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Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner

I could also see the clothing regeneration as another way to signal to the audience that this isn't a degeneration, but a new doctor with an old face.
 
I could also see the clothing regeneration as another way to signal to the audience that this isn't a degeneration, but a new doctor with an old face.

Not sure if it's been mentioned but there's also the practicality. David is a lot bigger than Jodie so they'd have had to make a complete new costume for him and then we'd be arguing about how her clothes suddenly became a lot bigger after the regeneration.
 
This was always going to be one issue when you had a female Doctor (not remotely a deal breaker but something that surely people had at the back of their minds. Whittaker's outfit is particularly feminine (and how many blokes have we seen cosplay as 13 and look great?) and it would have been so much more difficult if 13 had wore and outfit like, say, Missy. Imagine Tennant suddenly dressed like Mary Poppins! (Let's not forget Tennant has form for cross dressing).

What's annoying is that this could have been handled with just a couple of minutes thought. Just ensure when Jodie regenerates she's wearing something a bit more gender neutral. A space suit, a pair of overalls, hell put her in the DJ she wore in Spyfall.

I appreciate the BBC like a Doctor to look like their Doctor when they regenerate but this is an atypical situation.

Or RTD could have just shown Tennant from the chest up so you wouldn't have even seen much of Jodie's outfit.

It's a tiny hill to die on and I'm not that bothered. It just irks because there were ways around it, and given we've seen Ncuti clearly wearing Tennant's shirt it looks like the next regeneration will be more standard.

I'm still hoping that explanation will come down to something the Celestial Toymaker (if that's who Harris is playing) has done in this instance.
 
Basically, while I get his reasoning behind regenerating 13 and her clothes into Tennant, I don't really agree with his take. I'm sure most of us were looking forward to seeing Tennant in Whittaker's outfit?
 
Tennant looking like Mork from Ork would have been great because that's what I see when I see Whittaker's Doctor, Mork. It's a great outfit showing out of the norm without being bizarre. As far as the clothes changing, no stranger than the person changing. The Highlander light show they do for regeneration is a hell of a lot more annoying than a change in clothes.
 
Concerning the "Highlander light show" (I admit I smiled at that term), how many of us assumed what Eccleston experienced was an expulsion of time vortex energy. I mean, Rose cracks open the console; the vortex power enters her; Eccleston sucks it out with a kiss; and finally he flushes it from his system as he regenerates into Tennant. At least that's what I thought was the explanation for the golden flames. But then we see Derek Jacobi regenerate into John Simm with a very similar effect. Tennant in "Journey's End" redirects the same style flames to his severed hand to partially control the outcome. And finally in "The End of Time" Tennant regenerates into Smith, cementing the "golden flames" as the de-facto regeneration effect.

Sorry for rambling. My point being, how many of us assumed the Eccleston to Tennant effect was a one time thing due to circumstances and figured their next regeneration would be something different?

Please, this is not a complaint, merely an observation.
 
What we do know is that the light show gets progressively more violent.
And it‘s only the Doctor‘s that is. Ow so spectacular.
Most other Time Lords we see experience a bit of a glow and that‘s it. Maybe River was the exception?
You could still argue that the time vortex energy fundamentally changed the Doctor‘s regeneration style.
 
After Smith->Capaldi, I was hoping for a reset to a more subdued regeneration. I liked how that one was Smith basically jerked and it was over, he was Capaldi.
 
Not sure if it's been mentioned but there's also the practicality. David is a lot bigger than Jodie so they'd have had to make a complete new costume for him and then we'd be arguing about how her clothes suddenly became a lot bigger after the regeneration.
Well, that's already happened before. Colin Baker had a larger version of Peter Davison's costume tailored to fit him for his post-regeneration scene.
Concerning the "Highlander light show" (I admit I smiled at that term), how many of us assumed what Eccleston experienced was an expulsion of time vortex energy. I mean, Rose cracks open the console; the vortex power enters her; Eccleston sucks it out with a kiss; and finally he flushes it from his system as he regenerates into Tennant. At least that's what I thought was the explanation for the golden flames. But then we see Derek Jacobi regenerate into John Simm with a very similar effect. Tennant in "Journey's End" redirects the same style flames to his severed hand to partially control the outcome. And finally in "The End of Time" Tennant regenerates into Smith, cementing the "golden flames" as the de-facto regeneration effect.

Sorry for rambling. My point being, how many of us assumed the Eccleston to Tennant effect was a one time thing due to circumstances and figured their next regeneration would be something different?

Please, this is not a complaint, merely an observation.
IIRC, the original intent when Parting of the Ways was made was that the light show was meant to be the Vortex energy being expelled from the Doctor's body. Indeed, I believe the Doctor Who Visual Dictionary released back in the day even states as much. But then when doing Utopia, RTD wanted the audience to realize the Master was regenerating without dialogue to establish it, and it was decided that replicating the regeneration effect from Parting of the Ways was the best way to do that. After that, the regeneration "volcano" (as it's described in The Writer's Tale) became the standard effect.
After Smith->Capaldi, I was hoping for a reset to a more subdued regeneration. I liked how that one was Smith basically jerked and it was over, he was Capaldi.
Technically, Smith's regeneration begins when he's out on the clock tower's balcony and the regenerative energy explodes out to destroy the Dalek saucer and all the Daleks in the town. The scene where Smith jerks his head back and instantly becomes Capaldi was just the regeneration completing itself.
 
Well, that's already happened before. Colin Baker had a larger version of Peter Davison's costume tailored to fit him for his post-regeneration scene.
I've largely put the Twin Dilemma out of my mind (and I never see it again, it will be too soon) so I don't recall how much time he spent in other then directly after "change my dear and not a moment too soon" but still more than what would have been on screen if David had been in Jodie's costume.

Plus it wouldn't have been that much of a different - Colin is 6" tall though a bit stockier, Peter is 6"1.

David is 6"1 and Jodie is 5"5 so yeah big difference :)

Though going from Tom to Peter iirc they just re-used the existing costume as I seem to recall it being large on the 5th Doctor.
 
IIRC, the original intent when Parting of the Ways was made was that the light show was meant to be the Vortex energy being expelled from the Doctor's body. Indeed, I believe the Doctor Who Visual Dictionary released back in the day even states as much. But then when doing Utopia, RTD wanted the audience to realize the Master was regenerating without dialogue to establish it, and it was decided that replicating the regeneration effect from Parting of the Ways was the best way to do that. After that, the regeneration "volcano" (as it's described in The Writer's Tale) became the standard effect.

Ah, so that was the original plan, but reused for the Master as dialogue free shorthand. I began to wonder if I "misread" those visual elements.
 
Just as a perfect summation of how much things have changed in terms of communication with the audience Russell casually revealed that Episode 7 of Series 14 (which won't air until Spring 2024!) is set in America in 1947. Sounds like it could be a Roswell story to me, and I'm betting with the extra cash it'll actually be shot in New Mexico.
 
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