by Ray Burke

Created on: November 21, 2011

The end of Doctor Who?

Doctor Who? That was the question which was left to linger in the minds of viewers from the episode ‘The Wedding of River Song’, the last of the 2011 series. Of course the question has always been there, but the latest Doctor Who series, beginning with the revamped Christopher Eccleston era, has focussed more on the Doctor’s background such as his life on Gallifrey, his relationship to his mortal 'frenemy' The Master, and hints at having a family.

Matt Smith is the 11th incarnation of the Doctor, viewers knowing that the Doctor only has thirteen lives in total. When we first met the Doctor in 1963, he was an elderly grandfather (to Susan – another mysterious character) who now seems to be leading a Benjamin-Buttonesque life with every successive regeneration. We knew nothing of his past, except that he stole the Tardis to escape Gallifrey’s inward-looking existence. Along with the Doctor, the Master, the Rani, and the Corsair, were also renegade Time Lords with stolen time-travelling property voyaging the universe for their own purposes.

For such a major character, to not know the Doctor’s past never seems to have mattered to viewers. There had been hints about what he was running away from and suggestions of a family life with the aforementioned granddaughter Susan. But whether she was an actual blood relative wasn’t made clear. The Doctor does have a daughter, named Jenny, ‘manufactured’ in 2008’s episode ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’ where she proved her Time Lord capabilities by regenerating. Recently, it was even thought that he was the sole remaining Time Lord –he still might be. But the Doctor has always been focussed on the future, everyone else’s, rather than his own past. So we are no nearer to finding out who he is.

But is this about to change? There were hints at the end of last season that as the Doctor nears the end of his regenerations we would finally find out who he is. There is a myth that the Doctor’s real name is a secret that must never be revealed or “Silence will fall when the question is asked.” This foretells that knowing the Doctor’s name would have drastic consequences. But what’s in a name? What is the Silence –peace or the end of everything? And even if the question is asked, who says there has to be an answer? Do we really want or need to know? Surely such a story would be an anti-climax. 

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