Listen Review

There has been some debate as to whether there was actually a monster in this episode. If there was something in the TARDIS, it could easily have been a Silent. The Doctor would have seen the Silent pick up the chalk and write, but then immediately forgotten about it. It's the same with the guy in the children's home and the TV/coffee. Remember in series 6 when the Silence were in control of that home where Melody lived? It seems eerily similar.

One question I have, and I'll chalk this up to a continuity error on the part of the BBC, is why was Orson wearing a space suit from Sanctuary Base 6. If you don't remember SB6 is the space base on the planetoid in orbit around a black hole that was seen in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit. The exact time period those episodes took place in isn't given, but based on the Ood involvement, it can't be any earlier than the 40th century. The Doctor said Orson was from 100 years in Clara's future, so there's no way he could have gotten a space suit from that time period. Also, in The Waters of Mars (which takes place in 2059) Steffi Ehrlich said she had "never seen anything like it" in reference to the Doctor's space suit that he got from SB6.

So this episode was technically a multi-Doctor story what with appearance of the first Doctor as a child. Now if you're wondering if this really was a younger version of William Hartnell's Doctor, in The Five Doctors, Peter Davison's Doctor confirms that he is indeed the fifth. Also, in either The Three Doctors or The Five Doctors (I forget which) William Hartnell's Doctor claims that he is the original. However, in The Lodger, Matt Smith's Doctor claims to be on his eleventh face, so this may not stop Steven Moffat. The thing is, creating an extra past Doctor is only a good trick once. Moffat would probably face a lot of criticism if he tried to pull it again.

Now, the Doctor seems to think that Orson had some connection to Clara's life. Before anyone goes saying he's Clara and Danny's great-grandchild, I just want to point out that <SPOILER>Danny gets turned into a Cyberman in the finale</SPOILER>. The connection is more likely through the toy soldier and Clara's interaction with it earlier in the episode. However, I may just be saying this because I refuse to ship Clara with anyone other than myself.

Extended Trailer for The Time of the Doctor

New trailer for the Christmas special from BBC America

9 New Pics from The Time of the Doctor

BBC America has released another set of images from this year's Christmas special.

The Time of the Doctor TV Trailer

New trailer for The Time of the Doctor.

Time of the Doctor Pictures from BBC America

BBC America has released 20 new images from The Time of the Doctor.

Details on The Time of the Doctor

Details have been released on this year's Doctor Who Christmas special, The Time of the Doctor.

Synopsis

Orbiting a quiet backwater planet, the massed forces of the universe’s deadliest species gather, drawn to a mysterious message that echoes out to the stars. And amongst them – the Doctor. Rescuing Clara from a family Christmas dinner, the Time Lord and his best friend must learn what this enigmatic signal means for his own fate and that of the universe.

Possible Conclusions to Matt's Story Arc

As the end of Matt Smith's story arc draws near, we're still left with a few unanswered questions

• Who blew up the TARDIS and why?
• Whatever happened to the Silence?
• What did John Hurt's Doctor do?

Steven Moffat said that the The Day of the Doctor is going to be looking towards the future. I think that not only are The Day of the Doctor and the Christmas special going to wrap up Matt's story arc, they're going to introduce something brand new for Peter Capaldi to deal with.

Given the evidence that something with the Time War is going to happen in the 50th, it seems like my theory about the Time Lords being responsible for the events of Series 5 might be relevant. On the other hand, it could be that the Silence are responsible, like many fans have speculated. A new possibility is that the John Hurt Doctor is somehow responsible. Why he would interfere with another Doctor's TARDIS, I don't know, but destroying the multiverse would be the horrible act that he could be guilty of.

One possibility for the Christmas Special is that the Silence find out that the Doctor is alive and they try to kill him again. They succeed, but he manages to regenerate before vanquishing them. I'm not sure how the Cybermen would be involved with that, possibly as allies of the Silence.

Is the Series 5-7 Story Arc Actually Explained?

Short answer: Series 6 & 7 are explained, Series 5 isn't. We finally got an explanation of what's so important about the Doctor's name and how Clara could be in all those places, but no explanation of why the TARDIS exploded.

Since the Doctor's name apparently unlocks his tomb, it appears the Silence didn't want anyone to have access to his timestream. They didn't want anyone to have the ability to go in and alter his life. This would almost make it appear that they are the good guys and didn't want anyone to unsave everyone he'd saved. Another possibility, however, is that the didn't want anyone to know about the Doctor's other regeneration. I don't get the problem with knowing, so there's the possibility he's trapped there and is somehow going to escape. He was the only regeneration who actually interacted with Clara and the Doctor. The others all just ran about completely oblivious to them, he was somehow different.

Clara's mystery did turn out to be precisely what some people predicted. There were a number of theories going about how she was splintered in time (similar to Scaroth in City of Death), however, no one seems to have gotten how she was splintered. She shattered herself across the Doctor's life in order to save him at certain key points. It's interesting how we didn't see her saving the ninth or tenth Doctors at all, I think they're saving footage of them because they're going to be appearing in the 50th anniversary.

Two seasons & three years later, we still haven't received an explanation of how the TARDIS exploded. I think we're being led to believe that the Silence did it, but it's not entirely clear. We've received no motive on their part. If they're trying to kill the Doctor, then they're smart enough to realize the effects of blowing up a TARDIS and should really have been able to realize that he wasn't even onboard. I'm still holding onto the theory that the Time Lords did it to execute the Ultimate Sanction since I haven't seen any evidence to the contrary.

I guess Moffat must be saving his explanation of the TARDIS exploding for the 50th anniversary or Series 8. That may actually be separate story arc that has nothing to do with the Silence or the Question. He may simply have planted it so long ago in an effort to keep us watching so we would sit through Series 6 and 7 before finally finding out what happened. He must surely know from the internet that we don't have the foggiest idea, so he's got to explain it at some point or another.

The Name of the Doctor Review

Honestly, I was hoping for something a bit longer. I like season finales the way Davies did them: big, long epic adventures. Moffat's last two finales haven't quite been up to snuff. He could have at least made it a bit longer, but with this plot line, I'm not sure how much more he could have added. I really hope next season we have more two-parters (perhaps have a season of all two-parters plus a three-part finale?).

I was never actually expecting the conference call promised in the synopsis to be over the telephone line. I knew it was going to be some sort of telepathic thing, though I was expecting some sort of weird virtual space with faces floating all around. Either that, or the subwave network (though that was destroyed in Children of Earth). I wasn't expecting a dreamspace with people sitting at a table, that's more of a conference than a conference call.

It's rather weird that the Silence didn't try to intervene in Trenzalore. I was always expecting them to try to take out whoever asked the Question. There are a number of possible reasons why we didn't see this happen. Perhaps the Silence viewed the Doctor as more of a threat than the Great Intelligence. Or maybe they found it too difficult to kill a disembodied mind. Either that, or killing the Great Intelligence was always a back-up plan and they thought they killed the Doctor, and therefore saw no reason to go after the GI.

Apparently when Moffat said that nobody figured out Clara's mystery, he was lying. Several people had theorized that she was somehow splintered in time, which turned out to be the correct explanation. I think either they failed to figure out how, or Rule 1: Moffat lies. I figured it out as soon as I heard the radio trailer last Friday and realized from the trailer the Saturday before that she was going to step into the lighty thingy. I had no idea that was the Doctor's timestream, I thought the console had just been removed and that was what's left. Moffat had been dropping hints since March that companion Clara was a perfectly ordinary girl. I think we were supposed to take from that that she was the original and something was going to happen to her. Moffat probably lied when he said nobody had figured it out, because if he did admit someone was right, the fans would stop speculating and turn inward on each other and start fighting over who was right. I think he wanted a happy discussion and speculation and knew some fans would argue about whose theory was best. That, and he would be constantly hounded to give up whose theory was right and the fans would never leave him alone.

I honestly did not see the bit with John Hurt coming. I thought we wouldn't see him until November. Well actually, to be honest I did give up and start reading spoilers the night before the episode and I did read about this. I thought it was a fake spoiler, but the screenshot should have been a dead giveaway. But if it hadn't been for that, I never would have guessed that John Hurt was in the finale, so good job to Moffat for keeping that secret. You can read my speculation about him here.

The only thing I'm left wondering is how the Doctor and Clara are going to get out of there. The timestream appears to have closed behind the Doctor and it looks suspiciously like he's trapped there. On the other hand, the area they're trapped in looks suspiciously like the graveyard, so they might just be right outside. Oh, and how did the catacombs they were in lead into the TARDIS? How do underground passages lead into another dimension?

Ultimate Jenna Theory - Revision 4

I'm Clara Oswald, I was born to save the Doctor.

So it looks like I was right in my last post, Clara does have something to do with Trenzalore. Only it sounds like she is going to save his life. Perhaps the Fall of the Eleventh does refer to the Doctor's death and is meant to happen at Trenzalore. Maybe she was created by someone to ensure that this doesn't go down.

Whether it was the Silence, the Great Intelligence, or the Whisper Men, is hard to tell. The Silence seem pretty intent on making sure the prophecy doesn't happen, though they don't seem to care when the Doctor dies, they just want the Question averted. The Great Intelligence is an enemy of the Doctor, so I can't see why it would want him alive, unless it still needs him for something. I still don't know what the Whisper Men want, so that makes it hard to guess for them, but it seems likely.

In the trailers, the Whisper Men seem to appear in a lot of the same scenes as Dr. Simeon and are wearing similar outfits. They may not be separate entities, but part of the Great Intelligence. They may be the new beasty boys to replace the snowmen, Spoonheads, and Yeti. I'm guessing they're a half-failed attempt to replicate Dr. Simeon, so they're him/the GI only with a sort of half-life.

Clara may also have been created by someone else entirely. The Doctor may not find out until the very end of the episode who she is or how she managed to save him. Then there's some big reveal and the Doctor rushes off to meet whoever it is and we pick up in the 50th Anniversary.

I like the idea that someone created an infinite series of Claras across time. They wanted her to meet the Doctor so one of them could save her, but they couldn't be sure the Doctor would actually be able to find her, so they created a near-infinite number of Claras and placed them across the entirety of human history. Inevitably, the Doctor did meet some of them, but he met most of them long in his past before he was meant to and forgot about them. He just happened to meet three of them within a short string of time and therefore remembered and it sparked his curiosity.

That would explain Jenna's recent comment about how the Doctor "hasn't just met Clara three times before." If the other times were long long ago, he might not remember them, so he only knows about the most recent ones.

Given the recent pic of the Citadel of the Time Lords labelled "Gallifrey, a long time ago" and someone saying that the finale is going to mess with classic fans, Clara being created by the Time Lords seems very likely. The Time Lords may have foreseen something far in the Doctor's future and created her to intervene in his timeline. Why they created so many of her, I don't know. Maybe she was created to police the Doctor and act as a check on his power or to prevent him from intervening at certain key points. Or maybe she was created to save the Doctor at certain key points, though I don't know why the Time Lords would ever intervene in history like that.

Ultimate Jenna Theory - Revision 3

So Moffat said in a recent interview that so far, no one has gotten right the explanation for Clara's multiple appearances. That means I'm throwing out the Bad Wolf explanation. I doubt Moffat has seen my Guardian theory, but I'm going to assume that he has and throw that one out as well.

Clara's identity has got to be linked to the finale in some way. Since the finale is Trenzalore, she's got be related to the Doctor's name. About the only explanations are that she was created to either prevent the Doctor from revealing his name or to trick him into doing so. The only people who seem to be involved in Trenzalore other than the Doctor and friends are the Silence, the Whisper Men, and the Great Intelligence. The Great Intelligence seems to be heavily involved in Series 7 so that seems likely, but Moffat could just be reintroducing it as a villain before its appearance in the finale.

It's really hard to guess which of the three it is when we only know the Silence's intentions regarding the Doctor's name. Without more information on the other two's intents, it's haphazard to guess. Even if I knew just one of the others, I could posit a reasonable guess.

Jenna said recently that Clara "hasn't just met the Doctor three times before." This could mean any number of things. More than likely, we haven't seen those other times. I doubt she means the Prequel to the Bells of Saint John and The Rings of Akhaten, that would be too obvious. There's probably going to be some sort of flashback sequence in the finale, where the Doctor suddenly remembers all the other times he's met her.

Ultimate Jenna Theory - Revision 2

Unfortunately, not much new information has come to light regarding Clara's identity since my last post in December. I just wanted to make another revision of my theory before they made it really obvious/revealed it.

There have been a number of theories floating about with explanations as to who Clara is, such as CAL (from Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead), Captain Jack's daughter, Susan, Romana, Rose and 10.5's daughter, etc. Most of these have the flaw that they don't explain how she died twice without undergoing any sort of regeneration. The Captain Jack's daughter theory would explain the part about coming back without changing appearance, but it doesn't explain how she doesn't remember him. About the only way that could work is if she first meets him in Bells and the other two are only pretending not to have met him.

A more likely explanation is that each of them is a completely separate version who are all clones/duplicates of some original. Since we now know that Clara 3 has actual parents who gave birth to her that seems to rule out her being a flesh avatar/Nestene duplicate. The other two versions could be copies, with the current one being the original. They were planted in different time periods by someone (such as the Silence, the Master, or River Song) in order to serve as a trap/attract the Doctor's attention. She could be a trap by the Silence or she could just be the Master or River's attempt to contact the Doctor since he never answers his phone. Seriously, River could have been so desperate to get the Doctor's attention, that she cloned his companion and planted the clones where she knew he would find them so he would meet the companion and somehow end up with River.

One possible hint is that series producer Marcus Wilson challenged fans to find out Clara's real identity, saying there was a red herring that everyone's going to get caught on. This seems to suggest that whatever these next five episodes suggest, that's not the explanation.

I also still like my theory about the White Guardian. Basically, the White Guardian wants the Doctor to live to reach some point in his future, some sort of important event. He first creates Oswin in the Asylum so the Doctor can get out of there alive (which he didn't originally). Then after the Doctor goes to Victorian London to mope for all eternity, the White Guardian creates a Clara there to cheer the Doctor up. He allows her to die, but not without planting hints that the Doctor will see that she and Oswin are the same girl. He knows the Doctor will then go to seek her out and continue traveling the universe and eventually reach his destiny.

I still don't know what to make of all the roses, the missing years, and the color red. All I can think of is Rose Tyler and the fact that both Amy and Donna have red hair. Or maybe the fact that the Doctor has always wanted red hair. Perhaps we're going to keep seeing red themes until Matt Smith regenerates into a ginger. As for the missing years, that might turn out to be a red herring. There are also the other two references to Rose Tyler, the car that almost killed Clara's father (which was almost identical to the one that killed Rose's dad) and the death date of Clara's mother (May 5th, 2005, the same date Rose met the Doctor). These could be pointing to a connection between Clara and Rose or they could simply be foreshadowing Rose's return in the 50th.

Rose could actually be returning even sooner. The episode synopsis for the finale, released by BBC Entertainment, said that all of the Doctor's friends are being kidnapped. That could just be Clara, Jenny, Vastra, and Strax or it could be also include Amy, Rory, River, Donna, Martha, Rose, and Jack. Some of these actors have denied involvement in the 50th anniversary, but none of them have denied involvement in Series 7.

Back on topic, there could definitely be some sort of Bad Wolf connection. The TARDIS apparently doesn't like Clara, and it didn't like Jack, either, because of his immortality. Clara could end up being a creation of the Bad Wolf as well. Just look out for the words "bad wolf" in the coming episodes.

So there you have it, my three theories for Clara's existence: trap, White Guardian, and Bad Wolf. Feel free to comment below with your opinions.

You Can Actually Pinpoint the Exact Moment the Series 5 Story Arc Begins

So I noticed several days ago that you can actually find the exact second that the TARDIS begins to malfunction and eventually explode. It's at the very end of The Waters of Mars, after the Doctor goes back into the TARDIS after seeing Ood Sigma. Right then, the cloister bell sounds, and it's never really explained why.

The cloister bell only sounds when something is seriously wrong with the TARDIS. I figure that at that exact moment, someone hacked into the TARDIS and installed a virus that caused some critical system malfunction to occur when it landed on June 26th 2010. The next time it landed on the date was in The Pandorica Opens, it took off on that date at the end of Flesh and Stone, but the virus must only be programmed for when it lands on that date, not when it takes off.

This would actually go against my theory about the Time Lords, which assumes that they hacked into the TARDIS during the Time War. It seems more likely that it was something the Silence did.

My Theory For the Question, Series 5, & Series 6

I already posted this theory a real long time ago here, but I'm posting it again where it will hopefully get seen more, plus I'm expanding it a little.

The Doctor's name is the passcode to open the Time Lock on Gallifrey. The Doctor chose it because it's only known to a handful of his family and friends. Once the war was over, he was the only person left in the universe who knew it. The Time Lords couldn't open the time lock because (I'm just making this up) a time lock can only be opened by the device that created it. They didn't have access to his TARDIS, so they couldn't open it.

Well for whatever reason, Captain Jack has decided to open the time lock on Gallifrey, and he knows he needs the Doctor's name and TARDIS. He realizes that the Doctor isn't about to just hand over the information, so he decides to ask him on the Fields of Trenzalore, when no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer.

The Silence realize that someone is going to try to open the time lock, and they want to prevent this. Their first thought is to kill the person who's asking the Doctor his name, but they can't do this seeing as it's an immortal. Their second attempt is to blow up the TARDIS. They fail to realize the consequences of blowing up a TARDIS, or perhaps they don't do it properly, and end up destroying reality and the Doctor has to reboot the universe. Their final attempt is to just kill the Doctor, which they try to do multiple times, and fail.

The only other person who could possibly try to open the time lock is Omega, safe and sound in his antimatter universe, where the Silence can't reach him. That's the only other possibility for who could be asking the question. It can't be the Master, because he must surely already know the Doctor's real name (they were probably friends before they chose those names). It can't be River, because if the Silence wanted to prevent her from asking The Question, all they had to do was not kidnap her, and just let her live a normal life. The only reason River knows the Doctor's name is because she was there when the Doctor revealed it.

Note that this a completely separate theory from this one.

The Case For a Captain Jack–11th Doctor Episode

So it's been over a year since Captain Jack graced the screens of television in Torchwood: Miracle Day. It's also been almost three years since he last appeared in Doctor Who in The End of Time, Part 2. I think it's about fair time he made a return, and here's why.

During the Moffat era, not one mention or appearance of any RTD era companion has been made in Doctor Who. The only companions who wouldn't need a fair bit of finagling to bring back are Martha and Jack. I really don't want to bring Martha back, seeing as she's rather overused in Doctor Who. After her initial departure, she's been brought back multiple times, and never really did anything. She's kind of a useless character in my opinion. She served no useful purpose in either of her appearances in Series 4. Jack has actually accomplished something in each of his appearances.

Jack would be good when the Master returns. The Master is just about the most cunning villain out there, and Jack has exactly the right type of military training to go up against him. I'd love to see Jack's reaction to the fact that the Master is still alive; I think Jack would just try to outright kill him on the spot. Jack and Clara could go off and deal with one thing, while River and the Doctor could deal with another, and both pairs of characters could just flirt endlessly (I think Jack is actually Clara's dad).

Jack is immortal, I'm sure that someone could make an entire storyline out of an immortal character. I actually like to think that the Silence's first attempt to prevent the Doctor from answering The Question was to kill the person who's asking it. Obviously that person outwitted all their attempts, and the Silence viewed it as easier to kill the Doctor. If they can figure out a way to kill someone with the cunning of the Doctor, I'm sure they could figure out a way of killing anyone. Just not someone who can't be killed at all, like Jack. So therefore, I think it's Jack who's asking The Question.

Moreover, with Torchwood on hiatus for the foreseeable future, this could be our only shot at seeing the character in the next year or so. They might even be able to work in a cameo from Gwen Cooper, but I don't want one episode of Doctor Who substituting in for an entire season of Torchwood. Torchwood still needs to make a return, but in the meantime, John Barrowman should totally team up with Matt Smith for an episode.

Doctor Who Future Continuity Revised Theory

So here is a revised version of this post containing my theory for the future of Doctor Who.

I think in the Series 7 finale, Clara is going to meet the Silence. At this point, the Doctor is only going to explain that they are a religious organization out to kill him. In the 50th Anniversary Specials, they're going to go up against them again, and this time there is going to be a full explanation of everything. We're going to learn why his name is so important. Also, at some point during the specials, we're going to learn who blew up the TARDIS. I still think it might be the Time Lords. Of course it could always be the Silence's first attempt to kill him, but they didn't understand the consequences or destroying the TARDIS. I think this is what Moffat is trying to lead us to believe, seeing how the Silence were mentioned throughout Series 5, regardless of whether it's true.

Again, I doubt we are going to learn everything about River. If we do, that's when she'll leave, because she'll stop being the mysterious figure from the Doctor's future, which is the entire point of her character.

The events of the Fields of Trenzalore are still going to take place at the end of Series 8, when the Doctor regenerates. The will see the conclusion of the Series 5–8 story arc. Series 9 will feature the introduction of the 12th Doctor and a new story arc. Clara will leave at the end of Series 9, and Series 10 will feature the introduction of another companion. I think River is going to be there when Clara leaves, just because in The Angels Take Manhattan, when the Doctor found out Amy was going to leave, River said she knew that face. River knew the face the Doctor makes when he loses someone, and since she wasn't there at any of the previous companion departures, it has to be a future one. Of course, a different Doctor might make an entirely different face, so who knows.

Doctor Who Future Continuity

So here's my guess for when we're going to find out all the answers to the questions from Series 5 & 6.

As for the importance of the Doctor's name, I think that's going to be explained in Series 7, Part 1. I think this because the Ponds are probably going to be demanding an explanation as to why the Silence want to kill the Doctor. The Doctor will reveal something to them, I'm just not sure if he'll give them the full explanation. If we don't find out then, I think Clara is not going to know anything about this until the 50th Anniversary Specials. At that point there will definitely be a full explanation of why the Silence want to kill the Doctor and why his name is so important. That is the latest date I see this happening. Heck, even if it does get explained to the Ponds, Clara is going to need her own explanation and that's probably going to be the more detailed one.

As for the TARDIS exploding, I think that's definitely going to be explained in Series 7, Part 1. This is just because it's long overdue (I don't think it was ever mentioned at all in Series 6), and Clara is never going to bring it up. The Doctor would have to bring it up in the context of the Silence's other plots, assuming of course it was them at all (see my theory about the Time Lords being behind it). The Ponds would have to bring it up, just because it needs to be brought up by someone because we still don't have a proper explanation.

Some of our questions about River Song may never be answered. She's intended to be this mysterious character, and I think she's going to stay this way. If we know everything about her, that will take away some of the point of the character, and that would have to be the point where they write her out.

Trenzalore and the fall of the eleventh are probably going to take place at the end of Series 8. Moffat is probably going to employ reverse reverse psychology and have "the fall of the eleventh" be exactly what it sounds like, the 11th Doctor's regeneration. Based on current evidence which states that Matt Smith is still going to be here in 2014, I'm guessing he's leaving at the end of Series 8. At that point, the whole Series 5-8 story arc will be wrapped up and the Silence will be no more. Series 9 will feature the introduction of the 12th Doctor and the departure of Clara. Clara's replacement will be introduced either part way through Series 9 or at the beginning of Series 10.

What if the Time Lords blew up the TARDIS?

So it still hasn't been revealed who blew up the TARDIS or why. We're being led to believe it was the Silence, but what if it was actually the Time Lords? The Silence's attempts to interfere with the TARDIS in The Lodger could have been trying to prevent it from materializing on June 26th, 2010. That's assuming that it actually was a Silence time engine and that the interference was intentional.

The Time Lords actually have the means and the motive to destroy reality. They couldn't execute their plans within the time lock, so they would have had to use the Doctor. They might have tampered with the 8th/9th Doctor's TARDIS while he was still fighting the war. They just rigged it to detonate if it ever materialized on that date. The Doctor never actually went to that date until River did in The Pandorica Opens.