Spoilers Doctor Who s15 (or 2) [[spoilers!]]

MarkB said:

Of all the dangling threads this season, what I find most annoying is bringing back Susan for some very brief scenes that may have been entirely in the Doctor's mind and then not following up on that. Bringing her in for such a brief, meaningless cameo feels worse than not ever seeing her again. It really felt like they were intending to follow up on that and just didn't for some reason.


That wasn't stated or even implied as far as I recall. Once they split they became two entirely independent fully-fledged time lords.

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I agree that having a couple of cameos and no pay off is naff so I'm really hoping that Susan plays a bigger role next season with Billy Piper. Thats one reason why I'm hoping that Anita mentioning that her boss said hello is a reference to Susan - and the Time Hotel might show up again.

and yeah Bigeneration is an entirely new concept with no stated rules, so we cant predict anything in that regard. Although it does mean Tenants new Doctor is still active and might meet up with Billy Piper too

So many options for the writers now, for good or ill

Piper placeholder for a few episodes; combines with Tennant to make a new doctor. Or that's my guess

I think the writers set out the general "rules" for bigeneration in the last episode when the Doctor and the Rani debated in front of the UNIT staff.

Both Time Lords suggested that bigeneration was the attempt by Time Lord physiology to populate the species considering they had been previously rendered infertile/sterile (which seemed to be suggested as the result of the Master killing off the rest of the Time Lords, but that was one area of the show where I felt the showrunners/writing staff were trying to be too clever by half and ran too much together too quickly).

Based upon that reasoning, it can be pulled out whenever the writers want in the future, or not, as it is a "random" happening, or mutation of a sort.

That said, I know that unpublished material in the past (and even some hints in Flux) indicated that the Time Lords had been sterile prior to that, and that population growth was through genetic looms.

But, then we also have Susan as the Doctor's granddaughter back in the original show, and hints of the Doctor's mother being shown during the Time War with Rassilon, but then the Doctor was an orphan in later material, a foundling as claimed by Gatwa's Doctor.

So, perhaps we should not think too hard on it.

Cheers

John R Davis said:

Piper placeholder for a few episodes; combines with Tennant to make a new doctor. Or that's my guess

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Perhaps

John R Davis said:

Piper placeholder for a few episodes; combines with Tennant to make a new doctor. Or that's my guess

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That sounds a bit icky on the face of it.

Omand said:

So, perhaps we should not think too hard on it.

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Basically this. The "canon" of Doctor Who changes with every episode. What's true in episode 1 is false in episode 2 and legend in episode 5. It's best to avoid it altogether. As one example, there are multiple versions of Atlantis and the sinking thereof within a single classic series of Doctor Who. There's absolutely no point in trying to keep any of it straight.

overgeeked said:

Basically this. The "canon" of Doctor Who changes with every episode. What's true in episode 1 is false in episode 2 and legend in episode 5. It's best to avoid it altogether. As one example, there are multiple versions of Atlantis and the sinking thereof within a single classic series of Doctor Who. There's absolutely no point in trying to keep any of it straight.

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And things that have been ruled impossible, have later been the deus ex machina that saves everything in a later episode.

Elodan said:

I don’t think we got enough time with Ncuti’s doctor, especially considering how many Doctor lite episodes we got over these short seasons (series).

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Herschel said:

Yeah, I feel a bit cheated as Ncuti and Co really found their footing this series/season.

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Agreed! He got more screen time than Eccleston, but that's a low bar. The shorter seasons and low-Doctor-content episodes make his tenure seem shorter than Eccleston's to me.

At the end, th' Mrs said "He only gets one season?!?" It feels like it.

Ryujin said:

I'm wondering if that's the first time that The Doctor has regenerated voluntarily? We've seen him refuse to regenerate, but I can't remember an instance of him willing regeneration.

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I had the same question. I think it could be argued in some cases, but I think this is the first time they did it this overtly or directly.

I love the way Ncuti played the physicality of it, forcible pulling it out of himself and harnessing it.

On the Belinda and child front, I thought it was clear that she always had that child, right from the beginning, but what we saw throughout the series/season was a mis-remembered version of what happened, with her need to get back to her child replaced with wanting to get back to her parents. The intense need to get back to her parents always seemed a little odd, given how independent a person she was, but now we know that the importance was because of having a very young child to get back to.

Staffan said:

There's another interesting tidbit that I thought of, if they're going to shake things up with Doctor Who. Back when Chibnall quit, JMS mentioned he had inquired with the BBC about doing Doctor Who. Apparently he wasn't what they were looking for at the time, with one of the reasons being that he wasn't a resident of the UK, so he wouldn't be able to work there.

However, a few weeks ago he announced that he had fixed things so he now is a resident of the UK and can live and work there, and he's currently planning to split his time between the US and the UK, and is looking for work in Old Blightey. So, I'm wondering if he's angling to take over once RTD leaves.

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That very interesting. I'd like to see what he could do with Who.

MarkB said:

Of all the dangling threads this season, what I find most annoying is bringing back Susan for some very brief scenes that may have been entirely in the Doctor's mind and then not following up on that. Bringing her in for such a brief, meaningless cameo feels worse than not ever seeing her again. It really felt like they were intending to follow up on that and just didn't for some reason.

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Yeah, this is my only real disappointment with the finale. That said, based on how much this finale explained about RTD's work on the show this go-around, I'm confident he has a plan for her.

ART! said:

Yeah, this is my only real disappointment with the finale. That said, based on how much this finale explained about RTD's work on the show this go-around, I'm confident he has a plan for her.

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I've often wondered if Susan is a Timelord, like her 'grandfather', or just some waif he took in and mentored. I watched series 1 again, finishing about 6 months back, and don't recall it ever being mentioned before she stayed behind with her Dalek fighting boyfriend.

These were posted on Reddit. First is number of minutes per Doctor and second is number of episodes.