Howling:Is the Doctor's name a Carrionite spell?

The Howling → Is the Doctor's name a Carrionite spell?

There be spoilers about un-released stories here.
Run back to the forums if you're scared.

I've been thinking lately that the Doctor's name couldn't be that dangerous as a normal name. For example, we know Goth and Romana's full names, so if the Doctor's name was normal for a Gallifreyan, it wouldn't be at all dangerous to space and time continuing.

Which has lead me onto something...

Not even the Carrionites know his true name, while the Silence are intent on stopping him speaking it at all, specifically on the fields on Trenzalore. Could there be the possibility that the Doctor's name is a Carrionite spell? Carrionite science is used by speaking the right words at the the right time with the right shapes present, so perhaps they know that if he speaks his name on Trenzalore, at a specific time, it will unleash something?

I don't see how his name could be dangerous, that's all.

Gallifrey102 ☎ 19:14, August 27, 2012 (UTC)

A Carrionite spell (or something along the same lines) is a possibility. As I recall, it wasn't only that the Carrionites didn't know his true name. They couldn't even find it out & were very surprised by that. Remember, also, Reinette (The Girl in the Fireplace) said, "It's more than just a secret," while she was reading his mind. --78.146.182.62^{talk to me} 22:39, August 27, 2012 (UTC)

I doubt it's a Carrionite spell, but it may be relevant to the Carrionite idea of "the power of the name." Don't forget though, the mystery isn't just the Doctor's name. The Master, the Rani, the Monk, the Corsair (I may be missing a few), all seem to hide their names just like the Doctor. The pattern would seem to be that renegade Time Lords, for whatever reason, can no longer go by their true names. Even the Time Lords refer to the Doctor and the Master by their chosen names instead of their true names. Their are a few possible explanations for this. One is that when a Time Lord runs away from Gallifrey, the Time Lord's take away their name as some sort of punishment. The other is that when a Time Lord runs away from Gallifrey, it would be too dangerous to allow anyone else to know their name, so they deliberately hide it, from even the Time Lords. The Carrionites are, in all likelihood, not involved with the current story arc, but the same technobabble phenomenon that gives them power over names may be why renegade Time Lords hide their names. It is also likely that the Doctor's name is somehow relevant to the TARDIS explosion from season 5. Maybe after finding out the Doctor's name on Trenzalore, the Silence were able to use the name to gain the TARDIS' trust and cause it to explode.Icecreamdif ☎ 00:28, August 29, 2012 (UTC)

I take it you go for "something along the same lines", rather than an actual Carrionite spell. Fair enough -- if the power of the name works for the Carrionites, it ought to work for others, too.

I'm not sure you're not misleading yourself, though, by assuming that the pseudonymous Time Lords all use pseudonyms for exactly the same reason. Some humans in the real world use pseudonyms but their reasons for doing so vary. The same is quite likely to be true of Time Lords. If, as seems to be the case, there was an existing tradition of some Time Lords adopting pseudonyms, that could be used as "cover" by one Time Lord who had a special, different reason for concealing his name. --78.146.188.39^{talk to me} 11:33, August 29, 2012 (UTC)

What's interesting is that the Silence were probaly on Earth when the Carrionites were so the whole power of name idea could be related to the question that must not be answered. 87.102.83.229^{talk to me} 13:40, August 29, 2012 (UTC)