The following contains major spoilers for the Doctor Who Season 2 finale. Check it out now with a Disney+ subscription.
After more than six decades, it’s a modern miracle that Doctor Who is still going as strong as it is. The “revival” of the series has now lasted nearly as long as its original run. In that time, there have been highs and there have been lows, but the show has almost always been fun and it’s never boring, as even its worst moments are worth discussing.
To be sure, fans will be discussing the last moments of the Doctor Who Season 2 finale for quite some time. In a shocking movie, The Doctor regenerated, and more importantly, the character regenerated into Billie Piper, the actress who played Rose, the first companion of the modern era. This was made to be a controversial decision, and while I’m open to the possibility that this could be great, my initial reaction is one of incredible disappointment.
I Really Liked Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor, And He’s Gone Too Soon
In my line of work, it’s nearly impossible to avoid spoilers, and I certainly knew there were some behind-the-scenes goings on regarding Doctor Who that left the future of the series in question. However, I still wasn’t aware we were getting a regeneration until it happened. Part of the reason that I wasn’t expecting it was that even if there were issues, I figured we would have at least one more season with Ncuti Gatwa, and I was looking forward to it.
The last two seasons aren’t exactly the best in the history of the series, but they are far from the worst, either. There have been some solid episodes since Doctor Who made the jump to Disney+. More importantly, even when the episodes weren’t great, they were still fun enough because Ncuti Gatwa was in them. I have rarely seen an actor playing The Doctor who was so obviously having the time of their life doing it. He was always happy to be there, and that joy was infectious. I'm far from the only one sad to see Gatwa leave the show.
Three years/seasons (give or take) has long been the default tenure of a Doctor Who lead. There have been exceptions, of course, but most exceptions only stayed longer. The only Doctors to have a shorter tenure than Gatwa were due to the actor clashing with the people running the show (Christopher Eccleston) or the people running the show clashing with the actor (Colin Baker).
While Gatwa is indicating he always planned to leave after two seasons, it seems all but certain that there’s more going on. Losing Gatwa alone is frustrating, but where the show is apparently going next doesn’t make me mad, just disappointed.
Bringing Back “Rose” So Soon After David Tennant Feels Like One Gimmick Too Many
I wasn’t prepared to see a new Doctor at all this past weekend, but seeing Billie Piper just has me scratching my head. What is this? More importantly, why is this?
To be sure, Billie Piper (probably) isn’t playing Rose. She’s playing The Doctor, who has now taken the form of Rose for timey-wimey reasons that will become apparent, assuming more episodes are coming. I’m just not sure I'm as excited as I'm supposed to be.
I will admit that part of the reason for this is that I (please don’t throw things at me) don’t love Rose, at least not as much as many seem to. I think Billie Piper is great, and in her first season on Doctor Who, Rose is great. Unfortunately, she’s the third most interesting of the three companions of David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor.
This just feels like a gimmick; a hook to grab old fans of Doctor Who who have wandered away from the show. The thing is, I don’t have a problem with that idea on its own. I’m a Disney fan, so I eat and breathe nostalgia. Nostalgia is fine, but we just had David Tennant back for the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who. We’ve fed our nostalgia need for the next little while. We can do it again, but can we wait a little while?
In much the same way that the Fourteenth Doctor being David Tennant had a reason for happening in the broader plot, the fact that The Doctor now has Rose’s face won’t just be a coincidence. It will have a purpose that will all tie back to earlier seasons of the show. Doctor Who couldn’t cast Peter Capaldi without connecting his character to the fact that Capaldi played a small role in a single episode of the show years before. There's no way they're casting Billie Piper and just moving forward.
There’s reason to believe there is something more going on here. As others have already noted, the closing credits did not list Billie Piper as The Doctor, a move that was all but certainly intentional. Of course, even if it’s the case that Piper isn’t playing The Doctor, she's still holding that space for the time being, and if this is all part of some grand plan, does it matter what character she technically is?
Even If There’s “A Plan” To All This, I’m Not Sure It’s Worth It
It’s hard to believe Doctor Who hasn’t been trying to find itself of late. First, we lost a companion after a single season, and then a Doctor after two. Things have been changing so fast that none of these characters have much time to get comfortable before they’re gone.
Perhaps there’s something of a plan in all this. Maybe Russell T. Davies knows what he’s doing and he’s driving everything toward a larger goal. The thing is, even if what we’re getting isn’t the result of randomly throwing things at a wall to see what sticks, it very much looks like that’s what this is. At a certain point, it doesn’t matter if it’s all part of a master plan if everything it takes to get there is a big mess.
Of course, being a Doctor Who fan means being open to change. The decision to allow a show’s hero to transform, thus allowing other actors to take the role, is one of the most brilliant creative decisions in the history of television. Everybody has Doctors they love and those who aren’t their favorites. It’s how the show works, and a big part of the fun.
If we really are getting The Rose Doctor as the Sixteenth Doctor, I’ll give her a chance. I do love that we’re getting another woman in the role. I loved Jodie Whittaker’s run as The Doctor, even if the writing rarely did her character any favors. Maybe what’s coming will be great. It doesn’t change that I’m deeply disappointed by what we’ve lost.
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