Warning: Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 14, episode 2, “The Devil’s Chord.”
Doctor Who‘s Pantheon doesn’t appear all at once, but that only makes the godlike beings even more intimidating. First mentioned by the Fifteenth Doctor in Doctor Who season 14, episode 2, “The Devil’s Chord,” the collection of antagonists have abilities that surpass even those of the Doctor. As a result, they immediately become one of the famous Time Lord’s biggest threats. However, the danger isn’t just to the life of the Doctor, but the entire universe is at stake as well. The Doctor’s immense intellect levels the playing field, but his showdowns with Pantheon members are always a close call.
Every actor who has played the Doctor has always had powerful adversaries, and the Pantheon makes a fitting addition to the upper echelon of Doctor Who villains. Some of the greatest Doctor Who stories of all time involve bad guys whose power and know-how match or exceed the Doctor’s, and this group of interdimensional demigods certainly fits that description. While the nature of the show means the Doctor is almost always completely victorious, the best villains always give the distinct impression that Doctor Who‘s main character is nearing defeat.
Members of the Pantheon look human in appearance, but Jinkx Monsoon’s Maestro and Neil Patrick Harris are testament to the group’s eccentricities too. After seeing Maestro in action in “The Devil’s Chord,” Ncuti Gatwa theorizes that the musical villain is part of an organization called the Pantheon, describing them to Ruby as, “Vast powers from beyond the universe.” Then, when it’s revealed that Maestro is the Toymaker’s child, the connection can be extended to Harris’ character too.
The Doctor goes as far as referring to the Pantheon as “Gods,” suggesting the level of power they all harbor. Gatwa’s Doctor has come up against both the Toymaker and Maestro, but has never been able to use the same trick twice against them. As Fifteen himself states, “One trick, once. That’s all you get with the gods.” In the Doctor’s two victories over the Toymaker and Maestro, he has had to use the villain’s respective rules against them, and neither character was killed – only banished.
“Pantheon” is a very recognizable word, and it’s one that’s been used in Doctor Who canon before, even if it was outside the main show. In the Doctor Who spinoff show, The Sarah Jane Adventures, David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor comes face-to-face with a villain called the Trickster in the season 3 two-parter, “The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith.” Not only does the name “The Trickster” make the character sound like they could fit nicely alongside Maestro and the Toymaker, but the Doctor also confirms the Trickster belongs to “The Pantheon of Discord.”
The story was co-written by Russell T Davies, who also wrote, “The Devil’s Chord,” so it makes it very possible that Davies is bringing back one of his older ideas. It would also explain how the Doctor has ever heard of the Pantheon, despite them never showing up in Doctor Who itself. If the Trickster is a member of the same Pantheon as Maestro and the Toymaker, then he would be the first one shown on-screen, when the Sarah Jane story first aired in 2009.
The various Pantheon members are seemingly immortal, which makes it possible that they are connected to another group of Doctor Who villains. Known as the Eternals, these powerful bad guys date back to the show’s classic era, appearing in the 1983 Fifth Doctor serial, “Enlightenment.” Eternals have simple, one-worded titles, with character names such as Death, Time, Pain, and Light.
Maestro and the Toymaker may have slightly more recognizable names than the individual members of the Eternals, but the format is very similar. Additionally, both sets of characters appear to be human in appearance, despite being almost the furthest thing from it. The Eternals are mentioned again during the modern era in Doctor Who season 12, episode 7, “Can You Hear Me?” Both the Eternals and the Pantheon also boast incredible powers that seem, at the very least, equal.
The word “Pantheon” is used as a collective noun for a culture’s gods, and two characters would be an underwhelming total to fit under this moniker. For example, in the Ancient Greek Pantheon, there are twelve gods. As such, it seems highly likely that there are several other members of the Pantheon ready to cross into the universe and strike. Both the Toymaker and Maestro have a specific style and theme, so the same is likely true of other figures within the Pantheon.
The Fifteenth Doctor describes the Toymaker as “A living game,” and goes on to call Maestro, “The essence of music itself.” So, any more debuts from the Pantheon need to have a distinct specialty so that this trend can continue. However, they also need to be based on universal concepts. It’s easy to imagine that cultures on other planets have games and music, so these are good examples.
The One Who Waits is first mentioned by the Toymaker in the third and final episode of the Doctor Who 60th-anniversary specials, “The Giggle.” Neil Patrick Harris’ character sounds intimidated or even scared by the thought of The One Who Waits. For a being to scare a being of such power as the Toymaker means they must be connected at least in some way to the rest of the Pantheon. The One Who Waits could just be a fellow Pantheon member, but it’s more likely that they’re some kind of overseer or leader.
Maestro also potentially voices their unease about The One Who Waits in “The Devil’s Chord,” except they refer to the enigmatic villain by a different name. When Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday is trapped in Maestro’s musical bindings, Maestro looks visibly scared, saying the song emanating from Ruby holds a similar level of power to “The Oldest One,” who was apparently there on the night of Ruby’s birth. So, it would appear that Ruby also has a strong connection to the Pantheon in Doctor Who, even if she doesn’t know it yet.