3 weeks till new Who!

[Morrus]

I have to say I'm a touch envious.

I was an Army Brat who was introduced to The Doctor when I was about 9 years old, when we went on a 1 week trip to London and I bought a stack of the books to read in the hotel room. I finished them before we got back home.

As we moved as a family (or later, as I traveled for school), I got to see the movie with the first Doctor, some Pertwee episodes, and almost all of the Tom Baker stuff, but only a few from earlier and later Doctors until the "New Who" shows. Result: some of the series history is completely unknown to me, like the Valeyard.

The Valeyard was a Colin Baker villain. The Doctor was on trial by the Time Lords for interfering with history, and the prosecutor was the Valeyard. Turned out at the end that he was a future incarnation of the Doctor ("between his 12th and 13th incarnations").

He has his own wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeyard

 

[Aeolius]

I stopped watching Doctor Who during the Colin Baker years. When the show took a hiatus, I lost interest. Granted, that was about the time I went to college, so it was a transitional period for me as well.

When the show returned with Eccleston, it piqued my interest. My kids watched with my, on the occasions I remembered to watch the show. When David Tennant took the reins, it rekindled my interest in Doctor Who. When Matt Smith took his turn, my interest waned somewhat.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I've seen his wiki page, but its not he same as actually seeing the episodes.

I had to look it up after the most recent episode mentioned him.

 

[Nellisir]

So are they saying that the last 9th and the Valeyard are one and the same? I thought the Valeyard was "between the 12th and 13th". I never knew what that means, but I like the reasoning that he's an incarnation, but not of "the Doctor", but of the Time Lord who adopts that name for all but one of his incarnations.

I don't think they're saying that. I think they're saying "Valeyard" is one of his names, but not necessarily the "last 9th".

I do think they're saying that Matt Smith is the 11th Doctor, but not necessarily the 11th incarnation.

 

[Nellisir]

Oof. Forgot to say I actually really really liked this episode. It was...simple. It made sense. It worked.

 

[Herschel]

The other question this episode raised was about the TARDIS and the Doctor. In The Doctor's Wife, the TARDIS said she picked the Doctor but in this episode Clara actually got teh Doctor to choose her yet the TARDIS doesn't like Clara? I know Clara is an abberation in the future (which the TARDIS can "see") but without her the TARDIS would have been decommissioned long ago.

 

[Morrus]

The other question this episode raised was about the TARDIS and the Doctor. In The Doctor's Wife, the TARDIS said she picked the Doctor but in this episode Clara actually got teh Doctor to choose her yet the TARDIS doesn't like Clara? I know Clara is an abberation in the future (which the TARDIS can "see") but without her the TARDIS would have been decommissioned long ago.

Ssssh! I think they forgot!

 

[MerricB]

So are they saying that the last 9th and the Valeyard are one and the same? I thought the Valeyard was "between the 12th and 13th". I never knew what that means, but I like the reasoning that he's an incarnation, but not of "the Doctor", but of the Time Lord who adopts that name for all but one of his incarnations.

The original plan was for the Valeyard to actually be the actual 13th incarnation of the Doctor, but the dislike of JNT for this plan mean that instead he's vaguely described as being some interim state between the final incarnations (an amalgamation of the darker side of the Doctor's nature) by the Master.

Is John Hurt the Valeyard? Doubt it. I could be wrong, though.

On Matt Smith: We've been getting better and better performances from him this season, and this one was glorious. When Clara first tells him about Trenzalore, Murray Gold underscores Matt's performance with a beautiful, understated version of the "This is Gallifrey" theme. Great moment in the show.

On Jenny's death: "I think I've been murdered". Gave me shivers.

On River Song: We still haven't seen her learning the name of the Doctor. There's a bunch of things still to be resolved.

Cheers!

 

[Morrus]

On River Song: We still haven't seen her learning the name of the Doctor.

I may be misremembering, but didn't that happen during the wedding?

 

[Morrus]

So, questions. Or more like observationsthat Moffat puts things in scripts and then totally forgets about them.

1) "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." -- so that turned out to be nonsense. Why is it the Fall of the Eleventh? And, more importantly, what happened to no living creature being able to speak falsely or fail to answer?
2) As mentioned above, the TARDIS claimed to have chosen the Doctor; turns out it was Clara.
3) Why should a time traveler never visit their own grave? Rory saw his.
4) Who created the grave and set the password? A spot where anybody can step in and rewrite the Doctor's history (and thus much of the universe's) protected just by a password? One presumably not set by the Doctor or River, both of whom would be dead at the time.

All that aside, I LOVED the episode. Especially all the past Doctor references (and the interaction with the first Doctor). Can't wait to see how Hurt plays out, and obviously excited about Tennant's return in November.

So. Hurt is the ninth incarnation, but since he did not take the name "the Doctor" he's not the ninth Doctor. He's the one who fought the Time War, not McGann as previously thought. And he did terrible things.

In one sense (it's "Fall of the Eleventh", not "Fall of the Eleventh Doctor") that could now mean that in November, Tennant - now the 11th incarnation, though 10th Doctor - is the one who "falls". Or it could be that Moffat totally forgot he ever wrote that line.