Doctor Who's Surprise Time Lord Is A Deep Cut Easter Egg That Hardcore Fans May Remember

This article contains spoilers for "Doctor Who" season 2, episode 7, "The Wish World."

The penultimate episode of "Doctor Who" season 2 is here, and it makes a spirited attempt to shatter all the records in the coveted "most Time Lords in an episode not set on Gallifrey" category. Apart from two different versions of a classic Time Lady antagonist, the Rani (Archie Panjabi) and Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson), there's the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) himself ... and arguably his mysterious granddaughter Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), depending on which version of her numerous backstories the viewer chooses to believe. Oh, and if that list wasn't enough, the episode also wheels out a truly deep Gallifrey cut: Omega.

Originally played by Stephen Thorne, this particular Time Lord is most notorious for his role as the villain of the first multi-Doctor story arc ever: the 1972-1973 serial "The Three Doctors," which combined the might of the Doctor's first (William Hartnell), second (Patrick Troughton), and third (Jon Pertwee) incarnations. In 1983, Omega briefly returned to cosplay as the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) in the "Arc of Infinity" serial, but his only on-screen appearance after the show's revival has been a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo in "Doctor Who" series 12, episode 10, "The Timeless Children," in 2020.

As the Rani makes clear, this is about to change. The goal of her May 24 Wish World plan is to liberate Omega from the Underverse, to the great detriment of both planet Earth and the very fabric of reality. Omega is not actually seen in the episode, but an ominous voice announces his coming, so the season finale will very likely amend that. As such, this is a good time to discuss what the surprise Time Lord in "Doctor Who" season 2 is all about.

Omega's birth name is Peylix, and he's an engineer who received his ominous-sounding nickname from a historically bad test score (yes, really). Despite this somewhat underwhelming origin story, however, he's far from a pushover. One of the first Time Lords and the legendary Gallifreyan leader Rassilon's old friend, Omega became a key figure in developing the Time Lords' time travel technology. After assorted science-themed adventures and technological power-ups, he then got caught in a supernova explosion and was presumed dead. 

The rumors of his death eventually turned out to be exaggerated. Instead of dying in the gigantic explosion, a black hole transported Omega into the anti-matter universe. He subsequently spent thousands of years trapped there and slowly lost his physical body until he was little more than a disembodied mind inside an imposing suit of armor. Despite his condition, he wields virtually unlimited power, including the ability to turn the darkest crevices of his mind into dangerous monsters that can very much attack physical beings. Twisted, treacherous, and tragic, Omega is a lonely force of universe-ending malevolence whose power level is on par with just about any other villain the show could throw at the Doctor.

As a comparatively obscure, very old-school villain who makes his presence known in the penultimate episode, Omega's role in the season 2 narrative is similar to that of "Doctor Who" big bad Sutekh (voiced by Gabriel Woolf) in season 1. In fact, their roles in the grand scheme of things may turn out to be even more connected than it seems.

Sutekh is — or, rather, was — the God of Death in a group of extra-universal deities called the Pantheon of Discord. The Pantheon has been a recurring enemy throughout the 15th Doctor's life, to the point that he bi-generated in the middle of a boss fight against the Celestial Toymaker, aka the God of Games ("How I Met Your Mother" star Neil Patrick Harris). Since then, the Doctor has faced Maestro (the God of Music, played by Jinkx Monsoon), Sutekh, and Lux Imperator (the God of Light, as voiced by Alan Cumming), outplaying each and every one of them. As Omega's reemergence is fueled by Desidirium, the infant God of Wishes, the Pantheon is once again present in the season 2 finale. This already ties Omega into their activities, and as it happens, the name the Rani gives to his prison universe is "Underverse." This seems very close to the Under-Universe, which in turn is associated with the Toymaker's domain.

For a good while now, the Doctor's battles with the individual gods have seemingly teased an upcoming large-scale Pantheon threat. That potential arc will almost certainly have to wait until "Doctor Who" season 3, but the season 2 finale might still remind us that more than one Pantheon member can turn up in a single episode ... possibly by establishing Omega as a Pantheon member or by backing his appearance up with a Toymaker cameo.

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