POINT OF DEBATE: WHERE DOES RICHARD E. GRANT FIT WITHIN THE DOCTOR'S TIMELINE?!

Damn you, Season One (and/or Series Fourteen)! You did it to me a second time! I'm never going to get this study on Time Loops done! 

RTD is at it again! Once more, he's getting us to speculate the Hell out of something. This time, it's not as convoluted as the entire plot of 73 Yards. It's just one simple visual reference in Rogue. 

After a well-placed throw of his psychic paper, the Doctor activates a scan that shows Rogue holographic images of his various incarnations (can't believe we didn't see Tennant 24 times!). Nearly all the faces that appear make some sort of sense. The War Doctor and the Fugitive Doctor do, ultimately, fit in with all the others. Although how they fit is a bit more tricky to explain than the rest of the faces, there. 

But then, of course, someone appears within the gallery that makes no sense at all. Within nanoseconds of seeing him, we hardcore fans are foaming at the mouth. "What in the Seven Levels of Hell is going on, here?!" we're demanding at the top of our voices.  Or, more specifically, we're proclaiming: 

"Why is Richard E. Grant's face in this collection of images? "

EXPLANATIONS

It's obvious RTD has no intention of ever offering us an answer about why Grant's face shows up here. The whole thing was created to get all of us speculating and theorizing about how someone who has never played the Doctor (within "proper" canon, of course) is now being considered a previous incarnation. It's a bit like the pic of Mike Yates and Sara Kingdom in Day of the Doctor. We're being told that something that never happened in the show's continuity actually happened. But given no explanation for how it occurred. We have to come up with it, ourselves. 

And so, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to try to offer some possible explanations as to how Richard E. Grant is now considered a past incarnation of the Doctor. It should be noted that I've made this a POINT OF DEBATE Essay. Which means I'm not going to reach a definite conclusion of any sort. I'm just going to present some possible reasons and, ultimately, let you decide on your own. 

As far as I can see, there are four possible explanations for how Grant ended up in this flashback. I will start with the one that makes the most sense but then venture further and further out into the Land of Outlandishness. But first, let's address one that I just can't get behind at all even though some people are putting it forward as a possibility. 

IMMEDIATE DISMISSAL 

Fans came up with this notion, of course, when we first met the Fugitive Doctor in the middle of Jodie's second season. Some believed that she is some kind of weird interim incarnation that is found somewhere between the Second and Third Doctors. Specifically created by the Time Lords to facilitate all the missions the Celestial Intervention Agency was sending him on.  Even though the show eventually established quite firmly that Jo Martin's Doctor existed prior to William Hartnell, there are those who  still subscribe to this idea. They refuse to believe in the Timeless Child and are convinced that she hails from this period of the Doctor's life, instead.  

It's an interesting idea, of course. Aided by the fact that we don't actually see Troughton transform into Pertwee. So this whole process could have actually happened between The War Games and Spearhead from Space. Especially since The Two and Five Doctors sets up the concept of Season 6b. If a whole series of unseen adventures occurred during this time, why not throw the Fugitive Doctor in there too?! There were even some fan-made films that were shot some years ago that used this very premise. Jo Martin wasn't in them, of course. But an actor who was very Troughtonesque played the role of a secret extra incarnation that existed between Two and Three.  

The whole theory is a quick easy way for fans who don't want to believe the Timeless Child ever existed. They can retcon the Fugitive Doctor and make her part of the post-Hartnell lineage. This way, there's no need to acknowledge that the Doctor had a whole forgotten life before his first incarnation. 

Now they're applying this same concept to Richard E. Grant. That he's an interim Doctor between Two and Three along with the Fugitive Doctor. Or, perhaps they have decided that Martin's Doctor is pre-Hartnell, after all, and it's only Grant that slots into this spot in his timeline. I'm not entirely sure. This theory, in general, doesn't really work for me. Whether it's Grant or Martin. Or both. 

So, while I'm sure that some people want to adhere to this notion, it's never really made a whole lot of sense to me. It was a fun idea to explore in some fan films (it was especially cool that they actually managed to get Pertwee to come along to shoot the regeneration scene), but I really don't want any of it to legitimately exist within canon. 

So I'm going to just throw this one out. If some of you really want to hang on to it, you can. But I prefer to think that it just doesn't really work. I'll give it a mention - but I won't truly entertain it. 

THEORY #1: 

The most obvious and sensible: This is another incarnation of the Timeless Child. If we go with this notion, it becomes super-easy to get Grant's surprise appearance to fit quite easily into canon. 

We've never seen this incarnation until this moment because he's from the Doctor's previous existence. A timeline that has been, more-or-less, wiped from his memory. There's not much evidence of the Timeless Child until the Chibnall/Whitaker Era. But, now that some of that past has been "unlocked", we might get more faces from this hidden period surfacing from time-to-time. 

There is just one problem with the whole concept: the Doctor has willfully chosen not to explore his full memories as the Timeless Child. He knows about his time as Jo Martin, of course. He also seems to have seen himself as Branden. More than likely, he even has vague recollections of the incarnations that appeared during his mind-bending battle with Morbius. But, beyond that, it's a blank slate. And none of the versions of himself that he has witnessed resemble Richard E. Grant in the slightest. So, if he doesn't remember his time as Grant, how would his face be able to appear in that line-up?    

It's possible that some stray memories from that fob watch may have still leaked into the Doctor's mind before she threw it down the chasm in the TARDIS console. Particularly since Azure did still open it for a bit in her presence. She didn't actually enter the house while they tormented her in the strange dreamscape that the watch seemed to create, but it's possible there was still some sort of telepathic connection that was made that showed her a few more memories. Some of which involved her time as Richard E. Grant's incarnation. 

Alternatively, there could be an unseen adventure where the Doctor did ask the TARDIS to briefly give him the fob watch back. Maybe sometime before Fourteen met Donna, he had a little glimpse into the past and saw himself in that particular body. Or maybe Fifteen did it offscreen over the last little while.  

There are, at least, a few explanations that easily work around this problem. Which helps to make the theory of Richard E. Grant's Doctor being another incarnation of the Timeless Child very workable. 

THEORY #2: 

This one seems a little less likely, but it allows us to see Richard E. Grant as being one of the versions of the Doctor that we've watched him play in productions that are not, typically, viewed as "proper canon". 

Grant, of course, briefly portrayed the Doctor in The Curse of Fatal Death from the Red Nose Charity Telethon of 1999. He also voiced the character in the Scream of the Shalka animated web series. 

Most fans want to see him as the Scream of the Shalka portrayal. Where he was meant to, essentially, be the Ninth incarnation of the Doctor. That whole continuity, of course, was wiped out when Christopher Eccleston assumed the role and took the title of "Nine" in 2005. The cartoon, at that point, became a pleasant glimpse into "what could have been" had the show never been revived. I will even say that it was almost a bit sad that we only ever got one story in this series. There were a lot of fun ideas at play that would have been great to see develop. Particularly the idea that the Doctor was keeping an android version of the Master trapped within his TARDIS! 

But now it's become possible that the whole timeline does exist. All because of something the Toymaker said in The Giggle: 

"I made a jigsaw out of your history. Did you like it?!"

The line is fairly vague, of course. But it alludes to the idea that the Toymaker has actually been messing with the Doctor's past. Scrambling it up in some sort of odd way. With the Toymaker's ability to influence the shape of atoms through sheer will, it's entirely possible that the Scream of Shalka alternative timeline has now become an aspect of the Doctor's actual personal history. Whilst, at the same time, making everything in his Christopher Eccleston existence also a part of him. The Toymaker can, basically, do anything. So making the whole Doctor's life a patchwork of different realities is more-than-feasible. And it would be something he would find amusing. What better way to frustrate a Time Lord than to corrupt his timeline in such a manner?   

So the Doctor now has this weird past where his Ninth incarnation is both Richard E. Grant and Christopher Eccleston. And, perhaps, even Rowan Atkinson! He just didn't show up in the holograms.   

SPECIAL NOTE: The idea that the Toymaker has messed with the Doctor's past is further supported by the way in which the Doctor tells Donna during The Giggle that he's "lived for billions of years". Only a short while ago, however, Thirteen was saying she'd only lived for thousands of years.  

This could be construed as Fourteen just exaggerating. Or it just might be possible that the Toymaker really did meddle with his personal history and has added many more years to his existence. Extra versions of his Ninth Self might be only a small part of the past he now has. 

THEORY #3: 

And now, things start to become a bit far-fetched. To the point where you might even say: "You reject the idea of an interim Doctor between Two and Three but you'll believe this?!" 

At some point during New Who (more than likely, after the events of Name of the Doctor - otherwise, the Doctor would have said something to the nature of "Oi! I used to be you!" when dealing with the Dr. Simeon version of the Great Intelligence), an unseen adventure took place where the Doctor slipped into a parallel reality. In this Alternate Universe, the Ninth Doctor from Scream of the Shalka is the Real Deal. The two different versions of the Time Lord meet up and get into some trouble. Perhaps our Doctor is even stranded there for a bit and they journey together extensively. 

As the Doctor from our Universe struggles to return home, this messes a bit with both continuums. It's possible, for instance, that he builds some sort of special device that is meant to bridge the two realities so he can get back home. But the contraption also, somehow, manages to get our Doctor to "absorb" this alternative Ninth Doctor into him. The Richard E. Grant Doctor still remains in his parallel Universe but also exists within the Doctor from our Plain of Reality at the same time. So, now, he's an aspect of the Doctor's past and will show up in the holograms. 

The Doctor inventing something that causes this strange merger to occur is just one of several possible explanations. Somehow, however, it happens. While adventuring in this parallel universe, the Richard E. Grant Doctor becomes a part of him. And we can see him, from time-to-time, in flashback sequences. 

THEORY #4: 

The one that acknowledges the Elephant in the Room: The fact that Richard E. Grant has already played a major character in New Who!    

He begins as Dr Simeon, of course, but eventually becomes a corporeal housing for the Great Intelligence. He appears in a total of three episodes and has quite the presence in Series Seven, in general. Because of this, it's hard to ignore the fact that Richard E. Grant has already been on the show. Thus making it all-the-more difficult to reconcile with the idea that he was also an incarnation of the Doctor (yes, yes, both Colin Baker and Peter Capaldi played other characters before they played the Doctor - but it's still a fairly tricky matter!).  

Okay, how about this: The Great Intelligence finally "dies" at the end of Name of the Doctor by stepping into a time rift formed by the Doctor's passing. As he does so, he is absorbed into the Doctor's timeline. Whereupon he then tries to undo all of the Doctor's greatest victories. Clara dives in after him and undoes what the Great Intelligence undid. Thus restoring the Doctor's timeline to what it was before. 

The Doctor then dives into the rift to pull Clara back out of it. However, he leaves the Great Intelligence there. He has, essentially, absorbed his foe into himself. Which is why we see Richard E. Grant in the flashback. He is, now, part of the Doctor's timeline. Part of his past. 

So that image that we see is not a previous incarnation. It's the Great Intelligence. He is, in a strange convoluted way, an aspect of the Doctor. And will, therefore, show up on scans of this nature from time-to-time. 

There you go: The four theories that I think are the most logical explanation for why we saw Richard E. Grant's face last week. Admittedly, it would be great fun if a multi-doctor story gets made some day and he shows up in it! 

We can always hope.... 

Alternate Reality 

Great Intelligence