John Hurt is The Doctor #DoctorWho

If you watched the season finale of Doctor Who then you already know that John Hurt makes an appearance at the end as The Doctor. A coworker, who is a bigger Whovian than myself and the person who go me watching, informed me that there was a gap between doctors 8 & 9. I started watching with the "reboot" and the 9th Doctor, and therefore don't know much about the predecessors.

Well it seems that Spinoff Online at Comic Book Resources has learned some interesting information. If the ending scene didn't make it obvious John Hurt is The Doctor, but not the replacement for Matt Smith after his departure this Christmas. Instead he is a prior regeneration of a "dark" Doctor that was to this point unknown and will fit between the 8th Doctor; Paul McGann and 9th Doctor; Christopher Eccleston.

This is the Doctor what would have been around during the Time War, and considering all the things we have learned about how bad it was, and the extremes The Doctor went through including the destruction and genocide of both the Daleks and the Time Lords on Gallifrey. I can only imagine how evil this version could be and I'd almost imagine he could give The Master a run for his money on that front.

I'm not sure if this will effect the numbering because the 11th Doctor (Smith) stated that Hunt's character doesn't get to call himself the "Doctor" because of what he did. That would mean Eccleston is still considered the 9th with the title and named of The Doctor. Hunt will appear in the 50th anniversary special, but it's unknown if he will reprise his role into Season 8 when we get our new Doctor.

You can read the full article here.