Speculation and Meta about the exploration of the Doctor's identity in S8

[ibishtar]

The Twelfth Doctor's identity, or: "Who frowned me this face?"
The first episode of S8 was run through with the Doctor's identity crisis, with parallels being drawn between him and the villain of the week as several questions were pondered. Can he be the same person after he's completely renewed himself? But what if his memory fails him? And why is

Comments

[gonzo21]

Oh lord, please don't let the tumultuousness be because of friction between the Doctor and Mister Pink over the lovely Clara's affections.

Pretty convincing theory though.

But I half suspect as with most meta-analyses of Who in recent years, the people doing the analyses and spotting all of these interesting clues and themes, have a much better idea of what's going on in the show than Moffat, who repeatedly fails to pick up on most of this sort of stuff. :)

[jadedone2many]

Hah! I think you are right re: the people doing the analyses and spotting all of these interesting clues & themes have a much better idea of what's going on in the show than Moffat.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if folks like ibishtar and the like were running the show & writing the eps? :D

[gonzo21]

Oh it would be fabulous. I can remember reading so much amazing meta from, maybe not last season, but the two seasons before then. And it really got me excited about what amazingly clever things they were going to do when they wound up the stories. And then... eye-patches.

[ibishtar]

I don't think it will be that, but maybe Danny Pink will have to do with it some way. A future official episode description mentions that Twelve will do something that we've never seen him do before and will cause a rift with Clara.
I'm also pretty sceptical of Moffat giving an ounce of the kind of thought to the themes of his series that meta writers do, but dreaming of a better version of the show is part of the fun for me, although I'm quite enjoying series 8, actually.

[stars_inthe_sky]

"So the reason he's wearing Caecilius' face is the reminder that he's merely on borrowed time and his comeuppance will come, as it did for Caecilius' descendant Frobisher."

You state this very matter-of-factly--has that connection/sequence been confirmed somewhere? I know Moffat and RTD have some connection between all three characters worked out, but this is the first of this version I've seen.

[ibishtar]

RTD explained his theory of why Frobisher looks like Cacecilius in Torchwood Declassified back when Children of Earth aired. The theory is that the Doctor changed time by saving Caecilius and his family, and the end of his lineage in COE, with the death of Frobisher and his family, was Time readjusting. You can see a gifset here.
Steven Moffat says that when Capaldi was announced, he asked RTD about his theory and if it still worked so he could work it in. The rest of it is purely my theory.

[clocketpatch]

Very enjoyable meta, and you make a compelling case for a trial occurring.

[ibishtar]

Thank you! It's all very hopeful on my part since I'm keen for some villainous Time Lords.

[xenaclone]

Good theory.

This could fit in with my wondering whether the equivelant of a bug/app/disease/trojan horse was given to the Doctor with his new set of incarnations.

[ibishtar]

That's a great idea! Maybe that's how the Valeyard is created: a trojan collects information about the Doctor and feeds it into a corrupted copy.

[ibishtar]

I'm keen for some Gallifrey stuff as well. I didn't like how it was portrayed in The Day of the Doctor, but I did find the Time Lords to be exciting villains in The End of Time. I think they work well in small doses where they can make a powerful enough impression to never seem mundane. Although I enjoyed The Deadly Assassin, it did make me think that that portrayal of the Time Lords was so boring and it was a good thing the new series had stayed away from that.