Prophecies are a tricky business in Doctor Who – when you can travel in time, why not just skip ahead to check, or travel back to change the outcome? To get around this, they tend to be infuriatingly vague.


Enter ‘the hybrid’ – an old Time Lord prophecy, which apparently the Doctor will have a hand in creating. But who and what is it? Let’s run through some possibilities.

It’s Clara

The departing companion is probably the most obvious candidate. Much has been made this series about Clara going too far; the Doctor even tried to leave her in the Tardis at the beginning of Under the Lake, to curb her thrill seeking ways.

It’s been implied that in the wake of Danny’s death she has been relying on the Doctor too much, in the process somehow losing her humanity. Our bet is that the hybrid is less a literal splicing of species than a symbol for what Clara has become.

As well as calling herself ‘the Doctor’ in one of last year’s best episodes, Clara has been a hybrid before – as part of her still-baffling ‘impossible girl’ storyline, previous versions of Clara have been Dalek hybrids and Time Lord hybrids and all sorts. If she is repeating the trick, Clara would be following in the footsteps of former companion Donna Noble, who was transformed into the DoctorDonna, a Timelord/Human hybrid.

It’s Ashildr

The Doctor himself called Ashildr a hybrid of human and Mire technology, and she’s now immortal. However, following the rule that anyone who is explicitly referenced as a solution is a red herring, she probably isn’t the ‘real’ hybrid.

It’s the Daleks

In the opening two parter, Davros planed to steal the Doctor’s regeneration energy to make new Dalek/Time Lord hybrids. While boasting about how clever he was, Davros revealed his knowledge of the Time Lord prophecy, because as well as being a megalomaniacal geneticist he’s a galactic anthropologist. However, the Doctor foiled his plans (sort of), and it’s never been clear what a Dalek/Time Lord hybrid would actually be. A Dalek in a fez?

It’s the Doctor

Capaldi’s Doctor is an introspective old soul, and his series are voyages of self-discovery. The ‘hybrid’ may be some form of epiphany the Doctor has – perhaps that he is a child of two worlds, or he’s both a Doctor and a warrior, or that he’s a little bit country AND a little bit rock and roll.

On a more basic level, the Doctor previously described himself as “half human on his mother’s side” in the TV movie. Bringing back and explaining this controversial tid-bit is exactly the sort of thing Moffat would enjoy.


The Doctor’s got a new ride

What do you think the hybrid is? Tell us below!