ANALYTICAL: SECRET INCARNATIONS - PARTS OF THE DOCTOR'S LIFE HE DOESN'T TALK ABOUT: EPISODE TWO

Oh look! I'm actually continuing a series I started rather than getting distracted like a magpie!   

Just in case you missed it, here's Episode One: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2024/12/analytical-hidden-incarnations-parts-of.html

After a great debate over the nature of the mysterious faces in the mind-bending battle during Brain of Morbius, we can finally move on to the other Hidden Doctors that have come to light in New Who. Ultimately, we will even solve the mystery of who those eight incarnations in Morbius were....

THAT CRAZY WAR DOCTOR 

While I suppose we could make a brief pitstop to discuss the nature of the Valeyard, (I've actually already done that it in great detail here: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/preview/4155651475182736486/7408633233701201961), it would be better to just jump over to the War Doctor. The Valeyard seems to be more of a special being created from the Doctor rather than a "proper" incarnation of him. Whereas the War Doctor definitely qualifies as a Secret Incarnation. 

From a behind-the-scenes perspective, the War Doctor was created purely out of pragmatism. For the Fiftieth Anniversary Special, Steven Moffat had wanted to bring back Christopher Eccleston and have him be the Doctor who fought in the Time Wars. Eccleston, however, declined the invitation. So Moff came up with the idea of a specific incarnation that battled the Daleks and the Nightmare Child and all those other weird evil beings that were trying to take over all of Time and Space. 

And thus, the War Doctor was born. 

According to the narrative Moff created, the Doctor was so ashamed of all the atrocities he committed during that time that he chose to hide this particular version of himself as well as he could. He never spoke to anyone about him once combat was over. Which meant that only other participants in the Time Wars knew of this version of him. They were all sealed inside a Time Lock. So it wouldn't be hard to keep him concealed. 

This, essentially, is how the War Doctor became a Secret Incarnation. He remains buried in the Doctor's past until he is, at last, unveiled during Name of the Doctor.

I have written extensively on how, from a narrative standpoint, the War Doctor makes a lot of sense. How it was much smarter to bring him into existence rather than actually use Eccleston in Day of the Doctor. I mean, Nine still could have been participating in the adventure. But I don't think he should have been the Doctor that fought in the Time Wars.  

Because I've dealt with all this in another entry, I won't go over it again too much in this one. If you want to read more about it, go here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/01/unadulterated-boorish-opinion-why-we.html ("Two links in one section?! Makes you a rather self-referential middle-aged male, doesn't it?!")

One of the biggest reasons why we needed a War Doctor was that I think it works better that our hero compartmentalizes what he did in the Time Wars. It was an event he used a specific incarnation to participate in. Eight "dies" just before he starts fighting and Nine emerges just after the battle truly finishes. That has a better symmetry to it. 

My second major reason for why we needed a War Doctor is super-nitpicky. During Rose, Nine sees himself in the mirror for the first time. This alludes to the idea that he's freshly-regenerated. The Time Wars seem to have just recently ended. So him being a different incarnation up until their conclusion fits well with what we see in the first episode of the New Series. From what we will gather later, those wars lasted for quite some time. It would be difficult to believe that Nine never once checked himself in a  mirror throughout that entire period. So either Eight fought in the wars (which, as Moff points out, seems very out-of-character), or a very specific incarnation existed during that era of his life. 

HITTING THE BEATS

Just before wrapping up the previous entry, I mentioned the two important "beats" that every good Hidden Incarnation Reveal needs. The War Doctor does a substantially-good job of accomplishing these two tasks. 

The shock value of this Reveal is quite excellent. Especially with all the excitement of seeing previous incarnations running around all over the place. That already had us highly-agitated. Dropping that huge bomb at the very end of the episode was quite spectacular. And it was done in an intensely dramatic way. Because of how it was all orchestrated, it could just be the most shocking Reveal of them all. 

Teasing things out didn't, necessarily, go on as long as the Brain of Morbius faces (but then, has anything?!). We started getting answers to our questions about the identity of this enigmatic incarnation in the very next episode. In fact, there was even a mini-sode that came out prior to Day of the Doctor that solved most of the mystery 

Admittedly, there were still a few long, painful months to wait before we got Night or Day of the Doctor. So the tease was still there. And it was suitably tormenting. But this is still definitely a weaker beat. I get that we couldn't be kept waiting long. Who the War Doctor was needed to be answered within the fiftieth anniversary year. But there may have been a way to construct that tease just a little bit better...

THAT EVEN CRAZIER TIMELESS CHILD 

And so, at last, the Riddle of the Eight Faces in Brain of Morbius is solved. According to Chris Chibnall, they're incarnations of the Timeless Child. Just to make sure we've definitely clued into this, he has a few images of the mind-bending battle from Morbius thrown into a flashback sequence during The Timeless Children. Which was actually helpful. It had been several decades since the story was first broadcast!     

What's even more interesting about the Timeless Child, however, is how many other continuity issues she helps to resolve. Things like: Why does the Doctor only have one heart during his first two incarnations? Or: What are these strange links the Doctor seems to have to Ancient Gallifrey that Season Twenty-Five and Twenty-Six allude to? Or even: Is the Doctor actually half-human?! Using this new Lore that Chibnall has given us can actually get a lot of these conundrums to make a sort of sense. I take the trouble to do all that in this particular entry: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/05/unadulterated-boorish-opinion-silliness.html

Of course, the Timeless Child is controversial. There are fans who seem to utterly despise her (or, perhaps, are just bothered by certain politics that were going on during this period and are looking for any little thing to bitch about). For me, however, there is no controversy. I love the Timeless Child. I think she's an absolutely brilliant idea that takes the whole show in some interesting new directions. And I especially like her because she does fix a up a bunch of inconsistencies the show has created within itself. Doctor Who, literally, makes more sense if you accept the Timeless Child!  

OTHER VERSIONS BEYOND THE FUGITIVE

When it comes to the Timeless Child, she is chiefly represented as the Fugitive Doctor played by Jo Martin. She first appears in Fugitive of Judoon (and that Reveal Scene will have its Beats discussed shortly), but makes three more cameos in The Timeless Children, Once, Upon Time and Power of the Doctor. A cameo is not an unusual thing for a Hidden Incarnation to get. But the Fugitive Doctor seems to be enjoying a Lion's Share. 

But she is not the only manifestation of the Timeless Child. As the Master unveils the Doctor's past to her within the Matrix, we see several young-looking versions of the character. There's the incarnation Tecteun first meets underneath the dimensional rift (what we assume to be her original form). Then there's the second incarnation that comes along after she falls from the cliff. Then we get something that has just a bit of a Brain of Morbius mind-bending vibe to it: Another rapid succession of images showing off various incarnations in a matter of seconds. This time we only see five more of them. But one almost expects to hear the Master ask: "How far back do you go, Doctor?!" as the sequence plays out. 

This is the only Reveal that doesn't really play by the standard rules. We were in the middle of a sizeable info-dump as it was all playing out. There really wasn't the time to toy with shock value or teasing things out. Just a quick allusion to the idea that there is a whole host of other bodies that the Doctor has had that we weren't the slightest bit aware of till that moment. It still has a very interesting effect on us as we watch it. It's just not the usual way of handling this sort of thing. 

And then there's the Secret Incarnation that kinda sits in a grey area. Brendan is a "proper" human. He seems to be some sort of special transitional state that was used to change the Timeless Child into a regular Time Lord. Admittedly, it does almost feel like we can't call him an incarnation. It would be like taking the occasions where the Doctor used the Chameleon Arch to transform into Ruth or John Smith and claim they constitute as incarnations too. 

And yet, he does get handled in a similar fashion to a Secret Incarnation. There is a mystery to his character that gets ever-so-slightly teased out. He's introduced in Ascension of the Cybermen but it's not explained at all why we're even watching the edited highlights of his life. Only in the next episode do we learn the reason why he's been included in the story. And the way in which we find out who Brendan really is definitely has some shock value to it. 

So it does feel as though we can call Brendan another Hidden Incarnation. Even if he is just a mere human and not some super-sophisticated alien being. 

BEATS OF THE FUGITIVE 

And now, let's go back to the "main" incarnation of the Timeless Child: the Fugitive Doctor. She's the one who really gets the ball rolling with this whole story arc. Up until her first appearance, the only other mention we'd gotten of her was from a group highly-telepathic carnivorous sentient rags. 

In the last section, we see that even Brendan manages to hit those two crucial beats a bit. But how well does the Fugitive Doctor accomplish this feat? 

Quite well, I'd say. 

The shock factor of her Reveal is brutal. Quite possibly, the best one of them all. Thirteen realizing she's dug up her own TARDIS and then looking up to see the Fugitive Doctor introducing herself could not have been more brilliantly-executed. Fugitive of the Judoon was already a very enjoyable little episode before this bomb dropped. After the Reveal, the whole story kicks into overdrive. What remains of the tale is absolutely marvelous. I have no clue what's truly going on with this strange new version of the Doctor that I've never seen before - but I love it! 

Teasing things out is done a bit more effectively than what was created for the War Doctor. Yes, ultimately, we get most of our answers before the years is over. Just like we did with 'Ole Warry. But arranging the Reveal in the middle of the season and then going back to regular episodes for a while certainly makes the waiting more painful. 

Of all the Reveals, I'm pretty sure this one is my favorite.     

MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES:

As we wrap up the entry, there's just a few stray ideas regarding this subject matter that we should probably try to tackle:

 

1) Some might like to argue that the Curator qualifies as another Secret Incarnation. There's certainly an air of mystery to him as we don't know where he comes from or how exactly he fits into the Doctor's whole timeline. He alludes to the idea that he hails from Eleven's future. That he's wearing a previous face because he likes to "re-visit old favorites" every once in a while. 

That's the most we get out of him on the matter. This certainly feels like things might be getting teased out a bit before we get a proper answer about him (if we ever will). There's also a certain bit of shock value to the way his whole cameo was set up.    

Of course, now that we've had the Sixtieth anniversary we can do a bit of extrapolation and work out where the Curator might hail from. He's, more than likely, the next incarnation of the "Tennant half" of the bi-generation that happened at the end of The Giggle. The very fact that the Doctor re-dons his tenth form for the anniversary year shows him already re-visiting one "old favorite". So it's pretty safe to assume that he'll continue a bit with this trend of wearing previous bodies. Sometime in his future, he'll regenerate again and turn into Old Tom Baker. Still in the mood to enjoy a quiet life, he'll jump into Earth's past a bit and take up a job as the Curator of the Under-Gallery of Britain. Whereupon, of course, he'll run into his eleventh incarnation and offer him a bit of advice. 

But does this make him a Secret Incarnation? 

Hidden Incarnations, for me, feel like they should come from somewhere in the Doctor's past rather than the future. As a rule, a secret stems from something that's happened rather than something that will someday occur. So I'm inclined to feel as though the Curator is not a Hidden Incarnation. Not sure exactly what his label might be - but he's not that!

2) This Hidden Incarnation stuff has started becoming very popular in New Who. It seems like every Head Writer now wants to create one. RTD didn't do it on his first time round. But, after seeing all the fun Moff and Chibbers had with it, decided to jump on the bandwagon when he came back. 

His Reveal is another one that bears the vaguest of resemblances to the mind-bending battle in Brain of Morbius. This sequence does seem to have become the point of reference the writers use most when creating this sort of thing. We don't, necessarily, have a lot of Secret Incarnation Reveals throughout the history of the show. But, when we do, they do like to imitate this scene. 

Like in Brain of Morbius, the incarnation is revealed as a sort of ghostly still image created through technology. In this instance, it's one of several faces viewed in a series of holograms that appear after the Doctor gets Rogue to do a full scan of him. We see the usual suspects of the Doctor's past selves. William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, etc.... We even get the latest updates with Jodie Whitaker and Jo Martin being included in the gallery (a Rogue's Gallery, if you will. God, I'm so punny!). But then we get something that was totally thrown in to get a rise out of us. In among the many familiar faces is one that only, sort of, belongs there. From out of nowhere, Richard E. Grant suddenly appears! 

It doesn't help that the faces of the past incarnations are shown out of order. Which means, of course, that we can have no way of truly knowing where Grant fits within the timeline. But the impact of such a small gesture was huge. Fans postulated like crazy about how he has suddenly become part of the Doctor's lineage. Even I did: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2024/06/point-of-debate-where-does-richard-e.html

THAT COVERS EVERYTHING (I THINK)

Well, that seems to be about it.  My attempt at the most thorough of discussions regarding what has become a fairly prolific topic seems to be complete. I'm pretty sure I've covered everyone that fits the description of a Hidden Incarnation. And I've managed to disqualify the few that resemble the concept but don't quite make the cut. 

Clearly, introducing us to Secret Incarnations has been a way of building up the whole mystery of the Doctor. It's meant to show that there are all sorts elements to his past that we're not fully aware of. That there are still plenty of things to discover about him.

It seems to be a common misconception among fans that this sort of trend didn't really start until New Who. Which is part of what compelled me to cover the subject. It was first done during the early days of Tom Baker. A second attempt was starting to be made near the end of the original run. It was never completed because the show went off the air before the arc could reach its full trajectory. But, had there been a few more seasons, we would have seen the Doctor also being represented as the Other. Who would have come with a few incarnations of his own. 

Ultimately, of course, Chibnall just re-jigged the concept of the Other slightly and gave us the Timeless Child. I'm not sure which "hidden life" storyline I like better. It's difficult to judge since we only saw the slightest hints of the Other. But I do think that discovering that the Doctor had a whole existence prior to his current identity was inevitable. Not just to get the mind-binding battle in Morbius to finally make sense. But it's just a great way to re-emphasize the "Who" in the show's title. 

Of course, these other Hidden Incarnations we've gotten have been great fun, too. Even though I highly doubt we'll ever get a proper explanation of Richard E. Grant!    

Maybe, just maybe, I'll finally wrap up my REVIEW OVERVIEW in my next entry. We'll see.... 

 

 

 

ANALYTICAL: HIDDEN INCARNATIONS - PARTS OF THE DOCTOR'S LIFE HE DOESN'T TALK ABOUT: FIRST EPISODE

MY INNER CONSCIENCE: "Hey Rob. Do you remember when you'd start a series in your Blog and finish it within a timely manner with little or no interruption?!"     

THE REST OF ME: "Not really...." 

I felt the inclination to write about something else rather than finish up my  REVIEW OVERVIEW series. So, here it is:     

Who can forget those last few minutes of Name of the Doctor? After several long episodes of wondering how it's been possible for Clara to die and return to the Doctor's life over and over, we're finally getting our answer. On top of that, all these previous incarnations of the Doctor are making quick little cameos. Sometimes with CGI and sometimes with body doubles. But it's all quite awesome. 

But then, suddenly, something even wilder happens. Eleven comes along to rescue Clara from the weird dreamscape she's trapped in and an unfamiliar figure appears with his back to us. His voice does not sound familiar. Clearly, this isn't a previous version of the Doctor. At least, not one we've ever seen before. He turns around, at last, and it's that guy from Alien (and Spaceballs) who had the baby alien rip out of his chest. A credit appears on the screen saying that he's the Doctor! 

"What the Hell?!" we all say to ourselves as the episode ends. Or, perhaps, we use a stronger word than "Hell". But I prefer to keep this Blog PG-13. 

This, to all intents and purposes, is the first time we bear witness to a Hidden Incarnation of the Doctor. There would be more in the future, of course. Many more, in fact. But the concept begins being explored here.  

Or does it?

THE HISTORY OF SECRET INCARNATIONS

If we're being super-duper-ultra-technical, secret incarnations were first displayed many years before Name of the Doctor.  It's not even strictly a New Series thing. The first Hidden Doctors appeared way back in the Classic Days. When 'ole Tommy Boy was at the Helm. 

I'm speaking, of course, of the notorious mind-bending battle that takes place between two rival Time Lords during the final part of Brain of Morbius. Just for a bit of fun, various technical personnel working on the story dress eccentrically and have pictures taken of them. Those images then appear in a flashback sequence as Morbius is willing the Doctor out of existence by regressing him through his prior incarnations. 

Once more, we're in a state of shock. Surely William Hartnell was the very first Doctor? Who are these other eight blokes who have been thrown into the mix?! 

We don't tend to remember this incident as well as John Hurt's surprise end-of-story cameo. Partly because it doesn't get the same kind of build-up that the War Doctor gets in Name of the Doctor.  But, more significantly, the whole thing was left with a very ambiguous cloud hanging over it. There are some signs that point towards an idea that these aren't incarnations of the Doctor that existed before William Hartnell. Equally so, there are any number of visual cues that indicate that we are seeing a whole plethora of Doctors that we never knew existed until we watched that scene. 

THE DETRACTORS

The quickest and easiest way to dismiss those eight faces that coalesce into existence after we see William Hartnell is to claim that they are not the Doctor at all. That they are, in fact, previous incarnations of Morbius. Which does have a sort of logic to it. We do see the Doctor pushing his enemy back through two iterations before doing some regression of his own. It's possible that the battle swings back in the Doctor's favor and we pick up where things left off with Morbius. We start sweeping through a whole host of the renegade Time Lord's past lives. We can even believe that, like the Doctor, Morbius had a penchant for wearing period clothing from Earth. It's all reasonably feasible. 

Some like to cite Morbius' last words before the mind-bending equipment shorts out as being final evidence that we're looking at the Doctor's previous faces. "How far back do you go, Time Lord?!" (or words to that effect - as usual, I'm terrible with quotes!). But the dialogue is still highly subjective. Perhaps this is more a cry of desperation. Those really were Morbius' incarnations and the Doctor has brought him all the way back to his beginning. Morbius really just wants to know how much of the Doctor's past he still needs to go through since he's so close to losing.  "Come on, Doctor!" he's actually saying, just in more flowery tones, "How much more do I need to regress you?! Cause I'm really close to being beaten, here!"

It helps that future stories will come along and dismiss the whole concept of incarnations existing prior to Hartnell. In a few years' time, we'll start getting tales like Mawdryn Undead and The Five Doctors. They will make very specific claims about just how many versions of our hero there are. From this period onwards, "the First Doctor" or "the fifth incarnation" (or titles of that nature) are no longer just terms used by fandom. They're ways in which various Doctors will identify themselves' in actual dialogue. Thus making it officially canon. So those other faces we saw in Brain of Morbius can't be the Doctor. His incarnations have very definitely been numbered. 

There is another interesting theory that some fans have put forward about the mind-bending battle. They believe that the Doctor is throwing up "phantom images" to hide Morbius' imminent victory from him. That these are just faces he's making up in his imagination and claiming are real past incarnations. It's an interesting notion. But the idea that we're seeing previous versions of Morbius seems like a more solid possibility to me. In fact, until quite recently, I even subscribed to this concept, myself. I believed that Hinchliffe and his Band of Merry Techies were all meant to be Morbius and not the Doctor. 

But then I had to eat my words...

SUPPORTIVE IDEAS 

On the other end of the spectrum, there's plenty of evidence to support that these eight fellows are the Doctor's past lives. The strongest point is the actual "flow" that the images move to. We see pictures of Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee before we suddenly flip over to Chop Suey the Galactic Conqueror and Bust Statue Face. This seems to indicate that Morbius was winning, at first. But then the Doctor fought back a bit. But then Morbius presses the advantage, again. Which causes us to go back to Tom Baker, then Jon Pertwee, then Patrick Troughton, then William Hartnell, then the Eight Other Guys. 

The fact that we jump back to Tom Baker's face before going down the line again clearly indicates that each time a Time Lord is losing, the image returns to the most recent incarnation and then regresses. So, if Morbius was suddenly being defeated, we should have seen Chop Suey and Bust Face again before seeing his other eight incarnations. We didn't, though. So we must assume that those incarnations belonged to the Doctor and not Morbius. The flow of images, at least, indicates this. 

Morbius proclaiming: "How far back do you go?!" helps to support this, of course. Yes, it could be a cry of desperation as I stated in the last section. But it sounds more like: "Holy crap! Do you ever have a lot of previous incarnations!" 

We see another strong piece of proof that the Doctor had lives before William Hartnell at the beginning of the next season. During the first few minutes of The Masque of Mandragora, the Doctor and Sarah Jane find that nice wood-paneled console room. While there, some interesting points get made. 

The Doctor discovers a costume hanging off a wrack that we've never seen him in before. This seems to indicate that it was worn by an incarnation yet to be featured on the show. He also makes the startling claim that "this was the original console room". By An Unearthly Child, he's in the white-rondel-covered console room. So, sometime before Doctor Who started, he was in here. Perhaps, again, it was these hitherto-unseen incarnations that dwelt in this place. 

SO WHICH IS IT? 

Based on the evidence seen in Seasons Thirteen and Fourteen, it's fairly indisputable that those eight extra faces are meant to belong to the Doctor. Theories about them actually belonging to Morbius or the Doctor throwing up fake images are all well and good. But the signs point far more strongly to the idea that the Doctor's past goes much deeper than we realized.  

The production team, of course, had every right to make these sort of allusions. Up until this point, no one had ever definitively claimed that Hartnell played the very first incarnation of the Doctor. So, if someone wanted to put forward the idea that he had predecessors, there was nothing in the established continuity of the show to stop them. 

But, as I have already stated, content would later come along that would flatly contradict the notions in Brain of Morbius. We would, eventually, get stories that deal with the specific numbering of the Doctor's various incarnations. Which means, quite simply, that what we saw during the mind-bending battle between the two Time Lords no longer makes any kind of real sense. The two concepts do not gel. A compromise had to be made that would, somehow, allow the clashing issues to co-exist peacefully.

The most simple solution would be to claim that the Doctor had a whole other identity before the current one that he either no longer recalls or just doesn't talk about. During that particular existence, he had the eight faces that we see in Brain of Morbius. Then, somehow, he became this completely new person that we've been watching since Unearthly Child. If he has actually forgotten this whole other series of lives, we don't know why. 

The first attempt to reconcile these differences would have taken place during the last two seasons of the Original Series. The production team began to work away at the Cartmel Masterplan: An ongoing storyline that would have eventually revealed that the Doctor had been this being known as the Other before he actually became the Doctor. Unfortunately, the show went off the air before the arc could be completed. 

While I am loathe to get into Expanded Universe material, the New and Missing Adventures novels published by Virgin did finish the whole saga. Cold Fusion - a Missing Adventure book that unites the Fifth and Seventh Doctors - does make reference to the mind-bending sequence in Brain of Morbius and implies that these were various incarnations of the Other. 

None of the stuff in these novels counts as official canon, of course. But it does, at least, show that attempts were being made to fix this fairly massive discrepancy. . 

THE MYSTERY DIES AWHILE 

As Doctor Who returns to our screens in 2005, solving the mystery of those eight extra faces in Brain of Morbius has, once more, been abandoned. Believe it or not, it's the sexual proclivity of Time Lords that causes this. 

One of the most integral aspects of the whole Cartmel Masterplan was the revelation that Time Lords don't naturally reproduce. They require Genetic Looms to continue their species. Which causes all Gallifreyans that are related to each other to be cousins and nothing else. No Moms or Dads or aunts or uncles. Just cousins. This concept never actually got mentioned on the show, itself. Again, it is something that only comes along in the Virgin novels. 

Quite early on in New Who, the Doctor speaks of being both a father and a grandfather. Which, pretty much, kicks out the concepts Cartmel was trying to bring in during those last two seasons of the Classic Series. Basically, the Lore that was starting to get built during that time has been effectively nullified. 

Given RTD's strong desire to make the show as accessible as possible to new fans, it made perfect sense for him to stay away from Looms and Cousins and make the reproduction practices of Gallifreyans as simple as possible. Since no proper mention was ever made about these facets of Time Lord society in those last few seasons of Old Who, he did not contradict any kind of established continuity when he did this. 

But to say that the issue has been completely muted forever would be difficult. This is Doctor Who. It's not afraid to make references to things that took place decades ago. They brought back the Macra in Series Three, for God's sake! 

Once the show had been effectively re-established to a new audience, it started going back and taking care of all kinds of inconsistencies that were caused in its distant past. And, so long as doing this doesn't get in the way of effective story-telling, I'm perfectly fine with the whole process. 

Which is exactly what we would eventually get with those mystery faces in Brain of Morbius. But not before the show introduces a whole different type of Hidden Doctor.... 

TWO IMPORTANT BEATS 

While we have just-about fully discussed the topic of the Hidden Doctors in Brain of Morbius, there is still one more thing that needs to be covered. This particular sequence sets up a number of important precedents regarding how Reveals of this nature will be handled. There are two main ones that should definitely be highlighted before moving on: 

1) Shock Factor 

Naturally enough, suddenly discovering that the protagonist of your favorite show has had secret lives that you've never known about is going to be a bit jolting. But how the Reveal of such a concept is handled can enhance that unsettled feeling immeasurably. 

Had they set their mind to it, the production team behind Brain of Morbius could have made things even more shocking. A discussion between the Doctor and Sarah Jane sometime after the mind-bending battle about who the faces were meant to be could have really juiced up the whole impact of the moment. Particularly when the Doctor reveals that he has no idea who those other incarnations were! 

As it stands, however, suddenly showing us eight versions of the Doctor we've never seen before smack-dab in the middle of the story's climax was still quite effective.  We're still picking our jaws up off the floor as the plot continues along at a bracing speed. 

Which is the main point of revealing Secret Incarnations. It needs to be carefully-engineered so that the whole thing gives us a nasty startle. The less we see it coming, the better. So that when it does, suddenly, come popping out at us - we're left a bit breathless. 

2) Teasing it Out

A Reveal of such magnitude is going to cause us to ask a lot of questions: Where does this Hidden Incarnation come from? Why have we never heard of him/her before? Will we, eventually, see Philip Hinchcliffe, Robert Holmes and Graeme Harper playing the Doctor in special anniversary episodes?! 

It's of utter importance that the production team takes their time answering these various dilemmas. The tension and suspense that can be drawn out from such a mystery makes it all-the-more enjoyable if the fans can speculate over these things. So the answers to our many questions should not come too quickly. 

In some cases, the teasing out of such an enigma can be taken to the ultimate extreme. Who exactly those eight faces in the mind-bending battle belonged to during Brain of Morbius, for instance, took over forty years to explain! 

There are, naturally enough, other recurring patterns that will happen during the Reveals of Hidden Incarnations. Quite often, for example, we're not given a fully-detailed explanation of why the previous life was a secret to begin with. There is still, at least, a slight air of mystery to it all. The whole experience should also leave a sort of open door to explore other adventures involving these newly-discovered vestiges of the Doctor. We will even get multiple appearances of these secret characters from time-to-time. They return in later episodes (usually only in cameos). But all of these elements - and others - are somewhat less relevant. What's most important is to have a strong Shock Factor and to Tease Things Out for as long as possible. 

Something that the surprise appearance of the eight faces in Brain of Morbius does very effectively.  

Well, I have to admit: I've spent way more time discussing Brain of Morbius than I expected! I'll end this entry for now and continue looking at the Hidden Doctors that start popping up in New Who in a second installment of this little study....

  .