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Bigeneration?! Two Doctors?! The ending of The Giggle has sent shockwaves through Doctor Who lore (and its fanbase) so let's break it all down and explain exactly what it means for the Whoniverse.
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00:00Hello everybody, it's Ellie here with WhoCulture. We did it. We made it to the end of the 60th
00:06anniversary specials. And let me tell you, the giggle was monumental. Not least of all,
00:12because of that monumental change that we saw with regards to regeneration. So we thought,
00:17let's discuss that, let's talk about what that means for the show. And also, Russell T. Davis
00:22has revealed some more information about that current situation as well. So let's get into it.
00:29So first of all, just a quick recap. In case you've forgotten, highly doubt you have,
00:34but let's just have a quick recap. We're on the helipad of Stark Towers and Munit Towers. Still
00:39can't get over it. It's Stark Towers. It's so obviously Stark Towers. Not the point, Ellie,
00:44not the point. And we have the Doctor stood there going, your fight is with me. Don't shoot my
00:49friends. So he goes, okay then. And shoots the beam right at the Doctor. And if you heard some sort of
00:55rumbling thud during that moment, that will be just the sound of every viewer's jaw hitting the
01:02floor. Even though we knew a regeneration was coming in this episode, still doesn't make it any
01:06less shocking when you see the Doctor get shot or killed in some way. He starts to do his orange
01:12glowing and you're like, here it comes. Here comes the regeneration. We have his final words,
01:17Allons-y. And he doesn't change. And they pull his arms and there we have it. By generation. And we
01:25then have two Doctors. The 15th Doctor actually says that by generation is a myth. Now this could
01:32have something to do with the idea that the Doctor, um, what's the word he used? He invoked superstition
01:38at the edge of the galaxy. So this could suggest that by doing that allowed these myths to suddenly
01:44become reality. Obviously the other possibility being that the Toymaker has twisted reality,
01:49um, to make this a possibility. And the Doctor does say later to the Toymaker, you made this happen.
01:54So it very much suggests that, um, in the- the world of play, um, in the Toymaker's, um, reality,
02:02this- this is a possibility, a myth that has now become reality. So let's talk about by generation.
02:07And, uh, my personal thoughts on it, what the overall response to it has been. I'm gonna be honest,
02:13I had seen a lot of- not leaks per se, but I had seen a lot of speculation about this being a
02:19possibility, um, before the episode aired. And so I would say that I wasn't necessarily surprised
02:25when it happened, which was slightly disappointing because I think if I had gone in completely
02:30unaware or unsuspecting, this would have been absolutely a major, major jaw-on-the-floor moment.
02:37And don't get me wrong, it still was. But I wasn't as surprised as I would have perhaps been if I
02:41hadn't gone in with a slight inkling that this might have been the case. At first, I just didn't
02:45know what to think. I was a bit confused. I know that in- in the past we have had, you know, we had
02:49the Metacrisis Doctor, so we did have two there, and that was explained in a certain way because he
02:53grew out of the hand. When I watched it a second time, I definitely feel like I appreciated it more
03:00and understood it more. Having said that, there were- I did have some initial concerns. I guess only
03:05time will tell as to whether these concerns are warranted or whether I had nothing to worry
03:09about, and I know that other people have had these concerns as well. First of all, does the
03:14remaining of David Tennant's Doctor kind of detract from Shooty slightly? Obviously, it's a major,
03:20major thing to step into the role of the Doctor. It must be so nerve-wracking for any actor stepping
03:26into the role, because you have major shoes to fill every single time. But on top of that, you have
03:33David Tennant's shoes to fill. And so while that is really nerve-wracking and you have really got to
03:37prove yourself, as Matt Smith had to do, does keeping David Tennant around kind of suggest a
03:42little bit of- a lack of confidence in- in Shooty? I don't think that is the case, and as we've- we've
03:47established, this is a- a whole new avenue for the show that we've never seen before. Um, but that was
03:53an initial- oh, well. But that was only a kind of passing concern that I very much was squashed the
04:00moment that Shooty kind of started jumping around and very much was the Doctor. The other concern that I-
04:07I'm really kind of lingering on at the moment is we- we did a video, um, not too long ago discussing
04:13David Tennant's future in Doctor Who, and one of the big things that I said in that video was that
04:20my concern over how many times do- do we bring David Tennant back before it loses its meaning and
04:27power. David Tennant is such a popular, um, incarnation of- of the Doctor, and so to bring him back is a
04:34monumental thing and does bring those audience members back in. But if we- you know, we've had
04:38this multiple- multiple times now where it's like we never have a definitive ending with him. He's
04:44always- there's always the potential for him to come back, and while that's great and everyone loves
04:49to see him, how many times do you bring him back before it's- well, he's back again. It's not- it's not
04:54a- a really jaw-dropping revelation because he's back again, and so obviously by keeping him as the Doctor
05:00and keeping him with a TARDIS, you've kind of got this thing in the back of your head suggesting,
05:04well, he's- he's gonna be back again soon, isn't he? None of the other Doctors get this luxury,
05:09you know? And I know a lot of the actors don't want that, but you know, you just don't want it to lose
05:13its power and meaning, um, by overdoing it, and that's- that's one of my slight concerns, um, but I guess
05:18time will tell as to what that means, um, for David Tennant in Doctor Who. Another concern that I have
05:25seen, um, is people suggesting that they- Russell T. Davis has just changed the show for the sake of
05:33it, and obviously this is a complaint that a lot of people had about the Timeless Child story arc as
05:38well. Personally, I think the two things are massively different. This has been introduced now and changes
05:45the future of the show. The Timeless Child arc was introduced, changed and altered the entire history of
05:52Doctor Who as we knew it, and hasn't really been explored any further, and so it kind of was
05:56introduced for no reason, because there's been no real payoff to that major change in the past and
06:03history of Doctor Who. Whereas this introduction of bi-generation hasn't changed anything we've seen
06:08in- in the past, and now only introduces a whole new avenue for the show to go down in the future,
06:13and so you can explore that as you watch, as opposed to having to now think, well, everything I
06:19thought I knew has changed. That's not the case in this instance. So beyond what we learned in the
06:24episode itself with regards to the bi-generation, we actually learned some more, um, from Russell T.
06:30Davis his- his self? From Russell T. Davis himself in the iPlayer InVision commentary of the episode.
06:36So first and foremost, he said that this has- this was always his intention, and from the moment he knew
06:41he was coming back, this was always his intention. It wasn't something that kind of popped up once they
06:46knew that Shooty Gap would have been cast, or anything like that. He always intended, um, for
06:51this to be the direction that he took the show in. He also commented that he really wasn't keen on
06:55doing, you know, the traditional multi-Doctor story, but having the current Doctor and the future,
07:00the next Doctor, um, come together was something that he'd wanted to do for a long time, and this
07:05was the opportunity for him to do it. But something that was even more intriguing that he mentioned,
07:10um, which maybe slightly contradicts my whole comment on the Timeless Child thing being very
07:14different. Although, obviously, this is just a comment he's made whilst- there's something that's
07:20going on in his mind, as opposed to something that's been literally explicitly said in the show
07:24itself. But he basically suggested that bi-generation could happen with any of the Doctors, and in his
07:29mind has happened with any of the Doctors, not just 14 and 15. All Doctors at some point have split
07:35as opposed to changing, and there's a Doctor-verse. Multiple universes in which every single Doctor
07:42went on to live their own life. Um, so, you know, there's a time where Sylvester McCoy suddenly wakes
07:47up in that morgue and carries on living. There's a universe where Nine and Rose continued on their
07:52journeys, and he never changed into David Tennant. Essentially, what Russell T. Davis was commenting on
07:57here, um, and suggesting was that he wanted to introduce some sort of explanation, so that in the
08:04future, you can bring back those Doctors to a story, um, without having to explain why they look
08:11older, or how they are there. And by introducing this idea that bi-generation can happen, and that
08:16there's a multiverse, a Doctor-verse, um, in which there are multiple storylines and avenues for which
08:24any Doctor's life could take, it would not need to be explained too much if suddenly Sylvester McCoy
08:29appeared with Shutigawa next week, looking as he does today, and that wouldn't need to be explained,
08:35because he's just a Doctor from a different universe, in which he never changed, and just aged.
08:41Tales of the TARDIS was kind of a good example of this, where we had all these Doctors who lived in
08:46a different time, where they never changed, they aged, and they existed in this little bubble. So it is a very
08:51interesting way to look at the show, um, and, and I think it's very good to give this explanation,
08:56um, in, in a simple explanation, um, so that you can introduce multiple Doctor stories in a much
09:05simpler and less confusing way from a writing perspective, certainly. One thing that Russell T.
09:11Davis did say, and he specifically mentioned the Spider-verse, and obviously the MCU with the
09:16multiverse, and, and that's something that's so present in, in pop culture now, that most audience
09:22members can really grasp that now, and, and he mentioned that because audiences now have got an
09:28understanding of multiverses, and are really on board with that prospect, now seems like a good time to
09:34introduce it in Doctor Who, and, and to my mind, if you can't do it in sci-fi, where can you do it?
09:39I mean, this is a show where, with limited possibilities, and as long as there's a good enough
09:44explanation as to why you've done it, and how it works, within reason, sci-fi, you have the
09:50opportunity to do whatever you want to do. As I said, this is changing the future of the show, so
09:55it's not changing what we've already known, it's just taking the show in a different direction,
09:59um, and I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. And what I do like about this is that, again,
10:04as Russell has said, we can now have those Doctors step into the role as they look now, and not have to
10:09have them as a hologram as they were in The Power of the Doctor. You know, they appeared, but there had to be
10:13some way of explaining why they had aged suddenly, and, you know, oh, well, you know, the TARDIS is just
10:18trying its best to compensate, or, or whatever the explanation was there, and here, it can just be
10:23I'm a Doctor from a different universe. Now, finally, as for the 14th Doctor himself, there's really no
10:27news on that front. We know there are spinoffs coming. It would seem that potentially we may see
10:33now a spinoff with 14 and, and Donna and, and the family and, and Mel and going off on random
10:39adventures. We know Yasmin Finney will be making more, um, appearances, as Russell T. Davis has
10:45stated previously. So, is that going to be with Shuti? Is that going to be with David Tennant? We
10:51do not know. What I will say is I do not think we're going to have any announcements with regards
10:55to that incarnation of the Doctor anytime soon. Let's now let Shuti have his time. At least let his
11:02first season come out, and let everyone fall in love with this new incarnation. You know, we said
11:06earlier about David Tennant, Tennant overshadowing Shuti Gatwa, and I think the balance was perfect
11:11in this particular story, but now we need to let Shuti really take hold of the reins and find
11:18him, his, his feet in, in the role of the Doctor and let everyone get a chance to fall in love with
11:24this version of the character. But I also would not be surprised if at some point down the line
11:28we do end up seeing more of 14 and Donna Noble. I think at the end of the day what it really comes down
11:36to is how well a story is told. If it is used in the correct way, then it will be an absolutely
11:41wonderful story. If it's just used as a get out jail free card, a cop out, a really easy get around to
11:47not have to explain something, then it doesn't feel worth it. I think the future of the show is
11:52going to surprise us, but not necessarily in a bad way. That's just my thoughts. Let me know yours.
11:57Let me know your thoughts on the whole Bi-Generation storyline in the comments down below. Also,
12:01make sure that you check out Sean's ups and downs review of The Giggle. And in the meantime,
12:06I've been Ellie with Who Culture and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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