Doctor Who theory: Is Anita Benn actually Mrs. Flood?

Since her first episode, a lot of attention has been on Anita Dobson's character, Mrs. Flood. Dobson promised that season two will bring answers, but that doesn't mean fans will sit around and wait. There are far too many questions to ask. Who is she? What does she want? And will she have some personal connection to the Doctor?

As a brief recap, Mrs. Flood is Ruby Sunday's neighbor. While she initially appeared to just be a somewhat nosy old woman, she gained attention by breaking the fourth wall and claiming to have seen a TARDIS before. Since then, she has dressed in similar outfits to former companions, shown foreknowledge of the events involving Sutekh, and made a handful of particularly chilling speeches.

After the Christmas special, "Joy to the World" debuted, the fan speculation began again. While the prevailing theories had been that Mrs. Flood was either a Time Lord or a God, there had been some speculation that she might be a former companion, upset with the Doctor for abandoning her. Following that line of thought, the new episode made several fans wonder if she could actually be an older version of Anita Benn, the manager of the Sandringham Hotel who spent a year with the Doctor.

We'll break down the theory below, along with some commentary on whether it seems plausible or not. First, it's worth giving credit to Doctor Who YouTuber Tharries, whose video introduced me to the theory. The evidence below combines his analysis with my own to see how likely this theory really is.

The Basics: Anita grew older at the Time Hotel

At the end of "Joy to the World," Anita was offered a job with the Time Hotel. The Doctor had provided a personal reference, which apparently carried a lot of weight. Now, this isn't an altogether unusual situation. The Doctor has returned to take care of old friends a few times throughout the show, and this seems like a similar situation to Kate Stewart recruiting a bunch of former companions to work for UNIT.

But the episode also gives an example of an employee leaving their time and getting to see all of time (and presumably space) through the Hotel. As he was dying, the Silurian manager explained that he had stumbled into the hotel millions of years in Earth's past. Despite his confusion, they took him in and gave him a job, which he loved. There isn't much detail given, but it's clear that he made a life for himself at the Time Hotel.

With that in our back pockets, the theory goes that Anita will work for the Time Hotel for years. Maybe she loves it, maybe she doesn't, but she can never quite get over her year with the Doctor. In some theories, she actually goes through the Hotel's rooms to stalk the Doctor. Decades later, she decides that she's going to meet him again.

Unless you have the TARDIS's phone number or can send a message to his psychic paper, it can be hard to guarantee another encounter with the Doctor. But he told Anita Ruby's full name, so that provides a starting point. She then goes back in time and moves in next door to Ruby and her family. That way, she's guaranteed to see the Doctor again, at least while Ruby is his companion. With luck, she'll be able to have a proper interaction with him.

And then... well, we don't really know what is going to happen from there. Mrs. Flood's plotline is still a huge mystery, but it doesn't seem good. Mrs. Flood ends the finale by warning that the Doctor's "story ends in absolute terror." Whether or not she's going to cause that terror, she certainly seems pleased by the thought.

The Evidence

It's a perfectly good headcanon, but is there any evidence for this theory? Actually, yes. There's more than you might expect, if you dig deep enough. Some are completely ridiculous, others are surprisingly compelling, and some are connections that could just as easily point to other characters. But we've included them all for you to decide.

The actor's name lines up

Mrs. Flood is a character played by Anita Dobson, and the character in question is named Anita. This might sound like silly reasoning, but there is a precedent! Fans quickly caught on to the fact that the same person was appearing throughout the 60th anniversary and the first season, with all characters being played by actress Susan Twist. The character was then properly introduced as Susan Triad, with the "Susan" part being incredibly important. And, as the second episode taught us, "There's always a Twist at the end."

It's kind of ridiculous to believe that they would cast an actress simply because of her name, but naming a character after the actress is much more realistic. Anita Dobson was cast as Mrs. Flood, and thus the character Anita Benn got her name.

If you want to go way down the rabbit hole, the actress for Anita is named Steph De Whalley. According to House of Names, "De Whalley" roughly translates to "Of the Field of Wells," and the family originally lived in Lancashire. The name "Benn" can mean "by the grassy plain," also from Lancashire. If you want to play a little fast and loose with topographical definitions, Benn + Flood would line up well with the De Whalley name meaning.

More likely, it's a reference to the British children's character Mr. Benn, who would enter magic doors in costume and travel through time and space. There are some obvious parallels between the story elements of "Joy to the World" and that franchise, although the costume elements of Mr. Benn could also line up pretty well with Mrs. Flood copying former companion's outfits.

While this would be a crazy stretch for another television series, it seems pretty on point for the last season, where multiple characters were named "H. Arbinger" and S. Triad was intended as a distraction from Susan Triad Technologies. Even beyond this season, anagrams and other wordplay are very common in the world of Doctor Who, with an obvious Davies example being the word "Torchwood."

The women's appearances

If regeneration is not on the table, for two characters to be the same person, they have to look reasonably similar. It's not necessary to do a deep comparison, but Anita Dobbs and Steph De Whalley have similar skin tone, hair texture, and facial structure. They also both have pierced ears, allowing both characters to wear minimalist hoop earrings.

But more than physical appearance, a key similarity for the characters comes from their choice in outfits. The character Anita tends to wear long-sleeve, collared shirts, with either a sweater, vest, or blazer on top. Similarly, Mrs. Flood is wearing a sweater over a white collared shirt in all of her appearances, barring her rooftop speech, with an added vest in "73 Yards." This isn't exactly unique clothing, but if it matters that she dresses similarly to past companions, it certainly matters that she has some outfits that are nearly identical to Anita's.

The Doctor's TARDISes

The first suspicious thing that Mrs. Flood did was recognize the TARDIS, and there's a possible explanation for that in the Christmas special. While staying at the Sandringham Hotel, the Doctor had a collection of TARDIS figures that he claimed to have bought online. He gave one to Anita as a parting gift, and she could have learned more about it either online (as other characters have done before) or through the Time Hotel's resources.

Similar phrases

One piece of evidence that will either convince you entirely or seem like a wild stretch is a line of dialogue connected to Anita and Mrs. Flood. The Doctor claims in the Christmas special that he had to "let people get on with their lives," a sentiment that Anita agrees with. In her ominous final speech in the finale, Mrs. Flood says that Ruby's story had a happy ending, "But life goes on, doesn't it?" Given that the Christmas special happens just after "Empire of Death" chronologically, it seems relevant that a very similar phrase appears.

If Mrs. Flood is a future version of Anita, then she is using the Doctor's words against him. In both contexts, the phrasing is used to explain the Doctor having to move on after Ruby left, ultimately bringing him to Anita. This same idea comes up with the Doctor and Anita's conversation about "Auld Lang Syne" and "old friends," two phrases fans should be on the lookout for, moving forward.

Just to drive home the importance of this phrase, the Doctor Who X page includes the conversation between the Doctor and Anita, along with an image of Ruby. But the caption might just have a double meaning. It says "The Doctor may let people go, but they never disappear completely," a phrase which could easily refer to both Ruby and Anita, teasing that they will both return in the future.

Chair Night

Okay, this one is definitely a stretch, but a major theme of the Doctor and Anita's interlude is the idea that having chairs means making time for the people in your life. They both love Chair Night, which is the time they come together to joke and play games. In "The Church on Ruby Road," Mrs. Flood is sitting outside with a folding chair, almost as though she was waiting for the Doctor to arrive. Of course, he mostly ignores her, focused on making sure Ruby got back safely.

But if we accept that Anita is Mrs. Flood, this could be her way of trying to regain her prior connection with the Doctor. However, this Doctor hasn't learned the chair lesson yet, so he doesn't make time for her the way she made time for him. Perhaps if the Doctor comes to visit Ruby again in the future, he'll make time for a chair and a chat.

Mrs. Flood's suitcase

In the finale, Mrs. Flood has a suitcase with stickers from places that have shown up throughout Doctor Who's history. While some are places on Earth, others are other planets or locations that exist in another time. If she worked at the Time Hotel, that would explain how Anita was able to visit so many different places and times without access to a TARDIS herself.

The suitcase has references to the Doctor's adventures throughout the entire show, but one reference in particular seems to add credence to this theory. Front and center is a sticker for the Orient Express. While this has come up multiple times throughout Doctor Who's canon, it is confirmed to be a place that the Time Hotel connects to. Since the Hotel's current set-up is for a Christmas theme, it seems possible that it would include some of the other locations during other times of the year.

Arguments against it

The tricky thing with fan theories is that you rarely have much to go on for disproving them, until they either do or don't end up being true. With that in mind, there's no hard evidence against this theory. The actresses look and act similar enough that it's hard to say that this is completely impossible. But there are a couple of good arguments against it that we can address (and possibly push back against).

Vastly different personalities

Probably the best argument against this theory is that Anita and Mrs. Flood have very different personalities. Anita is generally kind, tolerant of the Doctor's more ridiculous actions, and eager for romance. Mrs. Flood, on the other hand, has shown some major signs of being evil. She more or less mocked Cherry Sunday when the world was ending, has some degree of future knowledge, and has the ability to speak directly to the audience.

It would take a lot to get Anita to change that much. However, it's not impossible. There was some bitterness and pain in Anita when the Doctor left, and that could build up over time. Her access to the Time Hotel might explain away the foreknowledge, and her cruelty toward Ruby's family could be jealousy or a possessive nature coming out.

If they were to pull it off, they would need to really sell fans on how she changed so drastically. Now, that can be done. Amy Pond's infant child turned out to be her mischievous childhood friend, an assassin trained to kill the Doctor, and the woman who would eventually love and marry the Doctor. But the seeds were laid for that twist across multiple seasons of the show. It would be hard to pull off in just one season, especially a shortened one.

Would Davies really give this important of a plot element to Moffat?

"Joy to the World" was the first time a Christmas special was written by someone other than the current showrunner, but the holiday episodes are usually a break from the main season plot lines. It would make sense to hand that off to another writer in order to focus on the overarching plot. But would it be reasonable for Russell T. Davies to let another writer have the introduction of such an important character?

It seems like Mrs. Flood's identity is going to be a huge part of the next season, so it's unlikely that Davies would give up control over it. This is the same man who wrote three-quarters of the last season himself. Steven Moffat won't let any other writers use River Song, so why would Davies hand Mrs. Flood off to anybody else?

Most likely, he wouldn't. But if he did, it was probably out of necessity. It has been mentioned that Moffat writing the Christmas special was a last-minute decision, so Davies might not have had a choice. We do know that Moffat already saw the next season finale "for reasons that will become apparent," so maybe something came up, Davies had to hand it off, and Moffat got to be a part of what was coming.

Anita originally had a much smaller part

According to the latest Behind the Scenes video, Anita was only originally supposed to have 10 lines, which expanded when the cast and crew fell in love with the character. If we believe this, then it really wouldn't make sense for such a minor role to become so integral to the upcoming season.

That being said, one-off characters have become important before. Donna Noble was only supposed to be in one Christmas special, before becoming one of the most beloved companions in the show's history. Furthermore, just like the Doctor, the showrunners lie. Davies admitted to leaking false information to hide Ncuti Gatwa's casting, so it's entirely possible that the production history of Anita's character is a lie as well.

Some of the evidence behind this theory is incredibly compelling. Other evidence is more than a stretch. But there is currently no evidence against the theory that is a true deal-breaker. Doctor Who has pulled off wilder reveals in the past, so only time will tell if this theory is correct or another instance of fans reaching a little too far.

Do you think Anita Benn is going to be Mrs. Flood? Stay tuned for more updates on Doctor Who.