The Doctor has left the TARDIS…
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already watched Jodie Whittiker’s final episode of Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks. If you haven’t, well go watch it then come back. I want to talk about it, if you’d don’t mind. But this won’t be a review of the episode. I liked it. I liked it a lot. More than I expected. But if you haven’t seen it yet, maybe you should stop here, because there will be spoilers ahead. What? You don’t care? Ok, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.
Ok, let me just say from the get-go, I was worried about how they were going to get it all in. The Master, The Daleks, and the Cybermen? Even knowing this was going to be a feature-length 90-minute story, there’s over-egging the pudding. On top of that, fitting in two classic era companions AND a regeneration? But somehow, Chibnall pulled it all off. He somehow gave a mostly satisfactory ending to almost everything. Almost. Kudos to him and the entire production team.
And can we talk about the guest appearances? Of course, we knew about Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Ace (Sophie Aldred). And it wasn’t a secret, but the return of Graham (Bradley Walsh) was great. But the fact that they got not one, but 5 former Doctors to return and managed to keep it a secret, in this day and age, is incredible!
Well, that’s impressive.
Seeing David Bradley return as the First Doctor was a great surprise, but then to see him followed by Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and Paul McGann! Of course, they were only appearing as manifestations of the Doctor’s memory, but they still managed to get Davison and McCoy to appear alongside of their former companions with some holographic wizardry.
It wasn’t just the former Doctors returning. At the end, Graham brings together as many of the Doctor’s old friends as he could find. I had heard something about the possible appearance of Melanie (Bonnie Langford), but to also see Jo (Katy Manning) and Ian Chesterton (played by 97-year-old William Russell, for the first time on TV in over 55 years!). Even though the moment was small, it made this old Whovian’s heart sing!
What’s Next For Doctor Who
As most people know, Russell T. Davies, the man who brought Doctor Who back to television 17 years ago (really?) returns as showrunner. He has cast Ncuti Gatwa as the 14th Doctor. We also knew that as part of the show’s upcoming 60th anniversary (60m really??) former series star David Tennant would be returning in a series of specials. These specials would take place before Ncuti’s Gatwa takes over as the Doctor. How has not been certain. Would these specials take place during the period between “The Waters of Mars” and “The End of Time”? Slotted in like Big Finish Adventures? (After all, Tennant has returned many times to play the 10th Doctor for the audio drama company.) Well, now we know. If you haven’t seen it yet…
But I can’t help but wonder: Did we see what we thought we saw? I ask because this regeneration was different than all the other regenerations since the show returned. Yes, there was huge glowing energy exploding out and a fiery aura, but when was the last time we saw the Doctor’s clothes regenerate? Way back in 1966, when regeneration was just becoming a thing, Patrick Troughton, the second Doctor, sat up already with his new outfit on under the old Doctor’s cloak. Since then, the newly regenerated Doctor first appears in (most of) what the previous Doctor was wearing at the time of regeneration. (Yes, I know the 5th Doctor had different shoes than the boots the 4th Doctor was wearing.) But especially in the new era, the clothes have stayed the same. So could this regeneration be something different?
Well, it looks like we are going to have to wait to find out. Talking about the future, Russell T Davies, said:
“If you thought the appearance of David Tennant was a shock, we’ve got plenty more surprises on the way! The path to Ncuti’s Fifteenth Doctor is laden with mystery, horror, robots, puppets, danger, and fun! And how is it connected to the return of the wonderful Donna Noble? How, what, why? We’re giving you a year to speculate, and then all hell lets loose!”
A year… That means no Christmas/New Year’s special this year. This will be the first time since the show returned in 2005 that there won’t be a special.
The three special episodes will transmit in November 2023 as Doctor Who celebrates its 60th anniversary. I wish I had a TARDIS so that I could go to next year because I don’t know if I can wait. How about you?
