nuWho: speculation (no spoilers)

[avevale_intelligencer]

Next week's episode is called The Name Of The Doctor. I don't think that's a spoiler, is it?

You know, back in the old days nobody was that bothered about the name of the Doctor. Chap wants to use an alias, it's deuced rude to go around poking and prying and trying to find out his real name. But then, realWho was all about the adventure. nuWho, as it never ceases to remind us, is All About The Doctor, as only something created by a fanboy could be. Who is he? What does he do? What's he like? Will you get your mate to get his mate to tell him that I really really like him, only don't tell him I said it?

Anyway. I have some speculative predictions regarding The Name Of The Doctor:

1. We will learn it, and it will be one we know. He'll turn out to be Rassilon, or Leonardo da Vinci, or Judas Iscariot, or the Master, or somebody. And it will be an anticlimax, and everyone will go "oh" and move on.

2. We will learn it, and it will turn out the Doctor is the personification of some sort of abstraction. The Doctor's name is Love, or Death, or Chaos, or something. And it will be an anticlimax, and everyone will go "oh" and move on.

3. We will learn it, and it will not be one we know. The Doctor's name will be Shavibopulus, or Mektrovandish, or Quispolenticule, or something. And it will be an anticlimax, and everyone will go "oh" and move on.

4. We will not learn it. Either it will be lost in some sort of noise, or whoever hears it will not tell us, perhaps because they want to wait till November, perhaps because they get killed or shoved into a coma or something. And it will be an anticlimax, and...you get the idea.

If there is a possibility I've overlooked, one that might actually surprise people or be of genuine interest, then by all means let me know. On present form, though, this looks like a classic example of an idea that looked Really Good at the beginning of last year, before anyone actually thought about it...

Comments

[nelladarren.livejournal.com]

It will be about a monk killing to keep a secret book secret because laughter is evil. And Rose will be back.

Why are you still torturing yourself :) There's so much peace in not watching. It's the Zen of not giving a shit. :)

[hms42]

Its possible that its actually "John Smith" as he occasionly claims to be.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Or we will learn it and it will turn out to be Valeyard, or something.

Not all that fashed about it, as I'm still enjoying this wee's excellent Gaiman-penned ep (which was, in many ways, all about the adventure), right after last week's pretty bloody good Gatiss-penned one (which was definitely about the adventure). I just wish the entire series had been up to the standards of these past two weeks.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

I thought the adventure this week was just filler around the "who is Clara what is she?" bits. The Cybermen were sketchy at best, the major dramatic confrontation consisted mostly of an old Tommy Cooper routine, and while Gaiman continues to write well, the spun-sugar nature of nuWho just doesn't support solid storytelling.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

I thought the Cybermen became far more dangerous and possibly scary than they'd ever been, between the superspeed, the prevalence of cyberinsects, and the networking. They still seem flawed, but Gaiman provided them with a serious leap in capacity.

Admittedly, the whole "Willow is really the Emperor" bit was thoroughly telegraphed, but it didn't really seem to be a problem in the context of this story.

Clara? Isn't she the Doctor's daughter, regenerated> Or is there still some question about that? (I'm relatively convinced, considering the evidence of the chair. It's possible that that's a double bluff, or that they were just being cheap -- but these days, Moffatt tries hard to be clever, and so it's unlikely that such a large hint would be dropped accidentally.

[howeird]

I stopped watching when Matt Smith appeared. Something about his face. But so many of my friends still watch and tell me about it that I will hazard a guess that the name gambit is not about The Doctor, but about some person with a medical degree.

[emsy.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'm betting on his name being "Denise".

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

While I am not following the show at all, your post reminds me of a ST:TOS episode, "Shore Leave" iirc.* At the very end, the woman that Spock had been romping with on the planet -- Nurse Chapel, I guess -- says to him, referring back to something that happened earlier, "You never did tell me your real name." He replies "You would not have been able to pronounce it." She asks him to tell her anyway. He whispers in her ear; of course, we can't hear it. She looks very puzzled. End of scene.

η: No, it's not.

Edit 2: "This Side of Paradise". Summary here.

[meritmaat.livejournal.com]

I still do not understand why you still watch a show that you apparently do not enjoy. You have stamina, I'll give you that. I never had any trouble quitting a show that changed in a way that I do not like, even though I loved in and still like the old episode, like Star Gate after they killed Daniel, Xena after this stupid new monster, Simpsons after they got bad, and so on. I find that relaxing... as I find nuWho, btw, but tastes differ :-)