With Matt Smith quitting the show, Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary quickly approaching and the hour-long 3D special set to hit our television screens on November 23, there are a lot of questions going around that internet regarding the future of our favourite timelord. Who is John Hurt’s Doctor? Is he the real 9th Doctor? Does that make Matt Smith the 12th? How will Hurt’s Doctor meet up with Smith and David Tennant? How will Rose play into the plot? Just who on Earth will be Doctor Who in 2014?

So many questions and so few answers. I have decided to try to answer at least one of these burning questions in this feature: How will the Tenth Doctor and Rose be brought back?

Read on to check out my theories…

5. Zygons

Early on, it was announced that the 50th anniversary special would feature Cybermen, Daleks and Zygons. I know what you are thinking: ‘Who are the Zygons?’ The Zygons are an alien race first introduced in the Tom Baker adventure Terror of the Zygons. They have yet to reappear in the show despite being used in other media including novels and audio dramas. The Zygons have the ability to shape-shift.

You see where this is going, don’t you? And I’m sure that a lot of fans would be angry to find out that the Tenth Doctor and Rose that we see in the special are actually imposters. But if this is how Steven Moffat decides to bring the two back, there is a silver lining.

In order for the Zygons to shape-shift into another person, they must keep the original alive. Perhaps, the Zygons are impersonating Ten and Rose and are found out by Eleven and Clara. Then, they have to save Ten and Rose from the Zygons.

Likelihood of Happening: 2/10 – It seems a bit far fetched and doesn’t seem to explain the presence of John Hurt’s Doctor. But the inclusion of such a minor and relatively unknown alien from Doctor Who history who just happens to be able to shape-shift seems like too much of a coincidence.

4. Pete’s World

Another possible way to bring back Ten and Rose is through the alternate universe known affectionately as Pete’s World. The last time we saw Rose was in the Series 4 finale Journey’s End where she was left in a parallel universe with the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor. He is half-human and half-Tenth Doctor. He has all or most of Ten’s memories up to Journey’s End, but one heart and seemingly no regenerations.

But how could this happen? The Doctor permanently close the breach between the universes at the end of Journey’s End. First, nothing is permanent in Doctor Who. The Master has been “permanently” defeated countless times. The Daleks were “permanently” defeated in the Time War. The Time Lords were “permanently” time locked. Secondly, there is a very reasonable explanation for how Meta-Ten and Rose could travel between universes.

What? Don’t you remember that scene? That’s because it was ultimately cut from the final episode. But Russell T. Davies has gone on record as saying that he wishes he had left it as part of the episode. So there you go. Ten and Rose use their TARDIS to travel between universes. And it would help explain Tennant’s aging. Although it has only been three years.

Likelihood of Happening: 3/10 – If Davies was still the showrunner, I could definitely see this happening. He loved the idea of Rose and The Doctor traveling through time and space and growing old together as they save the universe time and time again. However, Moffat has seemed to shy away from Davies era stories unless they were written by him (Blink, Silence in the Library). To be honest, I was surprised to see him bring in Hurt’s character as the Time War Doctor as that was a creation of Davies. Plus, the scene was deleted so it is not officially canon. But it could be if Moffat wanted it.

3. Go Meta

As evidenced above, Doctor Who has set a precedent that there are parallel universes. What if David Tennant and Billie Piper are not playing the Tenth Doctor and Rose? What if they are playing David Tennant and Billie Piper playing the Tenth Doctor and Rose? A timey wimey convergence of energy creates a wormhole that brings the two actors from our world to the Doctor Who universe and they must team up with Eleven and Clara to get them back to where they belong. Or perhaps the Cybermen, Daleks and Zygons team up to defeat The Doctor and attempt to pull a past Doctor from the timeline to kill. But their equipment malfunctions and they end up bringing the two actors over and mistake them for the real characters. It would make for a crazy episode filled with comedic shenanigans and tons of confusion for the characters and the fans.

Likelihood of Happening: 0/10 – This is basically the premise of the Season 6 episode of Supernatural entitled The French Mistake where Sam and Dean get transported to our world where they are actors named Jarod Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. It is a very fun episode that works well within the framework of that show. I highly suggest it. But I don’t see it ever working for Doctor Who. Parallel universes? Yes. Our universe? No.

2. Time Stream Corruption/Temporal Collision

At the end of The Name of The Doctor, The Great Intelligence, Clara and Eleven all enter The Doctor’s time stream. The Great Intelligence is spread throughout and causes chaos and destruction. And Clara is spread out to put right what once went wrong. But Eleven seems to end up at the center of his time stream with all of his past and future versions. Here, he rescues Clara and confronts John Hurt’s Doctor. There was so much emphasis put on The Doctor never going to Trenzalore since it was first mentioned in Series 6.

In the Series 7B finale, The Doctor says that it is the most dangerous place in the universe and he begins to get sick just being near his time stream. The paradox is too much. What if, by entering the time stream, The Doctor caused major ripples through time and space? Perhaps, he broke time. Different time periods are melding causing Ten and Eleven run into one another. Meddling with his time stream have cause a temporal collision like in the 2007 minisode Time Crash.

Likelihood to Happen: 5/10 – As much as I like this theory, I feel like it is only a partial explanation for the events of the 50th anniversary special.  I mean, there has to be consequences for entering your own time stream, right?

1. Series 2 Redux

In a show about time travel, it seems like the the obvious option to bring Ten and Rose back is to bring a past version of them into the present/future. The Doctor and Rose from Series 2 run into The Doctor and Clara from post-Series 7B. And much like in the previously mentioned Time Crash, Eleven knows that he must meet up with Ten because he remembers doing it when he was Ten. Or perhaps the previously mentioned time stream corruption has caused Eleven to have no memory of this encounter. And thus, he does not know how it will be resolved. Perhaps, the special takes place before Army of Ghosts and Doomsday. There can be some mention of this and Eleven can get sad because he knows that is where he lost Rose for the first time.

Likelihood of Happening: 9/10 – The most obvious answer is often the right answer. Why go through a ton of confusing and complicated story ideas when you can just pluck Ten and Rose from their time and bring them to Eleven and Clara’s time? And I think that many fans would be upset if The Tenth Doctor and Rose that we got were not “real” Tenth Doctor and Rose.

But with Moffat writing the special, he could always throw us a curve ball. What if Ten and Rose are Teselecta ships? Or Flesh creatures? Maybe the 50th anniversary is just a hallucination brought on by the Dream Lord? Only time will tell.

The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special airs on November 23 on BBC One and BBC America.
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