11 Wild Theories About Doctor Who Series 8
7. The Doctor Will Face An Internal Battle Episode 4
Episode 4 is, as Steven Moffat puts it, The story of a date and the Doctor having a mild nervous breakdown. It also focuses on the very Moffat-esque concept of who were actually talking to when we talk to ourselves. From these two separate but still connected statements, a logical guess is that whatever the villain of this episode is, it is one that the Doctor will end up battling inside his own mind, taking a significant toll on him and leading to said nervous breakdown.
The teaser shows the Doctor sitting on top of the Tardis in space, which is a scenario that simply screams dreamscape. And if there is some kind of additional aspect to our consciousness that listens and feeds back to us when we talk to ourselves, who would it affect the most? Correct. The Doctor. A man with such a massive amount of intelligence, ego, and life experience is sure to feel the effects of some kind of dual-consciousness much more than anybody else.
And weve seen the Doctor battling aspects of himself before in The Trial Of A Time Lord and Amys Choice, making this a rich if well trodden area to draw material from for an episode that seems to have psychology and consciousness at its heart.