Which would you choose as an ending for Doctor Who?
- Thread starter Joe Washington
- Start date
Not the same thing. I mean The Doctor as a whole.
But as the Doctor said to Wilf in the cafe, he can be killed. Something immediately fatal will end his life before he has a chance to regenerate.
As to the whole thirteen lives business, that was controversial itself once. Back in The War Games Time Lords were described as living forever, barring accidents. Robert Holmes introduced the twelve regeneration rule in The Deadly Assassin as a plot device, which did not go down at all well with fandom of the time.
So if the series remains popular when thirteen's time is up, they'll find some way to let him regenerate.
As to the whole thirteen lives business, that was controversial itself once. Back in The War Games Time Lords were described as living forever, barring accidents. Robert Holmes introduced the twelve regeneration rule in The Deadly Assassin as a plot device, which did not go down at all well with fandom of the time.
So if the series remains popular when thirteen's time is up, they'll find some way to let him regenerate.
But those two facts aren't mutually exclusive. The Doctor said barring accidents, meaning if they don't get mortally wounded, they won't go through their regenerations, thus remain immortal.
I'm sure if the series is going strong and they want to continue it they will find some way for it to go on. If not, they will reboot it with a new guy with 12 reincarnations, and being modern I'm sure will have to have some needlessly explicit origin story.
I think to some people that is the same thing.
I think to some people that is the same thing.
I reckon that there will be some big finale send off. Massive T.V event that revitalises a by then sagging televisoion show as all the old fans climb out of the wood work to see the end.
Then probably a few years later we will get an even bigger better special as some old companions and whatnot bring the doctor back to life to face some new mega threat unlike ever before. He will win (duh) and then off to new adventures should this pilot be picked up.
Then probably a few years later we will get an even bigger better special as some old companions and whatnot bring the doctor back to life to face some new mega threat unlike ever before. He will win (duh) and then off to new adventures should this pilot be picked up.
People like RTD?
Hope not, reboots, more often than not, SUCK.
Now In the 5 Doctors, Barusa offered The Master a complete new regeneration cycle....maybe the Doc will stumble upon something similar.
Killing the Doctor for good I compare to killing Kirk. Not too many were thrilled with that.
I'm going to do say Number 2 asi doubt they'll kill The Doctor after his 13th Regenration?
Well, yes and no. Script editor Gerry Davis intended for the energy drain from Mondas to trigger the regeneration but it didn't come across the screen well.
Don't get me wrong, I love Doctor Who more than any other show but I want it to have a grand ending (and not being dragged forever, ending on a whimper) and this would be a wonderful ending.
Yeah I know, but that could just as easily be accomplished by killing the 17th Doctor before he can regenerate...heck if needs be you could kill Smith off that way and have the 11th be the last.
Who knows how mucked up the Doctor's DNA is after the Master aging him and turning off his ability to regenerate, not to mention 10 aborting the regeneration in Journey's End!
Who knows how mucked up the Doctor's DNA is after the Master aging him and turning off his ability to regenerate, not to mention 10 aborting the regeneration in Journey's End!
Trying to answer Joe Washington's original question if they were to end the series and adhere to the 13 incarnations...then I would have the Doctor go out in a glorious batter against the Valeyard which somehow unlocks the Time War (assuming that a showrunner doesn't do this before hand) and we get to see the 13th Doctor finally end the Time War but it causes a temporal anomaly that sets up a colossal reboot of the series. This will cause no end of chaos and controversy in England as people debate with themselves over the necessity of a reboot.
Ah, but that's the whole point of his companions. The Children of Time would continue the fight.
By this time there's bound to have been another twenty Time Lord stories.
Not all of the Time Lords in the Time War could have gone nuts like Rassilon so maybe some of them will find some way of pooling their regenerations and bestowing them to the Doctor.
If they can resurrect the Master (and he could steal bodies) then it's the least they can do.
Not all of the Time Lords in the Time War could have gone nuts like Rassilon so maybe some of them will find some way of pooling their regenerations and bestowing them to the Doctor.
If they can resurrect the Master (and he could steal bodies) then it's the least they can do.
I had a notion years ago that the Doctor never dies until he's born.
The idea I had was that, somehow, eons in the future, the Doctor and the TARDIS will end up being responsible for the destruction of the Universe -- but will then be thrown back in time to the Beginning, where he'll end up being responsible for the Big Bang, too. From there, he would endure in some fashion until his own birth on Gallifrey, at which point he would finally die.
I'm not saying it's a great idea or that it would be a great story. But in my view of the Whoniverse, I like to think that the Doctor's big dark secret -- the thing that makes him far more than just another Time Lord -- is that he's responsible for both the beginning and the end of everything.
The idea I had was that, somehow, eons in the future, the Doctor and the TARDIS will end up being responsible for the destruction of the Universe -- but will then be thrown back in time to the Beginning, where he'll end up being responsible for the Big Bang, too. From there, he would endure in some fashion until his own birth on Gallifrey, at which point he would finally die.
I'm not saying it's a great idea or that it would be a great story. But in my view of the Whoniverse, I like to think that the Doctor's big dark secret -- the thing that makes him far more than just another Time Lord -- is that he's responsible for both the beginning and the end of everything.
Lots of other things have been changed and contradicted over the years. Why should that one thing remain inviolate? Whatever happens to the show over the next few decades, no one at the BBC is going to say "we have to end the show, we're out of regenerations."
Besides, if you accept the obvious intent of a certain scene in "The Brain of Morbius," he's had more than thirteen by now anyway. And if you don't, then you're already open to contradicting things the show established way back when. By the way, isn't it time for another different explanation of what happened to Atlantis? It's been a long time since the third one.
Wasn't it in "The Five Doctors" that the Time Lords offered the Master more regenerations? If they could do that, it suggests that the regeneration limit may well be a Gallifreyan form of social control more than a biological limit.
