Dr Who Theory

[andrewducker]

So, The Doctor had two sonic screwdrivers with him. And he knew he was going to a place where there was an early version of The Flesh. And then he deliberately waved his hands over it and used the sonic on it. So he basically caused a second version of himself to be made, and then armed it with a sonic screwdriver.

A sonic screwdriver that, if you recall Forest Of The Dead, can be used to store personalities in its neural relay. Which goes some way to explain why Mr Smith said "There may be a way back from this." just before activating it.

All of which leads me to the theory that the Doctor that we see in the first episode of this season, is not The Doctor, but the Flesh version of him, reconstituted from the memories stored in the neural relay.

Comments

[andlosers.livejournal.com]

I came up with the exact same theory, so there must be something to it! Or it's too obvious. But I think there's something to it.

Also, if that's true, that may be the sonic screwdriver that'll end up in River Song's hands - somehow.

[andrewducker]

That one was given to her by The Doctor on the day before she set off for The Library, IIRC.

[mb2u]

It's not the same sonic screwdriver-River's looked like a modified Ninth/Tenth Doctor's. I think that somewhere in the future, he makes the screwdriver specifically for her, with a neural relay chip in it, so that when she does go to The Library...Because The Doctor remembers what happened there, and how River's memory was stored in the sonic screwdriver.

[erindubitably.livejournal.com]

Interesting theory! By the by, do you know anywhere I can find a good synopsis of both the last two episodes? I watched one a week ago and the other while hungover and I'm sure I've missed some stuff and would like to go over it again but can't seem to find one. I've checked the usual places (google, wikipedia) without much luck, but maybe it was just too early for something like that to be up yet.

[erindubitably.livejournal.com]

Ooooor I could just use the link in your post. Whoops.

[andrewducker]

Still hungover, eh? :->

[erindubitably.livejournal.com]

I *wish* I had an excuse for being this absent-minded.

[andrewducker]

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Rebel_Flesh
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Almost_People

are probably about as good as you'll get.

[dougs.livejournal.com]

I was just setting the context to julia_winolj prior to reading your post to her, and she interrupted me with the same theory.

Which hadn't occurred to me before I read your post.

Clearly Julia and I should talk more.

[andrewducker]

Clearly you were explaining it well!

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

They did go to quite a lot of effort to tell us in the first episode that was really really the real Doctor, no kidding, he's really dead.

But yes, this being the Flesh Doctor dying absolutely makes sense of things like, particularly, why he doesn't have a Tardis.

[andrewducker]

What we had was the older version of the agent telling us that, and River checking that he had two hearts. Neither piece of evidence is conclusive to me :->

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

What I'm thinking of is Moffat in the confidential being really adamant about it I think.

But... we do know that the Moffat does like to lie. :)

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

Actually, the information delivered in that episode was that he was most certainly the real doctor and he was most certainly dead...in a way that was strongly mimicked by the Doctor in The Almost People telling them how his flesh duplicate really was him and he was me and so on.

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

Yes! And the Flesh duplicates what it's given, it's not "set" for humans, so obviously it would duplicate a two-hearted Timelord.

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

Did you notice that they explicitly mention this during the episode? Amy confronts the flesh doctor and says that she saw the Doctor die, and very obviously wonders if it wasn't this flesh doctor instead.

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

And afterwards finds out that it wasn't the goo!doctor.

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

I thought the point of that was that Amy accidentally confronted the original Doctor (he'd swapped shoes, remember?) and told him when she wasn't meant to tell him.

[mb2u]

You're right-the point was that Amy has now told The Doctor he's going to die. So now he's got a paradox forthcoming, and all that will entail.

[terminalmalaise.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure you're theory is right. If so, and if the Flesh version is the one that died (and really died), it's nice to think that he had 200 years of his own unique adventures leading up to that point.

[spacelem.livejournal.com]

Ah, the Doctor's age shenanigans.

Patrick Troughton: at least 450 years old
Tom Baker: 750 years old
Colin Baker: claims to be 900 years old (and celebrated his 993rd birthday in a story Baker wrote himself)
Sylvester McCoy: claims to be 953, celebrated his 1,000th birthday
Paul McGann: 1,012 years old
Christopher Ecclestone: claims to be 900 again (lying toerag)
David Tennant: claims to be 906, and must have had the shortest lifespan of all his incarnations
Matt Smith: claims to be 907, and his future self is 1,102 years.

Steven Moffat: says The Doctor can't remember how old he is any more. So there.

[http://users.livejournal.com/weevil_/]

I liked "Let it go we've moved on!", felt like it was written just for me ;) I've got used to Smith now but I still pine for Tennant. I have a theory on the 11th Doctor's character, the 10th was really angry and cynical towards the end and then really upset at the last minute. Is the new one childish on the outside to bury his dark feelings? Sometimes they show up, quite shockingly. I'm not sure they'd think so much about it but I like to. It's probably my way of accepting Matt Smith.

I didn't like this 2 parter as a standalone story, I felt like I was getting through it to get to the more interesting end. I never even thought about the flesh doctor being the one that dies, I like that theory, and providing he was truthful about his age didn't believe he'd stay the 11th Doctor for another 200 hundred years. Though River Song definitely believed he was dead so does that mean she never saw another regeneration? Or does she think history was being rewritten?

[greenfieldsite.livejournal.com]

Sounds plausible. What I find the real mystery of the series though is why, in Episode 1 when the Doctor, Amy, River and Rory were drinking wine on the beach, was River drinking from what looked like a very old and ornate wine glass when Amy and Rory were drinking from modern wine glasses? It's about 5 minutes in (you can still see the episode on BBC iplayer). I haven't seen this discussed anywhere else.