It took me a while, but I finally got round to seeing the season finale of Doctor Who (BBC iPlayer has this really annoying flaw where it deletes saved episodes when I try to watch them).
Let's get one thing out in the open. The trick they tried to do with the archive footage wasn't great. It wasn't a bad idea but the effect looked jarring when they had to put Clara next to Tom Baker. If anyone's seen a certain episode of DS9, then you'll know there are better ways of doing this kind of thing.
However this isn't a rant about the effects. It's still a wonderful episode to watch and threw a lot of questions for viewers to think about. Mainly, who is John Hurt's character? He is of course an incarnation of the Doctor, but from when?
There are many intepretations, some are pretty intriguing and come from people who've watched Doctor Who for longer than I've been alive, others a bit bonkers so to speak.
The two most prominent theories are that he is a past incarnation, most likely one who took part in the Time War, or he is the Doctor at some point in the future.
The former is supposed to be the one who "broke the promise", doing something unforgivable at some point in the past and causing future incarnations of the Doctor to shun him. This could put him at any point in Doctor Who's 50 year history. This I can't accept, but it has nothing to do with my limited knowledge of Doctor Who. To me the Doctor is always the same person. Different face and changes to his personality, but still essentially the same person. Kind of like a person growing older and wiser, maybe taking on new ideas and ways of thinking, but still the same person.
It's absurd to think the Doctor can just forget a previous version of himself and move on as if it never happened. If he truly believed in keeping that promise, then he would have abandoned his name/title long ago. We would not be sitting down to watch Doctor Who is 2013.
However, what if this is an incarnation that hasn't happened yet? That brings us to the second theory. At some unspecified point in the future, the Doctor will do something terrible, doing it in "the name of peace and sanity". This theory has something going for it. Throughout the last 2 seasons, he is becoming something of a myth and not in a good way. The "Oncoming Storm". It's not hard to imagine that eventually he may become something darker, hinted at in a number of episodes (The Waters of Mars being one).
Furthermore, back in 1986, the Valeyard was introduced, a villain who was an amalgamation of the Doctor's darker sides between his 12th and final incarnations. Could this be the Valeyard? Quite possible. Then again, dragging a villain from 1986 to be the center of your universe changing plot seems too much. Bringing the Master back after a long absence for The Sound of Drums? That worked because the character had a long run, was well remembered and had been one of the strongest villains. Not so much with the Valeyard.
In any case if this is a future incarnation, how is it the 11th Doctor is aware of this one, this version of himself which by all logic he shouldn't know about yet? After all, the act of encountering yourself in the past or future is supposed to be dangerous and safeguards exist to prevent it, or repair the damage. Could the cavernous cave in which Clara ends up be some kind of anomaly, where all of the Doctor's past and future lives are converging? Perhaps a place that shouldn't exist or he shouldn't be in?
However, here's a bonkers theory of my own. John Hurt's "Doctor" is indeed a future incarnation. He may not be the Valeyard, but given that time itself is supposed to be in flux he could be another version. One of many possible future versions of himself. The terrible thing he did? It could be the Time War. In their desperate conflict, the Time Lords brought him to help fight the war knowing full well that this went against their duties as custodians of time. They resurrected the Master for him to fight their war against the Daleks. He was a criminal among their race, yet the Time Lords chose to break the rules and would ultimately decide to sacrifice all of existence to preserve themselves. What of the Doctor? He clearly did take part in the Time War, but this doesn't necessarily preclude this "Doctor" from being there as well.
Or, maybe he'll turn round and say "I am your father!"
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