On Wednesday this week, Steven Moffat, show runner for Doctor Who – among other things – wrote a rather enigmatic post on his twitter account.
“Right EVERYBODY who follows me, go and follow [Sophia Myles] – spin that fireplace. NOW. I’ll explain later. Or not.”
As you may recasll, Myles appeared on Doctor Who in the second season of the current incarnation of the program, back on the David Tennant days, in an episode that featured a spinning fireplace which hid a secret room – making this a clear Doctor Who reference.
Of course, there is really no way to tell whether Moffat was simply promoting a colleague’s Twitter feed or hinting at something big coming for Doctor Who, especially since he was was unwilling to provide greater context.
Shortly after Moffat’s post, Myles tweeted the following: “Watch this (fire)place,” which is yet another reference to the episode she appeared on. This seems to imply that Myles will offer additional information for show fans sometime in the near future.
Indeed, Myles has since posted the same message several more times, while also dealing with a deluge of fan questions and requests. From Thursday evening to Saturday morning her Twitter follower pool grew more than 3000% (from a few hundred to over nine thousand), with most of the new followers presumably being Doctor Who fans following Moffat’s direction.
She’s been asking fans to propose episode ideas, and series spin-offs for her character, while fending off any direct questions with responses like “I’m not at liberty to say” and “Ask [Moffat].”
For her part, Myles seems to be enjoying the attention, while Moffat’s Twitter feed hasn’t mentioned the point again.
Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of speculation that Myles will be included in an episode during the upcoming season, or perhaps her character will replace Amy and Rory as the companions in the TARDIS.
There is also the chance, of course, that none of this will happen, and that Moffat is simply using his influence over his Internet audience to goof off. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time.
Doctor Who returns for it’s seventh season in the Fall of 2012 on BBC One and BBC America.
