What Doctor Who premiere's twist means for the rest of series 12

Note: This article contains major spoilers for the Doctor Who season 12 premiere, 'Spyfall, part 1'.

After Doctor Who returned for its season 12 premiere, it's safe to say that fans from all over wished they could travel forward in time and watch the second part of 'Spyfall' right away. Unfortunately, wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey manipulation just isn't a thing in real life, but still, there are plenty of clues out there already which hint at how that big twist could impact Doctor Who moving forward.

To recap, the last few moments of 'Spyfall's first half revealed that one of the Doctor's greatest enemies had returned, and he was hiding under their noses the whole time.

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Actor Sacha Dhawan appears to be playing an old friend of the Doctor's for most of the episode, helping her and the team investigate alien attacks on earth's security forces. However, once they all boarded a plane towards the end of the premiere, the Doctor deduced that her companion isn't who he says he is...

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In fact, Sacha is actually playing The Master in disguise, resurrected in a new form following the apparent death of Michelle Gomez's Missy and John Simm's Master in season 10. (The Master never really dies, no matter how often he or she dies.)

As if that weren't shocking enough, The Master went on to say something that could change the Doctor's future forever (and the show along with it too):

"Everything you think you know is a lie."

As you might expect, The Master then tries to kill everyone on the plane because that's just how he rolls, but the question remains – What on Earth was he talking about?

While we don't have a definitive answer just yet, there are some vital clues that could point Whovians in the right direction.

Earlier on, it's suggested that the brightly-lit aliens who work for The Master may hail from another dimension, which implies that the Doctor could be facing a bigger threat connected to the multiverse at large.

The first trailer for season 12 hinted at this even more, especially when the Doctor ominously said, "Something's coming for me... I can feel it." It's not often that something can scare her like that. In fact, not even The Master himself can elicit that reaction, which suggests he might be in cahoots with a terrifying and even more dangerous foe.

But who could this possibly be? After all, everyone's favourite Time Lord has made countless enemies over the years. Saying that though, it seems likely that the mystery surrounding The Master's words is connected to one threat in particular, one who Jodie Whittaker's version of the Doctor first mentioned in season 11.

We are of course referring to the Timeless Child, that frustrating enigma showrunner Chris Chibnall briefly introduced last season without offering any kind of resolution.

Back in 'The Ghost Monument', clairvoyant monsters called The Remnants hinted that a dark secret from The Doctor's past would come back to haunt her.

While this so-called 'Timeless Child' wasn't mentioned again for the rest of the season, that original premonition seems to be directly linked with The Master's ominous warning in 'Spyfall':

"The Timeless Child… We see what's hidden, even from yourself. The outcast, abandoned and unknown…"

Could it be that "what's hidden" is also the "lie" that The Master refers to? Plenty of fans already suspect that The Master himself could be the Timeless Child as he's an outcast among the Time Lords.

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However, given what we just saw in the 'Spyfall' premiere, it seems more likely that The Master is merely connected to the Timeless Child somehow, rather than being the actual child himself.

Either way, showrunner Chris Chibnall has already hinted that season 12 would revisit this mystery.

Speaking to Radio Times, he coyly teased the Timeless Child's appearance by saying, "These are always good questions to be asking," before admitting, "There is a new challenge that the Doctor has to face this year which is pretty profound."

Unfortunately, we won't know the true impact of 'Spyfall's big twist until the rest of season 12 plays out in full – or wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff is invented and we jump forward in time with our very own TARDIS.

Doctor Who is on BBC One in the UK and BBC America in the US.