‘Doctor Who’ season 7 finale: John Hurt reveal, ‘The Name of the Doctor’ big for BBC
It’s pretty easy to figure out right now why the BBC is so interested in continually ordering more “Doctor Who” episodes. Not only is the series an international phenomenon and inspiration for many a cosplayer, but it also plays extremely well to audiences in its home country.
For more on that, we turn to the ratings that are in today for the season 7 finale “The Name of the Doctor,” which aired on Saturday night. According to some fast overnight figures, the show was watched by approximately 5.46 million viewers live. This is a pretty impressive number for the series, which featured a dramatic reveal of John Hurt as the secret “Doctor” who had long abandoned his title and the morals that come with it, and it also marks a significant increase from the prior episodes. This is the sort of buzz that the series was surely looking for leading up to the 50th anniversary special, which will draw appearances from a number of former Doctors and other cast members.
There is officially an eighth season coming up later this year, which was seemingly confirmed thanks to the statement at the end of the episode itself. As there is more information that comes in on this very subject, we’ll have it for you here.
As for those of you looking to see how the finale performed in America, we will probably not have numbers for you until early in the work week. Sad, we know, but it tends to take a while for some of the cable viewing figures to trickle in from Saturday nights.
Just in case you missed the lovely and wonderful video teasing the 50th anniversary starring Matt Smith and David Tennant, be sure you check it out here. It’s a gift from Steven Moffat to the fans as a result of them keeping the finale shocker a secret.
Photo: BBC
Gill Barnes
May 20, 2013 @ 6:21 pm
I think that John Hurt/Matt Smith are both the 11th Doctor as John Hurt is a manifestation of the badness inside the Doctor’s mind. Just as we saw him have a fight with himself in the Cybermen episode, this time it will be with his repressed memories of the Time Wars, the memories he has tried to forget. By entering his timeline, he was unable to avoid his actions in the Time Wars and this is how he see himself. Battle Worn and scared. With David Tennant also in the 50th it will be fun to see how they both deal with these awful memories they have and how they battle with their inner demon, AKA John Hurt. Can’t wait. remember, The Doctor said in the last episode, “I never said he was the Doctor, I said he was me” or words to that effect. It’s another theory…. lol
Grumpy The Unicorn
May 20, 2013 @ 11:16 pm
but what I don’t understand is this: if his memories of being John Hurt’s Doctor are suppressed/repressed, he wouldn’t remember them at first. he acted as though they were NOT repressed, or suppressed, and never had been so… he acted as if he had always known… but this storyline and the Doctor’s being out of character since nine-who-is-now-ten only makes psychological sense if they WERE repressed/suppressed, but he is not acting as if he forgot anything at all- save for those seemingly out of character moments scattered throughout…. unless there is SOMETHING ELSE worse than what we think it is and we are aLL staring RIGHt at it.. oh, moffat, you wondeful troll you. or maybe I’m thinking too hard; i am a Libra/Virgo/Scorpio, after all. sigh.
The only clue we MAY have had continuously is that Eleven who is now Twelve has been acting strangely… forgetting things… acting out of character… some of which can be superficially explained by events in past seasons… but not all. Adn that is the key.
Gill Barnes
May 20, 2013 @ 11:49 pm
…And what if the Fall of the Eleventh was referring to the Fall of the Eleventh incarnation of Clara on the Fields (and not in the Graveyard) of Trenzalore? And the question that must never, ever be answered was “Who’s that?” (asked by Clara when seeing Hurt for the first time) (A play on the name ‘Doctor Who’ perhaps?). If He is an entity or incarnation of the Doctors darkness then John Hurt is going to be a kind of grim reaper for the Doctor. So suppose Clara gets to jump around in time a bit and finds Tennant’s Doctor with Rose, and gets them to come back and help her save Matt Smith’s Doctor from being killed. After all, She was born to save the Doctor….Roll on November!
Gill Barnes
May 21, 2013 @ 1:41 am
I think the TARDIS is the key and her main memory banks have been damaged which is causing the Doctor to have things happen that he won’t remember, because they never actually happened, it’s just the TARDIS malfunctioning with time. He sees Hurt when he is in his ‘Open Wound’ of a time-line but, just as someone who has done something bad in their past never mentions it, so the Doctor kept that part of his past hidden and locked away….During the wars the 8th Doctor got older. He wiped out Gallifrey, Skaro and most of the Universe with a powerful weapon. He escaped the wars (how?) and regenerated. (In episode ‘Rose’ he is surprised at how he looks). He tried to put the past behind him. He had hoped to keep his secret locked away in his past for good. Hoping that he would never have to re-visit those times. That’s what History is for. Read about bad times, but never re-live them. Now though, he will have to find a way to lock Hurt up again, before he gets out to cause more damage as Hurt portrays the killer side of the Doctor’s personality/DNA. (Possibly the death of the Doctor). In ‘Parting of the Ways’ Rose had the power of the Vortex and could kill off the Daleks. Clara and Doctor may need her again, to accelerate the death of the bad Doctor and so we get the 10th Doctor and his companion back. Could the key to it all be the TARDIS? River and Clara are linked into the TARDIS, as is Hurt, and it became the Doctor’s tomb and it holds the book of the Time-Wars History….and maybe everything is all happening inside it? When it breaks up in TNOTD we are told that the ‘bigger on the inside’ thing is leaking out of it…..So, a Bad John Hurt, Clara out to save the Doctor, which she still has to do, with the help of Rose and River Song and the TARDIS and David Tennant all thrown in to the mix….Once Hurt gets locked away again (or destroyed) by the end of the episode, I think that everything and everyone will go back to their normal time-lines and Clara will become part of the Computer data-banks the same as River has become inside the TARDIS. lol….I am Gemini and just want it to be November NOW!!! ROFL
DW fan
May 20, 2013 @ 4:10 pm
I am so frustrated. In the Saturday episode it is mentioned that the next episode will be on 23 November! And why is john hurt going to be the doctor. Couldn’t we have someone younger for the role of the doctor? In the name of the doctor, I was expecting to find out the doctors name but sadly no!
Elder Wraith
May 20, 2013 @ 3:31 pm
Er…@ “There is officially an eighth season coming up later this year”.
Yes and no. BBC have confirmed that an eighth series, sorry, season has been commissioned – but we know nothing about when it will screen. In a recent interview, Matt Smith, seeming to confirm that he’ll be around then (although there’s nothing official on that from BBC), said that filming may start later this year or maybe not until 2014 (although this year’s Christmas special might – on a technicality – be counted as part of season eight). The anniversary special on November 23rd would most probably – on the same technicality – be counted as part of season seven, because at the end of Saturday’s so-called finale, there was a conspicuous “To be continued…” caption above the November 23rd date that was on screen between the big surprise reveal (spoilers!) and the final credits roll.
GlavTech
May 19, 2013 @ 5:22 pm
Evidently, John Hurt is the ninth doctor. The Doctor ignored the existence of his ninth incarnation, as it’s the incarnation that broke his promise. Eccleston is revealed as the tenth, Tennant as the eleventh, and Matt Smith is now officially titled the twelfth doctor.
Oh boy.
tom
May 19, 2013 @ 7:24 pm
Not clear yet. Could be the Valeyard who is a future incarnation of the doctor that is known to be darker.. Doctor who knows about that potential in his future so can recognise him whereas clara who has seen all of the doctors life through his grave wouldn’t. Or could even be some other split off from the doctor that got trapped in the time war but managed to escape in the brief time doctor who’s victories disappeared before clara fixed them.
Doctor Who
May 20, 2013 @ 4:13 pm
John hurt is the twelfth doctor. I am positive
ugli
May 19, 2013 @ 3:42 pm
I am confused. is john hurt the 12th doctor
Jocko
May 19, 2013 @ 5:11 pm
Nobody’s saying. I’m suspecting we won’t know for sure until November.
Jennifer Billingsley
May 19, 2013 @ 9:36 pm
Actually they are if you’re willing to read the spoilers.
Erimgard
May 19, 2013 @ 5:42 pm
It sounds like he’s going to be The Doctor who lived during the Time War. Meaning there was a Doctor in between Paul McGann and Christopher Eccleston that we didn’t know about, and The Doctor doesn’t “count” him since he abandoned the code of ethics he lives by.