Doctor Who Season 33

Doctor Who Season Thirty-Three:

Episode 1 - ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ - August 25, 2012
Every generation of Dalek in Doctor Who’s 50 year history are back according to show runner Steven Moffat, with somewhere in the region of 30-60 physical Dalek props used during the filming of the episode. Rumours claim that the episode involves the Emperor Dalek from ‘The Evil of the Daleks’ and the destruction of the new Dalek Paradigm in a plot that Steven Moffat describes as being similar to ‘Die Hard’.

The episode begins with Amy and Rory fighting.  Rory storms off, goes and gets divorce papers and gets onto the London Bus. This bus, however, is controlled by Daleks, and Rory is transported to the Dalek ship we saw from 'Victory of the Daleks'. Meanwhile, the Doctor is in ancient China completing a task for the emperor when he runs into the Daleks. Assumedly, he unites with Amy to fight them and rescue Rory. Amy never gets the divorce papers and the episode ends with the married couple happily waving goodbye to the Doctor.

Episode 2 - 'Dinosaurs on a Spaceship'
The series’ second episode boasts the biggest set ever constructed for the show (only to be surpassed by the set for Asylum of the Daleks) in the form of an Egyptian tomb. This episode introduces Rory’s Dad, played by Mark Williams (and not John Simm, sorry) and is said to feature a lot of CGI. This episode features giant robots, their sword-wielding commander, Solomon, and Queen Nefertiti.

Episode 3 - ‘The Gunslinger’ or 'A Town Called Mercy'
The third story in season 7 takes place in the American Old West for the first time since ‘The Gunfighters’. Ben Browder guest stars in this episode. The trailer shows the townsfolk being harassed by some form of cannon-armed cyborg called the Reckoner.

Episode 4 - ’Cubed’
This story revolves around a mysterious set of black cubes that cause mysterious diseases in unsuspecting victims- including the Doctor. After being confiscated by UNIT soldiers, they begin to countdown. Henry VIII and one of his wives (Kate) features in this script by Chris Chibnall. It could involve the Ood.

Episode 5 (Mid-Season Finale) - title unknown
An episode set in 1938 New York features a rematch with the Weeping Angels, the departure of the Ponds, and the appearance of River Song as gangster Malory Malone. Steven Moffat tweeted about this episode: “Not everyone gets out alive – and I mean it this time.” This seems to tie in with pictures from fans watching filming for this episode on location that show Amy, the Doctor and River in a cemetary gazing sadly at a tombstone. So who dies? Rory. Rory was in a cellar and got zapped by an Angel to appears in 1938 New York. He looks quite confused and shaken up. Then he looks up at the Statue of Liberty as if there was something not quite right about it- might it be an Angel? This presumably accompanies a scene where Rory yells "How did I get here?" at River. Rory sends a heartbreaking letter to the Doctor and Amy and dies as an old man. Amy might commit suicide via Angel after visiting Rory's grave so that she can spend the rest of her life with him.

Episode 6 (Christmas Special) - title unknown - December 25, 2012
This episode is a ghost story and will see the introduction of Jenna Louise Coleman as Clara, the Doctor’s new companion, whom he meets ‘in the very last place he could ever have expected…” In fact, it is entirely possible and maybe even likely that she IS a ghost.

Episode 10 - 'The Crimson Horror'
This episode by Mark Gatiss appears to be set (or at least part-set) in a 19th century village called Sweetville.  Diana Rigg will be playing a character called Mrs Gillyflower (referred to as “the ice lady”), who kidnaps Clara and brings her to a mysterious factory and does some sort of process on her. Brendan Patricks is also guest starring as Edmund and Jeremiah (presumably twins). Madame Vastra, Jenny and the Sontaran Strax will also reappear in the episode. It may involve the words "meat", "klaxon" and "Vienna", although Mark Gatiss could have been referring to another episode when he said this.

Episode 12 - 'Phantoms of the Hex' or 'The Hider in the House'
This episode is written by Neil Cross and could possibly involve a scene on a submarine and the Ice Warriors.

Episode 14 (Season Finale) - title unknown
Here, for the 2013 50th anniversary (special?) of Doctor Who, the Eleventh Doctor will die on the Fields of Trenzalore and be forced to tell his name.  River Song will most likely be there, as she knew his name by her death.

I have done a lot of research on the topic of the Doctor's name, and I would love to say that it will be ?³?x². Indeed, it definitely should be, but Moffat is infamous for completely up-and-abandoning elements set up by his predecessors, both in the old and new series, as is evident by his ignoring the fantastic greater plot line set up by Russel T Davies in 'The End of Time'.

I am optimistically- and perhaps unrealistically- expecting that the producer will remember the greater legacy of the Doctor Who saga by answering at least a few of the questions raised in that special.

For instance, who was the mysterious woman in white? How did she break out of the Time Lock to talk with Wilf? How did the Ood get so advanced so quickly, and why does Wilf have so much influence over events? Who was the silhouetted figure in the church, and who was the other dissenting Time Lord? And most importantly, whaddup with the Moment? How did the Doctor get it and what did he do with it?

If Moffat would just listen to me, everything would be perfectly resolved. See, a brilliant dude by the name of Adasdair Wilkins came up with the idea that most if not all of those mysteries could be perfectly solved by looking back at 'The Key of Time'. For instance, the Moment would be the Key of Time itself, the White Guardian would have helped the woman in white (Ramona, who worked with the Guardian before) break out of the Time Lock, and the silhouette was an agent for the Black Guardian. Seems to fit so far.

Furthermore, the White Guardian could also be responsible for accelerating the Ood's development so they would be the successors of the Time Lords. After all, look at the similarities: they are peaceful, benevolent, prefer non-interference, take naturally to time travel (things happen simultaneously thousands of years apart) and are even shown in council discussing prophecies and threats to existence at the beginning of Part One as the Time Lords are in Part Two. Perhaps one of the Guardians was even behind Wilf's reoccurance.

But this doesn't answer one of the most intriguing questions: Who was the other dissenting Time Lord? This, I believe, can be explained away by the unfufilled Cartmel Masterplan. The Masterplan was a backstory developed by Andrew Cartmel, Ben Aaronovitch and Marc Platt, who wanted to have the Seventh Doctor realizing that he was, in fact, the Other, a mysterious demigod from ancient Gallifreyan history that helped invent time travel (and the Hand of Omega) and found Time Lord society. As the story goes, when Rasillon began to take over as a tyrant, the Other escaped to an ice planet, where he lived with his wife, Patience.

Unfortunately, when the Time War fell upon the Time Lords, they brought back their greatest leaders to Gallifrey: a number which included the not-so-happy Other. He gloomily played his part and, when it was obvious they would lose the war, threw himself into a Loom, a device used to make new Time Lords.

Thankfully, the Loom doesn't follow the arrow of time, being a Time Lord creation, so no surprise when the House of Lungbarrow on Gallifrey used their Loom to crank out a new Time Lord named the Doctor, the new lord on the block actually turned up as a brain-washed reincarnation of the Other. This reincarnation's naming day fell on the feast day of Otherstide (three guesses who that commemorates) and he came to be called the Doctor.

Unfortunately, the plan was never completed on television, as Doctor Who was cut off in 1989. However, this idea was picked up by the Virgin New Adventures series of books about the adventures of the Doctor's seventh incarnation after the television show ended. They portrayed the Doctor realizing his past identity. (Assumedly, at this point he went on a crusade to recover artifacts from his childhood, including a crib.) However, the books are not considered canon by most, so they cannot be held as proof of the plan.

If the Masterplan was officially canonized in the television show, it would explain who the other dissenting Time Lord is (the Other, brought back like Rasillon was), as well as solve mysteries from throughout the whole series. Susan Foreman would not be the granddaughter of the Doctor as we know him, but of the Other. The First Doctor traveled to the dawn of Time Lord civilization and, when Susan found him, sensed who he really was and called him her grandfather, he felt that it was somehow true and picked her up as a companion.

Also, it would explain why the Doctor has a bellybutton, which isn't supposed to happen because there's no need for an umbilical cord in the Loom. Furthermore, it would make a reason for his memories of parents and a childhood and of existing inside the Loom before birth.

So, time for my great, grand, unrealistically optimistic prediction for the Season 7 finale:
The Doctor's name will play great part (Silence will fall), but not necessarily because of what it is. I think that it was the key the Doctor used to close the Time Lock, and its being uttered aloud at the Fields of Trenzalore, the location of the lock, will reopen the lock and release the horrors of the Time War.

At this, the Doctor, when taunting the Time Lords, finds that he is on his last regeneration, as he wasted a regeneration on his hand. At this revelation, the Other somehow gets his hands on the Eye of Harmony and passes it on to the Doctor, who earns himself a few more regenerations. Then, at the hands of the Time Lords and the Silence, who were created by the Time Lords influencing the past and future alike the manipulation seen in 'The End of Time', astonishingly regenerates into yet another incarnation. Then he magnificently saves the day (or fails to and leaves that for Season 8).