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 seen 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....