One last surprise?

[3chordboy]

I'm also surprised no mods have intervened on Sparkys previous comments given the interventions they have made for less on other threads.

No need to try and belittle MikeS for thinking Hurt might've been a pre-Hartnell incarnation given that we knew nothing about the character when he first appeared.

Back off and take a chill pill or two...

 

[Skellington]

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see a regeneration on Saturday. The episode title could well refer to the day that he starts calling himself the Doctor again.

Even if there's a regeneration from Hurt to Eccleston, there's the possibility of revisiting the War Doctor. It's not as though his life were brief! He may have had the longest life of any of the incarnations.

Yeah, really! Given that Eleven went two hundred years without visibly increasing in age, the War Doctor looks like he's been around for about 8,000 years!

3000 or 4000 ought to do it.

Alternatively, it could be explained away by this incarnation being part human, just like Eight.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

A hard life ages people. The War Doctor has undoubted been around for a while, but probably not as long as you would think given his appearance.

Or his age is a byproduct of the events depicted in stories such as "Challenge of the Cruciform" and "The Nightmare Child Rises".

 

[Green Lantern]

Before a few days ago, I would have thought you were a crazy person but after Night of the Doctor brought back McGann even after months of denying so, I believe anything is possible. I think it's not that likely, but I'm open to it. Personally, I'd love it; it'd mean we finally see every doctor who regeneration ever, but I'm not banking on it. Maybe if Eccleston agreed to feature a main doctor in the 50th it would have happened but now not so sure. Might have meant McGann wouldn't have returned which is not worth the sacrifice; long live McGann! :P

 

[Sindatur]

I'm also surprised no mods have intervened on Sparkys previous comments given the interventions they have made for less on other threads.

No need to try and belittle MikeS for thinking Hurt might've been a pre-Hartnell incarnation given that we knew nothing about the character when he first appeared.

Back off and take a chill pill or two...

Yea, without a lot of Spoilers, it very easily could've been that HurtDoctor could've been:

1. A PreHartnell Incarnation (Maybe he was a horrible Time Lord, and vowed to changed, and took on the Name of The Doctor to cement the deal, and then he backslid, and then made the bargain again when he became Hartnell. Hartnell was not a nice man when we met him. He took off with Barbara and Ian on board, without their consent, knowing full well he may never be able to return them to their own time, and he almost smashed a Caveman's head in with a rock)

2. We never actually saw the change from Troughton to Pertwee, it could've been that Troughton became so pissed off from having his Incarnation's life taken from him, that when he was force Regenerated into Hurt he became a vile Bastard. This would've been a very good feint on Moffat's part, because it was probably the least suspected of the 3 main possibilities, so, would've been a big surprise to most.

3. In between McGann and Eccelston as The Time War Doctor

 

[Lance]

Eccleston won't be appearing. BBC issued a press release saying he wasn't appearing, didn't they? You don't do that and then have the guy show up.

He ain't showing up.

Prior to the release of 'Night of the Doctor', there was a statemen from the BBC which stated that no past Doctors other than Tennant were going to appear in anything related to the special, including mini-episodes (a curiously specific denial in hindsight, it must be said), with some of these sources even emphatically underlining each of the individual actors in turn, including Paul McGann, as being somebody who was not going to appear.

Basically, the makers of Doctor Who lie. And they're happy to be liars, because there in lies the art of truly surprising the audience.

Having said that, if I were placing odds on Eccleston's secret involvement... I'd say it is pretty unlikely. The man himself has stated he has no interest in it and he's a straight-shooter when it comes to these things. I doubt he'd be willing to play the publicity game either, keeping his own involvement a secret, especially after the disrespect the BBC PR department shown for him publically when he left the role.

 

[Starkers]

Moffat said he wants to "have the box set, all the regenerations", and there is another Minisode called Last Day which will be on the DVD...

Dramatically and structurally they have to show Hurt's fate unless they're going to have him return in the future - and showing his fate means they either have to have Eccles back to show that regeneration, or fake it with stock footage as they faked Hurt in The Night Of The Doctor. So they have to do that either in the special or the minisode.

Unless of course Moffat just wants something to leave to wind up the fans. Which he might.

Well guess we could have a regeneration without Eccleston, have Hurt begin to regenerate then fade away, maybe pan away from where he's mid regeneration to Nine's leather jacket?

Even if Eccleston did come back we would still be technically missing a regeneration though, wouldn't we? I mean we never actually saw Two turn into Three did we...

 

[chardman]

Several people have been confirmed to be involved with the 50th, who had previously claimed that they'd not even been approached, or had offered to participate but been shunned by TPTB.

And since their denials of involvement turned out to be subterfuge, pretty much all such denials are now a tad suspect.

Granted, I'd still be a bit surprised if Eccleston showed up, but I'm still banking on David Bradley, and/or Reece Shearsmith, and/or Mark Gatiss putting in appearances in the ep as the Doctors they'll be portraying in "An Adventure in Space and Time".

Likewise, I won't be even the tiniest bit surprised if Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker, or Peter Davison shows up. And after seeing present-day Tom Baker back in his Doctor drag on the cover of the latest Radio Times...

...I seriously think he looks enough like his old self that he's really just a curly wig away from being able to reprise his generation of the Doctor. (The man looks amazing for being a hairsbreadth this side of 80!)

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Thats not present-day Tom Baker. Thats 1993, Dimensions in Time Tom Baker.

 

[chardman]

Really? Cause in the face, at least to my eye, he looks pretty much as he looked when he appeared on stage with Louise Jameson at the BFI back in April of this year. (I simply assumed the scarf was hiding the extra chins and wattle.) And judging by photos of that event, he still looks enough like his old self that no one would balk at him reprising the role.

 

[Klaus]

The War Doctor doesn't have to have been around for that long... it's not the years, it's the mileage [kilometerage? ].

Maybe he had a couple of Jack-Bauer-type bad days and is only a couple of weeks old?

 

[Pavonis]

The creator intent is that the War Doctor was around for some time, and wasn't a brief experience that the Doctor went through, but a true lifetime....

 

[Turbo]

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if we had cameos from one classic Doctor, all the classic Doctors still around, or just clips of all previous Doctors.

It's also possible that they might pull something like they did in The Night of the Doctor, with the War Doctor regenerating into the Ninth Doctor by way of cutting and stock footage of Eccleston.

 

[Australis]

I remember reading somewhere that timeloops are like bullets or low-grade bombs in the Time War, compared to the Nightmare Child and the King of Might-Have-Been, which would be the smart bombs and drones, even aircraft carriers. The mad Dalek, said they flew into the Time War again and again. Safe to assume WarDoctor did something like that, and that would age you.