Doctor Who Anniversary Special - CONTAINS SPOILERS

But the Ninth Doctor was already implied to be the recent post-Time War regeneration. Until the Hurt Doctor, the best theory was that things were handled by Eight.

If I take that and then consider that personality wise Hurt Doctor was not like the Ninth Doctor then I'm left with no reason to actually see that role as originally 9th.

It also just doesn't seem like what they were doing in the production- I don't believe they'd be setting up the 50th anniversary and what it's going to be, what it will involve, what will lead up to it, who they will hire and then just be like "Oh but I won't check if Eccelstone is going to turn up until after I've knocked out a couple of drafts".

I know, I know, it's just... come back, Nine! You were so much fun!

P.S. I love your avatar.

edited 27th Nov '13 4:04:41 PM by edgewalker22

I assume you know why Nine wasn't in the special, yeah?

Not exactly. I know Eccleston has distanced himself from his time on the show, but I don't know if there was an official reason given here.

The general consensus is that Eccleston disliked the way the production of the show was run and refuses to have anything to do with it, basically.

See here.

<-Very sad panda

Sorry for popping in so late in the conversation, but yeah, I cried hard. Also, it was to my understanding that the "13 faces" thing was a Time Lord law, not a biological barrier. But, I guess there goes that theory.

"After the twelfth regeneration there is no plan that will postpone death." — from the story that introduced the limit. Doesn't sound like a law. Though on the other hand, the Master had not only already flouted that idea in that very episode, but went on to do so again about half a dozen times. Apparently the guy didn't know about Joker Immunity.

The only flaw in the way I see creating the War Doctor retcon as being better than actually convincing Eccleston to come back (the production team say it's all fixed, but he doesn't believe them, and besides he's also said he doesn't believe in returning to a role after it's finished) is that, while the War Doctor is better placed to be a mouthpiece for the classic series to comment on the revived series than the Ninth Doctor, the Eighth really fits more with the revived series than the classic.

The seventh Doctor would be a better choice for all the comments about kissing and absurdly young and childish future incarnations, but while it's entirely plausible to retcon something shameful into Seven's tenure, it would in some ways be a more drastic retcon than "dohoho, you thought just because we saw an Eighth Doctor and then a post-war Ninth Doctor, the one was directly followed by the other!"

I really like the interpretation I saw shortly after Name of the Doctor premiered, where since the War Doctor was introduced as a black sheep incarnation disowned of the name "Doctor", suddenly we can see the Ninth Doctor's early episodes as the process of him deciding to be the Doctor again. Deciding that he can be the Doctor again.

edited 30th Nov '13 2:51:33 AM by TParadox