*SEVERE SPOILERS AHEAD! PROCEED WITH EXTREME CAUTION!*
"The Name of the Doctor" (Final Moments)
Now, usually I don't post works like this. However, at the end of the latest installment of Doctor Who, we witness the Doctors big secret, and in light of all the theories popping up, I simply wish to share mine.
"What I did, I did without choice."
"I know"
"In the name of peace and sanity."
"But not in the name of The Doctor."
These are the words spoken just before the scene closes, Matt Smith walks off with Jenna-Louise Coleman in his arms, and John Hurt turns around. Ok, let's analyze what we know from this scene:
- The Doctor has more regenerations than we yet know about.
- This new regeneration has done something terrible that somehow violates what The Doctor stands for.
- The actions this regeneration did, he did so without having a choice in the matter.
- The new regeneration is not known to Clara who, as we see in a previous scene, walks into the time-stream of The Doctor to save him from the Great Intelligence.
- This new regeneration is one that The Doctor we know is trying to forget.
- The Doctor has a violent and vengeful streak that does not seem to make any sense given what we know he believes in.
One theory surrounding this event is that John Hurts Doctor is a new regeneration, that is to say, a regeneration that happens post-Matt Smith. I would say this is false in that Smith's Doctor seems to know who he is. Thus this theory is logically incorrect as The Doctor is usually (that is until this episode) strongly opposed to traveling along his own timeline.
Another theory concerning Hurts Doctor is that he is somehow Doctor number 0. This theory postulates that the Doctor did something horrible that caused him to have to leave Gallifrey in the first place, later taking up the title of The Doctor as a promise to heal the galaxy. This theory though is proven incorrect as it is accepted that William Hartnell is accepted to be the very first Doctor, no previous regenerations coming before him.
The third theory is a theory concerning Hurt being the real ninth regeneration of The Doctor. This is the theory that I personally buy into. The theory states that Hurt is the Doctor that fought in the time war; that he is the regeneration that takes place in between the eighth and ninth Doctors. This means that nine is ten, ten is eleven, and eleven is actually twelve. The theory goes on to state that the action Hurts Doctor did without choice, to preserve peace and sanity, is destroying Gallifrey and locking the time war off from the rest of the time and space. This action would be against the name of the Doctor as he is a man who stands against violence, relying instead upon logic and words to ease tense situations.
I personally believe that he is the 9th Doctor. You see, when people go through traumatic experiences, their minds possess the power to block out the memory so that it doesn't haunt them and inhibit their lives forever. I think a version of this happened to him. Hurts Doctor fought in the time war and did what he had to rather than what he had promised himself and the universe. Rather than fight with words and logic, he realized that both sides of the war were never going to stop, so he destroyed both and locked the time war away so it wouldn't effect anyone or anything else. He is the Doctor that broke his promise of healing. The Doctor realized that if both sides were to continue, they would rip apart the whole of time and space, so he did what he thought he had to: he destroyed them so they wouldn't destroy anything else.
This theory would seem to allow compensation for such incidents where the Doctor showed a violent streak that didn't seem to fit his character. Such times would be in series 1 when, upon finding out about the existence of a Dalek he thought dead, The Doctor snaps and attempts to destroy it with an alien weapon found in the alien museum the event happened in. Rose would later have to talk him down. Another event is during the final moments of Tennants Doctor. Donna's grandfather gives the Doctor a gun, and rather than refuse it, he takes it. Later we find The Doctor in a stand off between the returning Gallifreyan court and their president, Rasilion, and the ever insane Master. Two enemies The Doctor had thought dead, both coming back against him. In this moment the Doctor raises the gun to Rasilion then alternating to the Master. The Doctor claims to despise guns, yet in this moment he uses it to try and fend off his two supposedly fallen enemies. In these, and many other moments, the violence and vengeance of Hurts Doctor shows through. Previously, we had no standing for why The Doctor seemed to become violent, yet now there seems to be an example of reason.
In the scene posted above we see that Clara has no idea who this regeneration is. She becomes increasingly worried as she explains to The Doctor that he is the eleventh Doctor. She has absolutely no idea who this man is though the only other person than herself is the other regenerations of the Doctor. This can be explained. When Clara walked into The Doctors time stream, she did so to help save the Doctor from the Great Intelligence who had begun to kill the Doctor at every moment in his time stream. However, she never helped Hurts Doctor, which doesn't seem to add up. I believe the reason for this to be that his regeneration is time locked.
Hurts Doctor was the Doctor that fought within the time war, which he time locked. When Clara helped all of the Doctors, she could not have helped this Doctor as she could not go into the time war. All the events of the war (including himself) being locked within. This would also explain why we have never heard the Doctor explain about his secret. The Doctor seems never to explain about himself until it is absolutely necessarily, life or death necessary. If Hurts Doctor is a regeneration locked within the confines of the time war, then there wouldn't seem to be any scenario where The Doctor would need to explain about him. At the end of The Name of the Doctor, we see Smiths Doctor explaining about his secret because he realizes that he is about to become an integral part of his life once again.
I believe Hurts Doctor to be the actual ninth regeneration, the regeneration that fought within the time war. At the conclusion of time war, The Doctor destroys Gallifrey and his people, committing genocide. The destruction of Gallifrey was the decision made without choice, yet also against the promise he had made to himself and the universe. The promise to be a healer and wise man to all in need.
"What I did, I did without choice."
"I know"
"In the name of peace and sanity."
"But not in the name of The Doctor."
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