From Companion to Doctor

[Qonundrum]

I think the 'still cooking' line and a few other points in Who's history allow for the possibility that we may not even get a single Billie episode as the Doctor.

In the 11th Hour he said he was still cooking, and in The Time of the Doctor we get 11 resetting to his young self 'this is just the reset'.

In The Christmas Invasion he loses a hand and regrows it because he's still within the first 15 hours of his regeneration cycle.

Throw in Ten channeling his regeneration energy into his severed arm, River using her remaining regenerations to save the Doctor, River also suggesting she could control her regeneration ("I'm focusing on a dress size" and dialling down her age to freak people out) and of course going all the way back to 1979 we have Romana trying on new bodies like they were outfits* and you can see where this could go.

The Doctor staggers back into the Tardis, she finds a mirror, looks at her reflection, see's it's Rose and goes "No! No, no, no, no...NO!" scrunches her eyes really tight and regenerates again into Dan Stevens or Olivia Colman, or Riz Ahmed.

Might be a bit disappointing so assuming Billie is the Doctor it'd be fun if she got at least one adventure within the first 15 hours before deciding that looking like Rose would just be way too distracting.

*And of course Destiny of the Daleks also establishes a timelord consciously or unconsciously choosing to look like someone they've met before, long before Five or Eleven regenerated into familiar faces.

I'd be funny if this latest development actually followed through. With fans complaining about how Omega, the Rani, and others were used out of character or scenes/season arcs not lining up as expected, why would something direct in line with continuity be done now?

 

[FredH]

Sigh. While the series currently seems unlikely to continue in its current form, I seem to be the only person on Earth who would be PERFECTLY FINE watching Billie Piper as the 16th Doctor.

 

[JD]

Seriously, if they were going to do a rerun with this regeneration, why not make things right and give it to Paul McGann? THAT would get me to resubscribe to the channel the show is on here, and I would watch the hell out of it.

And don't tell me about the audio adventures. They were never available here, other than a couple I saw in a bookstore once. Since audio books literally put me to sleep, I've never heard them and for me they do not exist (it's not because the story is boring; I fell asleep during an audio version of DS9's Fallen Heroes, which I regard as one of the very best Star Trek: DS9 novels, but because the human voice reading something puts me to sleep).

If you're in the US there are several ways to get access to them, you can buy them either as CD sets or digitally on the official Big Finish website, you can also listen to a whole bunch of them for free on Spotify as the Into the TARDIS podcast, which is hosted by "Old Sixy" himself Colin Baker, and has extra behind the scenes interviews at the end of each episode, or if you have a library card and your library gives you access to the Hoopla app, it has a ton of them that you can borrow digitally. I haven't bought any off the website yet, but I have listened to two or three through Into The TARDIS, and borrowed two or three through Hoopla. They're a lot of fun, it's listening to new episodes without the visual element.

 

[FredH]

^^^^^^^

They’re all available for purchase at bigfinish.com, and have been for many years.

 

[Timewalker]

Thanks, but I did make the point that listening without the visual element usually puts me to sleep.

Music is different, because it's music. Get somebody speaking for too long and I can't see them, and I'm just going to nod off.

If there were novelized editions of these audio adventures, that would be a different thing. I could read those.

 

[VDCNI]

Might be worth trying one given they are audio dramas not audio books.

They're not just reading alone, they're acting so there's multiple voices, effects and music.

 

[Timewalker]

I think the 'still cooking' line and a few other points in Who's history allow for the possibility that we may not even get a single Billie episode as the Doctor.

In the 11th Hour he said he was still cooking, and in The Time of the Doctor we get 11 resetting to his young self 'this is just the reset'.

In The Christmas Invasion he loses a hand and regrows it because he's still within the first 15 hours of his regeneration cycle.

Throw in Ten channeling his regeneration energy into his severed arm, River using her remaining regenerations to save the Doctor, River also suggesting she could control her regeneration ("I'm focusing on a dress size" and dialling down her age to freak people out) and of course going all the way back to 1979 we have Romana trying on new bodies like they were outfits* and you can see where this could go.

The Doctor staggers back into the Tardis, she finds a mirror, looks at her reflection, see's it's Rose and goes "No! No, no, no, no...NO!" scrunches her eyes really tight and regenerates again into Dan Stevens or Olivia Colman, or Riz Ahmed.

Might be a bit disappointing so assuming Billie is the Doctor it'd be fun if she got at least one adventure within the first 15 hours before deciding that looking like Rose would just be way too distracting.

*And of course Destiny of the Daleks also establishes a timelord consciously or unconsciously choosing to look like someone they've met before, long before Five or Eleven regenerated into familiar faces.

When did Five regenerate into a familiar face? Unless the Doctor was a secret fan of All Creatures Great and Small, or happened to catch one of the worst Tomorrow People stories ("A Man for Emily" that featured Peter Davison in shiny silver hot pants, a curly blond wig, and a cowboy hat)...

It was the Sixth Doctor who regenerated into a familiar face - one of the Gallifreyan guards who shot the Fifth Doctor.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

When did Five regenerate into a familiar face? Unless the Doctor was a secret fan of All Creatures Great and Small, or happened to catch one of the worst Tomorrow People stories ("A Man for Emily" that featured Peter Davison in shiny silver hot pants, a curly blond wig, and a cowboy hat)...

It was the Sixth Doctor who regenerated into a familiar face - one of the Gallifreyan guards who shot the Fifth Doctor.

That's what he means. The Fifth and Eleventh Doctors regenerated to the familiar faces of Colin Baker and Peter Capaldi.

 

[Starkers]

That's what he means. The Fifth and Eleventh Doctors regenerated to the familiar faces of Colin Baker and Peter Capaldi.

Exactly.