A non regeneration regeneration story
There’s David Tennant being gunned down (eek! that’s rather unWhovian) by Neil Patrick Harris and we knew this was when he was going to regenerate at the end of the 60th anniversary specials and then… nope.
Instead of the normal regeneration from Tennant’s 14th Doctor into Ncuti Gatwa’s 15 Doctor, we get this weird bi-generation… thing.
And suddenly there are two doctors (and not in a 10 year anniversary let’s get two actors back to play the Doctor at the same time type way) and the internet goes crazy.
This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. Hell, Vox called it a ‘betrayal.’
Russell T Davies has come back as the showrunner. Tennant came back as the 14th Doctor. It’s the 60th anniversary. Disney has licensed the outside UK rights for the show (and it taking a hand in its production to boot). The word is ‘mavity’ rather than ‘gravity’ now. It’s all a bit odd.
Davies has always had a hard time letting Tennant’s Doctor go. He did it before. He’s done it again. Thought I don’t think that all of the blame can lie at his feet. I have to assume that Disney has a hand in all of this. Tennant is the most popular Doctor (yes, I hear you Classic Who fans screaming at me right now but it’s pretty much the truth), so bring him back for the specials.
And then don’t regenerate him cause what if Gatwa is a dud and you need an exit hatch so that you can keep the IP alive (nothing quite Disney having chips on the table when it comes to zombifying an IP).
The episode itself is fun in the way that really only Doctor Who is allowed to be. Neil Patrick Harris dances to the Spice Girls. It’s great. He does close up magic. It’s great (and apparently the reason he got the part). It’s all very silly and very much in the Davies mode (namely, he’s not much of a storyteller but he is very good at cutting to the emotional core of a narrative). Oh, and Mel turns up cause… reasons (probably that Bonnie Langford doesn’t do much these days).
And then we get the bi-generation. Is it dumb? For sure. Could it lead some interesting places? Perhaps, if Davies can get out of his way.
Of course, in the land of the internets they are howling. “It’s not the real Doctor!”, “It’s a clone!”, “Here’s how the 14th Doctor will properly regenerate into the 15th…”, “Buy my crypto”, “Bi-generation makes no sense cause canon says…”, “I don’t like the new Doctor cause he’s black”, “So obviously this mean The Rani is coming back right?”, “The One Who Waits is…”
Not to be too unkind but who cares?
The funny thing about a show that has run as long as Doctor Who is that nothing was lore until it was. The Doctor didn’t have two hearts until he did. The Doctor wasn’t a Time Lord until he was (and they didn’t have a planet until they did). And the Doctor didn’t regenerate until he did.
Which is, more than anything, what the specials made me think about.
It’s 1966. William Hartnell has been playing the Doctor on a show called Doctor Who for 3 years. He is becoming frail. Old. Slowed.
Doctor Who is a popular show. Not as popular as it will become but popular none the less.
The BBC would have no issue with the show continuing but they need a leading man that can carry it well (particularly after Ian and Barbara had left and Susan has been reduced to a scream monkey).
If Hartnell could not continue then there were two options that are available to all shows faced with such a dilemma. Recasting or cancellation.
It isn’t clear who came up with the idea of regeneration but whoever had that germ of an idea had one of the greatest ideas in the history of television.
For regeneration allowed them to do both recasting and cancellation and neither, all at the same time.
For sure, Doctor Who was born with an outstanding story engine (a man with a box that can go anywhere or anywhen, delicious). But regeneration is the gloss that allowed for its longevity.
When we think of Doctor Who, we think of it as a continuous show (accepting the cancellation in 1989, and the wilderness years following). But it is anything but.
Every 3 years (on average, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter) a show called Doctor Who is cancelled. And every 3 years (on average) a new show called Doctor Who starts. Those shows sometimes look the same. Sometimes they have overlap in cast or crew (or both). But make no mistake, they are new shows every time.
The old is cast off so that the new can be experienced. The best regeneration stories have always been those that refuted the old show to make way for the new show.
While New Who often makes the cancellation less abrupt and searing, Classic Who went to great lengths to create a separate identity for the new shows to come. Troughton was very much a refutation of Hartnell. Pertwee is a significantly different show to Troughton Who (and Baker Who for that matter). Hell, the very first episode of Baker’s Doctor Who is essentially about dismantling the show as it was during Pertwee’s tenure as the Doctor.
Then of course, Colin Baker literally was cancelled from the show. To the extent that Sylvester McCoy had to perform the regeneration in a Colin Baker wig.
Every Doctor is scripted to be a departure from the Doctor before because the show is a different show.
Which is amazing. No other show can do this. Once that genie is let out of the box it is always something that only Doctor Who can do. Maybe a show could do it once in some variation on it but that would be it, they certainly couldn’t keep doing it across 60 years and 15 television shows all called the same thing (plus a couple of movies… do we count Peter Cushing as a Doctor? And if not, why not?)
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and get up to mischief at New Years. I’m writing this deep in the liminal week and despite all my years alive, I’ve still not properly worked out how to come at this period of the year.