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locker_monsterOkay, I had a chance to watch "The Name of the Doctor" again, with subtitles this time, so I caught a few more things from this viewing. It's like a second breakfast; more filling. :-)
First off, the truth about Clara. Did anyone guess it right? I mean, Moffat stacks the deck, so to speak. He has all of the information and we have very little. How can anyone guess correctly when it's really a shot in the dark? But I suppose being able to guess it right kind of ruins the point of having a mystery. And it's not like the show is Sherlock. The whole point isn't to lay out clues so the audience can guess the truth before the story can. Anyway...
I'm usually horribly off when it comes to speculation. I speculated that River could be Amy and Rory's kid and then totally dismissed it. Honestly. It's in one of my reviews. So, instead of this post proving I will be right, it's a post to prove how off I was. It's more fun this way.
So, I'm going to concentrate on the last, like, five minutes of the episode. Wherever Clara and Eleven ended up, let's just call it limbo for simplicity's sake, that's the Doctor's life. We see past versions of him run by, so clearly elements of his past are there. Does he say anything to rule out the possibility of his future being there as well? Because the Doctor steps into his own timeline, a timeline that stretches from the beginning to the end. There's the potential for stuff to be in limbo that Eleven hasn't experienced yet.
I only wonder because I wonder if John Hurt's character, let's just call him Fred, could be from the Doctor's future. I know, how can the Doctor's secret be from his future, but this is Steven Moffat, King of Timey-Wimey. And the Doctor is also a time traveller. It is possible for him to have seen his future, to have met a future self, and that future self could be an utter jerk, for a lack of a better word. Eleven says that Fred is his secret, the one who broke "the promise". Now, it's not 100% clear what "the promise" is, but it's tied up with the title of "the Doctor". Perhaps Fred is mad, bad, and dangerous to know. He's a tyrant, a killer, something so horrible that it can't be spoken of. And maybe that's why the Doctor chose the name "the Doctor"? He saw his future, knew it was impossible to change, but he could change the points in-between. He could be a man of good, he could do good works, until he reached the inevitable point where he completely breaks down and does unspeakable things.
Because there's this exchange at the end:
Fred: "What I did, I did without choice. In the name of peace and sanity."
Eleven: "But not in the name of the Doctor."
It could be about something in the future. Of course, it's also likely he's talking about something in the past. If that's the case, I'm going with my "the Other" theory from my first review. Fred was the third creator of Time Lord society, but the worst of the bunch, and so Rassilon and Omega completely erased him from Time Lord history and forced him into a new regeneration cycle, into a life governed by good. I keep seeing stuff suggesting that Fred is from the Time War. He's definitely, probably not, an incarnation of the Doctor we missed between Eight and Nine, so I don't know how it would be tied up with the Time War, but yeah, it is a Time War so past and future can collide.
Or maybe there was another Time Lord who called himself the Doctor and the Doctor we know took the name to honour this other Doctor. So Eleven's line "But not in the name of the Doctor" isn't him referring to himself in the third person, but he's actually talking about another person.
Ooh, does the 50th anniversary special take place in funny limbo land? Is that how Eleven and Ten can team up? That place is the Doctor, all of his memories and experiences. I wouldn't be surprised if he could shape the landscape to his choosing, will into existence people he has met and known. Definitely easier to explain.
Okay, I'm out of theories.
I'm usually horribly off when it comes to speculation. I speculated that River could be Amy and Rory's kid and then totally dismissed it. Honestly. It's in one of my reviews. So, instead of this post proving I will be right, it's a post to prove how off I was. It's more fun this way.
So, I'm going to concentrate on the last, like, five minutes of the episode. Wherever Clara and Eleven ended up, let's just call it limbo for simplicity's sake, that's the Doctor's life. We see past versions of him run by, so clearly elements of his past are there. Does he say anything to rule out the possibility of his future being there as well? Because the Doctor steps into his own timeline, a timeline that stretches from the beginning to the end. There's the potential for stuff to be in limbo that Eleven hasn't experienced yet.
I only wonder because I wonder if John Hurt's character, let's just call him Fred, could be from the Doctor's future. I know, how can the Doctor's secret be from his future, but this is Steven Moffat, King of Timey-Wimey. And the Doctor is also a time traveller. It is possible for him to have seen his future, to have met a future self, and that future self could be an utter jerk, for a lack of a better word. Eleven says that Fred is his secret, the one who broke "the promise". Now, it's not 100% clear what "the promise" is, but it's tied up with the title of "the Doctor". Perhaps Fred is mad, bad, and dangerous to know. He's a tyrant, a killer, something so horrible that it can't be spoken of. And maybe that's why the Doctor chose the name "the Doctor"? He saw his future, knew it was impossible to change, but he could change the points in-between. He could be a man of good, he could do good works, until he reached the inevitable point where he completely breaks down and does unspeakable things.
Because there's this exchange at the end:
Fred: "What I did, I did without choice. In the name of peace and sanity."
Eleven: "But not in the name of the Doctor."
It could be about something in the future. Of course, it's also likely he's talking about something in the past. If that's the case, I'm going with my "the Other" theory from my first review. Fred was the third creator of Time Lord society, but the worst of the bunch, and so Rassilon and Omega completely erased him from Time Lord history and forced him into a new regeneration cycle, into a life governed by good. I keep seeing stuff suggesting that Fred is from the Time War. He's definitely, probably not, an incarnation of the Doctor we missed between Eight and Nine, so I don't know how it would be tied up with the Time War, but yeah, it is a Time War so past and future can collide.
Or maybe there was another Time Lord who called himself the Doctor and the Doctor we know took the name to honour this other Doctor. So Eleven's line "But not in the name of the Doctor" isn't him referring to himself in the third person, but he's actually talking about another person.
Ooh, does the 50th anniversary special take place in funny limbo land? Is that how Eleven and Ten can team up? That place is the Doctor, all of his memories and experiences. I wouldn't be surprised if he could shape the landscape to his choosing, will into existence people he has met and known. Definitely easier to explain.
Okay, I'm out of theories.
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