Doctor Who: Ending Series 7 and Looking Forward to the 50 Anniversary Special *Spoilers* (Of course...)

Doctor Who: Questions and Answers from the end of Series 7 *Spoilers* (Of course...)

After many weeks of build up to the finale of Doctor Who series 7, we finally found ourselves with some answers. We learnt the mystery behind Clara (a perfectly satisfying solution in my mind), and we saw the inevitable dodging of actually learning The Doctor's name - his name was spoken, yes, but not so that we could hear it, and so this secret still remains a secret (which is probably for the best really - no name could ever live to the hype surrounding it, and in the end it was more important that the name was used by someone, rather than what the name actually is itself). 

Neither of these were the biggest talking point of the episode however. Instead, we got a massive hint towards a bigger, darker secret, one that already has message boards and forums buzzing with anticipation. Most are pointing towards one idea, and I'm about to spell it out in case you haven't thought along these lines, as well as address a couple of other questions that I still have. There are, obviously, gigantic spoilers in the following paragraphs.

So, at the end of the episode, we saw the following: The Doctor crosses into his own time stream to rescue Clara, and succeeds in finding her and whisking her to safety. However, just before he does this, he sees a lone figure staring out across some barren plains (it's not exactly clear to me where this is - it could be Trenzalore, or it could be elsewhere). Then, the following conversation takes place:

Clara: Who's that?

The Doctor: Nevermind...Let's get back.

Clara: But who is he?

The Doctor: He's me.There's only me here, that's the point, now let's get back.

Clara: But I never saw that one. I saw all of you, eleven faces, all of them you. You're the Eleventh Doctor.

The Doctor: I said he was me. I never said he was The Doctor!

Clara: I don't understand!

The Doctor: Look, my name, my real name. That is not the point. The name I choose is 'The Doctor'. The name you choose, it's like a promise you make...He's the one who broke the promise.

(Clara faints)

The Doctor: Clara! Clara!

(The Doctor picks Clara up)

The Doctor: He is my secret.

Unnamed Figure: What I did, I did without choice.

The Doctor: I know.

Unnamed Figure: In the name of peace, and sanity.

The Doctor: But not in the name of The Doctor!

(The Doctor leaves)

(Unnamed figure turns around)

Then, as we see the figure is revealed to be John Hurt, whom we all know is starring in the 50th Anniversary special, the words 'Introducing John Hurt as The Doctor' flash up on screen. Suddenly, Stephen Moffat's promise that this episode would fundamentally change Doctor Who starts to become apparent - there is another Doctor that we never knew about.

The real fun, of course, is finding out where this Doctor fits into the series. After all, we know that this Doctor must come before the Eleventh, as Matt Smith's Doctor knows who he is (yes, the episode mentioned at one point about how The Doctor visiting his tomb before he actually died leaves him open to learning about his future, but it's not made to seem as if he learns everything about his future). And this is where the game-changing twist really occurs - if, logically, he has to be an earlier incarnation, and therefore can't possibly be one of the previous 10, he has to be a previously unknown Doctor, which means that somewhere along the line we need to start re-numbering our Doctor's.

And the smart money has to be that John Hurt is really Doctor No.9. Why? Let's take a look.

Cast your minds back to Rose, the opening episode of Series 1 (of the modern Doctor Who). The last Doctor to make an appearance before this was Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor in the Doctor Who movie. Christopher Ecclestone makes his appearance as the Ninth Doctor in this episode, but this is the only time the regeneration from one Doctor to the next is not shown on screen. All the others are shown, so we know that John Hurt cannot be any incarnation that we have previously seen on screen. Realistically, without any mis-direction, this has to be where John Hurt's Doctor fits in. Somewhere along the line, Paul McGann regenerated into John Hurt, who regenerated into Christopher Eccelstone. Of course, this truly is game-changing, because it means that Christopher Ecclestone is really the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant is really the Eleventh Doctor, and Matt Smith is really the Twelfth Doctor. So, if what we know about regenerations is true (Time Lords having twelve regenerations), the Doctor only has one regeneration left.

That's one part of the mystery potentially solved. The other is 'why has he been erased from The Doctor's history?'. At the moment, I (and seemingly most of Who-fandom) can only see one reason - this is the incarnation of The Doctor that locked the Time War and killed all the Time Lords and Daleks. What evidence is there? Well, he states that he did it 'without choice...in the name of peace, and sanity' - it's already been made obvious the guilt that The Doctor feels at having to sacrifice everyone else of his race, and even at the genocide of his greatest enemy, so this would fit into the idea that he believed it was the only option. Also, as The Doctor has the image of being a saviour and hero, it stands to reason that he would want this choice and the face that goes with it to be erased from history. It's hardly evidence really I suppose, but it fits pretty damn well.

Does this all fit too well? Perhaps, but perhaps there's a more obvious solution that I haven't seen, or even a less obvious solution. Perhaps it's not obvious at all. Perhaps he really is a future incarnation that travelled back to visit all his previous selves and they all disavowed him for something he told them.

I'm still betting on what I've already stated.

Now, there's something I haven't yet brought up, which is what led us to learn about Trenzalore in the first place, and that's the following quote: 'On the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the Eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a Question will be asked. A question that must never, ever be answered - Doctor Who?'. This is, of course, what Dorium Maldovar asked The Doctor in the Series 6 finale, The Wedding of River Song. We're teased about getting to hear The Doctor's name throughout The Name of The Doctor, but in the end it's River Song who answers it (inaudibly). It's The Great Intelligence who ends up asking the question to gain entry into The Doctor's tomb, but even though we now know this part of the mystery, what isn't clear is why The Doctor didn't answer when 'no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer', as apparently he should have had to by some mystical force. I'm going to give Mr Moffat the benefit of the doubt and say that 'the fall of the Eleventh' doesn't mean a regeneration, but the moment when The Great Intelligence jumped into his time steam and began re-writing history. However, this still isn't clear, so might we be re-visiting this point in the anniversary special?

Finally, let's have a quick look at the secret of Clara. It's not easy to give a satisfactory explanation to such a puzzling mystery as Clara - I had a blog 90% written, talking about my frustrations with just how little we've been given in the way of clues compared to previous series, before I decided to let it be and see what the finale brought. Although I do wish there'd been a bit more like the regenerating girl from Series 6, or the bees disappearing from Series 4, in the end I'm damn happy with the reveal about Clara - she jumped into The Doctor's time stream, which splintered her throughout history so that she could save him where he needed it. It makes sense within the show, and I don't have anything negative to say about it. Except perhaps that I don't understand exactly why The Doctor only remembers her twice from this eleventh incarnation and never before. A side effect of jumping into his time stream perhaps? It's not that important really. 

So, there's five months to go until the 50th anniversary special, and I really can't think of a more exciting note to finish on. I'd have been tearing my hair out at the wait if Matt Smith had starting regenerating, and I'd have been grinning from ear to ear if David Tennant and Billie Piper had appeared, but as it happens I think Steven Moffat has topped both of those. Although I'd read the rumours about John Hurt's role in the 50th anniversary special as part of a 'trinity' involing David Tenant and Matt Smith, I hadn't imagined seeing him already, and although I knew this meant he might play one of The Doctor's incarnations, I didn't think it would be done in a way to hint he would lead to a re-numbering of the modern Doctor's. Truly, we've been left with one of the greatest cliffhangers that television has ever seen.