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tardis_stowawayRIght now, I'm bursting with anticipation about two big things: Doctor Who and Dragon*Con! -Doctor Who: I'm excited! I feel like S6 has been an uneven mix of some really amazing episodes and some true duds, but I'm hoping Moff & co. have been saving lots of good ones for the end. There are still heaps of unanswered questions that I'm hoping to learn more about. I've been carefully avoiding all spoilers, but I do have a batshit theory that I fully expect not to be true.
My off-the-wall speculation: One of the major unanswered questions from the first part of S6 is how they're going to get around the fact that we saw the future!Eleven die for good in TIA. This is clearly not something that is going to stay true. Most people are speculating that the Doctor who died was a ganger, but before the second shot we saw him start to glow with regeneration. I am highly doubtful that the flesh would be able to replicate a Time Lord's ability to regenerate. The other major category of theories is that it really was the Doctor getting shot and dying, but they're going to rewrite that timeline somehow. There's no reason I see why that can't be true, but they used rewriting time last series. I have an alternate theory: that wasn't a ganger or the future Doctor we saw get shot, try to regenerate, die, and burn. It was future River Song.
Being conceived in the TARDIS, River has many of the abilities of a Time Lord. It is strongly suggested that the little girl from TIA/DotM was young River, and we saw her begin to regenerate. If River can regenerate, that calls into doubt her apparent death in Forest of the Dead. If she had a delayed regeneration during which she temporarily appeared dead (like when Seven regenerated into Eight), then she could have been left for dead by Ten only to regenerate after he left. (Meanwhile, there is also a copy of her consciousness living in the computer system.) We know from The Doctor's Wife that regeneration can involve a sex change. (Thank you, Mr. Gaiman.) Let's say she regenerated male. (I'm going to keep on using female pronouns just for simplicity and because I don't know if River's gender identity would shift with the change in physical sex.) She could have regenerated into a duplicate of Eleven. This isn't quite as crazy as it sounds. When Romana regenerated, she got some choice over her form and chose the appearance of someone she'd met before. Maybe River just regenerated male and close enough that she realized she could fake it with plastic surgery/polyjuice potion/whatever.
Regenerated Matt Smith!River has just met a Doctor so young he didn't recognize her, so she doesn't anticipate ever seeing him again. She remembers watching the Doctor die from the lakeshore as an adult. Probably she remembers shooting him, though I'm not 100% convinced it was River in that spacesuit. With her new male regeneration, she realizes that she has a chance to keep the timelines intact but make sure the actual Doctor lives. So she disguises herself as Eleven, takes herself to the early 21st century, and sends out the invitations to Amy, Rory, her younger self, and young!Eleven. She poses as the Doctor (knowning all the events TIA River references because they're in her own past) and picnics, knowing full well that she'll get shot at the end of it. Thus the Doctor doesn't actually die for good, River's memories of watching him die are intact (along with guilt if it really was her who shot him), and River gets a bonus act of BAMF-hood before dying for good. Meanwhile, viewers will still enjoy appearances by younger versions of River for quite some time.
It all makes sense, except for the part where it's insane. Also, they'd need to go back to the SitL/FotD sets, which would be impractical. (Though I think they could manage without actual David Tennant on set, just using a clip from the episode that shows him leaving.) I don't expect that this will be the actual truth. If it is, however, I will issue the biggest I Told You So that ever was. Your own speculation is very welcome in the comments. Actual spoilers (including set photos, leaks, casting, particularly spoilery interviews, etc.) are not. If you want to mention something from "Let's Kill Hitler", please remember that I'm on the west coast of the US and thus won't see it until hours after some of you, so mark spoilers at the top of your comment so I can save it.
Meanwhile, Dragon*Con in less than a week! They've announced that there will be a showing of that week's Doctor Who episode in a big ballroom so we can all squee together. SO EXCITED. As usual, I've procrastinated my amateurish attempts at costuming. There may be a second post about that later.
Edit: this is the first time I've posted since the latest LJ "upgrade." This cut wizard thing is making my life difficult. Also, I go to edit a few words and all of a sudden my entry became a giant block of text. WTF?
My off-the-wall speculation: One of the major unanswered questions from the first part of S6 is how they're going to get around the fact that we saw the future!Eleven die for good in TIA. This is clearly not something that is going to stay true. Most people are speculating that the Doctor who died was a ganger, but before the second shot we saw him start to glow with regeneration. I am highly doubtful that the flesh would be able to replicate a Time Lord's ability to regenerate. The other major category of theories is that it really was the Doctor getting shot and dying, but they're going to rewrite that timeline somehow. There's no reason I see why that can't be true, but they used rewriting time last series. I have an alternate theory: that wasn't a ganger or the future Doctor we saw get shot, try to regenerate, die, and burn. It was future River Song.
Being conceived in the TARDIS, River has many of the abilities of a Time Lord. It is strongly suggested that the little girl from TIA/DotM was young River, and we saw her begin to regenerate. If River can regenerate, that calls into doubt her apparent death in Forest of the Dead. If she had a delayed regeneration during which she temporarily appeared dead (like when Seven regenerated into Eight), then she could have been left for dead by Ten only to regenerate after he left. (Meanwhile, there is also a copy of her consciousness living in the computer system.) We know from The Doctor's Wife that regeneration can involve a sex change. (Thank you, Mr. Gaiman.) Let's say she regenerated male. (I'm going to keep on using female pronouns just for simplicity and because I don't know if River's gender identity would shift with the change in physical sex.) She could have regenerated into a duplicate of Eleven. This isn't quite as crazy as it sounds. When Romana regenerated, she got some choice over her form and chose the appearance of someone she'd met before. Maybe River just regenerated male and close enough that she realized she could fake it with plastic surgery/polyjuice potion/whatever.
Regenerated Matt Smith!River has just met a Doctor so young he didn't recognize her, so she doesn't anticipate ever seeing him again. She remembers watching the Doctor die from the lakeshore as an adult. Probably she remembers shooting him, though I'm not 100% convinced it was River in that spacesuit. With her new male regeneration, she realizes that she has a chance to keep the timelines intact but make sure the actual Doctor lives. So she disguises herself as Eleven, takes herself to the early 21st century, and sends out the invitations to Amy, Rory, her younger self, and young!Eleven. She poses as the Doctor (knowning all the events TIA River references because they're in her own past) and picnics, knowing full well that she'll get shot at the end of it. Thus the Doctor doesn't actually die for good, River's memories of watching him die are intact (along with guilt if it really was her who shot him), and River gets a bonus act of BAMF-hood before dying for good. Meanwhile, viewers will still enjoy appearances by younger versions of River for quite some time.
It all makes sense, except for the part where it's insane. Also, they'd need to go back to the SitL/FotD sets, which would be impractical. (Though I think they could manage without actual David Tennant on set, just using a clip from the episode that shows him leaving.) I don't expect that this will be the actual truth. If it is, however, I will issue the biggest I Told You So that ever was. Your own speculation is very welcome in the comments. Actual spoilers (including set photos, leaks, casting, particularly spoilery interviews, etc.) are not. If you want to mention something from "Let's Kill Hitler", please remember that I'm on the west coast of the US and thus won't see it until hours after some of you, so mark spoilers at the top of your comment so I can save it.
Meanwhile, Dragon*Con in less than a week! They've announced that there will be a showing of that week's Doctor Who episode in a big ballroom so we can all squee together. SO EXCITED. As usual, I've procrastinated my amateurish attempts at costuming. There may be a second post about that later.
Edit: this is the first time I've posted since the latest LJ "upgrade." This cut wizard thing is making my life difficult. Also, I go to edit a few words and all of a sudden my entry became a giant block of text. WTF?
