10 Doctor Who Fan Theories That Became Fact

9. Rose Is Donna's Daughter

Doctor Who Rose Noble
BBC Studios

The buildup to the 60th anniversary specials was a time for theorising, theorising, and even more theorising! Remember when we all thought that the fake cloudy background behind Ncuti Gatwa was actually The Edge? And that the Eleventh Doctor or Susan could appear?

While many people's fan theories did not come true, something that was correctly anticipated in the months leading up to The Star Beast was the identity of Yasmin Finney's character Rose.

Since that name of course has great meaning in modern Doctor Who, there was soon a lot of speculation that this new Rose was connected to Rose Tyler in some way. Due to Finney's looks and young age, the prevailing theory was that she was the daughter of Shaun and Donna, and that the name "Rose" had something to do with Donna's latent memories of Rose Tyler.

The first part of that theory was officially confirmed a couple of months before The Star Beast aired, while the second part was all but confirmed in the episode itself, with Donna having passed part of the Metacrisis onto Rose, and Rose having chosen that name due to subconscious memories of her mother's time with the Doctor – memories that included Rose Tyler.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.