Prepare for mayhem: Michelle Gomez’s Missy is back for Doctor Who Series 10!
It’s the announcement we’ve all been waiting for. This madcap regeneration of The Master (sorry, Mistress) will return to face The Twelfth Doctor again in Peter Capaldi’s final series. While she’s only been in four full episodes so far (excluding her Series 8 cameos), she’s left quite the impression. That’s why, to celebrate her comeback, we’ve put together our favourite moments of Missy mischief. Although, “mischief” might be putting it lightly – for all her charm, she’s bad to the bone!
Let’s get this show on the road. Everybody sing along as we start the countdown!
Hey Missy, your top five! Your top five that blow our minds! Hey Missy! Hey, hey! Hey Missy…!
5. #PlanesHaveStopped (Series 9, The Magician’s Apprentice)
Missy certainly likes to put on a show. With The Doctor’s Confession Dial in hand, she needs to find him pronto. After her own failed efforts, she decides she needs some help with her search. As we all know, the quickest way to The Doctor is through his friends. But, rather than just ask them nicely, Missy goes for a slightly different approach.
So, what does she do? Freeze all the planes in the sky, because she can. This little bit of temporal trickery causes global havoc on Earth. Clara and U.N.I.T. eventually work out it’s a cry for attention rather than an attack, just in time for an incoming call on ‘the Doctor channel’. It’s not clear how Missy does it – or pops through the screen like the craziest 3D movie ever – but it’s a spectacle nevertheless.
It’s not the most orthodox reintroduction, but it’s fittingly Missy. And, in fairness, everyone does think that she’s dead at this point…
4. The Friend Inside the Enemy (Series 9, The Witch’s Familiar)
Speaking of Clara and Missy, they make a right pair in Series 9’s opening two-parter. The Time Lady is technically responsible for matchmaking Miss Oswald with The Doctor, after all. But while Twelve deals with Davros, Missy takes Clara under her wing. By which we mean, she basically terrorises her at every opportunity.
More so in The Witch’s Familiar than The Magician’s Apprentice, Clara is completely at Missy’s mercy. Where to begin? Missy ties her upside down, uses her as bait, and shoves her down a pit. Worst of all, she traps Clara in a Dalek exoskeleton – and tries to get The Doctor to exterminate her. It’s a cruel, cruel moment that really shows Missy’s dark side. Thankfully, Clara escapes in time and The Doctor sees his arch-frenemy’s true colours. We don’t blame him for telling her to run!
If this mischievous moment proves anything, it’s that Missy gets far too much of a thrill out of being evil…
3. Not Dead (Series 9, The Witch’s Familiar)
Missy sure is one slippery customer. We already know The Master is a character that simply refuses to die, but Missy takes it to a whole new level. In both of her major appearances so far, we’ve seen her bite the bullet. Yet, both times, she walked away unscathed.
It turns out she actually uses the same vanishing act twice. Through a ‘consideration’ of The Doctor, she reveals that she essentially transferred enemy fire into teleport energy. Whether it’s a shot from the Cyber-Brigadier or a Dalek laser, she’s got herself covered. It’s a clever solution to her ‘death’ in Series 8 and shows she’s just as smart as The Doctor. Really though, it’s just nice that we got a proper answer to our questions after she brushed it aside in The Magician’s Apprentice.
And now it seems Missy needs another escape route. The last time we saw her, she found herself surrounded by a bunch of very angry Daleks. But, before she gets exterminated, she comes up with a very clever idea. How will she weasel her way out of that one? We’re not sure, but it looks like we’ll find out soon enough…
2. An Osgood Way to Die (Series 8, Death in Heaven)
First impressions of Missy were of a kooky, crazy Mary Poppins lookalike. She talked the evil talk, but it wasn’t until this moment that she truly walked the evil walk. The way to make a villain feel threatening is to make them do something shocking and awful. With a title like Death in Heaven, it was clear that someone was going to die – we just didn’t expect it to be Osgood!
The fan-favourite, fan-inspired fangirl becomes Missy’s first impactful victim in Series 8. She chillingly teases Osgood with a countdown to her death. To start with, it seems like she’s bluffing – she’s seemingly restrained, after all. But, nope, turns out she’s wriggled free! Missy sees her chance and pounces on her unsuspecting prey. With her signature catchphrase “say something nice”, she zaps Osgood into dust.
And, just for good measure, she treads her glasses into the ground too. We’d later find out that Missy only succeeded in killing one of two Osgoods, but even so! She’s one baddy not to mess with.
1. You Know Who I Am (Series 8, Dark Water)
The reveal of Missy’s identity in Dark Water takes the top spot on our list for a very simple reason. Not only is it the definitive Missy moment, but it managed to cause mischief both on and off our screens. There were theories abound about who she really was, lasting all the way through Series 8. The truth though, it seems, was hidden in plain sight all along. Congratulations again to those who deciphered Steven Moffat’s puzzle in advance.
As Cybermen pour out of St Paul’s and invade London, the big moment arrives. The Doctor knows she’s a Time Lady – her two hearts gave that away! But which one? Minds across the nation quickly raced through names like Romana and The Rani. As it happens, it turned out it was the one you’d least expect. Missy is (drum roll) The Master reborn… as a woman! The last time we saw him/her was as John Simm in The End of Time four years prior. No wonder The Doctor didn’t recognise her…!
Time Lord re-gender-ation was now officially canon and anything became possible. Through media and internet frenzy, Missy’s moment of mischief actually transcended television itself. When we remember Michelle Gomez’s Master, this is what it will be for. And who knows? Maybe her influence will even play a part in casting Doctor 13…
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