But we do not know how long Eight was on the sidelines of the Time War, trying to help without actually taking up arms.

He might have been doing that for hundreds of years, not the seventeen you suggest.

Perhaps your twin bother doesn't like to admit it ?

Or perhaps cos he's Scottish from the waist down - likes to wear a skirt and white socks

Thank you, I'll accept that! That makes real sense to me (as much as anything does). I feel better now

The 17 years was a joke based on that's how long really passed between the movie and Night Of The Doctor

Though going by what age The War Doctor uses in Day Of The Doctor (between 800 and 900 years old) so he can not have been in it that long as of he must have being around 700- 800 when he regenerated into 8.

Actually, allowing for production schedules and the time difference between the US East Coast and the then BBC1 production offices, you are out by two months, thirteen days and four hours - unless you use the Silurian calendar - as any proper Doctor Who fan would know.

The 7th Doctor was 953 long before he became the 8th so not even including the 100's of years that the 8th Doctor lives in the Audio/books the War Doctor had to be rounding down or started from scratch to be 800 at the end of the Time War.

I know but I'm just going by what was said on screen my theory is he either restated from scratch.

The time war wiped years out so he started to discount them

He now used Earth rather than Gallifreyan years.

Well it's 4.20am and I'm still awake and tired and I've just had a idea though it may sound rubbish when I'm funny awake.

This will cover looming as well.

What if most Time Lords are loomed but The Doctor was born however the only way to achieve this was by his Mother using the chameleon arch and becoming human after he was born she used it again to revert back to Time Lord.

Because of this he had a small amount of Human DNA which was taken away by the other time lords but still some say 0.1% remained when he regenerated into 8 and had the blood transfusion that triggered his human DNA and he became half human.

He aged slightly faster than normal because of this.

Also when he crashed he couldn't regenerate and he had regenerated from worse injuries than that crash so he died and had to be revived by The Sisterhood Of Karn this is also why they had to help him to regenerate and the elixir also removed his human DNA making him full Time Lord again.

Because it is canon, and featured the regeneration of 7 to 8, the current series didn't have 8 to 9

You know, I really like this theory.

Although my favorite theory is that The Doctor simply lied about being half-human.

I actually thought they would of skipped his doctor

Why, when we saw 7 regenerate into 8 on screen?

Individual subjectivity and legitimacy are not the same thing

I don't hold with the "looming" gumpf but ignoring that small inconvenience, I reckon this is a brilliant suggestion and does exactly what you intended.

Love it - it really is the single best idea I've seen on the subject so far - actually good enough to make it worth adding "looming" to the TV series canon.

There's a bit of a hole in the idea in that we know that the Master was also a "normal" child and the "kid in the barn" scene seems to suggest that Galliferyans become Timelords because of training but a full story would soon work around that.

Maybe The Master's mother did the same thing and that is why they are the most different Time Lords out of them all why they make their own decisions and do what they want ect

That struck me as a possible way around it but that clashes with his needing the Doctor's "half-human" body to open the Eye of Harmony in that film.

One way around that would be to say that The Master isn't half-human - but he is half "something" - and half "Kaled" would be a rather cute twist

Another might be that a select few Gallifreyan adults are put through the same procedure every so often - and only their "natural born" offspring are capable of even possibly becoming Timelords. The big secret would be that ordinary Gallifreyans don't know about the "breeding programme" and even the "natural born " themselves have their memories wiped of the fact. The Doctor uncovered the secret cos he spent so much time on Earth surrounded by humans. That idea would also fit with the kid in the barn and the adult saying "come back into the house with the other children" - and with that barn being so isolated when we saw it in Day of the Doctor. It could be a place where the children are kept until they are grown so that no-one knows they exist.

I'm really liking this idea - thanks.

I quite liked the movie - just because Doctor Who was back on TV! I recorded it on VHS back in those days.......I've long-since lost it!
Looking forward to seeing it again on UK Drama soon (I believe they are starting to show all 'Classic' DW stories of the first 8 Doctors from Sunday 2nd November )