Doctor Who Series Nine Heading to Familiar Location?

Another day, another new bit of information pertaining to Series Nine of Doctor Who. In this case, the new information comes in the form of three different pictures from a familiar location in the Doctor’s past. Eddie’s Diner happens to be the location where the Doctor called Amy, Rory and River to meet with him during the events of The Impossible Astronaut. That backdrop in the window looks a lot like the setting in Utah where that episode had been filmed.

Now, why would the Doctor head back to this particular point in time? It is here where he was supposed to die, with River being incarcerated for his murder. It is certainly a strange time to head back to with Clara, unless there was something specifically drawing him back.

Perhaps that is exactly the case. While it is easy to think that there is something in that particular moment when he “dies” that the Twelfth Doctor is looking for, maybe it is just the location. This Doctor has had quite a few references to his past incarnations and travels already, from the various outfits and mannerisms on down to his very own face.

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Given the different nods to his past, it would make sense that, if the Doctor is heading back to that point in time, he is searching for something from that past as well. Since the overarching storyline since the Doctor discovered that Gallifrey is not actually lost, but rather misplaced, perhaps the Doctor is going back into his past for clues that could help him find his home planet. After all, the Twelfth Doctor’s memory was not exactly there when his regeneration completed. Maybe there are still gaps in his recollections, just as the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors could not recall that they actually saved Gallifrey, instead of destroying it.

And what about Clara in the waitress outfit? Could it be that, instead of being his companion, this is instead one of the multitude of Claras that came into being when she threw herself into the Doctor’s timestream? Some incarnation of Clara was there during virtually every important moment in the Doctor’s history, and the point in time when the Doctor was supposed to die would certainly seem to be exactly that.

Do these photos hint that the Doctor will be exploring his past in Series Nine of Doctor Who? It would certainly be interesting to see those moments through the eyes of the Doctor.

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