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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 and,
02:07uh, 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- I'm
04:07really 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- 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
05:12to lose its power and meaning, um, by overdoing it, and that's- that's one of my slight concerns.
05:18Um, but I guess time will tell as to what that means, um, for David Tennant in Doctor Who.
05:23Another concern that I have seen, um, is people suggesting that they- Russell T. Davis has just
05:32changed the show for the sake of it. And obviously this is a complaint that a lot of people had about
05:37the Timeless Child story arc as well. Personally, I think the two things are massively different.
05:42This has been introduced now and changes the future of the show. The Timeless Child arc was
05:48introduced, changed and altered the entire history of Doctor Who as we knew it, and hasn't really been
05:54explored any further. And so it kind of was introduced for no reason, because there's been
05:58no real payoff to that major change in the past and history of Doctor Who. Whereas this introduction
06:05of bi-generation hasn't changed anything we've seen in- in the past, and now only introduces a
06:10whole new avenue for the show to go down in the future. And so you can explore that as you watch,
06:16as opposed to having to now think, well, everything I thought I knew has changed.
06:21That's not the case in this instance. So beyond what we learned in the episode itself with regards
06:26to the bi-generation, we actually learned some more, um, from Russell T. Davis his- his self?
06:31From Russell T. Davis himself in the iPlayer InVision commentary of the episode. So first and foremost,
06:37he said that this has- this was always his intention. And from the moment he knew he was coming back,
06:42this was always his intention. It wasn't something that kind of popped up once they knew that Shooty
06:47Gat would have been cast or anything like that. He always intended, um, for this to be the direction
06:52that he took the show in. He also commented that he really wasn't keen on doing, you know,
06:56the traditional multi-Doctor story, but having the current Doctor and the future, the next Doctor,
07:01um, come together was something that he'd wanted to do for a long time, and this was the opportunity
07:06for him to do it. But something that was even more intriguing that he mentioned, um, which maybe
07:11slightly contradicts my whole comment on the Timeless Child thing being very different, although
07:16obviously this is just a comment he's made whilst- there's something that's going on in his mind as
07:21opposed to something that's been literally explicitly said in the show itself, but he basically suggested
07:26that bi-generation could happen with any of the Doctors, and in his mind has happened with any of
07:31the Doctors, not just 14 and 15. All Doctors at some point have split as opposed to changing, and
07:37there's a Doctor-verse. Multiple universes in which every single Doctor went on to live their own life,
07:44um, so, you know, there's a time where Sylvester McCoy suddenly wakes up in that morgue and carries
07:48on living. There's a universe where Nine and Rose continued on their journeys and he never changed into
07:53David Tennant. Essentially what Russell T. Davis was commenting on here, um, and suggesting was that he
07:59wanted to introduce some sort of explanation so that in the future you can bring back those Doctors
08:07to a story, um, without having to explain why they look older or how they are there, and by introducing
08:14this idea that bi-generation can happen and that there's a multiverse, a Doctor-verse, um, in which
08:20there are multiple storylines and avenues for which any Doctor's life could take, it would not need to be
08:27explained too much if suddenly Sylvester McCoy appeared with Shuti Gatwa next week looking as he
08:33does today, and that wouldn't need to be explained because he's just a Doctor from a different
08:37universe in which he never changed and just aged. Tales of the TARDIS was kind of a good example of
08:44this where we had all these Doctors who lived in a different time where they never changed, they aged,
08:48and they existed in this little bubble. So it is a very interesting way to look at the show,
08:53um, and, and I think it's very good to give this explanation, um, in, in a simple explanation,
08:59um, so that you can introduce multiple Doctor stories in a much simpler and less confusing way
09:08from a writing perspective, certainly. One thing that Russell T. Davis did say, and he specifically
09:13mentioned the Spider-verse, and obviously the MCU with the multiverse, and, and that's something
09:18that's so present in, in, in pop culture now that most audience members can really grasp that now,
09:24and, and he mentioned that because audiences now have got an understanding of multiverses and are
09:31really on board with that prospect, now seems like a good time to introduce it in Doctor Who, and, and to
09:35my mind, if you can't do it in sci-fi, where can you do it? I mean, this is a show where, with limited
09:41possibilities, and as long as there's a good enough explanation as to why you've done it and how
09:46it works, within reason, sci-fi, you have the opportunity to do whatever you want to do. As I
09:53said, this is changing the future of the show, so it's not changing what we've already known, it's
09:57just taking the show in a different direction, um, and I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing.
10:02And what I do like about this is that, again, as Russell has said, we can now have those Doctors
10:06step into the role as they look now, and not have to have them as a hologram as they were in The Power
10:11of the Doctor. You know, they appeared, but there had to be some way of explaining why they had aged
10:15suddenly, and, you know, oh, well, you know, the TARDIS is just trying its best to compensate,
10:20or, or whatever the explanation was there, and here, it can just be, I'm a Doctor from a different
10:23universe. Now, finally, as for the 14th Doctor himself, there's really no news on that front.
10:29We know there are spin-offs coming. It would seem that, potentially, we may see now a spin-off with
10:3414 and, and Donna and, and the family and, and Mel and going off on random adventures. We know
10:40Yasmin Finney will be making more, um, appearances, as Russell T. Davis has stated previously. So,
10:46is that going to be with Shuti? Is that going to be with David Tennant? We do not know. What I will
10:52say is I do not think we're going to have any announcements with regards to that incarnation
10:57of the Doctor anytime soon. Let's now let Shuti have his time. At least let his first season come
11:03out, and let everyone fall in love with this new incarnation. You know, we said earlier about David
11:07Tennant, Tennant overshadowing Shuti Gatwa, and I think the balance was perfect in this particular
11:12story, but now we need to let Shuti really take hold of the reins and find him, his, his feet in,
11:21in the role of the Doctor, and let everyone get a chance to fall in love with this version of the
11:25character. But I also would not be surprised if at some point down the line we do end up seeing more
11:30of 14 and Donna Noble. I think at the end of the day what it really comes down to is how well a
11:37story is told. If it is used in the correct way, then it will be an absolutely wonderful story. If
11:42it's just used as a get-out-jail-free card, a cop-out, a really easy get-around to not have to
11:48explain something, then it doesn't feel worth it. I think the future of the show is going to surprise
11:53us, but not necessarily in a bad way. That's just my thoughts. Let me know yours. Let me know your
11:57thoughts on the Hold By Generation storyline in the comments down below. Also, make sure that you
12:02check out Sean's ups and downs review of The Giggle. And in the meantime, I've been Ellie with
12:07Who Culture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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