It seems that nobody has ever really been able to agree on what genre Faction Paradox is - it could arguably fit into fantasy, sci-fi, weird fiction, magical realism, or a billion other categories. The Daleks were ruled out as “the Enemy” in Alien Bodies, but they don’t need to be for this theory to work - they just need to be capable of hitting the Time Lords hard. What the “current” eighth Doctor doesn’t know - but which his future self does - is that, in the future, the War’s going so badly that the Daleks are heading for Gallifrey. For this to be the case, it involves the introduction of the tiniest bit of extra information: the War that’s being fought in the future has the Daleks in it and at some point they make a decisive move on Gallifrey. Following this defeat, it’s Grandfather Paradox who regenerates into Eccleston (growing his arm back in the process). He goes back to The Ancestor Cell having done all that, confronts his earlier self… Who then outsmarts him by blowing up Gallifrey. So it’s Grandfather Paradox who has fought the Last Great Time War, the Daleks, the Nestenes, and so on. If this theory is true, the Doctor’s memories of the War are conflicted because he was literally fighting his (earlier) self over “pulling the lever” that destroyed Gallifrey. As for the destruction of Gallifrey - The Doctor’s description in Dalek, “I watched it happen … I made it happen… I tried to stop it” is a neat summary of his actions in The Ancestor Cell. In The Gallifrey Chronicles recap of the end of The Ancestor Cell, Grandfather Paradox even wears a leather coat. Moreover, this future eighth Doctor fits everything we know about the Doctor who fought the Time War: fighting a vast time war has scarred him, made him lose his faith in humanity, made him a little callous. Surprisingly, this already fits what we know from The Ancestor Cell - the Doctor’s future self, Grandfather Paradox was there. If there was only one destruction of Gallifrey, he and his future self would have to be present, and both culpable. But this doesn’t rule out it being the same event. One of my favorite parts of AHistory is when Parkin presents a fascinating Time-War theory that combines the RTD era NuWho lore and The Gallifrey Chronicles’ retconned version of The Ancestor Cell: But could Gallifrey have been destroyed just once? The Doctor certainly experiences the destruction of Gallifrey twice, in two different contexts. Parkin’s original intent with his hint of the Eighth Doctor’s final moments, betrayed by his companions, was born in 2009, before The End of Time had aired, when the Time War was still mostly mystery.
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