Random fact I just realised about this episode — the “spooky kid” Belinda saw in the alley as she was running through Lagos? She’s played by Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps, who was Captain Poppy in “Space babies”. The character is even credited as “Poppy” in “The story & the engine”.
Please don’t @ me about your great intense love (or otherwise) for “Space babies”… but let’s just sit for a second with what a deep, weird cut this is. I have no idea how or if it’s going to tie in with anything, ever.
(Possibly slightly bigger spoilers)
https://doctorwhowatch.com/anita-dobson-promises-season-2-will-reveal-about-mrs-flood
That is interesting. I guess as long as we’re talking about characters whose stories are unfinished and leaking between stories and reality, the Who fans from “Lux” are another reference point. They expected to stop existing as soon as their part of the story was over, but they did not. Maybe that’s because they also have a part to play in (a) future episode(s).
You could sort of tie these ideas together by saying “Space Babies” was a fan fiction story written by those characters, hence recontextualising the story. I might be tipping my hand a bit about how much I like that episode, though.
Another theory that I have been seeing floating around is that Poppy is the Timless Child and space babies was the doctor bootstrap paradoxing their own morality
That would be ridiculous — and I mean that in the best possible way 🤣