Coming up with spoilers that aren't spoilers when you say them: The Game?

I was thinking about Flux. There are things in Flux that sound like spoilers but they also happen at other points in Doctor Who, so mentioning them can be mistaken for other events, even events within Flux itself. So does anybody have any Doctor Who spoilers that aren’t recognisably spoilers because the event happens earlier or is mistakable for another event? Stuff that you could spoiler tag the original episode for but not the actual words involved in describing the event. [1]

This could expand to non-Doctor Who, I can certainly think of some Arrowverse examples.


  1. (This is assuming that the person that watches the episodes watches them in release order) ↩︎

5 Likes

The Doctor regenerates.

10 Likes

“The new Doctor is played by David Tennant.” A sentence that applies to episodes released in 2005, 2008, and 2022.

12 Likes

What about spoilers that are technically spoilers, but because the fandom has talked about them so much, many know what happens even if they haven’t seen their respective episodes?

The Sixth Doctor strangling Peri
Peri’s companion exit
Adric’s fate
How the Fifth Doctor regenerated
Pete’s World/Tentoo

8 Likes

I’d like to also add, “David Tennant shows up” and “The Doctor insults their past self and compliments their current or future self.”

8 Likes

‘The Doctor is an alien’ is both not spoilers at all and spoilers for the Timeless Children

10 Likes

‘The Doctor doesn’t like the new TARDIS interior’

9 Likes

In a shocking twist reveal, the villain is actually The Master in disguise

The season finale is controversial and underwhelming

The 8th doctor loses his memory

8 Likes

And, arguably, The War Games too!

6 Likes

The doctor meets a flirty fellow time traveller from the future.

7 Likes

The Doctor meets a young woman from present day Earth and offers her to travel with them.

8 Likes

I mean, it’s kinda the “Skyrim is released” of the Doctor Who universe…

7 Likes

Clara is Clara but also isn’t Clara.

10 Likes

The TARDIS is used for evil

6 Likes

Doctor kidnaps woman and can’t get them back to where they were

(for a bonus: Doctor kidnaps person and can’t get them back to where they were while other more active participant gets invested in staying but can’t)

9 Likes

Gallifrey is destroyed!

11 Likes

Gallifrey comes back off-screen!

8 Likes

The Doctor is the Last of the Time Lords!

(You Are Not Alone…)

7 Likes

Oh, TARDIS is made of bone.

TARDIS is made of body parts.

TARDIS has a baby.

TARDIS has communication difficulties.

TARDIS fails to land properly.

Doctor’s wife shows up in unexpected place. (Not aware of wife-ness at first)

6 Likes

Archeologist friend turns out to be ending world by accident.

7 Likes