Doctor Who: Is Peter Capaldi Playing The First Doctor?

4. The Twelfth Doctor

We don't know much about the Twelfth Doctor, with only one wordless cameo and a frantic post-regeneration scene for us to go on. But a choice line from that last scene of the Christmas special may have hinted at the possibility of the new Doctor being a regenerative reset. Twelve isn't exactly off to an impressive start when he asks a startled Clara if she knows how to fly the TARDIS, having apparently forgotten and being only half-sure if they were crashing. We don't know yet if this will just turn out to be a post-regenerative brain-fart or become a major element of the Twelfth Doctor's tenure. But if the latter, then it's a major similarity to the First Doctor, who was notoriously unreliable when it came to piloting the TARDIS to specific times or places. Since we've seen that regeneration can drastically alter personality as well as physiology, it's conceivable that restarting the process scrambled or reverted the Doctor's familiarity with the ship's controls. Narratively, this could be a great way to get back into that whole "exploring time and space" thing that's meant to be the show's premise but has gone off on a tangent lately. It's also interesting that this version of the Doctor showed up to help his younger selves rescue Gallifrey from destruction, but not any incarnations following on from him. Obviously, this was intended as another fanservice moment in 'The Day of the Doctor' and they could hardly put in cameos from incarnations not yet cast, but I have a feeling we'll see this moment again before long. Since part of Twelve's arc will likely be to restore Gallifrey, perhaps his actions here gave him a way to find the planet and the involvement of his successors would be superfluous.