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@drtennant
Don’t waste your money on Nightmare in Silver!

I’d probably recommend Asylum, even though Name of The Doctor is a better episode, it should really be saved for last. Asylum is great fun and impressive to look at

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@nick I counted aliens as a “person”. I’m sure a TimeLord, or any of the more evolutionarily advanced aliens could have a romantic relationship with a sentient dolphin. Have you not met Captain Jack?

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@nick @bluesqueakpip @jimthefish @Shazzbot (and others!)
It seems a lot of people are forgetting that the Doctor is the same age, it’s just the actor that has got older!

All these conversations about a companion’s relationships with the Doctor are no more strange now than they were 49 years ago. I, for one, found it really odd that the Doctor would fall for Rose but when you are a Lord of Time age really is just a number. People fall in love with people. Simple as.

As far as I’m concerned, River was the love of the Doctor’s life. He’s already been married with kids before he stole the Tardis and he’s had that weird relationship with Rose and the Girl in the Fireplace. I think he’s probably had quite enough of “love” for the time being.

In regards to Donna’s relationship with him, I think she expressed it well enough herself,

The Doctor: The last time, with Martha, it got complicated. And that was all my fault. I just want a mate.
Donna Noble: You just want to mate?
The Doctor: I just want *a* mate!
Donna Noble: You’re not matin’ with me Sunshine!
The Doctor: A mate! I want *a* mate!
Donna Noble: Well, just as well, because I’m not having any of that nonsense! I mean, you’re just a long streak of nothing, y’know, alien nothing!

edit: just seen @miapatrick has managed to post similar sentiments before I could!

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@bluesqueakpip, @jimthefish

One thing I like about the dynamic between PC and CLara is that it is more fitting with how I watched Doctor Who as a Child (the McCoy years). By that I mean, the younger viewer will definitely be identifying with the companion now. Since Tennant was in the role, I think the audience probably has been identifying with the Doctor more. Now he can potentially be that little bit more distant, opinionated and alien

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There’s quite a lot of articles about PC already! I’ve just caught up on the Radio TImes site who seem to have a different article for every sentence uttered.

For those not very familiar with PC, they have a good selection of videos on his previous roles here http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-08-04/peter-capaldi-the-twelfth-doctors-top-tv-moments

Also just seen last nights show had viewing figures of around 7 million! That’s more than a lot of actual episodes. I wonder if this means they’ll move the new series to Sunday nights?!?

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Well, that goes to show the BBC doesn’t bow to pressure. He’s most definitely not female, black, eye-candy or particularly american-friendly!

When my email alerts peaked at 99 last night I stopped following this conversation, so only just caught up and had some time to reflect!

My wife was ill yesterday so the perfect excuse to trap her on the sofa and watch the reveal show with her and my three boys.

The show itself was better than I thought. It was a shame that they didn’t have more talk from the cosplay fans in the audience rather than those “celebrities”. However, the celebs were at least proper fans so they all had interesting opinions. Zoe Ball was an odd choice as presenter but she did a fantastic job of drawing out the reveal at the end of the show. I almost fell off the edge of my sofa after all the build up! The only distasteful bit IMHO was the glitter cannon at the end. That seemed a bit over-the-top.

My boys all thought Capaldi “looked evil” and a bit similar to John Hurt (bonkers theory formulating). When Matt Smith was announced as 11 they all had quite a strong (negative) opinion but this time they were more like “we’ll see what happens”. My wife was over the moon that he seems the opposite of Matt Smith and hopefully will be doing less theatrical spinning and dance-moves all the time.

The first time I remember watching Capaldi was in Neverwhere. So it’s good that he has experience with evil angels :). He’s also been in lot’s of comic stuff, although not in the clown role. It will be interesting to see how he pulls that element of the Doctor off.

Although people talk of him being an established actor, I still think he is an unknown to most people. Similar to how Tennant was at the time of casting. Ecclestone was far more widely known when he was on the show. However, PC (love how we are already shortening his name to initials!) is definitely on the rise again, so can anyone really see him being in the show for more than a year?

So the speculation is over now it’s time for more bonkers theorising! Yay!!!

Clara & the Doctor – I can see him being in a paternal role towards Clara. She is going to be a little bit lost if she survives the 50th. I think ‘Grandfather’ is a bit of an insult to PC. The only question is, how will it affect Clara’s relationship with her contemporary Earth father. He has only been mentioned briefly so far, was there an underlying plot point there or will he just be swept under the carpet?

The Doctor vs The Doctors – It was odd how they kept referring to PC as the 12th regeneration and absolutely no mention of where John Hurt fits in, or particularly the 50th special. I would love there to be a twist and have PC in the 50th too. Doctor 12 is going to be fairly shaken up after battling himself (JH) with himself (MS) also assisting him (DT) and potentially dying inside his own timeline! How about that for giving you an identity crisis! I’m hoping we’ll have the Christmas special to pace ourselves through all of this change, rather than getting straight into a new series of whizz-bang 45 minute episodes

Well, that was all rather TL;DR but I feel all the better for it! Now where is that bloomin trailer!

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If you follow the doctor who twitter you’ll have seen this but the announced the line up for tonight, not too bad. Also they day it’ll be worth sticking around after the show. I’m hoping that means a Next Time trailer 😀
—–
Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor) will be there in person and Matt Smith (the current Doctor) and Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor) will also be contributing.

The marvellous Bernard Cribbins (Wilfred Mott) will be there in person and there’ll be contributions from former companions including Anneke Wills (Polly), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Janet Fielding (Tegan) and Bonnie Langford (Mel). Writer and actor Mark Gatiss also features in the show by way of a specially recorded video.

Celebrity fans in the studio include Rufus Hound, Liza Tarbuck and from Outnumbered, Daniel Roche. There’ll also be video contributions from Professor Robert Winston, Jo Whiley, Bruno Tonioli and following his appearance in The Power of Three, Professor Brian Cox.

And, of course, the next Doctor will be there…
—–

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@scaryb Yes the odds were probably quite slim but I keep checking my spam folder just in case!
This
whole event is an odd concept but I’m not against it. Will be great to see a room full of fans talking about it. I just hope the ‘celebs’ are actual fans not just rent-a-faces

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Late night lol
http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2013/08/02/robert-mugabe-declares-himself-the-new-doctor-who/

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OK, this is not really Fan Creativity, it’s more of a terrible pun but it made me smile

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This Sunday! That must have been what those tickets were for that I posted about last week!!!
I was already a bit sad I didn’t get any tickets allocated but now I’m devastated :'(

Ah well, will be glad to finally know, not that knowing an actor means much in terms of bonkers theorising

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@janetteb, thanks. He is a boy and I don’t think he’s particularly into crossplay so most likely to be one of the AG Doctors as they are so easy to replicate

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@janetteb & @scaryb
Well I applied for 4 tickets in case they run out and anyone here needs some. Now I’ve pondered about it a bit more I think I might fancy a bit of dressing up 🙂
Any simple suggested double acts for me and my son? I’m thinking my son as Doctor 11 & me as Rory the Centurion (I’ve got the nose for it). I think Professor Yana and Chan-tho might be pushing it a bit!

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Exciting news (if you can get to Elstree!)
Copied from http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/shows/pilot_show_45aug13

Very tempted to go with my 11 year old but not sure if I can be bothered with the Cosplay bit. A good place to meet up maybe for those who aren’t going to the 50th convention

BBC Entertainment & Events invites you to come and join the party by being in the audience for a pre-record of an exciting new BBC One series pilot, celebrating some of the UK’s longest running TV shows.

Featuring special guests and memorable clips from the show’s history, this episode focuses on the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

We would like to encourage audience members to come dressed as their favourite Doctor, companion or character from the series but this is not compulsory.

Please dress to impress as this is a celebration.

All information is correct at time of publication.
Date: 4 August
Time: 6pm
Venue: BBC Elstree Studios
Under 18s must be accompanied by a parent or guardian
Minimum age: 10
Maximum tickets per request: 4

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@wolfweed That’s a rather unimpressive image for the Series 7 boxset isn’t it. Especially after all the great movie posters we got for each episode. It must have taken all of 5 mins in photoshop.

It’s also slightly strange how they are all in “furrowed-brow” mode. Maybe that’s a clue, the next Doctor is Gordon Ramsay! 😀

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I haven’t watched this yet but will do as soon as I get 13 mins downtime!

Anime Doctor Who

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ePtj3z8rSq4

This is what the author has to say about it

All 13 minutes of the completed fake Doctor Who 80s-style anime. Drawn, animated and partially voiced by myself. Some bits are good, some bits are poor, but on the whole it turned out okay, I think. Enjoy! This is old school Who, so fans of the new reboot show may be confused by the fact that the Doctor is doing martial arts and Cybermen say “excellent.” Watch the classics and you’ll understand. You’ll also become almost instantly more handsome by watching classic Who.

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Only just noticed this thread so thought I’d give a shout out to “Luther” which is currently on BBC1/iPlayer. Not SF but a good crime thriller and the lead character would probably fit in quite well in a more mature Doctor Who ep!

I’ve also been enjoying the latest series (3) of The Walking Dead. It’s really come on in leaps and bounds since the 1st series.

If you’re looking at box-sets “In The Flesh” was brilliant (glad they confirmed a 2nd 6ep series) and I really loved “Outcasts” and was gutted when I heard it was cancelled :'(. I also really enjoyed Six Feet Under which is an oldie but a goody. Comedy-wise I couldn’t recommend “Arrested Development” and “Parks & Recreation” highly enough 😀

Thought I’d point out the http://www.clubcardtv.com/ website run by Tesco. You get loads of free TV and Films just by giving them your clubcard number. My kids watch a lot of stuff on it but I’ve noticed there is some quite good TV on there, Flash Gordon and The Collector look like they could be entertaining. If anyone has any recommendations from there let me know!

For my sins, I also watch “True Blood” with my wife for a bit of late night escapism. It’s completely ridiculous but quite amusing at the same time

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@shazzbot, here’s the link http://m.sfx.co.uk/2013/07/05/vote-who-would-be-the-nightmare-12th-doctor-who

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Now I’ve re-awoken this thread I might as well put my final guess at who the Hurt Doctor is after weeks of stewing over all the options

I think the only ‘logical’ solution is that he is the Time War Doctor e.g. 8.5
I’m basing this on my speculation that the anniversary special was originally meant to show the regeneration of 8 into 9 but, thanks to an uncooperative Ecclestone, they decided to go bigger with an A-list star

There are a number of theories of why this isn’t really logical but I think it’s good enough to stop me worrying about it and, maybe, leave me pleasantly surprised by time November comes 🙂

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SFX have just published an article on who would be the worst casting choice for the next Doctor.
I hope the Moff doesn’t see it and think, “hmm lets throw them a curveball”.

To be fair, some of them wouldn’t be too bad.

I voted against Russell Kane FWIW

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This pic is worse than those Star Wars ones that say “Live Long & Prosper”

:facepalm:

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Just have to stick my oar in and say there is no chance in Gallifrey that Rory Kinnear will be the next doctor. He always plays the straight man/civil servant types.
It is hardly an inspiring choice for the next Doctor.
The Telegraph are obviously loving the fuss they’ve caused from their made up story which has no substance whatsoever.

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It seems like giving women equal representation in a role is also being debated with the Bank of England!
The campaign linked below is all about making sure the only female person on our bank notes doesn’t regenerate into a man! They are raising funds to pursue it in court. I wonder if people would do that for the Doctor?
http://www.change.org/petitions/bank-of-england-keep-a-woman-on-english-banknotes

p.s. @bluesqueakpip I saw this image on Fake Science and thought of you 😉

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Spotted another couple of next Doctor wanabees today

Maurice Moss

or Paris Jackson

omg i wanna be The Doctor

P.S. don’t you just love how the media can make one sentence into a whole news story!

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@claraoo I think the TARDIS and the Doctor’s relationship goes above and beyond the Doctor’s sex.
If anything, I can see a female Doctor being even more flirty with her TARDIS.

I think it’s likely the next Doctor will be another young male thespian, just to spite people who think they can pressure Moffat and the BBC into being PC.

They can’t “win” either way, someone will cry PREJUDICE over the whole thing.

As long as they choose someone who can act AND cares about the role, that’s all I really care about.

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I have a feeling this would’ve come out sooner rather than later. I would have loved a surprise at Christmas but I’m sure there’ll be plenty more surprises.

I have a feeling we may not even see the Doctor fully regenerate. What if we just get Matt bursting with regeneration energy and that’s it? That would certainly generate a big audience for the series 8 opener!

I love the idea of an older Doctor. He should be a father (or mother 😉 ) figure IMHO. However, Moffat seems to love providing a platform for young talent

I’ve don’t even know where to start guessing. They don’t need an established actor so I’m thinking it will be some “unknown” with a theatre/comedy background.

@blenkinsopthebrave I like the idea of having Hurt stick around. The new-regen-per-episode is an intriguing possibility but a bit too HIGNFY.

Just had another thought, what if series 8 had no Doctor! What if it was Clara and the TARDIS searching the universe for him

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Was a bit cross when I saw @craig post this news about Matt, I’d rather not have known. Then this morning I heard it on the radio, saw it on the newspaper front pages even my wife said she knew from her Facebook! So pretty unavoidable I guess.

I felt with Amy out of the picture we were finally seeing Matt as THE DOCTOR even though he was channeling past regenerations half the time.

I guess the obvious choice is John Hurt but he’ll be to expensive, maybe Clara but that is too timey wimey, so someone new. A regeneration is always epic no matter what actually happens so it will be great to watch 🙂

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Just wanted a quick bounce on the new sofa.

I just finished reading “Shada” the ‘sort-of-lost’ Doctor Who story by Douglas Adams (finished off by Gareth Roberts). I haven’t read any Who fiction before but needed something to fill gap and this seemed like a good choice as I’m lead to believe it is canon. I’d recommend it to you all. It’s set in the Tom Baker years and has a good bit of Timelord/Gallifrey history in it.

I also signed up for a months trial of NetFlix to see the new Arrested Development episodes and was pleasantly surprised to see it has a number of Classic Who episodes, Cartoons, all the Ecclestone & Tennant eps and the McGann TV movie! Not bad to keep me entertained for free for a month 🙂 I just re-watched ‘Rose’ and it was a rather odd experience considering what has changed in the show over the last 8 years

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@budinacup

3rd. might have been mentioned but in TbesJ what is the significance of Amy pond having written the book??

Apparently (I haven’t red the story) it has a lot of parallels with what happens. It also features one of Clara’s ‘echos’ as the girl on the front cover. This is also the one the spoonhead is disguised as in her house and seen in the NotD as a young Victorian girl.
I suppose that implies the GI may have known about the fragmented Clara’s?

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I just had an idea! (It only hurt a little bit 😉 )

Trenzalore isn’t the grave of the Doctor, it’s the grave of the TARDIS :O

He killed it when crash-landing onto the planet. That would certainly be a game-changer. No more type 40 TARDIS. Think about it, the TARDIS shouldn’t die just because the Doctor did.

This means that in the 50th Clara will get a message to 10 to come and rescue them by materialising inside his timeline (ewww)

I think this theory may be the worst kind of sacrilege for the show but you never know …

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@phileasf but she would have seen herself regenerate!
@bluesqueakpip I think I understand what you mean about her possibly being a future echo, I just think that may be one paradox too far!

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the @BBCDoctorWho twitter account just revealed that tomorrow there will be a new Strax field report about the Doctor’s greatest secret!

Also, there is a Dick & Dom show on iPlayer about Delia Derbyshire, the woman who synthesised the Doctor Who theme http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qy0b5/Absolute_Genius_with_Dick_and_Dom_Derbyshire/

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I think I can prove* Clara isn’t a future Doctor and it’s quite obvious why not

Clara has seen all over the Doctor’s timeline so instead of her saying “I’ve seen all 11 of you” she would have been more likely to say, “I’ve seen me change into you!”

Also, she would have been affected the same way as the Doctor was by being so close to his timeline

(*as much as anyone can prove anything about this show!)

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@osakahatter That was my thinking, Hurt spoke to ClaraPrime & 11 meaning he either jumped into the timeline is a creation of the timeline itself.

If Hurt was a younger Doctor, maybe that’s why 11 new he could jump in, because he remembered how he escaped before.

Alterantively, if Hurt is an older Doctor, maybe he jumped into his timeline to cheat death at the Trenzalore battlefield and has been waiting ever since for someone to rescue him?!?

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@bluesqueakpip

I’ve just got the ‘no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer’ part of the prophecy.

Perhaps that is just another way to say the Doctor can’t avoid his true death.
You also remind me the Doctor (as all timelords seem to) got cremated when he died. Doesn’t that mess up the whole tomb idea?
• Does the master have a tomb somewhere?
• Is there a TARDIS-shaped tomb at Lake Silencio?
• If people thought the Doctor was dead, wouldn’t his enemies all try and get his TARDIS for their own use?
• Who arranged the Trenzalore tomb, would it have to be a timelord?
• The TARDIS died at Trenzalore too. Shouldn’t it’s H.A.D.S. have got it out of the way?

LOL more to add to my never-ending list of questions

btw @craig, are you able to insert polls into threads? It would be quite nice to have a vote on who we think the Hurt Doctor is (e.g. 8.5, 12, Valeyard etc )

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@brotherjohn
So the GI, when infecting his timeline, would have to make sure they didn’t stop the Doctor defeating them in the past. Otherwise the Doctor would have died, meaning he could have never gone to Trenzalore, meaning the GI couldn’t have gone back to kill him.

Seems like they are more bent on revenge than actually beating the Doctor and taking over the universe :/

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@badwulf Ooh that kind of goes with my theory of lots of older Clara’s being left throughout history, i.e. Clara is her own mother! The older version adopts the younger version.

@bluesqueakpip & @scaryb Do you think Clara is preventing the GI’s influence or physically helping the Doctor? I guess if there is a second timeline that shows why our 11 didn’t recognise ClaraPrime.

I have a feeling the Clara solution may just be swept under the carpet in the 50th as it actually doesn’t make sense. I read in a Neil Gaiman interview that Clara as a companion was originally always supposed to be the Victorian version before Moffat created the Impossible Girl arc. Moff then retro-fitted Clara into being in Asylum of the Daleks. This leads me to believe he thought of the whole arc just to be able to set the 50th in the Doctor’s timeline and didn’t think too hard about the details :S

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@bluesqueakpip I can agree with you that there may be at least 2 versions of events, you give a good argument for that

I disagree that Hurt has to be a past Doctor. In NotD 11 visits his tomb in Trenzalore, he doesn’t die there during NotD. He dies there in a future battle and we don’t know when that will be or what regeneration he will be on.

If we agree time can be changed, then the future is now in flux. The Doctor has seen where he dies so can now change it. This is why it was so important that the a time-traveller never sees where/how they die. Of course, the Doctor breaks all the rules in this episode, which effectively means the Moff can re-write them again!

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When Idris says she “chose him”, she obviously didn’t mean she physically called him over and said something like “come inside you clever boy”. Rather, when the Doctor escaped in her she decided “this could be fun” and started their adventures. This could be why the TARDIS doesn’t like Clara as she wants to be in control without thinking Clara has been influencing her all this time

I’m trying not to think about the past as that is becoming too confusing! I’m with @davemorris316 that time all happens at once (to those outside of time) meaning the GI & Clara-Splitz were always around.

So, thinking of the present, ClaraPrime & the Doctor are trapped in his timeline. His timeline seems to be a physical realm outside time (like where the Time War is locked and timelords/daleks are trapped), so a bit like the pocket universe shown in Hide.

This throws up some questions as to how ClaraPrime and the GI is affecting the Doctor’s timeline.
• The GI isn’t human, so presumably can change shape or affect things differently to Clara
• Is the GI also floating around in this timeline realm as well?
• Clara went in after the GI, so she has the upper hand and can see what the GI did.
• Hurt-Doctor is in the timeline too, does that mean he went to Trenzalore and jumped in to the timeline? This could point to him being a future Doctor as he presumably would know the outcome of 11 jumping in to save ClaraPrime
• Is there a pocket-universe style time limit on how long ClaraPrime will stay in there before burning up or could she potentially stay in there forever?
• Could Clara prevent the Doctor dying at Trenzalore?
• She can see his future but does she change it? It’s also her future so does she see herself?
• How does ClaraPrime send a ClaraSplitz in to make repairs?
• • Is it like a regeneration?
• • We are shown ClaraSplitz seemingly being born at the right time to coincide with helping the Doctor at a later date. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t.
• • That must mean there are a lot of old lady Clara’s throughout history
• • We know from Dalek-Clara & Victorian-Clara that they don’t have access to ClaraPrime’s memories or any directions from her, just the act of being there and ClaraPrime’s nature/blueprint means they try to help the Doctor

I’m sure there are many other questions I could think of! The bottom line is, this whole NotD episode has the potential to make a lot more problems for future episodes rather than the Moff making them less-burdened from the last 50 years.

This makes me think (i.e. hope & pray) the story is not over yet and ClaraPrime has to be removed from this Timeline-realm otherwise the Doctor will just think, oh well, ClaraSplitz will be along soon to fix it

I’d be really interested to hear all your thoughts on what is happening to ClaraPrime

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Wow, this forum is moving fast! I’ll never be a Clever Boy and remember all this!

 

Quick thanks to @mtgradwell for giving some good solutions to my earlier questions.

 

@Shazzbot, don’t think I have the time to research ClaraPrime vs ClaraTime now but who knows what will happen when I get my hands on the 7.2 blu-ray! In an ideal world I’d also have time to map out River’s timeline, compile every reference to the Silence and do a blog on all the loose threads! (Spoiler alert – never going to happen!)

 

There’s been some great talk of those final minutes so I wanted to think out loud and see if anything sticks

 

At the end, is ClaraPrime inside the timeline or has she come out at a certain point?

 

She seems to be IN Trenzalore with 11 and Hurt, rather than looking at it, and Hurt talks to them. So is she physically somewhere or floating in some time vortex thingy (where presumably you shouldn’t be able to stop and have a chat? So is Hurt a physical presence that could jump out of the timeline?

 

She is meant to be in his timeline, not his mind/memories. The Time War is “outside time” which sadly makes me think it won’t feature (I blame this all on Ecclestone stubborness as an actor).

 

Bonkers theory #1231332…lost count – We always go on about the Doctor’s Daughter but what if Hurt is the Doctor’s Son from Gallifrey! Trying to live up to his Dad’s name but failing

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@davemorris316 That’s similar to what I was hoping. Mind you, the Sarah Jane Adventures had a character called Rani and that never amounted to anything but a coincidence.

Speaking of SJA, it would be great if they feature in the 50th, Rani & Clyde were especially great characters and they are also still babysitting K9!

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Wow! Where to start. Just got to the end of all these comments and what I thought was a fairly self-explanatory and conclusive episode seems to have triggered even more new bonkers theories than before!

I settled down with my family and a pack of Jammie Dodgers (they were half-price at Tesco 😛 ) and as soon as the pre-titles opened I was on the edge of my seat with excitement. It wasn’t just me either, my 1/2 interested wife and eldest son also seemed hooked by that opening! Great to so the non-police box TARDIS and even better to see the TARDIS Engineers. I take it these are non-Timelord Gallifreyans.

I thoroughly enjoyed it although I did give my wife an “oh-no-love-is-going-to-save-the-day” look when the Doctor sent the leaf after Clara. I’ve got so much I want to say but I’ll try and break it up so it’s readable!

The thing that struck me most about the episode is that it didn’t require any old-Who knowledge at all, while at the same time being very fan-serving with the flashbacks. This leads me to believe that the 50th will be in a similar vein i.e. no knowledge of old-Who needed but will be very rewarding for those in the know.

My final theory that I posted on the NiS thread was completely barking up the wrong tree! No pocket/parallel universes featured and Jenny wasn’t revealed as the Doctor’s daughter. I think that theory can definitely be put to rest know as Strax seemed to know she had 1 heart, plus there were no signs of regeneration (although you can never be 100% sure in DW!). I do get 1 point at least for suggesting the Paternoster gang get trapped in Trenzalore so that is why the Doctor goes there :D. [Side-note, isn’t it a bit weird how Jenny still acts like Vastra’s maid and calls her Ma’am even in private?]

So, here are my thoughts/observations on the episode broken down into some chunks

1) The TARDIS – Great to have the TARDIS fighting against the Doctor at the beginning. I bet she’s really going to have the hump with him now! However, they did land suspiciously bang on target at the graveyard so maybe she was guiding them all along?!?

I thought it odd how the Tomb TARDIS looked the same on the inside. Does that mean the Doctor never changes it? That will probably be explained as all the versions of the TARDIS console where there, that’s just the one they happened to walk in to. The secret entrance to the catacombs confused me. Who put it there? Was it in the Doctors last will or do all timelords get a secret entrance with their wife’s name on it!?! Clara And the Doc said they were walking through the broken TARDIS but when they re-emerged they were outside the doors. What went on there?

2) River Song – I need a diagram to work her part out! I think it would’ve been helpful to signpost she was the Library version from the start. It leads me to wonder why they chose to do that? Why not just have the real River?

Also, how exactly did Vastra summon a backup copy of River? More points to us for guessing the Doctor kept a backup copy! However, the Doctor said only he could see her, which meant he knew she was at Trenzalore all along and was just ignoring her! Pretty cold-hearted. Would he need to activate the copy of River or does she always haunt him?

Clara was linked to River through telepathy but Vastra & co couldn’t see her. This is more emphasis of the link between them as well as River’s last words but I’m not sure if this points to being a blood relative, future Doctor, or regen-clara? Or was the spoilers line because a younger River met an older ClaraPrime, meaning River knows the Doctor does save Clara

How could River open the tomb doors if only the Doctor & Clara could see/hear her? Are we meant to believe the TARDIS could also see/hear her? WHY did she open the doors when it would mean the Doctor would die! Dark-River perhaps? The only reason is because she knew Clara MUST be fractured in time, not to stop the GI but for some other future reason?

It certainly seemed like Alex Kingston said goodbye (she can’t stay looking that age forever!) but I don’t think that means an end to the character of River

3) Trenzalore – The planet seemed like a burnt crust, or dying star. You’d think the Doctor knew the name of all the planets so why was this a mystery to him. What was the battle about? Not at Time War standards but enough to make the Doctor resign. Was it the one that Hurt Doctor finally died at?

4) Hurt Doctor – I’m thinking he is a future regeneration. Purley because that is the most obvious answer (it’s what all my family thought). A Time War 8.5 Doc is appealing but I can’t see us ever going there, similar to not ever finding out the Doctors birth name (Plus it would be a bit of an insult to McGann!).

Do we definitely know Hurt was who the Doctor saw in his room in The God Complex episode? I didn’t get the impression the Doctor recognised him, it seemed more of an educated guess. Let’s not kid ourselves, the BBC couldn’t afford to keep Hurt as an actor for long. This makes me think he is either so far into the future we don’t need to worry when he is from, or he gets rewritten in the 50th.

5) Clara – Great to see Clara being able to act properly again without her mystery hanging over her head. I don’t see the paradox that lots of other people have mentioned. It seems all quite linear to me (in a timey-wimey-loopy way!).

I don’t see what Clara did as ret-conning the old-who continuity. It goes like this (IMHO)
a) Old Who happened,
b) The GI changed everything
c) Clara got rid of the GI timeline virus meaning they had not changed anything
In a time-travel world (like from the TARDIS’s point of view) this all happened at once). Clara jumping into the Doctor’s timeline effectively undid everything the GI had done so it was all a bit of a waste of time really! They should’ve just stayed in bed 😉

A juicy theory I have is that the Clara we saw in all this series episodes didn’t always have to be Clara-Prime. Could that explain the weird scene in Cold War? Does Red-Clara=Scattered-Clara?

Did you spot how young Clara in the victorian times was the same girl that was on the cover of the Summer Falls book! That’s mind-bending to think how come Amy, or the book illustrator, new that, or was it the GI that influenced Amy to write the book?

When Clara was fractured across time, did she always come in as a baby or sometimes as an adult? Would that mean she was always adopted?

How did the Doctor get the leaf? Was it just a memory or did he really pinch it from her timeline? That would create a paradox! Are we meant to think they are both trapped inside now or that they will pop out at the correct point in time, about half an hour after the events up to now? I have a feeling this will be the plot of the 50th special. Clara and the Doc jumping in and out through his timeline meeting up with old friends and foes while trying to get home.

6) The Great Intelligence – Wow there is another person with a pretty big grudge against the Doctor! Interesting to see a villain succeed where so many others had failed. When the GI jumped into the Doctor’s timeline did he just try once to stop the Doctor? He could have just killed him at birth. Or was the GI just meant to be reversing all of the Doctor’s past victories?

The GI mentions the Doctor’s other names There was the mention of the Valeyard (which I had always pronounced Vale-yard). I don’t know much about him apart from he was a “bad” version of the Doctor. That’s the first ref in New-Who so maybe that points to Hurt. He also mentioned Storm. Does that mean the Oncoming Storm as has been referred to before, or what about baby Stormageddon! That would make James Corden the Doctor’s dad :O

7) The Doctor – We never found out his birth name, hurrah!

The Doctor went to Trenzalore to save the Paternoster gang, yet when he actually had a chance to save them he didn’t. He was going to let them all die but River opened the doors and spared them momentarily.

@bluesqueakpip What do you mean about the clocks in 11th hour? I can’t remember that bit?

That’s me spent for now! I took far too long writing that so hopefully you will all find some value in what I’ve brought up!

[thommck @replies]

Just been listening to my wife’s theory. Considering she hasn’t been enjoying this series & only pays it half her attention, she has picked up on quite a bit.

She believes Clara is a construct & not a real human. Mainly because she doesn’t have any major opinions of her own and not any relationship with her dad.

[thommck @replies]

So, at the end of NotD we will get “Meanwhile in a parallel universe…”
“It’s time to go back Rose…”

Found via the Geeks are sexy site, Available to buy here http://www.redbubble.com/people/ratgirlstudios/works/7699048-back-to-the-tardis

[thommck @replies]

@satsumajoe

Oh yeah, do we know any dead characters? Living creatures may not speak falsely or refuse to answer.

K9? 😛

[thommck @replies]

@scaryb That is a good article, thanks for linking.

I was a bit worried about the comments so I didn’t look but I did add my own (with a plug for our forum of course!)

@danmartin is definitely a tease! Even though he doesn’t reveal anything he has maybe set my expectations at the wrong level now, especially regarding what he thinks of RoA!

[thommck @replies]

Nice ideas everyone, @bluesqueakpip seems the most logical at the moment!

My final NotD bonkers™ theory, although after reading it through it sounds more like a bit of bad fan-fiction!

At the beginning of the episode River Song meets the Doctor & Clara by the Leadworth duck pond. They can hear something calling him and they discover the pond is actually a portal to a pocket universe.

They travel into it and discover it had led them to Trenzalore, where the Paternoster Gang has been trapped after Strax accidentally drives them into the duck pond in Victorian times. Realising the Doctor can’t be here, River has tries to kill him again. The Doctor is OK with that because he’s had enough but Clara (the ordinary human girl) tries to save him by throwing a chair at River. River & Clara end up killing each other which causes a paradox (because River is supposed to die in the library).

The Doctor tries to fix it by making a deal with the GI to re-download Clara and River into his sonic screwdriver in exchange for his name. This will give the GI access to his memory, including the bit that the Doctor blocked from the Cyber-planner, thus giving them the secrets of the timelock and timelords (which will be lead to plot of the 50th). Jenny tries to stop him and is forced to reveal she is his daughter (from The Doctor’s Daughter episode). He ends up whisking the gang out of the pocket universe before it closes but Vastra gets left behind and dies.

Using spoonhead technology & the TARDIS Arch-Recon the Doctor recreates River & Clara although something goes wrong and Clara gets scattered across time. He gives them new River the sonic and says that will be the last time they meet. Jenny is his new companion and Strax goes to be the Maitland’s new nanny

I think we should get a point for each prediction we get right and then see who the winner is 🙂

[thommck @replies]

Just seen that the official site has a short video clip “Strax Field Report”: The Name of the Doctor, DURATION: 00:49 Strax reports on the adventure and danger that lie ahead in The Name of the Doctor.

Can someone not afraid of spoilers please check it out and tell me if it’s safe to watch (similar to how the prequel was safe as it just leads into the story rather than give anything away!)

[thommck @replies]

I just recently got out the Doctor Who book “Shada” from my local library which features A character called Chronotis. He’s a timelord who has used all 12 regenerations up and is whiling away the years as a Cambridge professor. Is that story canon, i.e. is it actually a story based on a T.V. episode?
Anyway, it made me think that the Doctor has got through his regenerations a lot quicker than most of the old-school timelords who could presumably live 1000s of years before using even 1 of their regenerations. This means that the Doctor probably doesn’t feel that old or tired overall as his life is a blink in the eye of most timelords lifespan.

The story also features a special book on the ancient laws of Gallifrey which seems very similar to the book in library. When humans touch it they see old memories, which may explain why Clara says “So that’s who”.

P.S. I’m only 1/3 through the book so no spoilers please!

[thommck @replies]

I thought the prequel was set in their heads and we were only meant to pay attention to the words. Then again, that would mean they were in the same head!.

Something I find odd is that lots of us are expecting an upcoming regeneration but we haven’t heard about any new actors who would take up the role. Matt Smith and JLC both had press releases about their appointments and viewers new well in advance about it. This makes me think maybe the Doctor will go into Clara’s body similar to Doctor-Donna. That way we get a female Doctor. However, Clara would need to be something other than human to stop her burning up

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