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May 20th, 2013 372 comments

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The Final Moments of The Name of the Doctor

The Final Moments of The Name of the Doctor

The Final Moments of The Name of the Doctor – Doctor Who Series 7 Part 2 2013



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372 comments

  • Anonymous

    May 19th, 2013 - 9:23pm

    I think the whole of the 50th is set inside of the Doctor’s timestream, and that’s where The Doctor and Clara meet 10 and Rose and Zygons and Daleks and Liz 1 and John Hurt’S Doctor, but somehow they contact UNIT and Ingrid Olivers character gets them out of the Timestream and into reality, only problem is that HurtDoctor and 10 and Rose are all in reality too, along with some other nasty things

    Reply
    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 9:37pm

      Interesting theory – good way for the different elements to meet each other – if we combine this with timewar doctor theory maybe the only way of getting into the timelocked timewar through the only survivor’s time stream

    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 9:49pm

      It also allows for a few more “doctored” original series clips with MS and Clara in the background as they travel around the time stream trying to get out to the present

  • Ephraim

    May 19th, 2013 - 7:53pm

    I’m thinking Hurt is indeed Time War. Here’s my reasoning:
    1. Clara saw in the book in Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS his real name from reading “History of the Last Great Time War”
    2. What DT said to Rose in Journey’s End about the metacrisis Doctor: “He’s like me when we first met…born from battle…committed genocide” The genocide metacrisis did was just the Daleks. Hurt did Daleks and Galifraians/Time Lords.
    3. CE was really struggling with deciding to kill the Daleks for good and in the process killing half on the population on Earth in The Parting of the Ways. And MS was equally frustrated in Victory of the Daleks on letting them go to save Earth. These struggles were him not wanting to commit genocide again. (DT did this too in Runaway Bride but the Racnoss forced him to kill them).

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      May 19th, 2013 - 10:00pm

      Also, you’ll notice all the Doctors Clara saw before meeting the ‘Fallen Doctor’ were running. John Hurt, on the other hand, stayed where he was. Whether this is meant to be symbolic of him being the Doctor who ‘stood his ground’ while the others all ran or not, it is a pretty interesting scene when you analyse it.

    • Dalek: the Supreme

      May 21st, 2013 - 12:55pm

      Since he’s wearin a combination of McGann’s and Eccleston’s outfits, I’m guessing he’s a Doctor from between those two regenerations, and pressed the button in the middle of his regeneration.

  • the astronaut of death

    May 19th, 2013 - 7:50pm

    this is my theory

    I think a long time ago the doctor was told that his name is a dangerous name it is a name that destroys worlds so the dr made a promise to gallifrey to never say it so he needed to choose a new name so he chose the name the doctor and he would live on as the doctor and never reveal his name.

    but when the john hurts dr was fighting in the time war he realised the time lords were going to loose and the daleks were going to escape gallifrey and destroy more worlds as they lived on. but the dr needed to change that so he chose he was going to sacrifice the time lords and kill both the time lords and the daleks by revealing his name witch would destroy gallifrey and kill the daleks so the doctor said his name and gallifrey and the daleks died and the dr escaped.

    after the time war john hurts dr realised what he had done and was ashamed in himself and he realised this current incretion dose not deserve the name the doctor because he broke the promise so the doctor killed him self so he could live on and start a new life and forget about the evil dr who destroyed gallifrey….and broke the promise

    please reply and tell me what you think
    .

    Reply
    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 7:59pm

      I think the whole name thing was mr Moff’s smoke and mirror routine to get us to this point and won’t have relevance in the time war and will again remain a mystery

    • Anonymous

      May 19th, 2013 - 7:59pm

      Sorry, but the Doctor’s name was only important to open his tomb, so the Great Intelligence could enter his timeline. And the Doctor destroyed the Time Lords because he realised they were about to do what they did in ‘The End of Time’, obliterate the universe and live on as beings of concious alone. May be he was ashamed about destroying the Time Lords, but he used a device called ‘The Moment’, his name had nothing to do with it.

  • Dread

    May 19th, 2013 - 6:49pm

    The valeyards for the future – a teaser – it is an amalgamation between the doctors 12th and final incarnation – so will be relevant to a Matt smith regeneration if he is now the 12th (if hurt is either doctor zero or the more likely timewar doctor 9)

    Reply
    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 6:55pm

      But that does rely on the master as a source who may or may not have known about doctor9 Hurt – I assume he did know him in the time war before he ran away from it but who knows as it was a previous master – i think I had better stop with these theories and just wait patiently to enjoy the 50th anniversary and let Moff’s vision wash over me

    • DoctorWho4eva

      May 19th, 2013 - 6:55pm

      Matt Smith is the 11th doctor so the next regeneration is the 12th and his final one will be the 13th- most likely to be played by John hurt

    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 7:26pm

      Your confusing incarnation with regeneration -and at the point of this is there is now conjecture and not fact that Matt smith is the 11th incarnation and little evidence of hurt being from the future rather than more probably a past secret incarnation – and this would be more of the game changer mr moff promised

  • Anonymous

    May 19th, 2013 - 5:37pm

    Personally, I don’t think this particular incarnation of the Doctor is the Valeyard, simply because he only appeared for one season when the original series began to get bad. I think he’ll he introduced as we get closer to the Doctor’s 12th and 13th incarnations, but for now I don’t think he’ll be introduced. Similarly, I don’t think Hurt is a Doctor from before Hartnell, as we know even less about the Doctor’s life on Gallifrey before he left. Though it could be a younger version of the First Doctor, I don’t buy that he did anything terrible on Gallifrey. It also isnt the First Doctor, making Hartnell the Second, as in The Five Doctors the 5th Doctor says he is at regeneration 4, leading Hartnell to say ‘So there are 5 of me now’. He could be the Other, one of the original founders of Gallifreyan society along with Omega and Rassilon, but he isn’t actually the Doctor; rather, the Doctor may be a ‘reborn’ version of the Other.
    I think that there’s one incarnation of the Doctor Hurt may be; the 8th, following his destruction of Gallifrey and the ending of the time war. I think there’s several pieces of evidence for this. Firstly, the 8th Doctor (or potentially the 9th, as we know next to nothing about the Time War) was the man who wiped out the Daleks, Time Lords and countless other species when he ended the war. Considering no other versions of the Doctor find themselves in a situation like this (the closest I can think of is the 4th Doctor when he blows up the Dalek embryo room in Genesis of the Daleks), I don’t think it’ll be any other versions, presuming the Doctor has no other undocumented situations like this. The fact Hurt appears to be wearing a mixture of clothing from the 8th and 9th Doctor’s wardrobe also supports this. As well as this, Clara didn’t see Hurt when she entered his timestream; while Hurt isn’t technically the Doctor, he’s still the same man, so should appear in the timestream. However, if Hurt ended the Time War, he would at some point be in the time lock he placed it in. Which leads to another exciting prospect; were the 11th and Hurt’s Doctors on Gallifrey or Skaro? We know Gallifrey was destroyed in the Time War, but the Skaro the 7th Doctor destroyed with the Hand of Omega was a decoy, and we know both planets were devastated in the war.
    I actually doubt Hurt will be any of these though; they’re all far too obvious. Moffat will almost certainly deliver another shock on the 50th anniversary and do something none of us expect.

    Reply
  • Chris

    May 19th, 2013 - 4:49pm

    For all of you people saying that the doctor can only regenerate twelve or thirteen times… Whilst that might have been true Stephen Moffatt wrote an episode in the Sarah Jane adventuresnspin of series where the doctor himself when asked how many times he could regenerate said 1108

    Reply
    • Ozymadias

      May 19th, 2013 - 5:19pm

      Also, in the special “The Five Doctors” The Master was granted additional regenerations to save the Doctor. This suggests that the 12 regeneration limit is in fact emposed by the time lord council, rather than mandatory.
      On top of this River used up all of her regenerations to save the Doctor, so perhaps he inherited all of her ‘lives’

    • Amelia pond

      May 29th, 2013 - 5:40pm

      When he says he can regenerate that many times he was joking…but when the master in the original series ran outa lives the time lords gave him new ones…just saying… And also someone wrote further up that it can’t be young version of hartnells doctor cuz he didn’t do anything bad enough but the doctor ran away from gallifrey right? What for? Has there ever been clear reasons for that?

  • Tardis Rider

    May 19th, 2013 - 4:39pm

    I’ve just watched ‘Nightmare in Silver’ and commenting on the pause in the sequence of Doctors shown in that episode, that pause occurs between 10th DT and 11th MS Doctors. We never know what happened when DT’s Doctor got angry at going too soon, and MS’s Doctor flying into Big Ben at the start of ‘Eleventh Hour’. All this time I thought it was virtually seemless, but what if the 10th Doctor was so angry at his death? Could he have caused some atrocious acts or regenerated into someone who could (John Hurt)? Stephen Moffat should only change history from when he began being head writer for Doctor Who, so this theory would fit. Matt Smith is the 12th Doctor but the 11th was John Hurt…

    Reply
  • The TARDIS

    May 19th, 2013 - 4:31pm

    Do you know, I really hoped that Moffat wouldn’t make the 50th Anniversary all about his story arc. I can’t wait to see all of Moffat’s great plans come into fruition, I’d much rather see that than a brilliant stand-alone adventure…

    Reply
  • Anonymous

    May 19th, 2013 - 4:02pm

    I feel sorry for this doctor I bet this doctor wiped out all of the time lords and daleks in the time war. 11th thinks he’s all high and mighty but I think this doctor is the true hero here

    p.s I think john hurt is amazing

    Reply
    • Dalek: the Supreme

      May 20th, 2013 - 1:28pm

      How can you say that when we don’t know what John Hurt’s Doctor did or why. All you’re doing here seems to be pouring hate on Matt Smith for a very bad reason.

  • Ozymandias

    May 19th, 2013 - 3:53pm

    Was Ecclestone officially the ninth doctor? or have we forever assumed that since he’s the ninth person to be cast as the doctor, that he is Dr number nine? (If that makes sense)

    Reply
    • Some bloke

      May 19th, 2013 - 3:58pm

      I don’t think we can give a final answer to that until we see the 50th special

    • Anonymous

      May 19th, 2013 - 4:02pm

      Ozymandias thats from watchmen I love watchmen

    • John

      May 19th, 2013 - 5:58pm

      Ozymandias is actually a poem by Shelley.

      I met a traveller from an antique land
      Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
      Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
      Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
      And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
      Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
      Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
      The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
      And on the pedestal these words appear:
      `My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
      Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
      Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
      Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
      The lone and level sands stretch far away”.

      Makes you think eh?

  • Anonymous

    May 19th, 2013 - 3:23pm

    But the Doctor only has 11 regenerations so matt will be back

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      May 19th, 2013 - 3:38pm

      yes, we all know he will be back, he’s still the doctor. He’s confirmed himself for series 8 in 2014

    • Anonymous

      May 19th, 2013 - 3:39pm

      and actually the doctor has 12 regenerations, that means 13 lives. He has another 2 bodies to go, providing john hurts character doesn’t mess that up 😀

    • christian smith

      May 19th, 2013 - 4:14pm

      you are forgetting that the 10th doctor regenerated twice – once in stolen earth and once in the end of time

    • Some bloke

      May 19th, 2013 - 4:21pm

      Oh yeah, That’s kinda balls it all up hasn’t it. Unless they do something like they did with the master in the five doctors, where he was granted an entire new life cycle, 13 new bodies

    • TheDoctorWhoGeek

      May 19th, 2013 - 4:27pm

      The 13 lives thing was a rule enforced by the Time Lords, not a biological rule – the Master evaded it:)Thus as the Doctor is the only Time Lord left he can pick and choose at how many regenerations he has:D (it was mentioned in the Sarah Jane Adventures episode with Matt Smith if anyone was wondering:P)

    • Dalek: the Supreme

      May 20th, 2013 - 1:31pm

      River Song also gave him her remaining regenerations, so that’s another 10 since she used 3 of them, and TheDoctorWhoGeek, where did it say that? In The Keeper of Trakken, the Doctor and the Master both acknowledge the Master’s current regeneration as his last, and he has to steal a body to survive.

  • Dalek: the Supreme

    May 19th, 2013 - 3:00pm

    This cliffhanger is on par with the best of all time, Remembrance of the Daleks Part 1, Earthshock Part 3, The Caves of Androzanni Part 3, The Pandorica Opens, Bad Wolf, etc. I’m hoping the Hurt Doctor is either Doctor Zero, a darker incarnation before Hartnell, or an in-between Doctor like the Valeyard, or maybe even the Valeyard himself! Whatever it is, I’m sure the Moff won’t disappoint! Geronimo!

    Reply
  • Dread

    May 19th, 2013 - 2:54pm

    So to summarise :-

    Hurt = doctor 0 – old gallifreyan iota sigma / other / Rassilon (now that’s a complex time loop)

    Hurt = doctor 9 – timewar doctor

    Hurt = doctor 12 – smiths replacement and potential Valeyard

    My money’s still on timewar doctor as he’s a secret and we already had a sweet touch of Clara guiding the first doctor to the tardis don’t think that would be rehashed

    Reply
    • Dalek: the Supreme

      May 19th, 2013 - 3:01pm

      Clara guiding the First Doctor to the TARDIS was a bit of a plot hole since he had said in The Doctor’s Wife that the TARDIS he chose was unlocked. Still, the line about “What kind of an idiot would steal a malfunctioning TARDIS??” cracked me up!

    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 3:15pm

      We all got excited at the mention of the Valeyard but this distracted us from the name the Storm – perhaps the timewar doctor is “the oncoming storm” who we had heard mention of throughout the series

  • The funky whovian

    May 19th, 2013 - 2:28pm

    Hurts doctor is defo not the first cos the11th doctor said that”he’s the one who broke the promise” so if he were the doctor before he was called the doctor that would not apply. I was not expecting that ending, I was expecting ten and rose to turn up. Nice that it will now lead directly into the fiftieth.

    Reply
  • Dalek Smith

    May 19th, 2013 - 2:04pm

    STILL NOT GINGER!!!

    Reply
    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 2:27pm

      The next doctor will be ginger just so we can get a pay off to that joke – rupert grint needs work?

    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 2:43pm

      Alternatively it could be that the Valeyard is ginger – calling Damian Lewis or Toby Stephens

    • Anonymous

      May 19th, 2013 - 3:54pm

      but the doctor would be made fun at

  • sheepinafez

    May 19th, 2013 - 1:41pm

    i have a beard now…beards are cool

    Reply
  • Matt Tennant

    May 19th, 2013 - 1:21pm

    I reckon he is one of the first incarnations of The Doctor, and carried out what ever deeds he did under his original name. He then chose the name The Doctor as a promise, as a form of healing, setting himself apart and making amends for what he once did wrong. Just a theory!

    Reply
  • Jess

    May 19th, 2013 - 1:08pm

    will matt smith be returning in 2014 as i have read up he is. but now i am confused why this john hurt is the doctor? someone help lol

    Reply
    • Whovian11

      May 19th, 2013 - 1:30pm

      I have read that Matt smith will be returning in 2014 as well but john hurt isnt the new doctor he is a old doctor (possibly the 8th) but he did things that were so bad that he isnt considered to be a doctor (just my theory)

    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 1:51pm

      If Matt smith returns and is the now12th doctor then we can look forward to his turmoil of approaching end of his life cycle – the Valeyard does not have to be the doctor himself – just part of him like the watcher, dream lord etc – we know about the end at trensalore etc but who’s to say its not a potential new beginning 😉

  • mart249

    May 19th, 2013 - 12:01pm

    Listen to the Great Intelligence and what he said and it will give seemingly a big hint.

    Welcome to the resting place of the cruel tyrant, of the slaughterer of 10 billion and the vessil of the final darkness. Welcome to the Tomb of the Doctor

    It was a minor skirmish by the Doctor’s blood-soaked standard, not exactly the Time War, but still enough to finish him. In the end, it was too much for the old man … tell that to the leader of the Sycorax, or Solomon the trader, or the Cybermen or the Daleks. The Doctor lives his life in darker hues, day upon day, and he will have other names before the end: the Storm, the Beast, the Valeyard.

    So in the future he has another war to fight and its not the time war, so is therefore in The Doctors future and that he gets darker in his future. Clara sees his past to current lives and not his future. So there are 2 things that point to The Hurt Doctor being a Future doctor and maybe The Valeyard. The Doctor also says The Hurt Doctor didnt do the
    things in the name of The Doctor. If it was a past regeneration The Doctor would be disgraced of himself and going along with the current story line, wouldnt currently call himself The Doctor. Since he is The Doctor it cant be anything that involves his regeneration or past regenerations and again leads us to a future regeneration or The Valeyard. There is also what The GI says the vessil of the final darkness (which is in the tomb) and leads us to The Doctor being the darkest form of himself in his final regeneration. Which again points us to The Doctors future.

    In the episode Hide. Emma warns Clara not to trust the Doctor, that there is a sliver of ice in his heart. This along with what The GI says about the doctor, that he has a dark side to him that he keeps hidden and if you know your Doctor Who you will know who The Valeyard is and how this points towards The Hurt Doctor being The Valeyard. At the end of season 5, something takes control of the Tardis and River couldnt take control back. Only The Doctor and River can fly. The Tardis and maybe someone else they teach? but more likely couldnt a future Doctor (Hurt Doctor) fly The Tardis? and if River showed The Doctor to use the blue stabilisers, then The Doctor is still learning how to control it and wouldnt a future Doctor know how to do that? The similarity of the names Whisper Men to The Silence, both of which want to kill The Doctor and The Valeyard did try to have The Doctor executed. So maybe all of this Silence and Whisper Men are storylines linked to The Valeyard.

    There is some evil in all of us, Doctor. Even you. The Valeyard is an amalgamation of the darker sides of your nature, somewhere between your twelfth and final incarnation.
    The Master to the Sixth Doctor in The Trial of a Time Lord – The Ultimate Foe

    Its possible it could be a future regeneration but to me is most likely The Valeyard. I lean more towards it being The Valeyard due to all that has happened and said in the series fitting in with the past mythology of The Valeyard. If anyone has any other ideas i would like to read as this is only a theory of mine concluded by the past of The Doctor 🙂

    Reply
    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 12:28pm

      If the time stream was all of the one person’s life with many names (not just that of one of those names) then Clara would have seen the future ones as well – I think the Valeyard will take more building up to than the brief mention by GI – and will be part of future series story arcs of what happens when a timelord nears the end of his regeneration cycles becoming desperate for life (e.g. Master, Rassilon)

    • Anonymous

      May 19th, 2013 - 12:32pm

      But the Doctor said it was a name that we “give ourselves”, as if to hide from the past, so I think its either the 9th, but more likely the Ground Zero doctor, before the 1st regeneration. I can see your reasoning behind your assumption and you could indeed be right, but we know only Moffat knows and it wouldn’t be like him to throw a spanner into the engine!

      BTW I really would like it to be the Valeyard!

    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 12:41pm

      Also the Valeyard was the dark side of his personality out for himself – not a magnanimous sort who would do bad things for good reason

    • mart249

      May 19th, 2013 - 12:49pm

      @Dread – Clara said that she saw all 11 of his regenerations. Unless they plan on killing The Doctor at this regeneration and she would have said how the doctor died or said something about his future and not just stop at regeneration 11, unless they holding back possible storylines for The Hurt Doctors storyline, either at this regeneration or in whatever regeneration that is maybe planned that he fully dies, she would have tried to save him and also stop him from doing the act of what The Doctor says The Hurt Doctor did thats not in the name of The Doctor.

      Deffinetly its all up to more storylines from Moffat to inform us more and give us a bigger picture of things to come

    • Anonymous

      May 19th, 2013 - 1:19pm

      Go back to the nightmare in silver episode. Look at the scene in the doctors head when he’s arguing with the cyber leader. Pictures of The doctors incarnations flicker through the background. There is a pause…. A black spot, just briefly….. Make of that what you will….

    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 1:36pm

      @mart249 – yes true she did say that – but its difficult to know with Moffat as he often twists words for his own ends as things never quite tie up with the artistic license he applies to time travel so anything is possible!;)

      Moff if your reading – here’s a pitch for the next series (or some extended specials at least) if it does tie in with this (or not!) – no regeneration for Matt smith – take us on a back story from magann’s regeneration through time-war hurts adventures through to Ecclestone – the missing doctor’s time war season – give you time to see if smith wants to continue and work out how things unfold

    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 2:04pm

      I think I’ve been blogging too long today as I keep repeating myself but either we go with:

      Hurt = 12 and could be Valeyard or
      Hurt = 9 and smith = 12 and we can look forward to Valeyard in future

      I don’t think the moff would serve up the Valeyard now as only true whovians know who he is and the overriding idea of the new series has been the timewar – I think the Valeyard deserves a bigger build up

    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 2:09pm

      I don’t mean bigger as this is BIG but I mean a build up with more context not just a quick “he is known as storm, beast and Valeyard” oh and btw here’s the Valeyard – I think that’s a seed for the future

    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 2:24pm

      Maybe trensalore is Matt smiths final battleground against the manifested Valeyard as a separate being and tardis – that being the real “fall of the 11th ” ( even if it’s the twelfth, as the people repeating the legend, or the silence don’t actually know he’s the twelfth cos it’s a secret) – and so the time stream could actually be the valeyards

      Another aspect I liked was with the appearance of the database river song underwriting the old idea that when a timelord dies his memories are extracted and downloaded to his tardis to then be downloaded into to matrix – no matrix as its time locked meaning the time stream just sits there in its tardis tomb as a record of his whole existence

    • Dalek: the Supreme

      May 19th, 2013 - 2:44pm

      The Hurt Doctor can’t be a future regeneration as the Eleventh Doctor knows about him, so he could be a regeneration used up in the Time War, or maybe even the real First regeneration. He might have done many dark, evil things back in that incarnation and when he regenerated, he was so ashamed of his actions he rejected his old name and took up the name of the Doctor.

    • mart249

      May 20th, 2013 - 9:02am

      @Dalek: the Supreme

      “The Hurt Doctor can’t be a future regeneration as the Eleventh Doctor knows about him”

      Why cant he be a future generation? its like saying The Doctor cant go to his own grave, but he did and he stopped his own death with forknowledge for the future and during The Ultimate Foe, The Master points out that The Valeyard is the future Doctor, so someone else met him and then told The Doctor, same as which keeps happening with River – Spoilers. She could have told the 10th Doctor that she married him, but didnt say, again to forknowledge

      @Dread

      Remember what keeps being said, It is hidden in plain sight, so chances are he has left so many clues in the history in the show and is working off past series info also. So Moff might have already given us a big spoiler even including it in things said and just being big teasers for future as there are a few possabilities it could be and it will keep us all going to find out what/who

      I do agree with you that only true whovians will prob be able to put the picture together, its why im here and trying to figure it out from other peoples ideas and my own and deffinetly The Valeyard does deserve a massive buildup for a storyline with him in it, maybe a big leadup in the episode itself of 50th anniversary as we are all running up the walls to find out, so we ourselves are a big buildup as we are discussing it now and untill november 23rd, that is norm how the Moff does it and missleading and letting us all have our own ideas 🙂

  • droney

    May 19th, 2013 - 11:46am

    My idea he is going to be in the 50 anniversary and 11th and 10th doctor are going to team up to stop him from saying his name.

    Reply
    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 11:50am

      Or to prevent history being rewritten again somehow and ensuring Hurt’s destiny of finishing the timewar – despite the atrocity it was still a neccessity that maybe took 3doctors rather than 1

  • 66

    May 19th, 2013 - 11:33am

    Booboo, I’ve heard rumours John Hurt is going to be in Series 8. Is this true?

    Reply
    • booboo

      May 19th, 2013 - 11:35am

      no idea

    • Anonymous

      May 19th, 2013 - 3:59pm

      hope so

  • Dread

    May 19th, 2013 - 11:29am

    I’ve posted these as replies but my theory is If this is “time war” 9th Doctor then all of his incarnation could be timelocked which is why Clara did not know him – whatever he did to end the time war may have forced regeneration into Ecclestone meaning only that fleeting shadow of the timewar doctor was in the time stream – they have styled him as pretty haggard (sorry lord hurt) and with all the other speculation about Ecclestone not being in the anniversary could fit with this and be another moffat bluff (he may pop up at the end for the regeneration?;) ) – and now we are even closer to seeing what happens to the doctor in future series when he reaches his maximum number of regenerations (possibly with some Valeyard stories now that seed has been sown in this series)

    Reply
    • Heapy1967

      May 19th, 2013 - 11:40am

      Possibly… good call! But you have hit the nail on the head… only Moffat knows whats going on so time will tell. All hail the Grand Moff!

    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 12:09pm

      If this does happen (it may not as I am often happily surprised at the Moff’s leftfield payoffs) and there is a resolution to the timewar story wrapped in a big bow – he may tie it in to all the recent series to join up the dots – one thing that has bugged me was when Rassilon and the other time lords appeared to doctor and master to break out of the timelock – there were 2 kneeling figures – his mum(?) and another who we never saw the face of but I always thought resembled Matt Smith – it would be nice to know who they actually were

  • Heapy1967

    May 19th, 2013 - 11:23am

    Remember the Face of Boe said “your are not alone”….

    Reply
    • Dalek Smith

      May 19th, 2013 - 11:31am

      that was a reference to the master

    • Heapy1967

      May 19th, 2013 - 11:37am

      Actually it was a reference to him not being the only Time Lord left… not the Master specifically.

    • Dalek Smith

      May 19th, 2013 - 11:47am

      true but i shouldn’t worry about it as that was RTD this is Steven Moffat

    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 2:40pm

      Michael Jackson also said that and where did it get him

    • Lee

      May 27th, 2013 - 8:41am

      I always hoped that meant Romana was alive. I vaguely remember he left her at the Crossroads with the Guardian and that the Crossroads was outside time and space so therefore would not have been affected by the Time Wars

  • Anonymous

    May 19th, 2013 - 11:20am

    I think that the doctor has had lots of incarnations but the 11 astablished ones are the ones that went under the name doctor

    Reply
  • drjakeyoung

    May 19th, 2013 - 11:17am

    if he is the forgotten doctor, it makes you think how many other forgotten doctors there are!

    Reply
  • Dalek Smith

    May 19th, 2013 - 11:10am

    guys i think i have figured out who john hurts doctor is he is the first doctor, william hartnell was the first regeneration, john hurt did something so bad the only way to get away from it was to run away, change his appearance and change his name hence the reason matt smith said that whatever john hurt did it was not in the name of the doctor because it was before he became the doctor

    Reply
    • Heapy1967

      May 19th, 2013 - 11:19am

      You may be right, you may not. However, if he is, why is DT and Rose on their way back for the 50th?

    • Dalek: the Supreme

      May 19th, 2013 - 2:47pm

      Possibly the Eleventh Doctor is calling upon his past self to help him against a great threat. He did it before in Dimensions in Time, though the canon of Dimensions in Time is debatable.

    • Lady Sontaran

      May 22nd, 2013 - 12:57am

      This can’t be before he became the doctor because Matt’s doctor said he broke the promise he already made. Also, I doubt the doctor would risk crossing timelines with himself on purpose. Tennant isn’t playing the doctor in the 50th anniversary special. He’s playing the Doctor-Donna that was left for Rose in the parallel universe. They’re coming back because the walls of the universe are collapsing again and they end up helping him put it back together.

  • Heapy1967

    May 19th, 2013 - 11:10am

    I think there are 3 possible scenarios for this “Doctor” (for what my opinion is worth):

    1. He’s the 11th Doctors clone from Bad Wolf… we know DT and Rose are on their way back for the 50th.
    2. He’s the original Doctor, eg before William Hartnell, a “Ground Zero” Doctor if you will
    3. He’s the Valeyard.

    Time will tell, and whilst #3 is my favorite option, I think the signs are all pointing towards #1… and he’s NOT the 8th/9th Doctor!

    Reply
    • Ryan

      May 19th, 2013 - 5:48pm

      What ‘signs’ exactly point towards #1?

  • JoobKro

    May 19th, 2013 - 10:49am

    All the other doctors were all running or even fleeing. John Hurt (or whoever he is playing) didn’t run, he stood his ground. He is most likely the man who stood his ground in the Time War.
    If he is the 9th Doctor then it means Matt Smith is the 12th which means there is only one more incarnation for the Doctor unless River made him a kind of “Super-Time Lord”.

    Reply
    • Dalek: the Supreme

      May 19th, 2013 - 2:49pm

      River gave him his regenerations after she used up three bodies, so she gave him 10 regenerations, plus his original 13 is 23, minus the 11 bodies he’s used is 12. He has 12 regenerations left, 11 counting the possibility of John Hurt’s Doctor.

    • christian smith

      May 19th, 2013 - 4:42pm

      10th dr regenerated twice, so if matt smith is no 12 then he has no regenerations left

  • KORSAIR

    May 19th, 2013 - 10:43am

    I think this John Hurt Doctor will be the one who destroyed Gallifrey and hopefully the 50th special will finally put the whole time war thing to rest. I mean let’s face it we were never going to see the time war and I for one am getting a bit fed up hearing about it as we know the outcome. Good episode,good cliff hanger let’s hope the 50th pays off.

    Reply
    • Dread

      May 19th, 2013 - 11:07am

      I agree that this is probably the version of the Doctor between Macgann and Ecclestone that ended the time war – Clara didn’t see him in the time stream because almost all of the incarnation is time-locked with the time war – this could have been an echo of the last moments as whatever he did to end it could have forced his regeneration into Ecclestone

  • Leia

    May 19th, 2013 - 10:20am

    I have just watched this weeks episode. Breathtaking. I have one question, does the arrival of John Hurt mean that Matt Smith is no longer going to be in the programme?And what about Clara? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      May 19th, 2013 - 2:44pm

      Smith is staying for an other series

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