Caution: spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 15, episode 2, "Lux."

Small details matter in Doctor Who's Pantheon in "Lux," this time the beaming God of Light. Lux s the Toymaker, Maestro, and Sutekh on the list of Pantheon to trouble the Doctor in recent times, although former villains such as the Mara and the Trickster have also been retroactively confirmed as part of the same bothersome bunch.

It would be no exaggeration to label the Pantheon as the most dangerous villain group in Doctor Who history, and since RTD's second reign began, the show's titular Time Lord has looked terrified each and every time he met a Pantheon hip card holder. From fleeing in the face of Maestro to quivering before Sutekh, the Doctor's fear proves the Pantheon is a force to be reckoned with, and Doctor Who season 15's finale.

Doctor Who's "Lux" Suggests Season 15's Finale Will Be A Battle Against The Pantheon

"The Reality War" Revealed?

As the Doctor gives his "Pantheon 101" crash course in "Lux," he explains, "when these vast creatures deign to look down on us, our entire reality is in danger." It cannot be a coincidence that Doctor Who season 15's finale is called "The Reality War." The Doctor's "our entire reality is in danger" line serves as a fairly strong indication that the big bosses of the season will be either the various Pantheon gods working together, or one specific god that has not yet been defeated by the Doctor's hand.

The power of the Pantheon gods combined would be terrifying indeed.

The title "The Reality War" alludes to a villain not just capable of conquering planets or manipulating time - the usual schemes of the Daleks and the Master - but one that can change the very foundations of the known universe. Very few Doctor Who antagonists are capable of such tricks. The Fifteenth Doctor explicitly describing Lux as a threat to "reality" feels like an exposition moment designed to explicitly spell out how much havoc Pantheon gods can wreak so that the audience is clued in before the coming war properly begins.

Related
Doctor Who Just Debunked A Great Pantheon Theory I Had After Season 14's Ending

I had a pretty solid theory about Doctor Who's Pantheon after season 14 ended, but season 15's "Lux" debunks it - for the most part, at least.

3

The Toymaker altered reality on a whim, Maestro canceled music, and Sutekh created an army of Susans. Weirdly, Lux has very little impact on reality, merely trapping victims in a fictional realm of film without impacting the real world outside. That only makes Fifteen's explanation about threatening reality even more suspicious. If the information being given isn't relevant to "Lux" itself, which it isn't, it must become important further down the line. Regardless, the power of the Pantheon gods combined would be terrifying indeed, and could completely rewrite Doctor Who as we know it.

How Doctor Who Is Already Setting Up A War Against The Pantheon

The Clues Have Been In Doctor Who For A While

Anita Dobson smiling as Mrs. Flood in Doctor Who

If Doctor Who season 15's "The Reality War" really does turn out to be a Doctor vs. the Pantheon showdown for the ages, no one could say the warning signs were not there. Ever since the Fourteenth Doctor messed around with salt at the edge of the universe in "Wild Blue Yonder," Pantheon gods have been cropping up like ex-companions in an RTD finale, and their sheer prevalence since Doctor Who's 60th anniversary is surely building toward some kind of climactic battle.

Anita Dobson's character could be a god herself - perhaps the Pantheon's God of Stories.

The introduction of the Pantheon couldn't have been just a simple plot device designed solely to make the villains of seasons 14 and 15 more threatening than they actually are. It feels like there is a larger design at work here - a Pantheon arc that will pay off like the Harold Saxon and Time War storylines from previous RTD seasons.

Episode Title

Release Date

"The Robot Revolution"

April 12

"Lux"

April 19

"The Well"

April 26

"Lucky Day"

May 3

"The Story & The Engine"

May 10

"The Interstellar Song Contest"

May 17

"Wish World"

May 24

The Reality War

May 31

And then there is the enigmatic Mrs. Flood. Her ability to switch seamlessly from the present to 1952 Miami implies an omniscience, while Doctor Who season 14's ending revealed how Mrs. Flood knew a surprising amount about Sutekh's return. These details suggest some kind of connection between her and the Pantheon. Anita Dobson's character could be a god herself - perhaps the Pantheon's God of Stories - or a harbinger of another deity. Either way, Mrs. Flood's growing prominence acts as a sign that Doctor Who's Pantheon is potentially gearing up for something significant.

Doctor Who Season 14 Poster

Your Rating

Doctor Who
Release Date
December 25, 2023
Network
BBC
Directors
Douglas Camfield, David Maloney, Christopher Barry, Michael E. Briant, Barry Letts, Michael Ferguson, Richard Martin, Peter Moffatt, Pennant Roberts, Lennie Mayne, Chris Clough, Ron Jones, Paddy Russell, Paul Bernard, Michael Hayes, Timothy Combe, Morris Barry, Gerald Blake, Graeme Harper, Waris Hussein, Rodney Bennett, Mervyn Pinfield, Hugh David, John Gorrie

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming

The latest Doctor Who series introduces the Fifteenth Doctor, ed by new companion Ruby Sunday.

Main Genre
Sci-Fi