Where's The Doctor Sneaking Off To?

[Perry Vale]

With hardly a word to Amy & Rory, the Doctor jumped in the Tardis and left. But where has he gone? All will obviously become clear in time, but until then we can speculate (no spoilers, of course).

I'll get it going with a couple of suggestions....

1. To buy four (or maybe five) blue envelopes.

2. To build something called 'Stormcage'

[Paul Monk]

I think its the envelope thing. He's setting things up that ultimately lead to the events of the first two episodes

[Zbigniev Hamson]

How is that going to take him 200 years?

[Si Hunt]

Perhaps he'll do some other things that take 200 years. Visit all his companions again? Have all those missing adventures? Watch every episode of "Emmerdale" ever made?

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Negotiate a contract with Big Finish?

[SiHart]

I think he's just going on a good long holiday. You know one of those ones where he actually sits down and relaxes. The ones he never usually gets.

[Paul Monk]

How is that going to take him 200 years?

I don't remember saying it would take 200 years. The Doctor thats killed is two hundred years older but it doesn't have to be that version of the Doctor that sends the envelopes. Thats what I meant.

[Darren]

He's going to do the blue envelope thing and then create another Flesh Doctor, deposit him on Earth 200 years ago and then kill himself to make the Army believe he is dead.

[SiHart]

That seems a bit mean. I'm hoping there's more to it than that.

[Perry Vale]

I'm hoping there's more to it than that.

I'm sure there would be. Perhaps his intention is to 'fake' a death to the universe, to stop this holy war that is building up (this week). He could invite a fifth person to 'witness' the event, to confirm it to his enemies.

After all, there was a fifth person there apart from Amy, Rory, River and Canton.

[Awesome Wells]

I'm liking this faked suicide death idea. Brilliant stuff.

I thought he'd actually nipped off to pick up Melody from the orphanage, myself, but I much prefer Darren and Steve's suggestions.

[Perry Vale]

Melody isn't at the orphanage though, we see her six months later in New York regenerating.

[Andrew Curnow]

Surely the problem with faking his own death is that he would then have to make sure he doesn't keep arriving places and getting involved... which would make for a pretty dull show. In other words, it would be obvious pretty quickly that he was still alive & well I think.

[Awesome Wells]

Melody isn't at the orphanage though, we see her six months later in New York regenerating.

I do remember that minor detail, yes... but how did she get there? Where did she vanish to from the orphanage? What happened within the interim period?

Besides, I've already switched from that speculation to yours/Darren's idea.

[Perry Vale]

Surely the problem with faking his own death is that he would then have to make sure he doesn't keep arriving places and getting involved... which would make for a pretty dull show. In other words, it would be obvious pretty quickly that he was still alive & well I think.

True, what he'd really need is a way to make his enemies forget they've seen him. Oh wait...

[Zbigniev Hamson]

He could just regenerate and come up with a new name for himself. Like Drax or The Rani or something.

[Andrew Curnow]

Unless... unless he's faking his own murder, so that the-weapon-that-is-River thinks either she's fulfilled her task (if she's in the spacesuit) or that there's no need to as somebody's beaten her to it (if she's not).

In fact, at the risk of flogging a dead horse - maybe Melody/River does indeed grow up to be a weapon to destroy the Doctor. The way she does it is by inveigling herself into his life 'backwards' and telling him some vague stuff that in his future she will be very important to him, so that by now the Doctor trusts & relies on River (ie, sending Rory to get her at a time of crisis) even though he doesn't actually know why. In other words, a timey-wimey deception.

[SiHart]

That sounds rather plausible Andrew, and exactly the kind of thing we know Steven Moffat likes to do...

[Awesome Wells]

What does it all mean, dear?

Stuff from the opening story of the series that is either more interesting/weird/inexplicable at the halfway stage.

"Human beings... I thought I'd never be done saving you." --- Doctor Who from the future

"Of course not." --- River Song, when her bullets run out/gun jams

"You must tell the Doctor what he must know and what he must never know." --- Johnny Silent

"The Spaceman's here. It's gonna eat me!" --- Melody Pond

You are Amelia Pond. We honour you. You will bring the silence." --- Bob Silent

"I have a promise to live up to; you'll understand soon enough." --- River

Oh, and apart from the lady in the White House toilet, the Silence not only don't kill anyone, they make no reference to killing or harming any human except when facing off Mr and Mrs Who at the end. Even then they don't say "kill all humans" or "you must die, Earth scum" or anything.

Hmmm.

[Awesome Wells]

Unless... unless he's faking his own murder, so that the-weapon-that-is-River thinks either she's fulfilled her task (if she's in the spacesuit) or that there's no need to as somebody's beaten her to it (if she's not).

In fact, at the risk of flogging a dead horse - maybe Melody/River does indeed grow up to be a weapon to destroy the Doctor. The way she does it is by inveigling herself into his life 'backwards' and telling him some vague stuff that in his future she will be very important to him, so that by now the Doctor trusts & relies on River (ie, sending Rory to get her at a time of crisis) even though he doesn't actually know why. In other words, a timey-wimey deception.

Watching the first two episodes again as I just have, I like this theory a great deal.

[Perry Vale]

I rewatched the first two episodes last night as well, you picked up on everything I did....except one little thing which could have a major impact. But that might be because you forgot about it when you looked away.

[Awesome Wells]

What thing? I've checked my phone and I didn't take a picture of it. Spill those beans...

[Perry Vale]

There's a fifth "person" present in 2011 when the Doctor "dies" at the lake, the Silent that Amy sees during the picnic. And the future Doctor appears to give a knowing look when Amy forgets she's seen something.

Could be nothing, a wibbly-wobbly plot mistake, or if we go down the faked suicide route, maybe not...

[Awesome Wells]

The bit about how the future Doctor has been running is increasingly more interesting, too...

[Paul Monk]

There's a fifth "person" present in 2011 when the Doctor "dies" at the lake, the Silent that Amy sees during the picnic. And the future Doctor appears to give a knowing look when Amy forgets she's seen something.

Rather fittingly I had forgotten about him!