"Mrs Flood"
"Mrs Flood" was the alias used by a woman whose "true name" was a secret, (TV: Empire of Death [+]Loading...["Empire of Death (TV story)"]) although she once maintained that "Mrs Flood", no more and no less, was her "true and proper" name. (AUDIO: Untitled 2 [+]Loading...["Untitled 2 (Doctor Who at the Proms 2024 audio story)"])
Although clearly more than she appeared, notably displaying knowledge of TARDISes, (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"]) she "hid herself away" as the inconspicuous neighbour of Ruby, Carla and Cherry Sunday. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"]) While she got along with the Sunday family, Mrs Flood had a somewhat antagonistic relationship with her neighbour Abdul, who she believed was spying on her. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"])
Biography
Origins
Mrs Flood once conspicuously dismissed the possibility that she was "some outer space villain in disguise", to a largely sceptical audience. (AUDIO: Untitled 2 [+]Loading...["Untitled 2 (Doctor Who at the Proms 2024 audio story)"]) However, she herself once mused on the fact that she was "always hiding herself away", pointedly echoing the Fifteenth Doctor's claim that Time Lords might use regeneration to "hide [them]selves away". (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])
Indeed, when about to die to Sutekh's Dust of Death, she seemed to drop her dotty façade in front of Cherry Sunday, calling her a "tiny little woman" and alluding to the fact that she had "such plans". When she heard that Cherry was religious, she imperiously told the woman: "Then tell your Maker I will come to storm down His gates of gold and seize His kingdom in my true name". (TV: Empire of Death [+]Loading...["Empire of Death (TV story)"])
She claimed that she could sometimes "hear stories on the breeze". (AUDIO: Untitled 2 [+]Loading...["Untitled 2 (Doctor Who at the Proms 2024 audio story)"])
Early life as Mrs Flood
During the 1970s, Mrs Flood saw police boxes on the streets of London for the final time. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"])
She once claimed that she had "nursed [her] mother through diabetes and a hip operation. She ultimately died of an ulcer when Mrs Flood "wasn't looking". (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"]) She also claimed to have gone to a concert in 1986, seeing Queen live; they thought they were "not bad", but a "bit noisy". (AUDIO: Untitled 2 [+]Loading...["Untitled 2 (Doctor Who at the Proms 2024 audio story)"])
On Easter 2023, Mrs Flood did a fun run in twenty-five minutes flat, despite having blisters the size of apples. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"])
Meeting the Doctor
Mrs Flood woke up on 24 December 2023 to find a police box on the pavement outside her home, which she believed was Abdul's doing, despite him denying it. The two briefly greeted Ruby Sunday as she arrived home with groceries. Sometime later, while the timeline was cracked, Mrs Flood witnessed the Fifteenth Doctor run out of the Sunday family's flat and into the box, which disappeared before her eyes. The sight of it disappearing caused her to drop her groceries in shock, as she realised it was a TARDIS.
When the Doctor returned to the Sundays' flat, Mrs Flood warmly waved at him, watching him once again disappear into the TARDIS. When he returned again, she observed as he hesitantly approached the Sundays' front door. Grabbing his attention, she remarked he seemed to be a "busy man" with his "box of tricks", but noted his evident sadness. The Doctor remarked he was worried he was bad luck for the Sundays, and bid her a Merry Christmas. He declined to give his name, claiming he was just passing by, to which Mrs Flood told him to take care as he re-entered his TARDIS. Shortly afterwards, Ruby emerged and asked if Mrs Flood saw where the Doctor went, to which she encouraged her to enter the TARDIS and wished her luck as she set off with the Doctor. Abdul ran out into the street, marvelling at the TARDIS as it dematerialised, but Mrs Flood simply gave him a kiss on the cheek and bid him a Merry Christmas. Looking ahead, she wryly remarked, "Never seen a TARDIS before?", and winked at her audience. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"]) According to another account, however, she merely whispered it to herself. (PROSE: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...{"page":"154","chapt":"Epilogue","1":"The Church on Ruby Road (novelisation)"})
In Ruby's timeline
In an ultimately-aborted timeline "suspended along [Ruby Sunday]'s event", caused by the Doctor stepping on a fairy circle in 2024 and vanishing, Mrs Flood talked to Ruby while she and Carla were conducting an experiment to try and speak to the mysterious woman who had been following Ruby around ever since. Mrs Flood noted that Ruby was standing in the middle of the street, talking to her mother on her mobile phone at strangely close quarters. When Ruby reacted, Flood stated it had nothing to do with her before descending the stairs into her basement. (TV: 73 Yards [+]Loading...["73 Yards (TV story)"])
He Who Waits No More
Months later, when the Doctor and Ruby were investigating Susan Triad and her recurring face in their adventures, Carla Sunday asked Mrs Flood to look after her mother, Cherry Sunday, while she tagged along with Ruby to be present for when their VHS of the night of Ruby's birth was connected to UNIT's Time Window. Once alone with Cherry, she once again revealed that she knew more than met the eye, stating "there's a storm coming in. He waits no more..." while looking to her audience. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])
Shortly thereafter, Sutekh, through his heralds, unleashed a deadly dust cloud which quickly spread across London. Seeing it approach, Mrs Flood asked Cherry if she believed in the power of prayer, to which Cherry responded that she did. In response, Mrs Flood stated that she would storm the "golden gates" of the "kingdom" belonging to Cherry's "maker" in her true name. Unsettled, Cherry asked Mrs Flood who she was, and Flood went to Cherry and hugged her, calling her a "little woman" and stating that she "had such plans", as the cloud passed through the flat, reducing them both to dust. They were both restored to life alongside the other victims after the Doctor defeated Sutekh, which caused her to laugh and exclaim, "that clever boy!" (TV: Empire of Death [+]Loading...["Empire of Death (TV story)"])
Telling stories
Later, after Ruby had located her birth mother, Louise Miller, and brought her to meet Carla and Cherry, Mrs Flood narrated to her audience that Ruby's story had a happy ending, while standing on the roof of Ruby's building at night in a furry white hooded coat, carrying a white parasol in her left hand and a suitcase with "PENZANCE" written on it in her right. Flood concluded that the Doctor's story conversely ended in "absolute terror", before declaring "night night" to whomever she was narrating too. (TV: Empire of Death [+]Loading...["Empire of Death (TV story)"])
Still wearing the same outfit, she next turned up in the Royal Albert Hall, interrupting a Prom when she appeared on stage and frightened the rightful presenter away. Putting down her umbrella, as it had "stopped snowing", she cheerfully addressed the audience. When they distrusted her insistence that she was a perfectly ordinary woman, she unconvincingly doubled down on her clam of being nothing more than a "nice, quiet, friendly soul" — then began to muse on her much more extraordinary neighbous, and, growing quieter and more meditative, on the many wonderful stories which were sometimes "whispered" to her by "the breeze" — such as the Legend of Ruby Sunday. (AUDIO: Untitled 2 [+]Loading...["Untitled 2 (Doctor Who at the Proms 2024 audio story)"])
Personality and traits
Claiming to be a "nice, quiet, friendly soul", (AUDIO: Untitled 2 [+]Loading...["Untitled 2 (Doctor Who at the Proms 2024 audio story)"]) Mrs Flood appeared to be an ordinary elderly human woman. She often sat in a chair outside her front door to watch the street, and acted prickly towards Abdul regarding the TARDIS blocking the pavement. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"]) When interacting with her neighbours, she usually spoke with a middle-class London accent, but switched to Received Pronunciation while reacting to the impending manifestation of Sutekh and afterwards. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"], Empire of Death [+]Loading...["Empire of Death (TV story)"])
Behind the scenes
Mrs Flood having been to see Queen in 1986 echoes her actress Anita Dobson's meeting of her future husband Brian May, lead guitarist and backing vocalist for the band, in the same year.
