Mark Gatiss To Play Doctor Who’s War Chief? – UPDATED

Here’s a smartly coiffed bombshell that I really wasn’t expecting. From the looks of a picture and tweet that Mark Gatiss shared with the world this morning, he’s taking a role in the next season of Doctor Who as the War Chief, a rather evil Time Lord who hasn’t showed up in the series since the final story for Patrick Troughton’s second Doctor. That will be over forty years by the time the new series airs.

Gatiss’ tweet simply read “Return of the War Chief!” and contained this image:

Now, there’s also some indication that the return of The War Chief will be staged in Neil Gaiman’s episode. Here’s a quote from Doctor Who Magazine in which Gaiman teases some details of his script:

It all starts in void-space, with something or someone we have not seen since The War Games, and a knock on the TARDIS door. The guest star… is the brilliant Suranne Jones, playing someone who is beautiful… and who bites. Might just turn out to be an old acquaintance with a new face.

If we assume that Gatiss’ picture is new, the suggestion would be that the War Chief will be appearing in the first two-part story of the series, as that’s what is filming now. This would suggest Suranne’s character, Idris, is not the same. However, Gatiss’ picture may be old, held back since filming on the Gaiman episode was taking place. Or, alternatively, they may be shooting more than the first story at the moment – unlikely, but not impossible.

It’s also possible that it’s new, but from a make-up, costume or hair test and that they’ll be filming with Gatiss in the coming weeks – all of which would indicate a possibility that Jones’ could well be playing the character but might also undergo a regeneration to Gatiss at some point. This would show that trans-gender regenerations are a possibility amongst Time Lords, and I can see why they might want to raise this possibility. It would certainly shine a new light on River Song if they do.

I hope that tangled web of speculation was enough for you. Anyway, back to the facts: Gatiss is hinting that the War Chief is back, and that he has the role, not to mention the facial hair and collar. Vive la Twitter.

Rich Johnston adds: Or, Brendon, it could just be Mark Gatiss pointing out that he resembles the character of  The War Chief with his coiffured good looks. Occam’s Bic Razor and all –

UPDATED: Gatiss has tweeted the following:

The tache is an experiment for Season’s Greetings by the way. Though the War Chief is never far from my thoughts…

But that still doesn’t tell us who Idris is…