10 Doctor Who Fan Theories That Will Blow Your Mind

In the 2013 episode The Name Of The Doctor, we were introduced to The War Doctor, a previously unseen regeneration who existed between Doctors Eight and Nine. This continuity-shifting development established that there could be other "hidden" regenerations at any point along the Doctor's timeline, that we, the viewers, may not know about.

With this in mind, it's entirely possible that the Fifth Doctor might not be the fifth, the Second might not be the second, and so on and so forth. Intriguingly, there's actually some evidence that supports this notion, with a particular focus on the idea that William Hartnell's original Doctor may not be the original after all.

In the Fourth Doctor episode The Brain of Morbius, the Doctor challenges the titular villain to a mind-bending contest, which is essentially psychic wrestling. During this scene, we're shown images of the first four Doctors, but after Hartnell's picture appears, the images keep coming, displaying a couple of unrecognisable faces that might be versions of the Doctor who existed before Hartnell's "first" incarnation did.

The episode doesn't clarify who these extra faces are, either, but interestingly, Philip Hinchcliffe (the show's producer at the time) once stated that "there was no subversion of the mythology of the series intended, but I just reasoned that it was entirely possible that William Hartnell may not have been the first Doctor Who."

"So yes, as far as Bob [Holmes, a writer on the show] and I were concerned, the other faces were meant to be past Doctors."

While that might sound like a confirmation, this idea has never really been touched on by the show since, which is why it mostly exists in fan theory territory, as opposed to being considered a canonical fact.