It’s perhaps unsurprising to know that I tend to rewatch Doctor Who on a regular basis. For the past several months, I’ve been greatly enjoying Tom Baker’s era in order, which is definitely fitting considering it’s the Fourth Doctor’s 50th anniversary year.
Most recently, I've watched Season 16, Baker’s fifth season in the role. It’s one of the only seasons that’s been released on DVD under a single name: The Key to Time. While it comprises six serials, they’re all linked by the Doctor’s quest to find the six segments of the mythical Key to Time.
Spread throughout time and space and potentially disguised as anything (and I mean anything - one of the segments was disguised as a planet), the Doctor and his companions Romana and K9 have to find them and bring them together to prevent time itself from falling into chaos.
One thing that stands out about this season is that it’s a little more fantastical than your average season of Classic Who. While there had certainly been stories with strong elements of fantasy before - The Celestial Toymaker and The Mind Robber particularly stand out - Season 16 embraces the fantasy element on a larger scale. It features an epic quest with princes, princesses, pirates, and giant monsters. On top of all of that, it also features two extremely powerful beings.
The Guardians
The whole season kicks off with the Doctor being summoned by the White Guardian. A powerful being that represents light and order in the universe, it is at his request that the Doctor is sent on a mission to find all the segments of the Key to Time. And of course, just as there’s the White Guardian, there’s also his equal and opposite representing darkness and chaos: the Black Guardian.
With the recent return of both the Toymaker and Sutekh, and the idea that they’re both part of a pantheon, now seems a fitting time for the Guardians to appear once again. Bleeding Cool certainly seems to think so, especially with the reveal of new merchandise renaming the Black Guardian to "the Guardian of Chaos".
It's not hard to see why fans are speculating about their return. Even Classic Who demonstrated that there are more stories to tell about the Guardians. Season 20 gave us a trilogy of stories focused on the Black Guardian’s return and his mission to kill the Doctor.
One thing that makes the Guardians interesting is that, despite being incredibly powerful, there are rules that prevent them from interfering directly. They can send their agents to directly or subtly affect events, but they can’t get involved themselves.
Other appearances
Unsurprisingly, the Guardians have been brought back in expanded media. One example that stands out is Big Finish’s Key 2 Time trilogy. Rather than presenting them both as simple manisfestations of good and evil, the Guardians become a little more complex. While the Black Guardian still wants to spread chaos across the universe, he’s also presented as the Guardian that believes in freedom, while the White Guardian perhaps believes in the idea of “order” a little too much.
Perhaps a more complicated take on the Guardians could work in the Fifteenth Doctor’s era. They could both become major figures in a new season arc, pushing the Doctor to get involved in events and forcing him to make increasingly difficult choices.
However the Guardians are presented, it feels like the right time for them to return. In an era of Who that’s more fantastical than ever, it feels more than fitting to bring two of the show’s most fantastical beings back, ideally in a big way.