It’s been a question that has been asked throughout the 50 year history of Doctor Who and teased once again in last season’s finale episode titled ‘The Wedding of River Song’ when Dorian shouted out to the retreating Doctor:
Will we find out “Doctor, who?”
The BBC has released the title and the episode poster for this season’s finale which you can see below and it certainly suggests that something will be revealed, but will it truly be the Doctor’s name?
The episode is titled ‘The Name of the Doctor’ and the promo poster teases that “His Secret Revealed”, but does it mean what we think it means? After all, not all of the series’ titles were an exact literation of what the episode would entail. ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ and ‘The Bells of Saint John’ are two that come to mind.
Moffat’s mind does have a sadistic quality when it comes to teasing Whovians. In an episode guide written for Radio Times, the show runner wrote:
“There’s going to be a revelation. I’m not teasing. I’m not wrong-footing you – you’re about to learn something about the Doctor that you never knew before. And I think you’re in for a shock.”
We already know that the Doctor has used aliases in the past (John Smith, for example) and that his nickname at the Time Lord Academy was Theta Sigma. We also learned from the Master that he chose his Doctor moniker himself.
So far what has been learned about the season finale is that there will be scenes set in Victorian Scotland, that we’ll be seeing the return of River Song who has been MIA since the episode ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’ and that a new monster, the Whispermen, will be introduced. We also have a very short synopsis of the episode:
Someone is kidnapping the Doctor’s friends, leading him towards the one place in all of time and space that he should never go.
Will he end up in Trensalore? Are we heading toward the fall of the 11th? Will Moffat really reveal the Doctor’s name or is this a clever misdirection?
All this and more will be answered when the season finale of Doctor Who airs on Saturday, May 18th at 5pm on BBC America.
While we wait until the finale airs, what do you think it all means? Let us know in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter!
