I Enjoyed Seeing Doctor Who Reveal Mrs. Flood’s True Identity, But Now I Have Three Big Questions About This Twist

Warning: SPOILERS for the Doctor Who episode “The Interstellar Song Contest” are ahead!

The mystery of Mrs. Flood stretches back to the Doctor Who Christmas special “The Church on Ruby Road,” i.e. Ncuti Gatwa’s first full adventure as the Fifteenth Doctor following his debut in “The Giggle.” From the moment she broke the fourth wall and informed the audience she knew what a TARDIS was, fans began speculating about her true identity. Then things got even weirder with her in Doctor Who Season 2, as Dobson has reprised Mrs. Flood in every episode to air on the 2025 TV schedule. But now we finally know her true identity: The Rani, the Doctor Who villain who was played by Kate O’Mara in the Sixth Doctor story “The Mark of the Rani,” the Seventh Doctor story “Time and the Rani,” and the 30th anniversary charity special, “Dimensions in Time.”

While I don’t go too deep on Doctor Who’s classic years, I had heard of The Rani prior to watching “The Interstellar Song Contest” with my Disney+ subscription. So my interest piqued when I saw her identified as such, as well as how there are now two Rani walking around simultaneously, the other played by Archie Panjabi, thanks to bi-generation. And yet, with just two Doctor Who episodes left to go in Season 2, I have three questions about this twist that I hope are answered/cleared up in the next couple weeks.

Is Bi-Generation Just A Common Thing Now?

Bi-generation was introduced in “The Giggle,” i.e. the third of the Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials. When David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor was shot by Neil Patrick Harris’ Toymaker with a Galvanic beam, he understandably assumed he would undergo a normal regeneration. Instead, he found himself splitting in two, giving him his first opportunity to interact with a future version of himself. 14 and 15 teamed up to banish Toymaker from existence, and they were also able to bi-generate the TARIDS, allowing for 15 to continue with his adventures and 14 to get a long-deserved rest.

There’s still no official explanation for why The Doctor’s bi-generation occurred, and 15 acknowledged that it was supposed to be a myth. However, it has been implied that the phenomenon became possible when Toymaker entered our universe and established his “domain.” That’s the reason the TARDIS was able to be duplicated; Toymaker’s “state of play” was still in effect after his defeat, so 15 was able to carry out this action as his “prize.”

Ok, that works well enough as an explanation, but shouldn’t things be back to normal by now? Why is bi-generation still happening in Season 2 if the “state of play” has presumably dissipated a long time ago? When 14 invoked that superstition at the end of the universe in “Wild Blue Yonder” that allowed Toymaker and the rest of the Pantheon to expand into our universe, did this also make bi-generation now a common occurrence? Or is this just a temporary development that The Rani was “lucky” enough to experience?

I worry bi-generation could become an overused trope if it sticks around for the long haul, but for now, I’d just like some clarification on where things stand with it.

Why Is Mrs. Flood So Subservient All Of A Sudden?

In addition to being enigmatic, there were a few occasions when Mrs. Flood came off as menacing on Doctor Who prior to “The Interstellar Song Contest.” This included when she suddenly started speaking to Cherry Sunday with contempt in “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” and when she freed Conrad Clark from prison at the end of “Lucky Day.” Whoever she was, it was pretty clear she wasn’t intended to be a good guy.

But upon bi-generating, the Mrs. Flood incarnation of The Rani suddenly became subservient to Archie Panjabi’s version. She’s calling her next self “Ma’am” and being overly apologetic, while Panjabi’s Rani is visibly annoyed by her younger self sticking around. She even goes to far as to call herself The Rani (“the definite article, so to speak”) and refer to Mrs. Flood as “a” Rani.

I get that The Rani is known for her arrogance and looking at those in her sphere as beneath her, but why is Mrs. Flood putting up with this mistreatment? When the Fourteenth Doctor bi-generated into the Fifteenth, the two were still considered on equal footing, albeit with 15 having the added wisdom that 14 will go on to gain. I’m not saying both Rani need to be as chummy with each other as the Doctors are, but it’s weird that one of them is now acting like a bumbling sidekick with the other. I would have envisioned something more like when Michelle Gomez and John Simm’s versions of The Master met.

Is The Rani Connected To Susan Foreman?

The other big twist in “The Interstellar Song Contest” came with the return of The Doctor’s granddaughter, Susan Foreman, reprised by Carole Ann Ford. Introduced in the show’s very first episode in 1963, Susan was one of the First Doctor’s original companions, but he bid her farewell in the serial “The Dalek Invasion of Earth,” feeling that she deserved a life away from him. Ford reprised her character in the 20th anniversary special “The Five Doctors,” and then again a decade later in “Dimensions in Time.”

There were multiple references to Susan in Nucti Gatwa’s first Doctor Who season, and while it initially seemed like the woman whom actress Susan Twist was playing might be The Doctor’s granddaughter in a regenerated form, she ended up being a creation of Suktekh. But now the real Susan is back after all these years, appearing in a series of visions during “The Interstellar Song Contest.” But how were these happening? Where is she? What’s she been up to for all this time? And most importantly for this feature, is she connected to The Rani?

While I’m inclined to say this is more than a coincidence, and that it’s more likely than not that these two characters intertwined somehow, I can also picture a scenario where Susan is only loosely tied to The Rani’s machinations. Perhaps showrunnrer Russell T. Davies is merely seeing Susan into the final chunk of Season 2 as a way to set her up for an expanded presence in the next season of Doctor Who. While the show’s future on Disney+ remains uncertain, supposedly that won’t stop it from continuing for at least two more seasons. Whether Susan would meet the Fifteenth Doctor, however, is another matter, as it hasn’t been shared yet if Gatwa is returning for another season.

I certainly hope all of my main questions are answered by the time Doctor Who’s current season is wrapped up in less than two weeks. In typical Doctor Who fashion, one mystery being solved just spawned more mysteries, and I look forward to learning what they entail for Mrs. Flood and the new Rani.