I just watched the seventh season finale of the new DOCTOR WHO series, which featured a cliffhanger ending that (obligatory spoiler warning) introduced John Hurt (Alien, Nineteen Eighty-Four) as the Doctor. At that point, my wife turned to me and said, “If this old guy is the new Doctor, you’re watching this show on your own from now on.”

So, John Hurt is the Doctor, except he’s not really the Doctor. I suppose the main character does change faces and personalities every few years, so it shouldn’t surprise me if he also appears to suffer from dissociative disorder. He sort of reminds me of Prince in the 1990s after he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol and referred to his former self in the third person. Perhaps the finale would have played out better if it had actually featured Prince.

(PRINCE holds CLARA tight but suddenly reacts with horror when he glimpses a figure in the distance.)

CLARA: Who’s that?
PRINCE: Never mind. Let’s go back.
CLARA: But who is he?
PRINCE: He’s me. There’s only me here, that’s the point. Now let’s get back.
CLARA: But I never saw that one. I saw all of you. The Dirty Mind you, the Purple Rain you, the Parade you, the Sign o’ the Times you…
PRINCE: I said he was me. I never said he was Prince.
CLARA: I don’t understand.
DOCTOR: Look, my name, my real name, that is not the point. The name I chose is Prince. The name you choose, it’s like, it’s like a promise you make. He’s the one who broke the promise.
(CLARA faints.)
PRINCE Clara? Clara? Clara!
(PRINCE has a bodyguard pick up Clara in his arms.)
PRINCE: He is my secret.
NOT PRINCE: What I did, I did without choice.
PRINCE: I know.
NOT PRINCE: In the name of peace and sanity.
PRINCE: But not in the name of Prince!
(PRINCE’s bodyguard carries Clara and Prince away. The figure turns around to introduce Jamie Foxx as O+>).