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Regenerations, CGI tweaks, and other ways Doctor Who has changed for the better!
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00:00Hello, hello everybody, how are we all doing? Ellie here, and today we're going to be talking about change, my
00:06dear, and it seems not a moment too soon.
00:09Look, to quote Ross Geller, nobody likes change. I don't like change, you don't like change, but in time we
00:15learn to accept it.
00:16I hated it when they changed Matt Smith's first title sequence. Absolutely hated it.
00:20But after a while, I... Oh, no, actually, I still don't like the Series 7 title sequence.
00:25Okay, so that was a bad example, but the point is, Doctor Who has changed in ways both big and
00:30small, and many of these changes have been completely the right decision.
00:34So, let's get into it. This is 10 Doctor Who changes that were completely justified.
00:40Number 10. It feels different this time.
00:42You'd imagine that a biological process would be fairly consistent in the way it works, but regeneration in the classic
00:48run was always a bit weird.
00:49Sure, you had the majority fall into the general box of whooshy effects around the face area, but then there
00:55were some outliers, like 7 Frankensteining himself into 8, 2 dropping acid and falling down a big hole, and Tom
01:02Baker getting a cuddle from a bald ghost made of cotton.
01:04Nobody seemed quite sure how they wanted regeneration to work. They weren't even consistent in whether the change happened pre
01:10- or post-death.
01:11Cue the revival, in which all three showrunners have remarkably seemed to be in agreement with the style established in
01:172005.
01:18Minus Matt Smith's little time sneeze, but he did already have his light show on the clock tower.
01:22This has been a nice connecting through line over the years, making jumps between Doctors and showrunners a little less
01:27jarring, and frankly, it's a really great special effect too.
01:31Nothing says drama like having a little cry and shooting fireworks out of your head.
01:34Number 9. I'm over screwdrivers.
01:36Screwdrivers
01:36We've had a little while now to sit on the recent Sonic Screwdriver changes, and while the jury is still
01:41out on 15's TV remote, we quite like the new features of the screwdriver, in particular the holographic display elements
01:48introduced in the Starbeast.
01:50It's always been a little odd how the revival doctors seem to get information from the Sonic Screwdriver without any
01:55sort of display.
01:56Eleven frequently just sort of stared at it and reeled off information, while Ten would wiggle it next to his
02:01ear like it was whispering to him.
02:03The Sonic often serves as a free exposition tool, and having this visual display makes a big difference, with it
02:09seeming a little less like the Doctor gaining temporary omniscience for the sake of the plot.
02:13And then of course there were the Sonic Shades as a temporary switch up, though let's be honest, they would
02:18have been awful if paired with any other modern Doctor.
02:22With 12, they kind of did work. They did seem exactly like the kind of thing your weird rock and
02:27roll uncle would find cool.
02:28But I stand by my thoughts. Sonic Shades? Too far.
02:31Number 8. A Flat Team Structure
02:33Back in the day, a common criticism levelled at the show was the companion dynamic, which often played hard into
02:39damsel-in-distress tropes.
02:41Now that's not to say that the classic companions didn't have their moments of heroism, but a less than ideal
02:46amount of time was spent screaming,
02:47Doctor! Or just screaming in general, particularly the female companions.
02:51The trend was bucked with characters like Ace, but the likes of Susan and Mel really didn't have a whole
02:56lot to contribute.
02:57The 2005 revivals saw a major shift in this regard, essentially promoting the companions to co-leads, giving them a
03:04ton more agency and massively increasing their contribution to saving the day.
03:08We also spent a lot more time getting to know them, their families, and giving them meaningful character arcs and
03:13journeys.
03:14The modern companions are much more well-rounded as a result, and tend to have stronger emotional connections with the
03:19Doctor.
03:20Except Dan, who speaks to Thirteen about four times and then buggers off.
03:23Number 7. Can you hurry up please, or I'll hit you with my shoe.
03:27One of the biggest changes in Doctor Who has been an overhaul of how stories are structured, and it's a
03:32change that's difficult to argue with.
03:33Classic Who was heavily serialised, with stories running over many weeks comprising four or six parts, but sometimes stretching to
03:40as many as twelve.
03:41Granted, the episodes were shorter, but the show famously had a problem with over-padding scripts.
03:46Things tightened up as we entered the latter classic years, with the introduction of the 45-minute episode in 1984's
03:53Resurrection of the Daleks, and reduced episode counts in the McCoy era.
03:56In 2005, we transitioned into a modern format, with more stories per series spread out across fewer episodes, each with
04:03a longer run time.
04:05This also put the pacing issues to bed, forcing writers to submit scripts that were contained within 45 minutes, which
04:11thankfully resulted in a bit less fluff.
04:13Though this gradual shift to less and less episodes per year is a frustrating one, 14 in 2005 versus 9
04:19in 2024, it has correlated with an increase in production value.
04:23It's expensive to make good-looking TV these days, and for Doctor Who to compete, quality over quantity is ultimately
04:30the best approach.
04:31Number 6. It's them aliens, I bet my pension.
04:34Earth has a rough time of it in the Hooniverse.
04:36During the revival alone, our planet has been invaded dozens and dozens of times, and that's just counting the modern
04:42-day ones.
04:43It happened so many times that they made a whole episode that was just a highlight reel of all the
04:47previous invasions.
04:48If you're living in London, you're asking for it.
04:50It's the equivalent of moving to Albert Square or accepting a teaching job at Waterloo Road.
04:55Not really worth all the hassle, is it?
04:56Despite all this, the general public, in most eras of the show, seems to not believe aliens exist.
05:02At some point, the suspension of disbelief gets to the point where no magic cracks in the fabric of the
05:07universe can paper over it.
05:09We'd argue that RTD is the one who nailed this particular aspect of the show, quickly knocking that trope on
05:14the head in his first series by having the people of the UK fully aware that they live in a
05:19hellscape where at any given moment,
05:20they may be under invasion from a Dalek fleet, an angry Christmas tree, or an army of babies made of
05:25fat.
05:26It helps make the show that bit more believable and grounded, and thankfully, people don't seem too phased about aliens
05:31these days either.
05:32See Dan booping Carvanista on the nose, or Rose meeting the meep.
05:36Number 5. A bit of a love life
05:38There was never much time for romance in a classic series, for better or worse.
05:42Beyond the odd flirtation, the Doctor never showed much of an interest in anyone or anything,
05:46and the companions didn't fare much better unless an excuse was needed to write them out.
05:51Many fans decided the Doctor was asexual, and there's certainly an argument for keeping things that way.
05:55But then Paul McGann arrived, and any notion of sticking to the famous no-hanky-panky-on-the-Tardis rule
06:00went out of the window.
06:02The revival continued this trend, with romantic elements feeding into Rose, Martha, Amy, Clara, and Yaz's relationship with the Doctor.
06:09We even got the first romantic couple on the Tardis, excluding two in Jamie, in Amy and Rory.
06:14Love was well and truly in the air, and the success of the revival indicated this was a change for
06:19the better.
06:19The show even managed to give us a love interest for the Doctor that didn't involve a power imbalance,
06:24with River, the best character, solidifying herself as the Doctor's one and only, in the eyes of many.
06:31Personally, we're very glad that they finally managed to make this work.
06:34Number 4. Have you had work done?
06:36Classic Who might be a goldmine of quality sci-fi, but even its most ardent defenders must admit it's a
06:41tough sell to a modern newcomer.
06:43The show's notoriously hokey effects, which were stretching the bounds of credibility even as they aired, are perhaps what it's
06:49most remembered for.
06:51Unconvincing aliens cobbled together from the BBC's lost property boxes, metal spaceship walls that wobbled if someone sighed too heavily,
06:58and planets that all look suspiciously like the same quarry.
07:00There's certainly a degree of charm in this, but with hundreds of episodes to get through,
07:05we can understand how that charm might start to run a little thin.
07:08Over the years, however, these classics have been re-released on DVD and Blu-ray with improved CGI effects.
07:14These still aren't necessarily in line with the standards of today,
07:17but they go a long way to helping stories like The Dalek Invasion of Earth feel a lot less outdated.
07:22This goes doubly so for stories like Kinder, which is thankfully no longer stuck with its jumbo-sized novelty inflatable
07:28snake,
07:29which is now much more convincing.
07:31For the purists, though, the effects are optional, so everyone's a winner.
07:35Number 3. My future is in safe hands.
07:37An Adventure in Space and Time is a wonderful one-off biopic that aired as part of the 50th anniversary
07:43celebrations.
07:44Dramatising the story of the show's creation through to Hartnell's regeneration,
07:48it starred David Bradley as the main man and was penned by Mark Gatiss,
07:52rather awkwardly blowing any of his actual Doctor Who scripts out the water.
07:55It's a must-watch if you haven't already.
07:57The tearjerker of a final scene sees Hartnell looking forward at what the show, at what his legacy will become,
08:03at which point he sees Matt Smith standing across from him.
08:06If you're sticklers like we are, this scene is ever so slightly undercut by the fact that the green-screen
08:10Smith is standing in front of the console he's clearly meant to be behind,
08:13completely taking you out at the moment.
08:15It's a minor oversight, but fans have moaned about it for years.
08:18Well, 10 years later, An Adventure in Space and Time was broadcast again, but with one vital difference.
08:24The green-screen mistake was fixed, and even better, it wasn't Smith standing behind the console.
08:29It was, in fact, the first on-screen appearance of Shuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor.
08:35It was a powerful, powerful moment.
08:37No other show could do something like this, and the only downside is that we'll know what to expect with
08:42version 3 in a decade's time.
08:44Number 2. Welcome to the Sisterhood.
08:46When Will We Get a Female Doctor has been part of the discussion around Doctor Who for far longer than
08:51most fans realise.
08:52This idea didn't just spring up in the latter half of the revival, it had been batted about for much
08:56of the classic era too,
08:58with the likes of Joanna Lumley and Dawn French being suggested as possible 7th Doctor candidates by Doctor Who creator
09:03Sydney Newman.
09:05Of course, these seeds were also planted with the introduction of female Time Lords like Romana and the Rani.
09:10But it wasn't until Moffat's era that the idea of gender-swapping regenerations was cemented on TV,
09:15with the Master being given first dibs, albeit off-screen, and the General soon after.
09:20With Missy, we got the best incarnation of the Doctor's nemesis ever put to screen, and a complete breath of
09:25fresh air.
09:26A few years later, the Doctor followed suit.
09:28If nothing else, the idea of a female Doctor makes speculation about the next incarnation even more exciting,
09:34because it really can be anyone.
09:36Never say never on those long-standing fancasts of Hayley Atwell and Olivia Colman.
09:40Maybe one day.
09:41Number 1. The Last of the Time Lords.
09:43When Doctor Who returned in 2005, it returned to a vastly different cultural landscape to the one it left.
09:49The schlocky runabout vibe that most casual fans associated with the classic run was, unfairly or not, hard to shake.
09:55And so, one of the many smart decisions Russell T. Davis made with the Ninth Doctor was to modernise the
10:00character and give him more of an edge,
10:02more in line with the noughties' trend towards grittier telly.
10:05Gone were the question mark sweaters and technicolour dreamcoats.
10:08This new incarnation sported a buzz cut and a leather jacket, with a dash of crippling loneliness and a heavy
10:14serving of PTSD.
10:15This was largely due to the Time War, possibly the single greatest source of character development the Doctor has had
10:20in 60 years.
10:21It went a long way to giving 9, and especially 10, mainstream appeal, and has been a well the revival
10:27has drawn from for almost 20 years.
10:29Loneliness, grief, guilt, rage, hardly groundbreaking characteristics, but they kind of were for the Doctor.
10:35In 2005, everyone wanted their heroes to be a little angrier, a little darker.
10:39Had this not been the route Russell T. Davis chose, the show probably wouldn't have taken off in the way
10:44that it did.
10:44And there you have it.
10:45Speaking of change, though, Doctor Who is changing its numbering,
10:48so why not check out our discussion about the real reason Doctor Who is resetting to Season 1.
10:53In the meantime, I've been Ellie for Who Culture, and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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