Where Does John Frobisher Fit In Twelfth Doctor Face Theory?

Andrew Reynolds is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

We’ve already had the explanation to the thing that really didn’t need to be explained but what about the ‘other face’ – that of Torchwood’s John Frobisher – where does he fit in with Russell T. Davies’ plan hatched years ago?

Last month, the show cleared up the mystery of why the Twelfth Doctor has the face of Caecilius, the friendly Roman rescued by David Tennant’s Doctor in 2008 adventure The Fires of Pompeii. According to The Girl Who Died, the Time Lord uses Caecilius’ face as a reminder to always try to save people, no matter what the personal consequences.

However, it didn’t settle the mystery of where Frobisher, the civil servant in 2009’s Torchwood: Children of Earth, comes into the theory. Well, now Steven Moffat has elaborated – with the help of former showrunner Russell T Davies – on just where his face fits.

“When I first cast Peter Capaldi as the Doctor I remembered that Russell had said to me that he had a plan to account for the fact that Capaldi turns up in both Doctor Who and Torchwood in different parts,” Moffat told attendees at the Doctor Who Festival. “So I wrote to him to ask, ‘look, what’s the plan? And does it fit?’ He said, ‘yes! I’ve worked it out!’

“He said that it’s about – as the Doctor says – asserting his right to save people. His plan was that in the Torchwood episode – which we couldn’t really reference as it would have been difficult in that scene – is that the Doctor asserts himself over time by saving Capaldi’s character in The Fires of Pompeii and time re-asserts itself by ending that bloodline in the Torchwood episode [when Frobisher finds himself in a situation that forces him into suicide]. And the Doctor says, ‘to hell with you time!’ And takes that face and brings it back again. It’s the Doctor’s eternal battle with doom and destiny.”

So does that mean that Caecilius and Frobisher are related?

“Yes,” said Moffat. “And remarkably there’s a level of genetic throwback in that thousand years to make them identical!”

It certainly serves a fan theory but it doesn’t really add anything to the on screen drama – Lord knows what anybody who has no idea who Caecilius is made of the explanation. Perhaps it didn’t help that Moffat kept referring to the Russell T. Davies theory, as though it was going to break new ground; rather than just underline a personality trait that perhaps would have served better to be addressed in the previous series when the Doctor was raw and wrestling with his conscience.

So is the Frobisher explanation satisfying? Did we need an explanation when we’ve already seen numerous characters return in different guises, including the Doctor? Were you happy with the explanation in The Girl Who Died?

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