Secrets that Must Never Be Told: The Name of the Doctor (3/3)

Also known as what the Moffat!

The name I chose is the Doctor. The name you choose, it's like, it's like a promise you make. He's the one who broke the promise. 

I'd heard rumors of John Hurt's character before this episode, but I filed it away, more concerned with River's gravestone and Clara's identity. After all, he wouldn't be showing up until the anniversary special. Figures. I should have known better than to trust Moffat. And if I thought the summer between GMGTW and LKH was bad, this will drive me doolally. Who is he?

Because we’re not sure where the John Hurt character comes, and his actions were/are/will be so horrible that he renounces the title of Doctor, all posts related to him will be tagged Echthros, a Greek word for Enemy used for the nihilist destroyers in Madeline L’Engle’s  Time Quartet. I think it’s also appropriate because the emphasis in that series is on Naming, and this incarnation lost his right to the title of the Doctor, having to go by his old name. 

The following conversation is all we have to go on:

Clara: Who is he?The Doctor: He's me. There's only me here, that's the point. Now let's get back. Clara: But I never saw that one. I saw all of you. Eleven faces. All of them you. The Doctor: I said he was me. I never said he was the Doctor.Clara: But I don't understand.The Doctor: My name, my real name, that is not the point. The name I chose is the Doctor. The name you choose, it's like, it's like a promise you make. He's the one who broke the promise. Clara? Clara! He is my secret.The Old Man: What I did, I did without choice. The Doctor: I know.The Old Man: In the name of peace and sanity. The Doctor: But not in the name of the Doctor.

This one "broke the promise." The immediate association is the Time War,  implying that Ecthros came between McGann and Eccleston. But the Doctor has spoken of the Time War, though never in detail, and though he committed at least double-genocide,  the implications that Nine ended the war are difficult to overcome.

He could also be the Valeyard, who came between the Doctor's "twelfth and final" regeneration.  He appeared during the  "Trial of a Time Lord" arc in Six's final season, but his actions in that serial are reduced to threatening Six in an attempt to steal his remaining regenerations. It was also stated that he was the Doctor's dark side.  But if Ecthros is the Valeyard, how would Eleven know precisely what Ecthros did?

These theories seem most likely to me.  I doubt Echtros is a pre-Hartnill incarnation, because how could one break the promise of a name that has not yet been used (in the EU,  "Doctor" is a pseudonym chosen early in his adventures, and even in the revived series, the Master confirmed that the Doctor chose his name.)

The statement "he is my secret" is also intriguing.  Generally, a secret is something you know that you don't want anyone else to know.  I don't think Eleven's forgotten Echtros--this seems inconsistent with his behavior towards the man. The Doctor has disowned Echtros, but has not forgotten him.

Finally, what did Ecthros  "in the name of peace and sanity?" As I said earlier, the most obvious answer is the Time War. We've already heard suggestions of horrible events, from Armies of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres to the simple statement "I couldn't save any of them." But the Doctor has claimed the end of the Time War--hated to do so, but he's admitted to those actions.  Even Eleven says "I killed all of them [Time Lords]," which seems out of place with claiming those same actions were "not in the name of the Doctor."

On the other hand, there have been allusions that suggest a bloodstained past for him. The writing on the Pandorica, the references to him as a "great warrior;" it all seems to be adding up to something, Another intriguing clue is his statement in Beast Below that if he lobotimizes the Star Whale, he'll "find a new name, because [he] won't be the Doctor anymore."

The Doctor is a "word for healer and wise man throughout the universe," as River says at Demons Run.  His greatest value, his core ethic, is a concern for sentient life and individual freedom.  Something that could have made him lose/renounce that name probably involved a deliberate act of murder, but even more, the force of an action against someone else's will.  My money is on something like what Jack did to Stevie in Children of Earth (No, I haven't watched it. No, I don't recommend it.)--killing an innocent who trusted him in order to save others. The Doctor is willing enough to sacrifice himself,  but Ecthros would force that death "for the greater good."

Secrets that Must Never Be Told: The Name of the Doctor (2/3)

Also known as  OTP FEELS!

You're always here to me. And I always listen. And I can always see you.*

Post-Library River.
From the first moment I saw this confirmed, I had a wild, crazy hope that he'd saved her from the Library. Or she'd saved herself, or they'd worked something out together--somehow, some way, she'd come back from that empty world. I even thought that might be what Clara was attempting to do with the column of light: find a way to bring River back for the Doctor.
The first part I saw was a brief clip from the sleep seance.  It was so good to see her again, to finally see how she'd react to Clara (well, how Clara reacted to her. I knew River didn't want the Doctor to be alone.) But Clara's genuine confusion--"he never mentioned you were a woman." It made sense; he doesn't like to talk about his past. He may have mentioned her once or twice, but to tell the whole story would be more painful than he could bear. And then these four lines

Clara: So, So you're a friend of his then.
River: A little more than a friend, a long time ago. 
Vastra: He still never contacted you?
River: He doesn't like endings.

Which all but confirms Darillium before The Snowmen. So he wasn't just mourning his Ponds up there--he had lost her too. I didn't think that would happen; if nothing else, I assumed Moffat wouldn't miss the chance to troll us with feels. And how easily River shrugs off his silence. How long has it been for her? Years? Centuries? Thankful, we get the amusing-ness of River slapping everyone else awake before things can get too complicated between the Mrs. and the girlfriend.

She's been dead for a very long time. 

Again, how long has it been for him? If he can poke around for 200 years before his own death, how long might he have been sitting on that cloud? This scene is a hundred times worse when he confesses that he could see her all along, but even before that....her grave.  She didn't have one at the Library, so I knew something was up when it showed up in the trailer, but....and his line

They'd never bury my wife out here.

He calls her wife. How can anyone still claim they're not married? There's just so many painful lines in this episode.

I died saving him. In return he saved me to a database in the biggest library in the universe. Left me like a book on a shelf. Didn't even say goodbye. He doesn't like endings.

And I'm so glad she was there to open the TARDIS. Even in death, Idris is watching over her thief and her child. Though it was amusing that the door opened just as the Doctor said "please..."  A moment of ??? for everyone.  The worst part, though, was after Clara had sacrificed herself.  The Doctor, displaying his normal papa-wolf-before-reason habits, is about to jump in after her.
 River is just about to slap some sense into him when he catches her hand. He confesses that he's always seen her, always heard what she was saying. He had to listen when River explained how she died, had to walk through her ghost to touch her grave, had to pretend he didn't see her all the time. Once again, how long has he known? Logically, Ockham's razor suggests it's only been for this adventure, but my headcanon is that she's been haunting the TARDIS since the Library.

River: Then why didn't you speak to me? The Doctor: Because I thought it would hurt too much.River: I believe I could have coped.The Doctor: No. I thought it would hurt me. And I was right

When he said that, I knew he was thinking over his own feelings, not hers.  He doesn't set out to hurt her, he'd never do that, but he's selfish to the core, and has suffered so many losses that he can't do anything else that would cause him pain, even if it would comfort someone else.  And this can't be the end, it can't been. I want to see her learn his name, and see them explore the Bone Meadows or meet Jim the Fish. I want River to jump out of more things and have him catch her, or maybe the other way around. I want River to get out of the Library and surprise him with a squirmy, wiggly baby who is quite sure that bowties aren't cool.
I refuse to believe this is their last adventure. There must be more.

*my graphic edit, featuring a quote from Neil Gaiman's American Gods.

Secrets that Must Never Be Told: The Name of the Doctor (1/3)

First of all,  this was one of the most explosive episodes I've seen in a while. Therefore, I'll be splitting this review into three parts: one for Clara's identity, one for the Doctor and River's relationship, and one for John Hurt's character. A fourth section may be necessary for other comments.

I blew into this world on a leaf. I'm still blowing. I don't think I'll ever land. I'm Clara Oswald. I'm the impossible girl. I was born to save the Doctor.

This section will analyse Clara's character, building on certain points from the previous post "Mysteries Worth Solving."  Once again, I apologize for any unintended ill will towards Clara as a replacement for the Ponds.  Anyway, the opening was a jaw-dropper, right from the get-go. Clara on Gallifrey. Clara seeing  Bessie. Clara in a guard uniform from Invasion of Time. I'd borrow the Once Upon a Time meme and say we've been Cora'd, but  as they all turned out to be her, it's not entirely correct.

At least I guessed part of it. When I saw the pillar of light in the trailer, I thought it would scatter Clara, creating echoes of her throughout time and space. On the other hand, I thought her comment "I was born to save the Doctor" meant she was a tool of the Silence, which she still could be, but that's a bit of stretch.
 
Am I satisfied with this reveal? Yes and no.  It's something different, not like River, where they keep meeting out of order, or Donna, who keeps running into him.  Instead, he meets two echoes first, only meeting the original and allowing the creation of said echoes afterwards.  On the other hand, it doesn't seem the natural conclusion to Clara's arc; there's no moment of AHA! after she leaps into the Doctor's timestream.

I actually think this plot would have been better served by an authorized novel than the TV series. While the modern tie-in novels are one-off adventures (I have some reviews posted),  this would have been a great plot to launch something like the Virgin New Adventures or Eighth Doctor Adventures for Eleven.  Those novels, published during the wilderness years of Doctor Who, had reoccurring characters and varying degrees of arcs--Compassion is one example. A member of an alien race know as the Remote, she undergoes various degrees of media manipulation before becoming a Type 104 TARDIS.  Something like that would have been the perfect medium for Clara's story--more time to explore her story,  more physiological insight, and the chance to insert scenes showing her with past Doctors, without the limitations of stock footage and replacement actors.

I also didn't feel a solid connection between Clara and Eleven for most of the season, so it surprised me that she was so willing to sacrifice herself.  I can think of maybe three non-family members I'd die for, and they're all people I feel I could tell anything to.  Would Clara really be willing to do that for the Doctor? Perhaps it would have made more sense if she'd done it to save the universe; stars were going out again, as the Great Intelligence's rewrite was erasing every world the Doctor had saved.  Maybe if we'd seen Earth disappearing, the whole world vanishing and Clara, at the Eye of the Storm, knowing everyone she knew would be gone otherwise... I couldn't see her doing that.

River would have. Without a doubt, River would have done that for him, if she'd been able to. But that's another post.

And what's next? If I remember correctly, JLC's contract is renewed for season eight.  Is he going to get her out? Or will he end up chasing her echoes through time and space forever? It would be amusing..."She died saving me. Again. Guess I'd better go find another one."