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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 Unit 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
00:55of
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, 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
01:50to make this a possibility. And the Doctor does say later to the Toymaker, you made this
01:54happen. So it very much suggests that in the world of play, in the Toymaker's reality, this
02:02is a possibility, a myth that has now become reality. So let's talk about by generation and
02:08my 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
02:18being a possibility before the episode aired. And so I would say that I wasn't necessarily
02:25surprised when it happened, which was slightly disappointing because I think if I had gone
02:30in completely unaware or unsuspecting, this would have been absolutely a major, major jaw
02:36on the floor moment. And don't get me wrong, it still was. But I wasn't as surprised as I
02:40would have perhaps been if I hadn't gone in with a slight inkling that this might have
02:43been the case. At first, I just didn't know what to think. I was a bit confused. I know
02:47that in the past we have had, you know, we had the Metacrisis Doctor, so we did have two
02:51there, and that was explained in a certain way because he grew out of the hand. When I
02:55watched it a second time, I definitely feel like I appreciated it more and understood it
03:01more. Having said that, there were, I did have some initial concerns. I guess only time
03:05will 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
03:13the remaining of David Tennant's Doctor kind of detract from Shooty slightly? Obviously,
03:19it's a major, major thing to step into the role of the Doctor. It must be so nerve-wracking
03:25for any actor stepping into the role, because you have major shoes to fill every single time.
03:31But on top of that, you have David Tennant's shoes to fill. And so while that is really
03:35nerve-wracking, and you have really got to prove yourself, as Matt Smith had to do, does
03:39keeping David Tennant around kind of suggest a little bit of a lack of confidence in Shooty?
03:45I don't think that is the case, and as we've established, this is a whole new avenue for
03:50the show that we've never seen before. But that was an initial, oh, well, but that was
03:56only a kind of passing concern that I very much was squashed the moment that Shooty kind
04:01of started jumping around and very much was the Doctor. The other concern that I'm really
04:07kind of lingering on at the moment is we did a video not too long ago discussing David Tennant's
04:13future in Doctor Who, and one of the big things that I said in that video was that my concern
04:21over how many times do we bring David Tennant back before it loses its meaning and power.
04:28David Tennant is such a popular incarnation of the Doctor, and so to bring him back is
04:34a monumental thing and does bring those audience members back in. But if we, you know, we've
04:38had this multiple times now where it's like we never have a definitive ending with him.
04:44He's always, there's always the potential for him to come back. And while that's great,
04:48and everyone loves to see him, how many times do you bring him back before it's, well, he's
04:52back again? It's not, it's not a really jaw-dropping revelation because he's back again. And so obviously
04:59by keeping him as the Doctor and keeping him with a TARDIS, you've kind of got this thing
05:03in the back of your head suggesting, well, he's, he's gonna be back again soon, isn't
05:07he? None of the other Doctors get this luxury, you know? And I know a lot of the actors don't
05:10want that, but you know, you just don't want it to lose its power and meaning by overdoing
05:15it. And that's, that's one of my slight concerns. Um, but I guess time will tell as to what that
05:21means, um, for David Tennant in Doctor Who. Another concern that I have seen, um, is people
05:28suggesting that they, Russell T. Davis has just changed the show for the sake of it. And obviously
05:34this is a complaint that a lot of people had about the Timeless Child story arc as well.
05:39Personally, I think the two things are massively different. This has been introduced now and
05:45changes the future of the show. The Timeless Child arc was introduced, changed and altered
05:50the entire history of Doctor Who as we knew it, and hasn't really been explored any further.
05:55And so it kind of was introduced for no reason because there's been no real payoff to that major
06:01change in the past and history of Doctor Who. Whereas this introduction of bi-generation hasn't
06:06changed anything we've seen in, in the past and now only introduces a whole new avenue for
06:11the show to go down in the future. And so you can explore that as you watch, as opposed to
06:17having to now think, well, everything I thought I knew has changed. That's not the case in this
06:22instance. So beyond what we learned in the episode itself with regards to the bi-generation, we
06:27actually learned some more, um, from Russell T. Davis his, his self? From Russell T. Davis himself
06:33in the iPlayer InVision commentary of the episode. So first and foremost, he said that this has,
06:38this was always his intention. And from the moment he knew he was coming back, this was always his
06:44intention. It wasn't something that kind of popped up once they knew that Shooty Gat would have been
06:47cast or anything like that. He always intended, um, for this to be the direction that he took the
06:52show in. He also commented that he really wasn't keen on doing, you know, the traditional multi-Doctor
06:57story. But having the current Doctor and the future, the next Doctor, um, come together was
07:03something that he'd wanted to do for a long time and this was the opportunity for him to do it.
07:07But something that was even more intriguing that he mentioned, um, which maybe slightly contradicts
07:12my whole comment on the Timeless Child thing being very different. Although, obviously, this is just a
07:17comment he's made whilst there's something that's going on in his mind as opposed to something that's
07:22been literally explicitly said in the show itself. But he basically suggested that bi-generation
07:27could happen with any of the Doctors, and in his mind has happened with any of the Doctors,
07:31not just 14 and 15. All Doctors at some point have split as opposed to changing, and there's a
07:38Doctor-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
07:53into David Tennant. Essentially what Russell T. Davis was commenting on here, um, and suggesting
07:58was that he wanted to introduce some sort of explanation so that in the future you can bring
08:06back those Doctors to a story, um, without having to explain why they look older or how they are there.
08:13And by introducing this idea that bi-generation can happen and that there's a multiverse, a Doctor-verse,
08:18um, in which there are multiple storylines and avenues for which any Doctor's life could take.
08:26It would not need to be explained too much if suddenly Sylvester McCoy appeared with Shuti Gatwa
08:31next week, looking as he does today. And that wouldn't need to be explained because he's just a Doctor
08:36from a different universe in which he never changed and just aged. Tales of the TARDIS was kind of a
08:43good
08:43example of this, where we had all these Doctors who lived in a different time where they never changed,
08:48they aged, and they, they existed in this little bubble. So it is a very interesting way to look
08:52at the show, um, and, and I think it's very good to give this explanation, um, in, in a simple
08:59explanation, um, so that you can introduce multiple Doctor stories in a much simpler and less confusing
09:07way from 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 pop culture now that most audience members can really grasp that now. And, and he
09:24mentioned that because audiences now have got an understanding of multiverses and are really on board
09:31with that prospect, now seems like a good time to introduce it in Doctor Who. And, and to my mind,
09:36if you can't do it in sci-fi,
09:37where can you do it? I mean, this is a show where, with limited possibilities, and as long as there's
09:43a good
09:44enough explanation 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
09:55changing what we've already known, it's just taking the show in a different direction, um, and I don't
10:00necessarily think that's a bad thing. And what I do like about this is that, again, as Russell has said,
10:05we can now
10:05have those Doctors step into the role as they look now, and not have to have them as a hologram
10:10as they were in the
10:11power of the Doctor. You know, they appeared, but there had to be some way of explaining why they had
10:15aged
10:15suddenly, and you know, oh, well, you know, the TARDIS is just trying its best to compensate, or, or whatever
10:20the
10:20explanation was there. And here, it can just be, I'm a Doctor from a different universe. Now, finally, as for
10:25the 14th Doctor
10:26himself, there's really no news on that front. We know there are spin-offs coming. It would seem that potentially
10:32we may see
10:33now a spin-off with 14, and, and Donna, and, and the family, and, and Mel, and going off on
10:39Random Adventures.
10:40We know Yasmin Finney will be making more, um, appearances, as Russell T. Davis has stated previously, so
10:46is that going to be with Shooty? Is that going to be with David Tennant? We do not know. What
10:52I will say
10:53is I do not think we're going to have any announcements with regards to that incarnation of the Doctor
10:57anytime soon. Let's now let Shooty have his time. At least let his first season come out, and let
11:04everyone fall in love with this new incarnation. You know, we said earlier about David Tennant, Tennant
11:08overshadowing Shooty Gatwa, and I think the balance was perfect in this particular story, but now we need
11:14to let Shooty really take hold of the reins, and find him, his, his feet in, in the role of
11:21the Doctor,
11:22and let everyone get a chance to fall in love with this version of the character. But I also would
11:26not be
11:26surprised if at some point down the line we do end up seeing more of Fourteen and Donna Noble.
11:34I think at the end of the day what it really comes down to is how well a story is
11:38told. If it is used
11:39in the correct way, then it would be an absolutely wonderful story. If it's just used as a get-out
11:43-jail-free
11:44card, a cop-out, a really easy get-around to not have to explain something, then it doesn't feel
11:50worth it. I think the future of the show is going to surprise us, but not necessarily in a bad
11:55way.
11:55That's just my thoughts. Let me know yours. Let me know your thoughts on the Hold By Generation
11:59storyline in the comments down below. Also, make sure that you check out Sean's ups and
12:04down review of The Giggle. And in the meantime, I've been Ellie with Who Culture, and in the words
12:08of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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