John hurt can’t be a future doctor, in the last episode we saw that Clara is found by the doctor in his own timeline, BUT remember that the Matt Smith is the eleventh doctor and cannot know his future reincarnations as they have not occurred yet. (this is why each time the doctor regenerated he did not know what he would look like.

The theories of John hurt being Doctor 8.5 is more plausible in the whole debate.

Perhaps John Hurt was not the first doctor, but is the first doctor…, he was the time lord that made 2 choices in a moment that caused a rift in time where 2 universes were created. One where he chose to be the doctor, Doctor 0, before the first, the original doctor, and also at that same moment when he chose not to be the doctor, became the one in a parallel universe where worlds die, races became extinct and there was no doctor. This is the rift that follows the doctor, that causes him to go back and forth in time to try to close the rift. This would be an unforgivable choice, as far as the 11th and previous doctors would feel. If that rift could not be closed, the parallel universes would converge and all the universes would die. A fate that the doctor could never forgive. Just a thought. :)

well actually the 10th and 20th aniversary had more than one dotors in them and also y agree with all of you guys and im looking forward to the special. so anxious.

The History of the Time War uses the Doctor’s real name – “You have a name. I’ve seen it…” – so the incarnation of the character who fought in the Time War isn’t given the title Doctor. This would seem to be John Hurt’s (non-)Doctor, then. Why else draw attention to his name in the context of the War and in the series that reveals John Hurt’s character? And it would explain why the Doctor is so ashamed of this name and determined to keep it hidden (although why write it in a book? Perhaps to disassociate the name Doctor from his real name and leave the latter behind in shame – draw a clear line between the two).

John Hurt’s costume is aesthetically somewhere between the Eighth and Ninth Doctors’. The overall look suggests a character riddled with the darkness of the Time War and his actions during it. If Eccleston’s Doctor was born from battle, what would a Doctor born FOR battle look and act like?

What Hurt’s Doctor did was “in the name of peace and sanity”. That says the end of the Time War to me – a truly devastating action that would see an end to the likes of the Nightmare Child, the Could’ve Been King and his army of Meanwhiles and Never Weres and so on – and the Time Lords and Daleks. Sure, the Doctor has since confessed to his actions, so he accepts that it was he who ended the Time War, but he doesn’t have to consider this incarnation to be true to the name “Doctor”, thus why Smith’s Doctor is known as the Eleventh Doctor even if it’s his twelfth body. And the Ninth’s survivors guilt (and appearance!) are a direct consequence of his previous body’s actions. I don’t think the Eighth Doctor would necessarily have had the grit and bloody mind to instigate genocide, even if that was the only option to end the War – it doesn’t seem to fit that version of the character.

It’ll certainly be an exciting 50th anniversary special! And maybe there’ll be a shock, but everything points

Yes but when river healed him when he was dying in lets kill hitler, she gave him all of her regeneration powers including 10 of her regenerations we don’t know if his 13th regeneration will be a woman or what