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Jodie Whittaker is the 13th Doctor

Oh for sure, I'll be surprised if we don't see Reece Shearsmith show up as the Second Doctor. Though this does raise the question, will he be wearing Bradley's Hartnell costume like he really should be, or will he instantly be in Troughton costume, like Troughton himself was in Power of the Daleks?

And yeah, Capaldi regenerating into Whitaker will most certainly be straightforward.
 
Was reading an online article in the radio times about maybe being two regenerations in the Christmas special, and what if we saw the second doctor again in some form, and then the thought occurred. What if Capaldi doesn't regenerate in to Jodie Whittaker? What if David Bradley does?

It would be quite a Moffatty thing to do. I wouldn't like that. Even with some kind of memory transfer to Bradley before Capaldi burned out from resisting his regeneration, it'd still be a monumental reset that even the Voyager staff couldn't countenance.

I tend to be wrong about such things, luckily.

Ah, I missed the traditional TrekBBS theory suggesting Doctor Who was teeing up a Total Continuity Reset.
 
Then the thought occurred. What if Capaldi doesn't regenerate in to Jodie Whittaker? What if David Bradley does?

It would be quite a Moffatty thing to do. I wouldn't like that. Even with some kind of memory transfer to Bradley before Capaldi burned out from resisting his regeneration, it'd still be a monumental reset that even the Voyager staff couldn't countenance.

Believe me, Butters, I've entertained the exact same thought. You're right, it would be "quite a Moffatty thing to do." Capaldi's Doctor actually dies, releasing all sorts of bottled energy, and that causes Bradley's Doctor's regeneration to go awry, and instead of regenerating into Troughton the first Doctor regenerates into Whittaker.

If Moffat were continuing with the show, he may well have done that. But he's not, and that move would break all of the toys on his way out the door.

On top of that, Capaldi had to be convinced to do the Christmas special, and my gut feeling is that if he were presented with a script that did this he'd have said no because he's such a fan and he'd recognize how badly this would break the show.
 
What would be the point of doing a continuity reset, however? Wouldn't that only serve to completely alienate entire generations of fans who now have to deal with a "Prime" timeline and a "Whitaker" timeline? We've seen how well that's worked with Trek fandom... I can see why they did it with Trek... It made sense, at least in MHO, but why would it with DW? There's simply no reason to wipe out an entire timeline of Doctors like that, especially since Matt Smith's Doctor was given an entire new set of regenerations AND since precedent has been set with casting new actors in the roles of Doctors who have passed away ... I could see using a reset as a plot device if they hadn't given him a new set of regenerations, but that point is now moot..
 
What would be the point of doing a continuity reset, however? Wouldn't that only serve to completely alienate entire generations of fans...?

I think that was the point. Some fans are (hopefully just jokingly) suggesting The Moff' would want to do that simply out of spite, as a kind of final, monumental "F*** you!!!" to the fans who have questioned his decisions as showrunner. Basically, it would be like, "So, you lil' s!ts didn't like how I ran this show? Well, let's see how you deal with this!"

But as others have noted, even if Moffatt were that "bitter" (and I feel fans are greatly exaggerating things), too many factors (like Capaldi agreeing to a final story) to let him pull so extreme a stunt, metaphorically tossing a grenade into a room that he is leaving.
 
I think that was the point. Some fans are (hopefully just jokingly) suggesting The Moff' would want to do that simply out of spite, as a kind of final, monumental "F*** you!!!" to the fans who have questioned his decisions as showrunner. Basically, it would be like, "So, you lil' s!ts didn't like how I ran this show? Well, let's see how you deal with this!"

The reason I felt the idea of regenerating Bradley into Whittaker sounded like a Moffat thing to do is that Moffat would be one to say, "Well, this will melt the fans' brains and they'll never guess what we'll do next!" It's the self-promoter in Moffat that would love it. The storyteller in Moffat, though, would do absolutely nothing with it (though I'm intrigued by the idea of Whittaker traveling with Ben, Polly, and potentially Jamie), just as he did absolutely nothing with rebooting the entire universe in "The Big Bang" except to say in an interview that Amy was now a different person because she had a different history.
 
Did Liz Shaw even get inside the TARDIS, ever?

On the TV series, not that we ever saw. And it seemed to be implied that the Doctor was pretty protective of anyone besides him going inside at that point. I don't think we saw the interior of the TARDIS again until a few stories into Jo's tenure. ("The Claws of Axos"? "Colony in Space"? I don't fully recall right now.)

In the expanded universe, there's a really good BBC novel called "The Wages of Sin." It takes place slightly after the Doctor got a new dematerialization circuit in "The Three Doctors." Apparently, he always promised Liz a trip in the TARDIS if he ever got it working again. So, he, Liz, & Jo all travel back to Russia in 1916, where they meet Rasputin. It's a fun little pure historical. I highly recommend it.

This was never brought up... but Vicki and Zoe might have been hard core gamers? Since they both LOVED computers and came from the future where video games must'a'been are so cool, it'd be almost impossible not to play hard during all your off hours.

Considering how dangerous their real travels are with the Doctor, they'd probably choose something much more mundane for video games. Nothing but wall-to-wall Candy Crush and Farmville! :D (Although I could see Zoe perhaps being a hardcore Sim City fan.)

I'm convinced the eleventh Doctor and Clara were sexual by the time of "Day of the Doctor" (the flirting sequence with the motorcycle reads like a coded 1940s screwball comedy) and Clara's behavior toward the Doctor after the regeneration makes sense if she's grieving for a dead lover who isn't exactly dead and gone. The Christmas dinner sequence of "The Time of the Doctor" is also suggestive of a sexual relationship between the Doctor and Clara; that reads like a Richard Curtis rom-com, with Clara's family meeting her insane live-in boyfriend.

If the Doctor & Clara were actually sexual, I don't think he would have been quite so off-footed when Clara asked him to pretend to be her boyfriend in "The Time of the Doctor."

Meanwhile, much as it annoys me, I suspect that the 9th Doctor, Rose, & Jack were having all kinds of inappropriate-for-a-family-show 3-ways in between episodes towards the end of Season 1.

Was reading an online article in the radio times about maybe being two regenerations in the Christmas special, and what if we saw the second doctor again in some form, and then the thought occurred.

Here's my theory: The episode begins with a recap of "The Tenth Planet" that starts out using actual black & white William Hartnell footage, then transitions into color David Bradley footage during the scene that we saw in the trailer. At the end, they'll do a similar transition, morphing from Bradley back into Hartnell before he regenerates into Troughton using the existing footage. Reece Shearsmith will not get a look-in.
 
I don't think Bradley will regenerate in to Jodie, but I have to challenge myself as to why I'd object to it. Would it wipe the other doctors from History?

I think the writer should break convention and throw curved balls and that we as fans should welcome that.
 
Here's my theory: The episode begins with a recap of "The Tenth Planet" that starts out using actual black & white William Hartnell footage, then transitions into color David Bradley footage during the scene that we saw in the trailer. At the end, they'll do a similar transition, morphing from Bradley back into Hartnell before he regenerates into Troughton using the existing footage. Reece Shearsmith will not get a look-in.

I was going to say I wasn't sure, but double checking, I think you may be right. I assumed because of the different background that the black-and-white section of the trailer was just Bradley footage altered to look vintage, but double-checking and doing a side-by-side comparison, it looks like what's actually going on is that for the black and white section, they took Hartnell's head from the original scene and put it on Bradley's body in the new footage. That seems like a lot of work for a trailer if you're not that guy on YouTube, so it's possible that transition actually will be in the special, so they might be planning to go out on the same device. I'm not sure, though.

It would seem to me like putting a hat on a hat, and it's hard to go back and forth between black and white and color. If I were going to do it, I'd have to have the episode begin with Tenth Planet footage, go to color once, and then only go back to black and white at the very end, which is a problem because it makes a lot more sense to end on the new Doctor... that is, on the new Thirteenth Doctor, rather than the new Second Doctor. It'd be weird to go back to pillar-boxed black and white, and then jump back into HD living color for Capaldi's final scenes and regeneration.

All in all, I'd prefer an all-new redo of the regeneration scene instead of just a tease. That still wouldn't require a Second Doctor, he's not moving, they can just use a photo, or bust, or digital double. They did it with Eccleston. Twice!
 
I don't think Bradley will regenerate in to Jodie, but I have to challenge myself as to why I'd object to it. Would it wipe the other doctors from History?

I think the writer should break convention and throw curved balls and that we as fans should welcome that.
Well, yes making Jodie Whitaker Hartnell's direct successor does more or less negate all the other Doctors and radically changes the very nature of the show. Besides, this is an episode that wasn't even supposed to happen, Moffat's plan was to have Capaldi regenerate in The Doctor Falls, so it's very clear Whitaker is meant to be Capaldi's successor.

Also, there's a time and a place for this sort of muckery. A bonus episode from the departing showrunner is not at all the appropriate time or place to radically and fundamentally change the show to such a degree. Were I Chibnall and learned Moffat had pulled such a stunt, I'd decide continue with my plans as though that never happened. Not that it'd be much of an issue, I doubt BBC would tolerate such a dick move from Moffat to begin with. "Throwing curveballs" is one thing if there's a purpose to it. There'd be no purpose to this other than "didn't see that coming, did ya?" And we already did that with the War Doctor.
 
^ Of course there's always the possibility that if it happened, the idea originated with the BBC/Chibnall and was designed to wipe the slate clean. Don't get me wrong, I'd hate it, and I don't think it's going to happen, but if it did then clearly the BBC/Chibnall would have to have signed off on it.
 
Yeah, but the problem then becomes, Moffat intended The Doctor Falls to be his and Capaldi's finale. The original plan was to see the Doctor actually regenerate, and rather than a cliffhanger scene setting up an adventure with the First Doctor, the final scene would have been Whitaker's post regeneration scene. This is the background Chibnall would have been working from when he began planning out his season. When Moffat came back to write this Christmas special, Chibnall likely had a pretty solid outline for what he's going to do in his first year and Moffat would have to work around that. And since Chibnall did all this believing Whitaker is Capaldi's direct successor, suddenly revealing she's Hartnell's would massively screw up what he had planned and would change the goal posts for him so drastically than I can't imagine he or the BBC tolerating it.

And besides, given this is an episode that Moffat didn't expect to write or produce and that he had to convince Capaldi to come back for it, it logically is going to be a fun, mostly stand-alone adventure consisting largely of wish-fulfilment for Capaldi and not shaking the franchise up completely.

Besides, is it really fair that Capaldi's finale as the Doctor would be overshadowed by a complete franchise reboot that more or less negates his existence?
 
In the expanded universe, there's a really good BBC novel called "The Wages of Sin." It takes place slightly after the Doctor got a new dematerialization circuit in "The Three Doctors." Apparently, he always promised Liz a trip in the TARDIS if he ever got it working again. So, he, Liz, & Jo all travel back to Russia in 1916, where they meet Rasputin. It's a fun little pure historical. I highly recommend it.

Awww.

So do I, but I'm biased.
 
What if Capaldi doesn't regenerate in to Jodie Whittaker? What if David Bradley does?

I think it's far more likely that Michelle Gomez makes a surprise reappearance and regenerates into David Bradley. (Also not happening – if it would've, it would've been in the finale, not the special)

As for Moffat leaving a mess being a dick move—only if Chibnall didn't agree to it. I think making a mess is part of what Doctor Who has been up to lately. And while I hope Chibnall to move on to more interesting ones, as opposed to a long series of random disappointing ones, I don't expect him to make any less of a mess. And an inserted forgotten Doctor was one of the good ones (my favourite episode or special of all time, in fact), and if there was a place to ever repeat that, where else?

Except there's no story in it to justify such thing right now. As far as my imagination goes...
 
I was going to say I wasn't sure, but double checking, I think you may be right. I assumed because of the different background that the black-and-white section of the trailer was just Bradley footage altered to look vintage, but double-checking and doing a side-by-side comparison, it looks like what's actually going on is that for the black and white section, they took Hartnell's head from the original scene and put it on Bradley's body in the new footage. That seems like a lot of work for a trailer if you're not that guy on YouTube, so it's possible that transition actually will be in the special, so they might be planning to go out on the same device. I'm not sure, though.

It would seem to me like putting a hat on a hat, and it's hard to go back and forth between black and white and color. If I were going to do it, I'd have to have the episode begin with Tenth Planet footage, go to color once, and then only go back to black and white at the very end, which is a problem because it makes a lot more sense to end on the new Doctor... that is, on the new Thirteenth Doctor, rather than the new Second Doctor. It'd be weird to go back to pillar-boxed black and white, and then jump back into HD living color for Capaldi's final scenes and regeneration.

All in all, I'd prefer an all-new redo of the regeneration scene instead of just a tease. That still wouldn't require a Second Doctor, he's not moving, they can just use a photo, or bust, or digital double. They did it with Eccleston. Twice!

Maybe Hartnell's regeneration is colorized and just cleaned up as much as possible? (We've already seen the new series use cleaned up classic series footage in "The Name of the Doctor.") Or maybe the 1st Doctor's regeneration will happen offscreen? Or maybe they will take the classic regeneration shot from Hartnell into Troughton and just drop Bradley into there in Hartnell's place?

^ Of course there's always the possibility that if it happened, the idea originated with the BBC/Chibnall and was designed to wipe the slate clean. Don't get me wrong, I'd hate it, and I don't think it's going to happen, but if it did then clearly the BBC/Chibnall would have to have signed off on it.

Agreed. Kinda like, when I first saw "The End of Time," I was wondering if they were going to be bringing back the Time Lords for good specifically because Moffat asked RTD to do it.
 
Nah, it's going to be more subtle, classy but yet with a bit of humor.

"Something's different this time but I can't place it!" As she smiles at the camara and fades to black.

I wouldn't mind her just glancing downwards at her chest and say something like "I'm going to need to get some brawls" or maybe have her wear a old outfit of a previous companion out in the public as she leaves to go get some female clothing. It doesn't make sense that the Doctor would have tons of woman clothing around if this is the first time he/she has been female.

Jason
 
Did they have closets?

Considering how rarely some of the Companions "changed their clothes" methinks that the TARDIS either cleaned everything while it was stilling being worn, reversed time to repel dust/grime, or made perfect copies of their clothes, as replacements, while everyone was sleeping.
 
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