Well, with the finale approaching, it seems sensible to condense speculation on it to a single thread.

My expectation: I think probably a non-literal version of the Doctor being half-human. As a metaphor, the Doctor has become more (or less, depending how one sees it) than Time Lord through his long exposure to the human race. He is now 'part human' in a strictly psychological sense. That's my theory. This will tie-in nicely with the theme of the companion's 'humanizing' influence on the Doctor and will be the legacy of Clara and yadda yadda. He's never alone because they're all inside him now and all that stuff.

So yeah, expecting a non-literal pay-off (although there will of course be some form of threat that will also be in some sense 'the hybrid').

Wild speculation, the Doctor is the Hybrid. Because his mother is actually Ashildr/ME due to the whole immortality thing and wanting a long lived partner. Get out of that Bootstrap Paradox. No?
That Ashildr is the hybrid from the Doctor's "the hybrid is ME" comment is a little too obvious for my tastes.

I'd buy that. It gets messy with the time lock and where did she find another timelord to start a family with.. That being said the doctor was conceived before the time lock but it effects all of time. If he know he was half human on his mothers side all along --which he said as 8-- wouldn't he know who this human mother of his is. Its also clear that the timeline changed because there was no Valeyard or final regeneration. Maybe The master is the doctors father I guess that would make sense.. Its all so

Assume for the sake of argument the woman from End Of Time is his mum.
That means he is time lord or Galifreyan on her side.

So that means his father was something else not time lord.
Only 6 days till we find out.

Coughs. In the coming next week clip, it one woman said," you are the hybrid".

Isn't it possible the Doctor is not the hybrid. The hybrid is 'Me'.

Yeah, a hybrid of two warrior races: Viking and Mire.

Basically, calling her "Me" was a gag because Moffat knew the Doctor would say "the hybrid is me!" in the trailers.

I'd buy that ashildr is the hybrid and when he said the hybrid is ME that's what he was actually referring to. It was a good way to end the episode cos you do sit there going whhhhhaaaaat? thinking that he means himself. The hybrid can't be the doctor as if the hybrid is going to run gallifray and stand in its ruins as per the prophecy, the Doctor wouldn't have deliberated over using the moment in the time war - he would have just done it! And then there was all that thing about gallifray being lost and the doctor wanting to find it. He saved gallifray, so why would he do that if he was the hybrid?

OTOH, maybe the Doctor is just wrong, or lying, I mean, that a mere Mire - Viking hybrid would be of any importance to the Timelords at all, with all their fantastic technology, strikes me as a bit lame even for a bit of playful, punning misdirection. If it is just that, with nothing else to "big up" the importance of "Me", I'll be disappointed.

OTOH again, maybe the passage of time, billions of years, is enough to make Me powerful enough to be significant to Timelords? What does that passage of time even mean to a race of time travellers, to whom last week is as easy to reach as several billion years from the present. What does this mean for the "universal, perpetual present" within which the Doctor's adventures always seem to exist.

It wouldn't be the first time an SM reveal has been underwhelming, though.

I hope there's a third explanation yet to be revealed.

Maybe he is the hybrid, or knows who it really is (Susan?) and is lying to protect whoever it is? Maybe Missy?

I think it could all be a ruse for the Doctor to get revenge on the Time Lords. I don't think he's actually the hybrid; I think he's just saying he is to scare the Time Lords or something like that.

On the other hand, it may just be that Moffat decided to resurrect the "half-human" storyline from the 1996 Movie.
Or maybe the hybrid literally is "Me".
Or as you say, there could be a less literal interpretation.

I don't really know. Can't wait for next week. This is the most excited I've been for a Doctor Who finale in a long time. These past two episodes have been fantastic.

He's already done both.

I like this theory.

If the Doctor was the Hybrid (i.e. half-human) then when do we ever become a warrior race?


The thing that really bugs me, and it reallly reallly really bugs me. OK, there's this alien race which have this healing tablet device thing, and when it is placed on a dying human it effectively makes that human immortal. Hello - only one person in the history of the universe thought to use it (accidentally) on a young girl making her effectively immortal? No one else (Ashildr included) thought - right there's something to this, how do we replicate it ... Seriously, there were only two of these tablet things ever ?

Somewhere out there, there is Rufus Hound and his immortal tablet. It could have been worse. It could have been him repeatedly returning...

So you're ok with Human being one of the warrior races in the case of Me/Ashildr but not in the case of the Doctor?

How can the reason the Doctor left Gallifrey be Ashildr?

She was born and remained on earth until now (time wise) and we know this because the Doctor has kept track of her. Clara said he lost track of her in the 80's or something like that didn't she's? But he had the pic of her in the background of the picture Clara showed him. Again, showing she was on earth.

So how could she have gained access to time travel. Traveled back in time to before the Doctor left Gallifrey (not watched original who so don't know when that was) and become the reason he left in the first place? Then head back to earth to trap him a few thousand years later. For reasons unknown. Then head back to Gallifrey and await the doctors arrival.

Which means she must have known his confession dial will spit him out on Gallifrey when he finally completed destroying that wall. And it also means she knew where Gallifrey was to be able to go back there and wait for the Doctor. Something even the Doctor didn't know.

Really hope that's not the way it pans out.

But then this is Moff. He makes it up as he goes along. If this is the route he goes down It'll probably all be explained away in a flash back and that's why the Doctor gave her that look when he first saw her.

Throughout human history, perhaps?

Actually, none of it makes any sense the more I think about it. The timelords were in one pretty savage war - does that mean they're a warrior race?

OK, I'm turning my brain off now, if it ever was on to begin with

Didn't the Time Lords have a long history of savage wars with the vampire race from State of Decay?

You've taken my quote out of context. What would be the point of the Doctor saving gallifray in the time war as per the 50th anniversary for him to go and then destroy it?

Indeed. I strongly suspect the General will be the new President of Gallifrey by the end of the episode.

The current President (Donald Sumpter) is either a post-Dalton Rassilon or a post-Simm/pre-Gomez Master. Either of which would need to be deposed.

Mark my words, the story will be about regime change, not destruction. The Doctor has form for deposing leaders.

Interestingly Donald Sumpter has appeared twice before as characters in Doctor Who.
First in 1968 in the Patrick Troughton serial The Wheel in Space.
Second in 1972 in the Jon Pertwee serial The Sea Devils.
And he's also been in The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Obviously he's also currently appearing in Jekyll and Hyde over on ITV on Sunday evenings.
In fact he's been in absolutely tons of stuff in films and television.

I think with the Doctor saying that the Daleks would never allow for the creation of a hybrid and the Doctor saying that he's the Hybrid, that maybe this isn't a traditional styled hybrid. That the Hybrid isn't a being created form two separate species or a combination of organic and technology.

That the Doctor is the Hybrid and he's referring to his "Dalek like" qualities. There has been many time since 2005 that these has been alluded to, with most recently being "Into the Dalek". Rusty exclaiming to the Doctor "I am not a good Dalek, you are a good Dalek."


The Time Lords and Daleks came together in the Great Time War which in turn caused the creation of the "Warrior" Doctor.

As for if the Doctor is the Hybrid then why didn't he destroy Gallifrey with the Moment. I would say just because someone is destined to do something doesn't mean they always wanted to do it.

We learnt that the Moment is at the very least semi-sentient and has her own personality and consciousness in the 50th anniversary episode.

The Doctor could just have called out to her to get him to Gallifrey Instead he spent 2 aeons banging his head against a brick wall. Obviously the Gallifrey he steps onto is going to be 2 aeons older than the time he first entered the chamber. It would not be surprising if he came out to stand in ruins and Ashildir being there to greet him.
How she got to Gallifrey, which ever version he's on, could be as simple as being caught up in the Moment or through the Time Agency. She may even have become Lord President on Gallifrey, at least til the Timelords worked out she wasn't a true Timelord..

The Doctor has used his DNA twice.Once voluntary to give Dalek Sec legs. That didn't work out to well for Sec.The second time, involuntarily, that infused the mire on Skaro to rise up and kill all the Daleks and perhaps went onto become the Mire. I've already suggested the hybrid army is the Cybermen with Timelord consciousness. I have the thought that the Christmas special is part four of this three part season finale.

We don't know anything about Ashildir's parents, do we? The Mire maybe a greater power than either Timelords or Daleks. Davros has created Daleks out of his own cells. He could have done the same to create Ashildir. He'd have needed a Timelord outside of Gallifrey. There's Susan who stayed behind on Earth in 2150 following the second liberation from Dalek occupation. A bit of Davros genetic manipulation and dropping Ashildir back in Viking times thanks to Dalek Cain and there's the Hybrid ready to go. The Doctor's great grandchild.

I want Timothy Dalton as Rassilon sighh

I was running with the idea that perhaps the Doctor isn't yet the hybrid but will become so, as we have seen happen with others throughout this series. However if he already knows himself to be the hybrid then he must at this point in time already be the hybrid unless he has something planned.

I'm with others on this though; why the sudden conflict with the Time Lords? Okay, they never had the best of relationships prior to the Time War. However, during the 50th special it seemed to me (and probably almost every other viewer) that the Doctor actually loves both his home and his people; he spent the entire episode saving them from the Time War. At the end of the special it was clear that he was searching for his home and it seemed likely that he would spend a long time doing so. Yet now, just two years later, not only has he stumbled upon Gallifrey; the Time Lords have seemingly found the Doctor, caused the death of Clara, and are about to wage war against the man whom saved them; all of this despite the fact that they're supposed to be trapped in a pocket universe. What the Hell Moffat? He literally just pulled his trousers down and took a big dump; not just on his own work in the 50th but on the entire history of the show. It's going to take some good explanations for him to write his way out of this whilst seemingly undoing everything that we learned in this episode, I don't think anything else would suffice (for me at least).