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Tag: Regeneration

Sheer Glee

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Review of The Giggle
Warning: This review may contain episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I’m not sure I’ve ever come out of a Doctor Who episode feeling simultaneously so shocked and so delighted. I’m not entirely sure how he managed, it but RTD has broken everything we thought we knew about regeneration and made us love it. He has every right to feel smug about doing something unexpected.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2023 BBC

In case it’s not clear, I loved this episode. Probably my biggest point of contention with it is the title (which sounds ridiculous). It makes me feel almost apologetic to my readers, because I don’t think I’m going to be able to be even the slightest bit objective this time.

From the Doctor having a “team” again to the return of a Hartnell-era villain to That Plot Twist, I was an eager rider on this roller coaster. While several things settled into the back of my mind for further inspection, none of it spoiled my enjoyment.

Perhaps foremost in my mind is the presence of the Vlinx, the random alien working with UNIT. Everyone takes the Vlinx in stride—including the Doctor—and doesn’t bother to question the Zeedex that the Vlinx has provided to UNIT to combat the titular threat. Even when Kate Stewart rages against the Doctor’s alienness under the influence of “the spike,” no one bats an eyelash at the presence of the Vlinx. I can’t believe that won’t come back at some point in the upcoming series.

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The Power of Fan Service

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Review of The Power of the Doctor
Warning: This review may contain episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

There was nothing subtle about The Power of the Doctor. It was pure fan service, from start to finish. Some of it we knew about beforehand, and some of it came as a surprise—again and again—but it was blatantly obvious that showrunner Chris Chibnall wanted to check off every single item on his bucket list on the way out.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2022 BBC

For the most part, I was happy to go along for the ride. Only in the final thirty seconds or so did I balk. (Yes, we’ll talk about that more, but under the cut.) It made me want to use my full-on Mom Voice: I’m not upset with you; just disappointed.

But let’s back up for a while, and leave that moment for later. First, let’s talk about the bonkers hour-and-a-half of Jodie Whittaker’s last episode in the lead role. This was Chris Chibnall’s ultimate fanfic moment; he threw in every plot thread and character he could think of (and book), and wrote a huge fix-it fic.

For those who may not be familiar with fanfic (I am only peripherally so, as I don’t read fic myself, though my kids do), the biggest purpose of the genre—as far as I can tell—is to tell the stories with beloved characters that the fan writer really wanted to see/read in the original media property, but was never given. (In other words, all of modern Who is basically fanfic of Classic Who, show-run by Classic fans.) And one sub-genre of fanfic is the “fix-it fic,” in which the fan writer fixes something that they felt was inherently wrong with the original.

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Confession #147: I Feel No Anticipation

There comes a time in every Doctor’s tenure when it begins to sink in that another ending is nigh. Thanks to showrunner Chris Chibnall’s scheduling and the pandemic, Jodie Whittaker’s time in the role has already been as thoroughly prolonged as Capaldi’s, which also extended across a year with nothing but a holiday special to tide us over. But will she leave soon?

While Capaldi reigned for four years from regeneration to regeneration (Christmas 2013 to Christmas 2017, with eight months between regeneration and first episode), Whittaker’s two shorter series plus two holiday specials have already spanned three and a half years (Christmas 2017 to now, with about nine and a half months between first appearance and first outing). Even if we believe reports that her third series will air later this year, that puts her tenure at no less than a full four years, like Capaldi’s.

But here’s where we get into sheer speculation. As always, the Doctor Who production team and the BBC are being incredibly tight-lipped about everything they possibly can. We know that Series 13 will be reduced even further to a mere eight episodes, but little else (aside from the identity of an incoming Companion).

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Confession #126: I Dread the Pendulum

I gotta be honest: the state of the world right now has got me down. Feelings of optimism and hope that the world might just—with a lot of continuing effort—start to move toward inclusion and justice are few and far between these days. And despite some steps in the right direction in our beloved show, I’m afraid that attitude of mine extends to Doctor Who as well.

The idea that each of the Doctor’s regenerations is a reaction against the last has been discussed over and over in fandom. We never know for sure along which axis that pendulum will swing—age, temperament, ability to connect with humans, or what-have-you—but swing it will. And given that the Thirteenth Doctor is the first “not a white, cisgender man” incarnation, I can’t help but wonder: How will the Fourteenth Doctor push back against that?

Perhaps my apprehension is misplaced, and Doctor Who, of all institutions, will not fail me. But as we’ve seen time and again, though the Doctor herself is not, those writing her stories are only human. And given the political landscape of both the US, where I live, and UK, where Doctor Who is produced, I can’t help but eye the future with a certain sense of dread.

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The Doctor Is In

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Review of The Woman Who Fell to Earth
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I really wish I could remember the exact moment—I wasn’t taking notes during that first viewing—when one of my daughters felt moved to declare her verdict: “Yep, she’s the Doctor!”


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2018 BBC

I think that, no matter their view on changing up the actor’s gender, that question gets at the crux of what fans have really been especially anxious about for this particular regeneration: would the Doctor still feel like the Doctor? The answer we got after this opening episode of Jodie Whittaker’s first series was, as far as I’m concerned, a resounding “yes.”

It always takes me a while to warm to a new Doctor (the exception being Capaldi, whom I was so ready to love going in that he was the Doctor to me from the moment those attack eyebrows first appeared). Even though I’ve been eagerly anticipating Whittaker for months, it was a tough change even for someone as favorably inclined as me to wrap my head around. But my kiddo is right: she’s the Doctor. She showed us so over and over again throughout the episode as both she and we recognized some parts of herself and not others.

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Waiting to Exhale

Deep Breath (Series Eight, Ep. 1; 2014)
Viewed 25 Apr 2018

Doctor/Companion: Twelve, Clara Oswald
Stars: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman
Preceding Story: The Time of the Doctor (Eleven, Clara)
Succeeding Story: Into the Dalek (Twelve, Clara)

The end of the school year and start of our summer break has taken us down several different binge-watching paths. As I mentioned last time, for a while it was the MCU. More recently it’s been other programs. And I’ll be honest—with “Kill the Moon” next up in our Who marathon, I’ve not pushed them too hard to get back to it.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2012 BBC

Before everything went sideways, though, I did manage to get them through the early part of Series Eight. New regenerations always make for interesting viewing, so I thought I’d record their reactions to this “new” Doctor to share here.

Of course he wasn’t new to them, which makes this an odd sort of not-quite-full-circle episode. The Twelve my girls know is actually rather different than the Twelve that first appeared on screen. Not only is his hair far too short here (I love that you can gauge where both Three and Twelve are in their regeneration based on how bouffant their hair is), but he’s still über antisocial (“I don’t think that I’m a hugging person now”). That persona put off a lot of fans at the time, and some of them never warmed to Twelve.

However, I’ve always held that early Twelve is a big hedgehog (prickly on the outside, but soft and tender on the inside). Perhaps having known his later, mellower self made it easier for my girls to agree with my assessment—or devise their own—and accept this awkward, uncomfortable goober as the Doctor. Whatever the case, they took him in stride and most of their comments and reactions were aimed at other characters.

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Nu-View #23: Time Marches On

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The Time of the Doctor (Christmas Special; 2013)
Viewed 24 Apr 2018

Doctor/Companion: Eleven, Clara Oswald
Stars: Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman
Preceding Story: The Day of the Doctor (Eleven, Ten, War, Clara, Kate Stewart)
Succeeding Story: Deep Breath (Twelve, Clara)

I don’t know what others’ families are like, but in ours obsessions come and go in waves. We’ll get all excited about something and dive in head-first, only to get derailed somewhere along the way for one reason or another. Sometimes it’s a scheduling issue that throws us off our groove, or sometimes something else piques our interest and supersedes the current passion-of-the-moment.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2013 BBC

Such is the way of the girls’ run through modern Doctor Who. Once we got on a roll, we were powering through episodes at an incredible rate. With only twenty-one left to get them up-to-date on the entirety of the modern era, we hit one of those bumps in the road. It’s now been more than a month since we last watched Who, having for the time being move on to the MCU.

All this is by way of explanation that my recollections of the girls reactions to this (and the following) episode have already been blurred by time. I have my notes, but they’re spare, and lack of temporal proximity makes them more difficult than usual to interpret. Besides, the girls did more watching than openly reacting. But there are a few key moments in the Eleventh Doctor’s last story that made an impression on them, and therefore on me.

Moffat threw everything but the kitchen sink at us here. There are Daleks, Cybermen, Silence, and the Crack. In fact, there appears to be a message coming through the Crack that no one can interpret. But the Doctor conveniently has something that can help his new “friend” Handles the Cyber-head decode that message: the Seal of the High Council of Gallifrey. “Nicked it off the Master in the Death Zone,” he explains, and the girls bark a laugh. We’ve only recently watched The Five Doctors, and they understand the reference perfectly.

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Twice the Emotions

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Review of Twice Upon a Time
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I am at such a weird crossroads of emotions, I hardly know where to begin. Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor has become my all-time favorite (just edging out the Eighth—sorry, Paul! I still love you!), so watching his regeneration story was even more bittersweet than usual. On the other hand, I’m eager to see Whittaker take the reins. Add in the other ups and downs along the way, and I’m just a mess.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2017 BBC

As is often the case at the end of a modern Doctor’s tenure, Twelve’s last hurrah was full of looking back as much (if not more) than forward. We knew going in that he’d be sharing the spotlight with his first (sort of) incarnation, and I was okay with that. I was also okay—more than okay!—with Bill Potts making a return.

I’ll be honest, though; it wasn’t a whole long time after the release of the trailer that revealed Bill’s return that I started thinking about how it might be possible. I never came anywhere close to being right (par for the course, with a Moffat episode), but I had enough difficulty concocting my own hypothesis that the Doctor’s suspicions (and later, opinions) about her presence echoed mine. As a result, it was difficult for me to be as delighted by having Bill back as I wanted to be.

I was also oddly ambivalent about having the First Doctor on board. I had quite enjoyed An Adventure in Space and Time, so was rather looking forward to David Bradley’s rendition. However, I didn’t get quite the vibe from him that I have come to associate with One; some of that was obviously down to the writing.

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It’s Happened Again

The Doctor is dead; long live the Doctor!

I have finally seen Twice Upon a Time, but am still busy digesting it (along with various Christmas goodies). Although by rights, my review should be up today, I’m treating my family time over the school holiday break as a priority. After the festivities die down, I’ll make time for my review, as I don’t want to post anything without giving it due thought.

So watch this space. You can expect my review in the next two or three days.

Thanks for reading, and may you have a happy holiday season!

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Confession #117: I Don’t Want Him to Go

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With less than two weeks left of Peter Capaldi’s official tenure as the Doctor, I’m shifting gears into full-scale denial mode. I know the cyclical process of getting used to the idea of a new Doctor, learning to love them, and mourning their impending departure is as natural as the whole “circle of life,” but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

I find my own reaction a bit odd, really. After all, I was as excited as anyone at the prospect of the Doctor’s next regeneration presenting female when Jodie Whitaker’s casting was announced. I’m still excited to see her in the role. But I think my apprehension about whether or not the writers will do her justice is adding to my already massive distress over losing an incarnation I love so dearly.

Change is hard, yo.

David Tennant’s Doctor giving way to Matt Smith’s was my first “real time” regeneration—the first I wasn’t watching well after the fact, with an established Doctor waiting for me on the other side. Although I liked Eleven just fine (with the exception of his creepy obsession with his Companions’ short skirts), he never resonated with me as deeply as certain other Regenerations. Thus, when it came time for him to relinquish the TARDIS key, I wasn’t as distraught.

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