Doctor Who Regeneration 03: Reversing the Polarity

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/tv/bbc-drama-chief-defends-doctor-who-says-its-a-“long-way”-from-being-rested-amid-ratings-drop/ar-BB10lfk3?ocid=spartandhp

Sunday's penultimate episode of Series 12 hit a terrible overnight viewing figure of 3.7m viewers sparking queries with the BBC over the shows future. The BBC Drama Chief has assured that the show isn't set to be rested anytime soon.

[Neon Ignition]

Another one to stew on even if it turns out the leaks where correct. Not sure it's gone down too well with the fanbase though

[CMcK]

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Have last nights revelations just been a setup so they can produce stories where previously unknown incarnations of the Doctor can use a gun and keep the American market happy?

[Neon Ignition]

It feels like one of those massive retcons out the gate that not only cause a lot of continuity issues (as much as Who has a continuity anyway) but also will itself be retconned later as well.

[Neon Ignition]

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But it's also showing how much Era doesn't pay attention as they seem to feel like loads of canon is broken that actually isn't now such as the Doctor's regeneration cycle. Most wrongly thinking she has and always had an infinite number of regens which isn't what the ep said

[Dogg Thang]

I haven't seen it and don't even know what they are talking but I know some serious die-hard Who fans who reckon it restored canon rather than breaking it... but I can't possibly say either way because they seem to be talking about stuff that goes back even before my day.

[Neon Ignition]

I'd be curious as to what bits it restores. In some way its it's a hard reset as

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It means that the Doctor isn't even a Time Lord or Gallifreyan at all anymore

[Neon Ignition]

Casting spoiler

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https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/...-quit-21618111

Graham and Ryan (Walsh and Cole) will not be returning for Doctor Who: Season 13. Only Yaz will return for the third run of Whittakers.

This is probably for the best, Walsh has been fairly sidelined this run and it'll finally give Yaz the room to breathe

[Dogg Thang]

I'd be curious as to what bits it restores.

Not a clue. They lost me very quickly because 1) I hadn't seen the episode and 2) I hadn't seen the old Who stuff they were talking about and now I can't find their rambling Twitter threads. But I went looking to see if I could find what they were referring to and this definitely came up - the episode showed some previous Doctors from this Tom Baker episode that apparently fans had dismissed since but is now made canon again - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brain_of_Morbius

[MartyG]

I'd be curious as to what bits it restores. In some way its it's a hard reset as

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It means that the Doctor isn't even a Time Lord or Gallifreyan at all anymore

It's nothing more than a massive retcon

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just so they can have as many new doctor regens as they want

it was also a pretty poor cybermen story, because what did the cybermen actually do, in what way did their presence have any real bearing on the outcome? It could have been nasty sentient digital hammers stalking nails for all the difference it would have made.

[Dogg Thang]

Aren’t they decades away from needing a retcon for that reason?

[MartyG]

The Doctor can regenerate twelve times, Jodie Whittaker.is the thriteenth Doctor Who.

[Neon Ignition]

Thing is

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Smith/Capaldi regenerated via a new Regeneration Cycle granted by the Time Lords which means the existing limit still exists on the Doctor who is now on the second incarnation of the 13 allotted.

It's a bit odd really as it basically, i current form, retcons loads but changes absolutely nothing about the current Doctor which means unless the show becomes very lore heavy the plot was redundant as the Master has been defying the rules for years anyway. By the looks they have a series to go one way or the other before Aunty Beeb upends the table again.

[Dogg Thang]

No, you’re missing some plot points. One was the War Doctor throwing the numbering out of whack and the other is that one of them (Matt Smith maybe?) was given a whole second set of regenerations, which would allow for a lot more Doctors already.

[MartyG]

I must have missed that - the whole, twelve times thing was a bit of a daft arbitary limit anyway - Doctor Who has stuck to canon less than Trek has over the years.