Doctor Who season 14’s big bad and his villainous affiliation was set up by a forgotten RTD character who was last seen 15 years ago. In Doctor Who season 14, episode 7, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday”, the identity of The One Who Waits is confirmed to be Sutekh (Gabriel Woolf), the god of death. Sutekh debuted in the classic Tom Baker serial, “Pyramids of Mars”, in which the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) prevented the godlike alien from bringing his gift of death to humanity in the 1910s.
As well as the return of Sutekh, Doctor Who season 14, episode 7, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” contains a reference to another villain with a link to Sarah Jane Smith. However, this villain isn’t from her time traveling with the Doctor, but from her mid-2000s Doctor Who spinoff, The Sarah Jane Adventures. One of the recurring villains in SJA was The Trickster (Paul Marc Davies), who delighted in causing chaos for the Doctor’s former companion. 15 years since the Trickster was defeated by Sarah Jane and the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant), he’s referenced in Doctor Who season 14, recontextualizing his appearances in SJA.
How The Sarah Jane Adventures’ Trickster Is Connected To Sutekh
The Trickster from The Sarah Jane Adventures is revealed to have a big connection to Sutekh in “The Legend of Ruby Sunday”. Doctor Who season 14, episode 7 reveals the members of the Pantheon of the Gods. Among callbacks to recent villains like Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon) and the Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris), other classic Doctor Who villains are revealed to be Pantheon members. The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) era villain, The Mara, is named as the God of Beasts, while The Sarah Jane Adventures’ The Trickster is the God of Traps.
In The Sarah Jane Adventures, the Trickster sets up a series of increasingly cruel traps for Sarah Jane Smith. In his first appearance, SJA season 1, episodes 7 & 8, “Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane?”, the Trickster manipulated a childhood friend so that Sarah died as a young girl. When he returned in SJA season 2, episodes 9 & 10, “The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith,” he offered her a chance to save her parents from the car accident that claimed their lives.
Although defeated by Sarah Jane and the Tenth Doctor, the revelations about the Pantheon could set up the Trickster’s return.
Finally, in “The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith”, the Trickster broke Sarah’s heart when he tricked her into falling in love with a dead man, because he believed marriage would convince her to stop fighting aliens. Like Sutekh, the Toymaker, and Maestro, the Trickster is a godlike being that delights in toying with the Doctor and their friends. The Trickster fed on chaos and catastrophe, and constructed elaborate traps to remove anyone that could stand in the way of that chaos. Although defeated by Sarah Jane and the Tenth Doctor, the revelations about the Pantheon could set up the Trickster’s return.
Doctor Who’s Trickster Introduced The “Pantheon” Concept Before Season 14
In “The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith”, the Trickster is identified as a member of The Pantheon of Discord by the Tenth Doctor. The Doctor states that the Time Lords had heard the legends of the Pantheon and were aware of their existence. It’s not a huge stretch, therefore, to suggest that the Pantheon of Discord is the same one that is now wreaking havoc in Doctor Who season 14, episode 7. The connection becomes more pronounced when you remember that the First Doctor (William Hartnell) is similarly aware of the myths about the Toymaker (Michael Gough) when entering his domain back in the 1960s.
Given what Doctor Who season 14 has revealed so far, it’s interesting that the Pantheon of Discord was introduced in one of David Tennant’s final appearances as the Tenth Doctor. In “The Giggle”, David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor brought the Toymaker into our universe by using magic at the edge of the universe. This is presumably why The Sarah Jane Adventures’ Pantheon have now returned with force in Ncuti Gatwa’s first season of Doctor Who, bringing chaos and discord in their wake.
Doctor Who’s Pantheon Reveal Makes Sarah Jane’s Trickster Story Way More Important
The Trickster would have been revealed as the father of Sarah Jane’s adopted daughter Sky, which has worrying implications for Ruby Sunday’s own parentage.
Now that the Trickster is confirmed to be part of Doctor Who’s Pantheon, it adds a new dimension to his story in The Sarah Jane Adventures. Firstly, the Trickster’s obsession with Sarah Jane Smith proves that the Pantheon can interfere in the lives of Doctor Who companions when they’re no longer in the TARDIS. Secondly, it means that The Sarah Jane Adventures features one of the most powerful villains in the Doctor Who universe. Thirdly, an unmade Trickster story for The Sarah Jane Adventures season 5 could help identify Ruby Sunday’s mother.
The death of Elisabeth Sladen in 2011 led to the decision to end The Sarah Jane Adventures halfway through season 5. In the planned SJA season 5 finale, “The Battle for Bannerman Road”, The Trickster would have been revealed as the father of Sarah Jane’s adopted daughter Sky, which has worrying implications for Ruby Sunday’s own parentage. There has to be a reason that Sutekh was present at Ruby’s birth. Given that Ruby’s story has already borrowed elements from RTD’s Doctor Who novel Damaged Goods, it’s entirely possible that he may adapt this unmade Sarah Jane Adventures story for the upcoming finale, swapping the Trickster for Sutekh.