retconned Sam Raimi\u2019s and Marc Webb\u2019s Spidey movies into the MCU. And arriving later this year is Andy Muschietti\u2019s The Flash, which will introduce Ben Affleck\u2019s Batman to Michael Keaton\u2019s Caped Crusader, forging some connective tissue between the DCEU and Tim Burton\u2019s duplet of Bat movies.<\/p>\n

Add to that, Marvel\u2019s upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness<\/a> and Michelle Yeoh starring as a woman who exists across multiple realities in March\u2019s Everything Everywhere All at Once and 2022, it seems, is shaping up as the year of the multiverse. With that in mind, and given that the most recent series hinted at the possibility of other universes<\/a>, is Doctor Who<\/a> ready to embrace its own limitless possibilities?<\/p>

Despite its lengthy TV life, the show has only dabbled with parallel universes, as this multiverse thing used to be called.<\/p>\n

Third Doctor story Inferno had the Doctor and Jo shifted to a parallel Earth where the normally homey UNIT is now a fascistic military force headed up by the murderous Brigade Leader, while 2006\u2019s Rise of the Cybermen\/The Age of Steel had the TARDIS materialising in a Britain where zeppelins pepper the sky, and Jackie Tyler is a moneyed fashionista with a Yorkshire Terrier named Rose. As the Tenth Doctor mused a few episodes later, \u201cThere are billions of parallel universes all stacked up against each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s odd then that the show has had so little time for these billions of alternate universes. If, as the Doctor told Jackie, \u201cevery single decision we make creates a parallel existence\u201d, it\u2019s probably safe to say there\u2019s a universe where Sarah Jane Smith decided against investigating the disappearance of those scientists in The Time Warrior, so never met the Doctor and was never gifted K9 or adopted Luke.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s likely a universe where the Hartnell Doc never did quit Gallifrey and graduated instead into one of those handsomely-collared Time Lord bureaucrats our Doctor loathed so much. Maybe there\u2019s even one where there\u2019s a Brigadier John Benton calling the shots at UNIT.<\/p>\n

The multiverse concept opens up a myriad of storytelling possibilities for Doctor Who. Just as the MCU-attached Tom Holland Spider-Man films have now made the previously unconnected Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield movies part of the same Marvel Studios continuity, could TV Doctor Who somehow find a way to make the 1960s Dalek movies canon?<\/p>\n

\""Peter\"