Bigeneration?! Two Doctors?! The ending of The Giggle has sent shockwaves through Doctor Who lore (and its fanbase) so let's break it all down and explain exactly what it means for the Whoniverse.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Hello everybody, it's Ellie here with Who Culture. We did it! We made it to the end
00:05of the 60th anniversary specials. And let me tell you, the giggle was monumental.
00:11Not least of all because of that monumental change that we saw with regards to regeneration.
00:16So we thought, let's discuss that, let's talk about what that means for the show.
00:21And also, Russell T Davies has revealed some more information about that current situation as well,
00:27so let's get into it. So first of all, just a quick recap,
00:31in case you've forgotten, highly doubt you have, but let's just have a quick recap.
00:35We're on the helipad of Stark Towers and Unit Towers, still can't get over it, it's Stark Towers.
00:41It's so obviously Stark Towers, not the point Ellie, not the point.
00:44And we have the Doctor stood there going, your fight is with me, don't shoot my friends.
00:49So he goes, okay then, and shoots the beam right at the Doctor.
00:54And if you heard some sort of rumbling thud during that moment,
00:58that would be just the sound of every viewer's jaw hitting the floor.
01:02Even though we knew a regeneration was coming in this episode,
01:05still doesn't make it any less shocking when you see the Doctor get shot or killed in some way.
01:10He starts to do his orange glowing and you're like, here it comes,
01:14here comes the regeneration. We have his final words,
01:19And he doesn't change.
01:20And they pull his arms and there we have it, by generation.
01:25And we then have two Doctors.
01:28The 15th Doctor actually says that by generation is a myth.
01:31Now this could have something to do with the idea that the Doctor,
01:35what's the word he used, he invoked superstition at the edge of the galaxy.
01:39So this could suggest that by doing that allowed these myths to suddenly become reality.
01:45Obviously the other possibility being that the Toymaker has
01:48twisted reality to make this a possibility.
01:51And the Doctor does say later, to the Toymaker, you made this happen.
01:54So it very much suggests that in the world of play, in the Toymaker's reality,
02:02this is a possibility, a myth that has now become reality.
02:05So let's talk about by generation and my personal thoughts on it,
02:09what the overall response to it has been.
02:11I'm going to be honest, I had seen a lot of, not leaks per se,
02:15but I had seen a lot of speculation about this being a possibility before the episode aired.
02:21And so I would say that I wasn't necessarily surprised when it happened,
02:27which was slightly disappointing because I think if I had gone in completely
02:31unaware or unsuspecting, this would have been absolutely a major, major jaw on the floor moment.
02:37And don't get me wrong, it still was.
02:38But I wasn't as surprised as I would have perhaps been if I hadn't gone in
02:41with a slight inkling that this might have been the case.
02:44At first, I just didn't know what to think. I was a bit confused.
02:47I know that in the past we have had, you know, we had the Metacrisis Doctor,
02:50so we did have two there and that was explained in a certain way because he grew out of the hand.
02:54When I watched it a second time, I definitely feel like I appreciated it more and understood it more.
03:01Having said that, there were, I did have some initial concerns.
03:04I guess only time will tell as to whether these concerns are warranted
03:07or whether I had nothing to worry about and I know that other people have had these concerns as well.
03:12First of all, does the remaining of David Tennant's Doctor kind of detract from shooty slightly?
03:19Obviously, it's a major, major thing to step into the role of the Doctor.
03:23It must be so nerve-wracking for any actor stepping into the role
03:28because you have major shoes to fill every single time.
03:31But on top of that, you have David Tennant's shoes to fill.
03:34And so while that is really nerve-wracking and you have really got to prove yourself,
03:38as Matt Smith had to do, does keeping David Tennant around kind of suggest a little bit of
03:43a lack of confidence in shooty? I don't think that is the case and as we've established,
03:48this is a whole new avenue for the show that we've never seen before.
03:53But that was an initial...
03:54Oh, well...
03:55But that was only a kind of passing concern that I very much was squashed the moment that
04:01shooty kind of started jumping around and very much was the Doctor.
04:04The other concern that I'm really kind of lingering on at the moment is we did a video
04:11not too long ago discussing David Tennant's future in Doctor Who and one of the big things
04:16that I said in that video was that my concern over how many times do we bring David Tennant
04:25back before it loses its meaning and power. David Tennant is such a popular
04:30incarnation of the Doctor and so to bring him back is a monumental thing and does bring those
04:36audience members back in. But we've had this multiple times now where it's like we never
04:42have a definitive ending with him. There's always the potential for him to come back
04:47and while that's great and everyone loves to see him, how many times do you bring him back before
04:51it's, well, he's back again? It's not a really jaw-dropping revelation because he's back again
04:58and so obviously by keeping him as the Doctor and keeping him with a TARDIS you've kind of got
05:02this thing in the back of your head suggesting he's going to be back again soon, isn't he?
05:07None of the other Doctors get this luxury and I know a lot of the actors don't want that but
05:12you just don't want it to lose its power and meaning by overdoing it and that's one of my
05:17slight concerns but I guess time will tell as to what that means for David Tennant in Doctor Who.
05:23Another concern that I have seen is people suggesting that Russell T. Davis has just
05:32changed the show for the sake of it and obviously this is a complaint that a lot of people had about
05:36the Timeless Child story arc as well. Personally I think the two things are massively different.
05:42This has been introduced now and changes the future of the show. The Timeless Child arc was
05:48introduced, changed and altered the entire history of Doctor Who as we knew it and hasn't
05:53really been explored any further and so it kind of was introduced for no reason because there's
05:58been no real payoff to that major change in the past and history of Doctor Who. Whereas this
06:04introduction of Bi-Generation hasn't changed anything we've seen in the past and now only
06:09introduces a whole new avenue for the show to go down in the future and so you can explore that
06:16as you watch as opposed to having to now think well everything I thought I knew has changed.
06:21That's not the case in this instance. So beyond what we learned in the episode itself with regards
06:26to the Bi-Generation we actually learned some more from Russell T. Davis himself in the
06:33iPlayer InVision commentary of the episode. So first and foremost he said that this was always
06:39his intention and from the moment he knew he was coming back this was always his intention. It
06:44wasn't something that kind of popped up once they knew that Shooty Gatwill had been cast or anything
06:48like that. He always intended for this to be the direction that he took the show in. He also
06:53commented that he really wasn't keen on doing the traditional multi-doctor story but having the
06:58current Doctor and the future, the next Doctor come together was something that he'd wanted to
07:04do for a long time and this was the opportunity for him to do it. But something that was even
07:07more intriguing that he mentioned which maybe slightly contradicts my whole comment on the
07:13timeless child thing being very different. Although obviously this is just a comment he's made
07:19whilst there's something that's going on in his mind as opposed to something that's been
07:22literally explicitly said in the show itself. But he basically suggested that Bi-Generation could
07:27happen with any of the Doctors and in his mind has happened with any of the Doctors, not just 14 and
07:3215. All Doctors at some point have split as opposed to changing and there's a Doctorverse.
07:40Multiple universes in which every single Doctor went on to live their own life. So there's a time
07:45where Sylvester McCoy suddenly wakes up in that morgue and carries on living. There's a universe
07:50where Nine and Rose continued on their journeys and he never changed into David Tennant. Essentially
07:55what Russell T Davies was commenting on here and suggesting was that he wanted to introduce
08:00some sort of explanation so that in the future you can bring back those Doctors to a story
08:08without having to explain why they look older or how they are there. And by introducing this
08:14idea that Bi-Generation can happen and that there's a multiverse, a Doctorverse,
08:19in which there are multiple storylines and avenues for which any Doctor's life could take,
08:26it would not need to be explained too much if suddenly Sylvester McCoy appeared with Shuti
08:30Gatwa next week looking as he does today. And that wouldn't need to be explained because he's just a
08:36Doctor from a different universe in which he never changed and just aged. Tales of the TARDIS
08:42was kind of a good example of this where we had all these Doctors who lived in a different time
08:47where they never changed, they aged and they existed in this little bubble. So it is a very
08:51interesting way to look at the show and I think it's very good to give this explanation, a simple
08:59explanation so that you can introduce multiple Doctor stories in a much simpler and less
09:07confusing way from a writing perspective certainly. One thing that Russell T Davies did say and he
09:12specifically mentioned the Spiderverse and obviously the MCU with the multiverse and that's
09:17something that's so present in pop culture now that most audience members can really grasp that
09:24and he mentioned that because audiences now have got an understanding of multiverses and are really
09:31on board with that prospect, now seems like a good time to introduce it in Doctor Who and to my mind
09:36if you can't do it in sci-fi where can you do it? I mean this is a show with limited possibilities
09:42and as long as there's a good enough explanation as to why you've done it and how it works,
09:48within reason sci-fi you have the opportunity to do whatever you want to do. As I said this is
09:54changing the future of the show so it's not changing what we've already known it's just
09:57taking the show in a different direction and I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing.
10:02And what I do like about this is that again as Russell has said we can now have those Doctors
10:06step into the role as they look now and not have to have them as a hologram as they were in The
10:11Power of the Doctor. You know they appeared but there had to be some way of explaining why they
10:14had aged suddenly and well you know the TARDIS is just trying its best to compensate or whatever
10:20the explanation was there and here it can just be I'm a Doctor from a different universe.
10:24Now finally as for the 14th Doctor himself, there's really no news on that front. We know
10:29there are spinoffs coming. It would seem that potentially we may see now a spinoff with 14 and
10:36Donna and the family and Mel and going off on random adventures. We know Yasmin Finney
10:41will be making more appearances as Russell T Davis has stated previously so is that going to
10:47be with Shuti? Is that going to be with David Tennant? We do not know. What I will say is I
10:53do not think we're going to have any announcements with regards to that incarnation of the Doctor
10:57anytime soon. Let's now let Shuti have his time. At least let his first season come out and let
11:04everyone fall in love with this new incarnation. You know we said earlier about David Tennant
11:08overshadowing Shuti Gatwa and I think the balance was perfect in this particular story but now we
11:14need to let Shuti really take hold of the reins and find his feet in the role of the Doctor and
11:22let everyone get a chance to fall in love with this version of the character. But I also would
11:26not be surprised if at some point down the line we do end up seeing more of 14 and Donna Noble.
11:34I think at the end of the day what it really comes down to is how well a story is told. If it
11:39is used in the correct way then it will be an absolutely wonderful story. If it's just used as
11:43a get out jail free card, a cop out, a really easy get around to not have to explain something then
11:49it doesn't feel worth it. I think the future of the show is is going to surprise us but not
11:54necessarily in a bad way. That's just my thoughts. Let me know yours. Let me know your thoughts on
11:58the whole Bi Generation storyline in the comments down below. Also make sure that you check out
12:03Sean's ups and downs review of The Giggle. And in the meantime I've been Ellie with Who Culture
12:07and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye sweeties.