2. Whatever Happens With John Hurt
Before I begin this section I wish to say that John Hurt, the actor, is likely to give a brilliant performance. My concern lies that the execution of whatever his character is cannot be good for the Whoinverse. He is playing The Doctor, yes, as established by the end of The Name of The Doctor and elsewhere. There is the guarantee (from Steven Moffat himself) floating around that he is a version of The Doctor from the past, which has most of the speculators fitting Hurt's incarnation into the 'gap' between The Eighth and Ninth Doctors. Members of this camp believe that Hurt's betrayal must have been the destruction of Gallifrey. But this is problematic. I feel that giving this to Hurt takes away from Eccleston's reign as The Doctor. The idea that he, in that body, destroyed Gallifrey helped us to make sense of his new, angrier, colder demeanour. Even if the current popular opinion is wrong, if this character is considered to be The Doctor, he ruins the current numbering system. This is especially troubling given the Eleventh Doctor's recoginition of his Eleven-ness as it were (with such references as 11 being the best chapter of Summer Falls, and his room in hotel for God Complex was 11). One could argue that this is at least in part resolved by The Doctor's refusal to recognise Hurt's character as The Doctor, but it is still a rather difficult problem to contend with. Lastly, after the mysteries surrounding both River Song and Clara Oswald were resolved with outstanding holes and creating new questions for the whole of The Doctors' lifetimes, I have to wonder if this is one mystery too much.