THE SEVENTH DOCTOR REMEMBERS THE TIME WAR

Is it possible the Seventh Doctor knows about the Time War? There is certainly an argument that could be made for the case. The Seventh Doctor has this darker almost sinister personality, buried away under the clownish and tomfoolery qualities he poses. But what other evidence can be made for the case?

It is important to know that every incarnation of The Doctor helped to save Gallifrey from certain destruction during The Day of the Doctor. However, upon returning to their own personal timelines, they seemingly forgot the events of their encounter. The Tenth Doctor is the clearest example of this. The events of the Time War for the Tenth Doctor occurred between The Waters of Mars and The End of Time. Yet throughout The End of Time, he still believes himself to be the ‘last of the Time Lords’, with no recollection that Gallifrey was actually saved. He has no memory of meeting the War Doctor or his future self, the Eleventh Doctor. So, if the Tenth Doctor forgot, then surely every Doctor also forgot, right?

Well, it seems the Seventh Doctor knows he is more than just a Time Lord. During Remembrance of the Daleks, the Doctor knowingly allows the Hand of Omega to turn Skaro’s sun into a supernova, effectively destroying the planet and all life on the surface. He is the direct cause of the Black Dalek committing self-destruction and suicide. He shows little pity as Davros pleads with him to help. He is certainly a manipulator of these events, suggesting a stark turn in his previous warm, cosy and friendly demeanour. "It has been suggested that the events of Remembrance of the Daleks were an important catalyst for the events that would eventually lead to the Time War..." "So perhaps The Doctor ignited the war to make sure history took its natural path?

We then come to Silver Nemesis, once again The Doctor makes a decision ‘knowing’ it would wipe out the Cyber army in space. He is almost a ‘God’, deciding who will live and who will die. Lady Peinforte also knows who The Doctor is, but she does not say anymore. Ace also asks the same question, but The Doctor does not answer. It is left open to imagination, is he more than a Time Lord, is he God – the original plotline for Silver Nemesis – or is he something else. Does The Doctor know he will become the last Time Lord in the universe? Does he remember, he single-handedly (his other incarnations are basically him) saved his entire race from destruction, again reinforcing that he had the power over life and death of his people? Did he take this event into future adventures?

During The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, the Seventh Doctor cruelly kills the Gods – GODS! Of all things – of Ragnarok but simply walks away as the Psychic Circus collapses in an explosion of destruction. The Doctor confidently walks away, unphased and untouched, unstoppable and unbeatable. He does not even flinch as he exits the ill-fated circus. Never has The Doctor walked away from such destruction and death with swagger. Where did he develop this persona, and what experiences could have given him this eerie confidence?     There is something particularly unsettling about the Doctor's behaviour here. He has not simply survived a dangerous situation; he has deliberately challenged and defeated beings who are presented as immensely powerful entities and then walks away from their destruction as though it were nothing. This is a Doctor who appears completely certain that he is in control, even when surrounded by death and destruction. It is almost as though he has already experienced events on a far greater scale and therefore no longer sees such destruction as something to fear.

Could this be another glimpse of the darker Doctor who has already learned that sometimes entire lives, worlds and even civilisations must be sacrificed to achieve a greater objective? That would fit remarkably well with the Doctor's eventual role in the Time War, where he is faced with the destruction of Gallifrey and the Daleks and is ultimately forced to make an impossible decision. Perhaps the confidence displayed by the Seventh Doctor is not simply arrogance or experience, but the result of knowing that he is capable of making decisions that determine who lives and who dies. If he somehow retained knowledge of what he would eventually become, perhaps the destruction of the Gods of Ragnarok would seem insignificant compared with what he already knew was coming.

We come to The Curse of Fenric, where The Doctor simply uses everyone around him as pawns in a game of chess to overcome evil, and vanquish Fenric once more from the universe. Everyone around him dies, as the pieces move across the board, sacrifices made and lost souls extinguished in the crossfire. He also cruelly berates Ace, relegating her to nothing more than a sniffling child; he of course deliberately did this to kill Fenric.

The chessboard metaphor also came up during Silver Nemesis and Battlefield. The good vs. evil similarities are striking. It is by no coincidence that the Seventh Doctor himself calls himself a chess mater. "Chess is a recurring metaphor throughout the latter half of the Seventh Doctor's era, and it is commonly used as a metaphor for war: pieces are moved, sacrifices are made, and victory can depend on seeing several moves ahead. Now The Doctor often found himself landing on planets in the middle of wars many times: Genesis of the Daleks, The Armageddon Factor, The Caves of Androzani etc. but The Doctor always took it in his stride, so why the sudden change in attitude towards war for the Seventh Doctor. Perhaps he experienced something that changed his perspective, but what?

During Battlefield, the Seventh Doctor is mistaken for Merlin the wizard, a legendary figure who battled Morgaine on a parallel version of Earth where magic and sorcery were real. The Doctor seems strangely comfortable with the idea that he could be Merlin, and once again refuses to give a straightforward answer about his identity or his connection to the events that are unfolding. Could this be another example of the Seventh Doctor knowing more about his own future than he lets on? If he is already aware that he has another significant role to play in history, perhaps this could help explain his increasingly manipulative and calculating nature. Rather than simply reacting to events as they happen, the Seventh Doctor often appears to be ensuring that history follows a path he already knows it must take. Could the Doctor's knowledge of future events extend even further—to the Time War, the destruction of Gallifrey, and his eventual role in saving his homeworld? Perhaps his apparent certainty in Battlefield is another glimpse of a Doctor who knows far more about his destiny than he is willing to reveal.

Now of course when the Seventh Doctor hit the TV screen, the Time War had yet to be developed by Russell T Davies, so the Time War did not exist. But that hasn't stopped the new series from developing storylines that fit perfectly into the Classic Series. So why couldn't the Seventh Doctor remember the Time War, and the fact that he helped save Gallifrey? The Doctor has been known to forget events, so perhaps something happened later in his life that caused the Ninth and Tenth Doctors to forget what the Seventh Doctor already knew. What that is remains to be seen, but perhaps the answer can be found somewhere in the Doctor's complicated relationship with his own timeline.

So perhaps under the persona of the Seventh Doctor there is something much darker, which can explain the Seventh Doctor’s sudden turn of personality after meeting Ace and battling the Daleks in 1963, London—a year that would become hugely significant to the Doctor's long-running conflict with the Daleks and, retrospectively, the history that would eventually lead to the Time War.