Doctor Who Theory – Was “The Moment” in Day of the Doctor Actually Bad Wolf?

98 thoughts on “Doctor Who Theory – Was “The Moment” in Day of the Doctor Actually Bad Wolf?”

1. Brilliant!!! I’ve tossed around this theory myself but never constructed it out so beautifully!! I definitely think there is something to this…I’ve also considered Clara’s potential role in Bad Wolf’s decisions and actions. Great read thank you.

   Christina

   • Thanks for the kind words. To be honest, Bad Wolf just makes the whole episode make a ton of more sense, including Clara’s actions.

2. The Moment/Bad Wolf: “You clever boys.”
   Clara: “Run you clever boy.”

   There is so much that points to Bad Wolf arranging for that leaf to fall and Clara to come into existence. And it’s interesting how Clara was always a nanny in all her forms. Like the Bad Wolf wanted her to love children and be compassionate so that she would influence the Doctor regarding the Time War.

   Thanks for writing all this! I LOVE reading your stuff on Doctor Who! I read all your previous theories leading up to the 50th. I always looked forward to you writing more. 🙂

   • You make some great points about Clara and Rose, especially the point about the children (how Clara would be the one companion who couldn’t handle the Time Lord children dying). It really does make perfect sense and there is compelling evidence that suggests Bad Wolf had a part to play with the leaf and everything. It is interesting that Moffat never did reveal who the woman in the shop was.

     And thanks so much! I will definitely continue to do more with Doctor Who, even though the theories take a lot of time to put together.

     • can you remind me what woman in the shop?

       • In the Bells of Saint John, Clara get’s the “Internet helpline” number (the TARDIS’s phone number) from a woman in a shop.

         • It’s interesting that there has been no return to this strange mystery.

         • Now there has been a return to the mystery. Peter Capaldi asks Clara that very question at the end of his 1st full episode. Looks like we’ll be looking into that this season before Jenna leaves in December.

   • Exactly what I was thinking reading this article!

3. Didn’t I read somewhere about one of the Timelords’ major technological creations– the Eye of Harmony, I think– that as soon as they completed building it, it existed retroactively through all of time?

   If that’s a ‘thing’ in the Whoverse, and Rose-as-Bad-Wolf told us in “The Parting of the Ways” that she saw/was everywhere and everywhen;
   and if Rose-as-Bad-Wolf had god-like power over space, time, matter and energy (reminiscent of how The Moment’s power was described);
   then maybe The Moment *is* Bad Wolf. Just because Rose stopped being the Bad Wolf when the Doctor removed the time vortex from her mind, doesn’t necessarily mean the Bad Wolf ceased to exist. Being ‘bigger’ than just one human girl, why couldn’t it chose to manifest as something else, in some other place and time?

   So maybe, after Rose stopped being the Bad Wolf, it remained in some independent form, existing retroactively through all of time, adopting (in one case) this avatar of “The Moment” out of the blue in Gallifrey’s weapons vault. The fact that they didn’t seem to understand it all that well could be because they didn’t build it so much as found it (or it found them), and the consciousness/conscience that they thought it ‘developed’ could rather have just taken a while to ’emerge’ out of the confusion of being disembodied across the whole of spacetime.

   It actually reminds me a bit of the Phoenix-force from Marvel comics, when considered that way.

   • Excellent points of discussion! Thank you. 🙂 I may point them out in a second post about this theory.

   • Bad Wolf also always makes me think of the Phoenix!

     An extra something that supports this again: the way at the end of ‘Turn Left’ all of the street banners say ‘Bad Wolf’.

     This was not Bad Wolf leaving a message for Rose to lead her to Sattelite Five, since Rose is not there. This can only be Bad Wolf continuing to (re)write other moments in history, independant of events relating to the Ninth Doctor’s death.

   • You’re thinking sooo 3 dimensionally! When you start looking at it 4th dimensionally there is no retro-active, there is no stopping, there is no starting…. There is only… IS.

     Rose never quit being Rose-as-Bad-Wolf(RBW) Once Rose became RBW she was RBW for all of eternity, just as she scattered her message “Bad-Wolf” across time and space, she also scattered herself. In subjective time, in that one episode, we saw her as RBW for all of 10 minutes? But that was only the “part of time (and space)” we saw, what of the rest of eternity?

4. Something no one else has seemed to notice is that at the end when all doctors are in the space barn talking, Bad Wolf/The Moment looks up at 10 and follows him with her eyes looking sad. It adds to you’re theory of it being Bad Wolf cause why would the moment look longingly at 10? The Bad Wolf however would love him and know that she can’t interact with him. Just a thought

   • Just wanted to correct, it’s in the Tower of London she gives him the look

     • oh wow, you’re totally right! I forgot about that moment, but it definitely adds to the viability of the theory that the Moment and Bad Wolf are the same being.

   • Yes it is a great point! Thank you for bringing it up. I did notice it, but didn’t get around to adding it. I should show it in a second post or add it to this one as further evidence for anyone who didn’t see that quick shot of Rose looking at the Tenth Doctor. It’s a great moment and there’s really no purpose for it unless it really is Bad Wolf who also loves the Doctor.

     • I thought of something similar when watching her behavior in this special. I don’t see why if the Doctor can split himself off, and then was kind enough (even though it was a bittersweet reward) to give her a clone of himself, Rose should be able to do something similar for the Doctor – any doctor, as specifically selecting Ten may not be possible for her unless the circumstances were perfect for that to happen. It makes sense as a possibility at least, to me, when you consider everything that’s happened to Rose, because she has to be somehow be altered, right?
       And… plot-wise, it has a lovely, circular feel to it in an otherwise somewhat tragic love story 🙂 As in “you couldn’t give your whole self to me, but you gave a part of yourself to me, and now I can do the same for you…”

       To play with that idea, now there’s a special I’d like to see made real! Then again I’m in favor of *anything* that re-visits the Rose/Doctor storyline.

5. When I first watched the 50th anniversary I remembered instantly that speech of Rose when she was in her Bad Wolf form “You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence. And I divide them. Everything must come to death. All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends.”
   And well, since then I can’t take off my mind the idea of The Moment being the Bad Wolf.
   For me, The Moment is the Bad Wolf. And she did everything for protect her Doctor. 🙂

   • Definitely agree! It just makes perfect sense to me.

   • “Everything must come to death”

     Except the Doctor

     • Tick tock goes the clock even for the Doctor

       • Not anymore

         • Well he will die someday. He’s not invincible. Sorry to break it to ya ;P btw Love your name and picture.

         • I think the Christmas Special made it especially clear that the BBC will heretofore stop at nothing to keep milking this cash cow for as long as they can regardless of how terrible it becomes as a result, or how far into the ground they run this poor, once-great show

           But I appreciate the compliment, thank you =)

         • Oh yes of course they will make it go on for as long as possible but eventually it will have to come to an end. Not in the near future of course but every show ends eventually.

6. This seems like a lot of mental gymnastics just to justify all of the dumb, uninteresting & occasionally outright terrible decisions Moffat made during his run on the show

   Of course when I say “terrible” I obviously mean things like the hand-waving-away of the destruction of the Time Lords

   edit: or the addition of another Regeneration into the line that he then retroactively calls the “War Doctor” because he wants to drastically alter canon but doesn’t

   edit: or the addition of an entire new cycle of regenerations, because he doesn’t seem to understand how one of the huge reasons the last five decades of the show were so compelling was the fact that the twelve-regeneration limit was always hanging over the Doctor’s head

   edit: Moffat sucks

   • In the end of time when rassillon is sitting around plotting with the other high council members they mention that the doctor has the moment. Has anyone else noticed that?

   • Well, we can’t have the show ending now, and he still has that limit now…if you start out with $13 and end up with $0, then someone gives you $13, you still have a limit to worry about…No matter who would have written the episode, they’d have to create a reason for the Doctor to keep regenerating. They decided to give him a new cycle instead of playing the ‘oh but this is the LAST regeneration!’ card fifty times over by giving him one extra chance at a time…I’m not saying I love all of Moffat’s stories on Doctor Who but the generations part makes sense to me.

   • I do hear you as while I don’t dislike Moffat’s work as many do (though I find much problematic), I don’t love it much as RTD’s writing. I had a similar reaction at first because the special doesn’t address why the the girl in the prequel with the 8th Doctor hated the Time Lords so much that she was willing to kill herself rather than be saved by one. The Time Lords were no saints but the special itself doesn’t delve into the complexities of this issue, rather it focuses on them as complete victims, particularly by showing clips of children. I didn’t see anyone evil as we saw in David Tennant’s regeneration episode. Showing both sides instead of bringing in the weak Zygon plot would have strengthened the episode because Moffat could have written thematically about the Doctor and the Time Lords gaining redemption with the rewriting of time and their CHOICE to make a different choice.

     Still, on re-watch I did like it much more like I said in my post. I liked the story with The Moment and the interactions between the three doctors. With Bad Wolf as the Moment, the episode ties in much better to the earlier seasons.

     I also totally get where you are coming from about changing canon, something it seems he did so he could play with the regeneration cycle earlier rather than later. I actually did not like the Christmas special much. You can read my review. Overall though, I really liked John Hurt as the War Doctor, though it doesn’t make sense for him to never be called the Doctor because of his choice. Ten decided to kill them again and still considered himself the Doctor…

     • Of course you liked John Hurt as the War Doctor, it’s perfect.

       The problem is that Moffat was either too lazy or too inept a showrunner to come up with a more creative solution to Eccleston’s absence than “Well we’ll just put a new incarnation in there & say he’s always been.”

       I’m gonna say that The Day of the Doctor was about as good as I’d expect a mid-season episode to be. A really nice surprise would be, for example, The Doctor’s Wife, which sort of comes out of nowhere and shines with all of these little references & reestablishing ties to old canon and what have you. It’s brilliant, while this one is just okay to pretty good.

       But if you’re doing a year-long celebration of a 50 year-old show, you gotta do better than Name/Day/Time. It’s hokey, cheesy & not very well thought-out or clever to the point where it feels more like a big-budget version of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

       Better ways to celebrate the 50th:

       –The Eleventh Doctor finally confronts the Valeyard, only to realize in horror in his last moment that he’s regenerating into the Valeyard (the Twelfth Doctor’s run then does the heavy lifting of re-contextualizing all of the Valeyard’s evil actions as necessary & noble, after which the Thirteenth Doctor strives to put right everything the Twelfth did and atone for his sins before dying)

       –The Eleventh Doctor dies at the end of The Rings of Akhaten and regenerates into the Twelfth Doctor, so by The Day of the Doctor, you have Ten, Eleven and Twelve working together to stop the Eighth Doctor from committing the atrocity & rewriting history.

       –The Doctor steps into his own timeline at the end of The Name of the Doctor and discovers that he is indeed The Other, as he is torn apart & reconstructed at the beginning of the rise of Time Lord civilization

       I could go on but I feel like you get my point

7. sorry but I had to weigh in here. But I seem to see that there are a few points that were missed or skipped over.

   1. At the end where all the doctors are in the art gallery
   WARRIOR: I won’t remember this, will I?
   DOCTOR: The time streams are out of sync. You can’t retain it, no.
   WARRIOR: So I won’t remember that I tried to save Gallifrey rather than burn it. I’ll have to live with that.

   so until the day of the doctor he thinks that he killed them all.

   2. On the Subject of Bad wolf/Rose Tyler/The moment.

   In the episode of the end of time part 2
   RASSILON: What news of the Doctor?
   CHANCELLOR: Disappeared, my Lord President.
   PARTISAN: (a woman) But we know his intention. He still possesses the Moment, and he’ll use it to destroy Daleks and Time Lords alike.

   So the moment is reinforced. As for if it is rose or just takes on the persona of her to me I say it is both because as you said in the episode the parting of ways
   ROSE: I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here.

   but there is still something that is nagging me why the Dalek Emperor sees rose he said
   EMPEROR [on viewscreen]: This is the Abomination!

   why not this is an abomination. where has he seen her before? Is there something in the history of the daleks that we still dont know?

   I guess the best way to explain it all is : SPOILERS.

   • All good points of discussion! My only issue with your first point is that Nine said he watched it burn. It seems a strange comment to make on his part in “Dalek” if he had no memories of it. Which is why it would make more sense if this is a rewriting of time (a popular motif for Moffat), so that things are similar but not exact. Time has changed a little. Otherwise, continuity wise I don’t think it makes complete sense. Nine definitely seemed to remember. And obviously that was Davies’ original intent. Moffat just decided to change it. That’s fine, but personally I think continuity wise it makes the most sense for time to have been rewritten and not something that has always happened.

     As for point 2, yes, no doubt this is the Moment. But yeah, is it also something more? This discussion between time lords doesn’t disprove the Moment as Bad Wolf at all. They know what the Moment is, but none of them know “exactly” what it is since there is a legend surrounding it. So yeah, I agree it’s probably both in some way. And yes, spoilers…:)

     • I think you misunderstand, didn’t they say they would have no memory of SAVING IT? They would keep the memory of destroying everything, like nothing has changed. So, the 9th doctor therefor would think that he still burned them all, even though he did not. Because it says
       “WARRIOR: I won’t remember this, will I? DOCTOR: The time streams are out of sync. You can’t retain it, no.
       WARRIOR: So I won’t remember that I tried to save Gallifrey rather than burn it. I’ll have to live with that.”
       Tried to save Gallifrey *RATHER* than burn it.
       They will only remember burning it, even if it is saved.

       I might be wrong here as well, but didn’t The Master bring back Gallifrey and the Timelords from being stuck in some eternal timeless pit or something? Just like what happened at the end of this episode? That part I may be wrong on, I’m just thinking from when I saw the whole series last.

       • No, I don’t think I am misunderstanding at all. I am very familiar with what the dialogue said (other parts point to my theory being true such as several lines about “this time”). Yes, this Doctor would forget but to me that could suggest that the timeline would barely change (though some issues do arise later on…in the Christmas special), not enough to alter the Doctor’s choices and timelines. Nevertheless, time had still been rewritten according to the rest of the episode or so I theorize.

         As for the Master, I will have to re-watch that part when I get there but I thought it was about coming out of the time lock. There is no doubt at least that Moffat intended to rewrite what Davies did. IF I am wrong and the show confirms that time had NOT been rewritten, I will in turn not be thrilled. It’s too much like “It was all a dream” and takes away from the brilliant characterization of the Doctor IMO. It would be kind of a wimpish move from my point of view, as if choosing to kill all the Time Lords was too horrible of the Doctor so it had to be fixed (though it still has bits of that in the episode that I didn’t love). The atrocities of what he CHOSE to do is what makes the Doctor stand out as a complex and ingenious character.

         • I like think of something down the line we’re Rose and human doctor have a baby girl who grows up to have bad wolf powers and her powers allow her to teleport to different times and Dimensions

8. Great article! One thing I wanted to point out, the incident with “scarf girl” and the Zygon, if I remember correctly, this happened after they had their memories wiped, the “shushing” was a result of them figuring out which one was human and which one was the Zygon. They decided to let everything play out.

   • Thank you! Yes, true. Though I’m more interested in the actual imagery and purposeful repetition of the shushing. Perhaps it’s foreshadowing something to come. So double meaning for all three. But like I said, that’s just a theory.

9. This isnt a theory its fact. It was obvious after watching the show 1 time let alone 3 or more. They didnt even hide it.

   • There are plenty of people who would disagree with you and believe the moment is just the moment. Also, nowhere in the episode does the Moment say she is Bad Wolf. And Moffat has never confirmed it either; or even Billie Piper for that matter. So as much as I would like it to be, it is not fact. Rather it is interpretation. But I agree with you, I do think the moment is Bad Wolf.

10. In the end of time when rassillon is sitting around plotting with the other high council members they mention that the doctor has the moment. Has anyone else noticed that? I did when rewatching it.

    • Yes! I believe I mentioned it briefly above. They talk about the myth of the Moment being sentient, so no one would even dare to use it except for one man (of course the Doctor!)

      • What I find really interesting about this episode is that everything on Gallifrey is happening at the same time in this episode as during “The End of Time”. “The High Council is in emergency session, they have plans of their own.” This is Rassilon and the other Councilors sitting around their table making their plans concerning the Master and the Final Sanction.
        This make for some very interesting possibilities once Gallifrey has been returned. I assume that both events are potentially equally valid. The time lock that the Council mentions repeatedly could very likely be how they are viewing the pocket universe that they’ve been placed in. In which case, the events of “The End of Time” mean that they briefly manifested Gallifrey back into the main Universe only for the Doctor to send them back. Skip ahead first a few hundred years to 11 and he’s all for bringing them back. The 12th Doctor seems pretty keen on finding and restoring Gallifrey as well which begs the question, is it only due to the repression of the memories associated with what actually happened to Gallifrey that the 10th Doctor is so determined to condemn his entire species? Or is the optimism expressed by the 11th and 12th Doctors simply the result of having been around for so long without them that he’s willing to bring them back despite how terrible 10 said they had become during the Time War?

        • Oh, and you’re still getting reposts on FB via the closed group The Last of the Timelords. That’s how I found your article so many months late. 🙂

11. This is a fantastic theory and I have no qualms with the basis of it. My only rub is the misuse of the word “sentient.” I think the word you were looking for at times was “omniscient.” To be sentient is to be aware of yourself and conscious. To be omniscient is to see or know all things at once. One might even say that Bad Wolf was also omnipotent, or capable of doing anything.

    • Thank you! And yes, you’re right. Thanks for the catch. Must have been a brain freeze while writing it out. It is edited and fixed!

12. On a side note about scarf girl and the Zygon. The Zygon makes mention that they would rather would have taken her pretty sister’s form. This pisses off scarf girl stating she wished the Zygon had, as well. The Zygon is stepping on her scarf and scarf girl reefs it from under her, making the Zygon fall and drop the inhaler. Scarf girl quickly grabs her inhaler back and runs off. I believe she shares her inhaler with the Zygon later to show she know which of them is the real scarf girl so they don’t have to find out about trying to lose a shoe to see who is who.

    • Good points, thanks!

13. You’re just now figuring all of this out? The movie has been out for months.

    • You do realize that this theory was written months ago, right? No need for a rude comment.

14. I had always just assumed that the Moment and Bad Wolf were the same being, but your analysis completely sold me. You’re super thorough and made points that I never would have thought of. Thanks for the great read.

    • Thank you very much! I appreciate it. And you are very welcome. 🙂

15. Another theory about her clothes: Bad Wolf is the conscious of the TARDIS. The look she gets in the 50th is very similar to the look she gets in the doctors wife. And ya know, wife. So the ring makes sense as well.

    • It would be cool if Bad Wolf wore a ring because she considered herself married to the Doctor in some way.

16. I definitely automatically thought the moment was Bad Wolf but I didn’t think exactly what that meant. This was really interesting. I think a point you missed, or maybe I’m looking too into it, was when Rose, as the Bad Wolf in ‘Parting of the Ways’ said, “I create myself.” My mind was thinking she created ‘The moment’ then. She created that part of herself. Just a theory.

    Also I absolutely loved the Zygon plot line but I think that’s mostly because a wish came true. Near the end of ten he mentioned that he married Queen Elizabeth the first (that was a mistake) and when I saw that I was like man I want to know more about that story. I loved how they actually showed it and that the mistake was literally a mistake not a regret. Just my opinion 🙂

    • Yes, good point about Bad Wolf. I thought a similar thing but just didn’t bring it up. Just as she brought Jack back to life and made him immortal, she could have created the Moment around the same time, creating a version of herself that would always exist.

      I can’t love the Zygon plot because like you I wanted to see this story but the actuality of it was rather disappointing. Queen Elizabeth, who was one of the most powerful women of all time, became a joke in this episode and a simpering fool for much of it (with horrible dialogue) who was desperate to marry the Doctor even after all of his insults to her. If she had married, she would have lost everything which didn’t even seem to be a concern. This is just not the story I would have imagined for one my favorite historical figures. Still, I kind of get why others liked it. Personally, I thought it was the weak point of the special and a disfavor to all the prior Elizabeth moments of the Series. JMO. 🙂

      • That is a very good point. I honestly didn’t even relate it to real history but you are quite right. The only powerful thing she did was kill the zygon and she justified it by saying the zygon was in her weak state. Though the historical figure that is Elizabeth would explain why the Doctor didn’t think she’d accept his proposal and thus would figure out if she was the zygon. Thinking back it seems like the Doctor was just as surprised at the difference between history and that version of events as you were. I do think she should have been a little less…soft I suppose is the word I’ll use. Oh, I realized that it also explained why the Doctor became the enemy of Queen Elizabeth I…he married her then left. And maybe that’s why later she was shown as more powerful in episodes such as the Shakespeare episode. She went through heartache. I do believe she could’ve been represented better but I’m quite relieved that some loose ends are tied up.

        • Yeah, I would have personally preferred a MUCH better representation of Elizabeth. I don’t know if I wanted her to be less soft or really just less ridiculous in general. I get though what you are saying about tying up loose ends but I’m not sure that that is what this is if time was rewritten. In fact, I’m working on part 2 of this theory. It won’t be as long but I’m adding in some extra points.

          • I look forward to it 🙂

      • Well, to be fair, marrying a Time Lord isn’t exactly a step downward on the social ladder, is it? You’re allying your line with one of the most powerful individuals in the Universe. And lose everything? Surely she knew him at least well enough to know that he was no threat to her rule. Married to him, she may have counted on his aid if she ever asked for it…

17. I think that the moment/bad wolf/Rose (a hybrid I shall name MoBaRo for this comment) Implanted the memory of Galifrey burning into the mind of war doctor/9 as a way of stopping him becoming curious about suddenly not being able to remember what happened after stealing the MoBaRo. Because in all honesty if the doctor forgot something that had just happened he would search for the answer instead of just moving on. In which case I support the theory that nothing has been rewritten in that sense, even though as you pointed out Moffat does like a cheeky restart. Either way thank you for this article, which has now given me a lovely thing to say over and over again (seriously MoBaRo is addictive).

    Another thing I would like your opinion on is that of the “Impossible astronaut” if the war doctor always existed, then why in this episode does the imposter doctor appear to regenerate. Surely 11 would know that his time was up at that point and not go through the effort. Although it doesn’t matter to the overall outcome at all.

    • You’re welcome…you should keep on saying MoBaRo. It sounds fabulous when you try to say it aloud. Anyway, I get what you are saying about implanting the memory but there isn’t any evidence to support it. I prefer rewriting time on a personal level because I LIKED Nine’s prior characterization so I hope that I’m right about this one.

      As for your “impossible astronaut” comment, I’m not sure I follow. Can you clarify a little for me? The War Doctor came before Eleven so I’m not sure what you are trying to say. Maybe I’m just reading what you said wrong.

      Also, just curious, but how did you find this article as it suddenly got a lot of hits today? Just wondering…

      • A Doctor Who fan page posted a link on Facebook. Or at least thats how I got to this.

        • Yup. Same. The page Doctor Who and the T.A.R.D.I.S

          • Thanks for the info!

          • np 🙂

      • Issue with “Impossible Astronaut”:
        When 10 became 11, that was the Doctor’s last regeneration, by current count (until the Time Lords gave him more). When it looks like He is shot on the beach by River, you see a regeneration sequence start that is cut off by a second shot. We know later that she is actually shooting the Teselecta, who is impersonating the Doctor, but it doesn’t make sense for the Teselecta to impersonate a regeneration if he didn’t have any left.

        BTW, the Facebook fan page is “Doctor Who and the T.A.R.D.I.S.” They posted a link on March 5th. I always love reading theories and obscure connections in Doctor Who.

        • There are continuity issues that will be very interesting to pay attention to on re-watch. It seems that ‘then’ the Doctor forgot he was out of regenerations.

          Now that I’m getting what the prior poster was talking about, I think it wasn’t a worry because 1) Moffat wasn’t planning on the extra Doctor at that point in time (he could have created him when Eccleston turned down the role for instance) and 2) It was about him dying permanently anyway…I guess. But yeah, the regeneration from the Teselecta makes very little sense.

          And thanks for the Facebook info.

    • I think 11 just didn’t realize he was out of regenerations or forgot.

18. With the part that mentioned about the Ninth doctor admitting to destroying the Daleks and Time Lords. During the 50th anniversity when all three Doctors (War, Tenth, Eleven) the War Doctor asked Eleven if he will remember it, and Eleven stated that the time streams were to tangled up and he will forget that he tried to save Galifrey. Hense that is also the reason that Ten Was told about Trenzalore.

    • Yeah, I followed that but it still seems like a slight rewrite to me as Nine didn’t act like he forgot (I’m re-watching right now).

      • Nine didn’t need to act like he forgot. For one, he probably fully remembers the War Doctor. What he likely doesn’t have are exact details of what happened. He remembers planning on using The Moment to stop the Time War whatever the cost. The War Doctor said as much before The Moment opened the fissure in time. The War Doctor began the regeneration process right after he put the TARDIS into flight. So post regeneration Nine likely only remembers up to the point just before Ten and Eleven got involved, which is to say none of the changes.
        So Nine remembers he was going to use a super destructive weapon and now there’s no Time Lords or Daleks around. What conclusion is he supposed to draw? That’s the Doctor’s point of view until the last Doctor involved (11) catches up to the end of events.
        From the point that the 11th Doctor becomes part of events, he starts vaguely remembering bits and pieces (“This is where I come in. Geronimo!”) and by the end of it, his memory is the set version of what happened.

19. maybe i missed it and you already mentioned this, but i thought i would point out that in the picture of 11 and ‘the curator’ looking at the painting, there are those round things in the background…they look quite a bit like the “round things” from the forth doctors TARDIS dont you think?

    • No, I definitely missed that. Interesting. I’ll have to take a look.

20. How many times does Eleven, or River, or Ten say that time can be rewritten? Never ignore coincidences. Unless you’re busy. In which case, ignore the coincidence. I don’t think Moffat was busy. I think he was paying very close attention in this case. 🙂

    • This might have been his plan for a while, the time being rewritten line thrown in as far back as series 5. I definitely think that he did not plan everything out though because there have been some inconsistencies that don’t quite make sense but the one I do think possible is bringing the Time Lords back.

      • I don’t think Moffat had some sort of master 50th Anniversary plan right from the beginning. But he definitely sowed the seeds to allow for just about anything to happen, including a way for Gallifrey to not really be gone and bring back the Time Lords, which he did.

21. I think its brilliant! Can we take it one step further. An old theory of mine is that bad wolf is actually the tardis with a splash of roses brain/personality. The tardis is permenantly to the time vortex by method of “looking into the heart of the tardis” and if memory serves a line about” I looked into the tardis and the tardis looked into me” also we know from episode “the doctors wife” that the tardis deeply cares for the doctor and his well being so perhaps she used the moment as badwolf to make this change in the doctors past but untill that moment (as the viewers see it) the new reality would set. Which would still aloow the 9th doctor to honestly know he killed them all and the tenth and the eleventh have supressed the memory therefore don’t inspect it as deeply until the new truth is revealed… sorry got away from me a bit

    • It’s a nice theory but in “Bad Wolf,” I very much believe that Bad Wolf is Rose. The rest of the show seems to support that as well with bits of dialogue thrown in here and again. To me, the Tardis helped Rose save the Doctor because she looked into her heart and vice versa. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts. It is an interesting idea.

22. You should send this to BBC or something!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m sure they would find that very interesting. 🙂

    • Thanks! I don’t think they would look at it though.

23. that wasn’t the zygon. that was the human shushing the zygon. remember the human tripped the zygon (by pulling her scarf out from under the zygon’s foot) and grabbed the inhaler and ran off.

24. “I think I’m called Rose Tyler. No. Yes. No, sorry, no, no, in this form,
    I’m called Bad Wolf. Are you afraid of the big bad wolf, Doctor?”

    It seemed quite clear to me the moment I heard this,

25. Great discussion JS

26. Someone wrote a rather depressing fanfic where Rose Tyler loses Tentoo, gets stuck on Gallifrey trying to find the Doctor, and eventually becomes “the Moment”. THE Rose Tyler.

    I’m worried, yet curious and somewhat interested in relation to THIS theory, and you saying that the Moment might be a split-off of Rose’s soul, possibly containing the memories and feelings of future Rose, brings that to mind.

    I quote, from the TARDIS Data Core (Doctor Who Wiki): The Moment could also change appearance from a box full of gears, to a box looking station with a big blood red ruby button on a stalk, with a base similar to the shape of a rose petal.

    Note ROSE petal.

    Anyhow, your theory brought up some interesting, thought-provoking things. You are quite brilliant. :3

27. This is brilliant! My favourite thing about Doctor Who fans is just seeing the vast amounts of theories and minds thinking and all of them seem plausible to me!!! Loved this post so much. Will keep reading your Doctor Who posts 🙂

    X

28. I want to add, and I didn’t really read all comments to see if someone had mentioned this…

    But I always found it interesting that Rose ended up with TenToo. (Lucky girl eh?! AND he’s part Donna so he’s all sassy again…like my 9 <3<3 )

    Just watch Journey's End (both parts):

    Why did it take so long for the Doctor & Rose to be reunited? Why did they not get a chance to embrace before that darn Dalek showed up (damn that stupid Dalek, no wonder 12 has so much hatred for them…! They seriously ruin everything!).

    And then, that hand. So convenient that Jack had it. So convenient that the Doctor keeps it so close. That he was able to redirect his regeneration energy…

    And then, all the mystery surrounding Donna. How she met the Doctor not once, but twice. How he met Wilf on a separate occasion…How that parallel world was built around her in Turn Left. How, if you look into her history, how similar to Rose she was. Stuck living at home. Failed relationship (Rose had moved out with that one guy(name?). And then that guy that was using Donna and working with the Arachnoss). Unfulfilled life. Dead end jobs. Both lost their dads. It just seemed like there was too much coincidence around Donna right?

    In Turn Left, Rose told Donna that there was something about her, and they repeated in Journey's End, Part 2:

    Donna: In that parallel world…you said something about me.
    Rose: The dimension cannon can measure timelines and it's weird Donna but they all seem to converge on you.

    Then when they get captured. Donna hears a heartbeat.
    The Tardis' door closes of its own accord.
    She hears the heartbeat, touches the hand.
    And we get *naked* TenToo…and he says,

    TenToo: I'm unique. Never been one like me. Cause all the regeneration energy went into the hand. Look at my hand. I love that hand. But then you [Donna] touched it…
    But look at what you did. No. It's more than that. It's like, we were always heading for this. you came to the tardis. and you found me again. your grandad. your car…somethings been drawing us together for such a long time.
    Donna: But you're talking like…destiny…
    TenToo: …It's still not finished. It's like the pattern is not complete. the strands are still drawing together. But heading for what?
    *coughRosecough*

    And we all know that everyone assumes that time is a strict progression of cause to affect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective point of view it is more like a big ball of… well it's more of a ball right? Things are happening. History is happening. Right now everything is happening and the ripple effect emanates continuously…

    SO. My point was this. Bad Wolf…saw everything.

    Bad Wolf: All that is, all that was, all that ever could be.

    SO I agree!!! Bad Wolf, not only became the Moment. She simultaneously formed the timelines that would always save the Doctor. Hence Clara. Hence Donna. And hence TenToo. So he could be with Rose. I mean, how did they even get to that parallel universe that sowed the seeds for Doomsday and the arrival of parallel-dad! Time can't change but it can be rewritten. So Bad Wolf tweaked Rose's and the Doctor's future. (Remember what that jerk with the horns said? Rose was supposed to die in battle…but instead she went to a parallel universe! How convenient that they had been there before inexplicably!)

    BeastDude: And the lost girl. so far away from home. the valiant child who will die in battle so very soon.

    Hence this exchange between Dalek Caan at the end:
    Doctor: Oh I think he did. Somethings been manipulating the timelines for ages. Getting Donna Noble to the right place at the right time.
    DC: This would always have happened. I only helped, Doctor.
    Davros: You betrayed the Daleks?
    DC: I saw the Daleks…What we have done throughout time and space. I saw the truth of us, creator. And I decreed, "no more."

    BAM. AND a reference to the Moment!? (no more! I can just picture her dancing!) Bad Wolf manipulated the timelines so the Time Lords could still live, the Doc's hands would be clean. Clara could be born to save the Doctor, and 11 could get one more regeneration in! (also, if you notice, Rose and TenToo are wearing the EXACT same colors blue & burgundy!! another coinkydink?!)

    I seriously wonder…what else she has in store for our Doctor 😉 Can't wait to see 12 and all the stories to come!

29. Not only do I think she was Bad Wolf in “The Day of the Doctor”, I also think she was Bad Wolf in “Turn Left”

30. It just feels like it makes more sense of Billie was Bad Wolf in Turn Left, because she seemed to know a lot more of what was going on than she did in the next episode… and she more or less acted as a catalyst to make the events play out the way they were supposed to

31. MY DRAM WAS THE BLUEBOX I LOVE TO BE THE TIME LORD AND GO BAKE IN YAER 1964 BUT BAD.WOLF STOP ME IAM BAD WOLF DAERMS ALL THE TIME

32. BAD WOLF KEEPING ME AWAKE ALL NIGTE DOCTORCAN DOCTOR HALP ME THIS TO DOCTOR CAN YOU COME IN THE BLUE BOX

33. CAN YOU SAND THE TARDIS POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX CAN YOU SAND ONE I LOVE IT BIG IN

34. Good discussion, here, but I think you may have overthought this a bit in regard to Nine and his speech in Dalek. One of the few hard rules of Doctor Who is that whenever The Doctor crosses his own timeline, his past incarnations never remember the encounter with their future selves past the point at which they crossed over.

    So what was The War Doctor doing right before he saw his future incarnations Preparing to end The Time War. At what point did he go back? Just as he was regenerating…

    So odds are he was Nine once the TARDIS landed and his last memory would have been of activating The Moment. By that point, Gallifrey would be gone and the rest of the universe would think The Daleks and Time Lords had blown each other up with The Doctor only remembering what he had done and what the Moment had told him before showing him his future incarnations… that his punishment for activating The Moment would be to survive alone.

    So the whole timeline of the Ninth and Tenth Doctor and their angst at being the last of the Time Lords is upheld, those stories still happen the way they did and we all enjoy a nice cup of tea before moving on with our lives. 🙂

35. I really like this theory! From the beginning I couldn’t believe The Moment isn’t more connected with Bad Wolf itself. Some of her behavior are even very… Rose I would say. Like when War Dr is saying that interface is hot and she jokes, she tries her best or ‘that is gonna happen’ after ‘I could kiss you Bad Wolf Girl… really this is very in Rose style to me… I also rewatched some episodes lately f.e. “Cold War” where Doctor has this barbie doll in his pocket (what was very strange in fact and maybe I am much too big shipper of Dr&Rose, but wasn’t it somehow connected with Rose?Because what would be any reasonable explanation of that? 😛 ) and when Prof. finds screwdriver and the doll, Dr is very happy and even kiss the barbie (?!) saying to him : ‘Proffessor I could kiss you!’. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but.. 😛

    And surely Moment looks at 10 at least twice in Tower like she is Rose herself still loving him… it’s so fast but seriously why would Moment look at him like that?! And to me even later when 10 tells they shouldn’t be here and Moment says about clever boys, firstly she smiles looking at him with glowing eyes like Rose used to… And this bIutton, it really looks like rose… I didn’t even notice all of that when I’ve seen this ep before… Also you’ve written about her clothes and ring, what is really interesting to me, because I didn’t even pay attention to it before and in fact why these clothes? Also she said it’s form from the past or from the future, so maybe it is Rose from the future with Metacrisis indeed and THE RING hmmm… so mayny questions xD

    To me Bad Wolf was always in a big part also Rose and maybe I just love her story with Dcotor too much and love imagining that she is gone now, but created sth what still takes care of her beloved and is with him in his darkest moments. I highly doubt Rose will ever come back again, but it would be wonderful to me if she could not be forgotten by the Doctor and still be somewhere in his life. I know there are some references to her in 7th season, probably just because of Billies appearance in this special ep, but I still hope that maybe I will find at least a little sign he remembers her after that too xD Okay I am hopeless with this ship and sorry, because it was supposed to be short comment this time 😛 But thank you for next great theory! 🙂

36. Wow… wow, wow, wow… this article really blew my mind!!

37. I agree completely. I always thought that Bad Wolf was The Moment, rather than The Moment claiming to take that form. Remember she could see all of time and make changes. I think, from her perspective, she saw two points in the future and past where the Doctor needed help… one when he activated the Moment and destroyed Gallifrey. She went and changed things. The moment was a weapon and she “replaced it” – became the moment, too. Also I am convinced that the “Rose” we see in “Turn Left” was The Bad Wolf, too. I think she snuck in and nudged things along because the Doctor would have died in the parallel world otherwise. I also think this creation of a paradox and parallel world were what was needed to weaken the walls and let the Rose from Pete’s world finally get back through. The episode works fine with it being Rose Rose but it never explains how the Bad Wolf signage was able to suddenly appear again!

38. I believe this is absolutely the only explanation. Bad Wolf became the consciousness of The Moment. The first time around, The Moment didn’t have a consciousness. The Doctor didn’t have to convince the interface to activate The Moment, because it didn’t have a conscience. That wasn’t retroactively written into history until Rose Tyler became Bad Wolf. Rose Tyler is part of Bad Wolf — the whole of Rose Tyler, from birth to death. But not vice versa. That’s why the others always remembered simply destroying Gallifrey; because that’s what happened before Bad Wolf changed things. The Doctor’s not talking to part of Bad Wolf’s consciousness, left behind. He’s talking to her — directly to Bad Wolf. She’s there. She’s at all points in time that she wants to be, all in that span of a few minutes. She can spend as much time as she wants at each point, because she exists outside of time. She doesn’t want the older two to know she’s there, because it would just cause them emotional pain, and she knows the younger Doctor will forget her.

39. Did you notice the Day of the Doctor is really happening in duality every thing is happening in 2s

    Thats why we see 2 7ths Doctors 2 Elizabeths and 2 of everything els,

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