Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has defended changes made to classic villain Omega in season 15 finale The Reality War, giving his reasoning behind the major reinvention.
In the world of the show, Omega is one of the earliest known Time Lords and is credited for inventing their signature technology – that which allows them to traverse both time and space.
He was believed to have sacrificed his life in pursuit of this revolutionary accomplishment, but in reality, Omega was transported to an anti-matter universe, where he gained enormous power at the expense of his physical form.
All that remained of him was the suit in which he was stranded, which became the iconic look that fans expected to see again when his belated return was teased at the end of season 15's Wish World.
It's no surprise, then, that viewers were surprised and divided by a reimagining of the character as an enormous skeletal beast, who was swiftly destroyed mere minutes after re-emerging.
Defending the storyline in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine (out now), screenwriter Russell T Davies argued that adding another "man in a big cloak" to the episode would seem "slightly mad" when two other Time Lords were already on the loose.
Of course, those were Archie Panjabi and Anita Dobson's two incarnations of The Rani, who entered an uneasy alliance after a bigeneration at the end of The Interstellar Song Contest.
Explaining how Omega came to look so different in The Reality War, Davies cited how the "legend" of the Gallifreyan baddie would have grown during his decades in exile, which goes some way to accounting for the enormity of his transformation.
Davies explained: "They become the legend. That is the point of the Wish World, and the point of the Underverse actually. It's a continuing thing across the entire two series. That wishes and hopes come true."
The screenwriter went on to say that franchise continuity changes over the past four decades, as well as in-universe reappraisals over "eons", also played a role in turning Omega from a robed, masked mystery to a rampaging colossal beast.
"You have to accept that 40 years have passed," Davies continued. "The Time War came along and everyone's history got changed. So that's what Omega is now. You can reinvent it.
"There was plenty of fuss made about Winston Churchill being in Doctor Who, when there's plenty of history to suggest he wasn't such a good guy. And that's always the way."
He added: "Our history of slavery, our way of walking through the world is constantly being re-analysed. So I like to think it's the same on Gallifrey... Omega has been re-contextualised, and the story gets bolder and changes over time.
"We don’t want to repeat the past, we want to push it forward."
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