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I was forced to watch the three recent special episodes with David Tennant back (absolutely the best doctor of the reincarnated version of the show) because of friends and was surprised just how much the quality had dropped since his original series with Rose Tyler. No 15. did seem cool though from the last few minutes of the last special episode (the plot of the last third of this episode was really stupid though), not cool enough to make me watch the show again, but definitely better than Whittaker.
Personally I think it's a terrible decision; if they're going to muck about with regeneration so that we get "bigeneration" and splitting into a black and a white Doctor (oh man, just typing that out makes me wince), then why not have the post-female doctor regeneration be a reset to a former version, i.e. Ten? They're already making this a Special Special regeneration, why not set it up as "uh, this has only happened very rarely and when it does then it's unstable" and that sets up for the Special Special Special bigeneration.
When a show does a return of fan favourite character, it's because they need eyeballs desperately. I appreciate Davies does love the show, but I think him being gay means he did and does want "representation" for personal reasons (and not just ticking off the DEI boxes), and when you are in a position to get your own fanfic done as canon, that leads down very winding paths.
You're thinking too small. Davies has hinted that this split regeneration has retroactively applied to every previous Doctor as well. So that they all now exist, simultaneously within their own time line, creating the Doctorverse, such that they can now have multiple Doctor's having multiple adventures at the same time. In other words this is the multiverse for Doctor Who.
Primarily this appears to be away to be able to monetize Dr Who more heavily, outside of just the rare crossovers due to the time line shenanigans they used to use as an excuse for why it didn't happen more frequently. That this happens just as Disney pump a whole bunch of money into the franchise is probably not a coincidence I would suggest.
Yeah, that's the kind of fanon retconning I meant. He's Officially In Charge now, which means he can set what the new canon is, even if it contradicts what has previously been established. The awful movie, where they decided that the Doctor was half-human, is quietly ignored. Can't do that when it's the television show.
They've done it to Trek, they've done it to Star Wars, and now they're doing it to the Doctor.
Interestingly he is also trying to reverse a retcon that was brought in while he wasn't in charge (The Timeless Child) by showing it was essentially an in universe retcon, the Master and Toymaker have rewritten the Doctors past. So trying to remystify his real origin.
To be fair original Doctor Who was always very blase with continuity and rules, so I can't really say even as a 7th Doctor fan, that it has got much worse in that regard. Famously they didn't have canon, just deciding on what was needed for each story to work (including regeneration itself) .
I believe "just deciding on what was needed for each story to work" is a central pillar of most western versions of Buddhism.
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I hereby petition to repeal the 8th, so we can render just punishment to the next screenwriter that tries to do anything involving a multiverse.
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