Doctor Who…Wait, What?
November 24th, 2013 . by Tim Babb (TANcast's #1 Host/Editor Fan)
Talkin’ Turkey With Tim Babb
Day 24
This is my last Doctor Who blog, I swear! I watched the 50th Anniversary episode last night after editing TANcast 265, and I enjoyed it. It was fun and for a change, there weren’t any major kicks in the dick. When I turned it off, I felt like the time it took to watch all that Doctor Who over the past few months was worth it because it payed off in me enjoying the show. So, hurray! Happy ending for me!
But then, as I lay in bed, I started thinking about the episode and I started had a question.* So I would throw this question into the internets fro my last Who blog. But be warned, as River Song would say,
Before I get to my query and now that we’re below the spoiler tag, am I right in thinking no one died in this episode? I mean yes in the time war people are dying, but it’d be pretty weak to show a war where everyone was ok. But even though several characters we are introduced to in the episode appear to be in mortal danger, I don’t think anyone actually dies. Good on, ya Doctor!
Now to my question. At the end of the episode, Matt Smith (or the 11th Doctor, but I’m calling him Matt Smith) gets a visit from an old dude. Who is that guy supposed to be?
Before you longtime Whovians cluck your tongues at me and rush to the comment section to tell me I’m an idiot…I know who the actor is and why he’s significant. Even though I have not seen one episode of Doctor Who that aired before 2005, I know this old dude to be Tom Baker, the 4th Doctor. But that doesn’t answer my question. That Doctor “died” and regenerated into Peter Davison (who crossed paths with David Tennant’s Doctor in a mini episode that was actually quite entertaining. It was so short, no one had time to die…brilliant!) My point is, who is that guy supposed to be? (See what I did there?) He’s obviously too old to be a past version of the Doctor, because he never got that old. Is he just some random dude who happens to look like the 4th Doctor? What’s the point of that? But then they seem to imply he’s the Doctor in the future. But can he change back into old incarnations of himself? Why doesn’t he do that more often? Did he get another special cup from those ladies in that mini episode? Did they see the Epic Rap Battle of History and decide they would follow THOSE rules? WHAT IS THE MEANING OF ALL THIS?!
Ah well, everybody lives…I’ll just focus on that.
*Actually I had several questions about the episode, but I forgot to write all of them down so I only remembered 2. One of them was the above question, the second was: Where in the 10th Doctor’s timeline did we meet up with him. Turns out it was after the episode “Waters of Mars,” but before the episode “End of Time Part 1.” He even makes a typical “nonsensical” reference about marrying Queen Elizabeth at the beginning of End of Time. Way to make that work, writers.
November 25th, 2013 at 4:06 pm
Did the special show everyone? EVERRRRYOOOONNE! (Just saw that last night. I have the International version, with 24 minutes of additional footage)
November 26th, 2013 at 3:42 am
Oh Tim, didn’t you read what I posted on the episode? Well sit back and get ready for some knowledge! Okay, way back in the classic era, I’m pretty sure it was the Tom Baker era, I may be wrong, The Doctor had a young Time Lady for a companion named Romana. When she regenerated, she was able to control the regeneration to pick which form she wanted to take, finally deciding on a person they had met previously. It has been said that regeneration is usually random, and that the Doctor prefers it that way, but apparently it isn’t. In the episode, The Doctor’s Wife, 11 told his in-laws about a friend who was able to control his regeneration to not only keep a tattoo, but to change gender. And in Let’s Kill Hitler, River/Melody mentions trying to concentrate on a dress size, so regeneration is controllable. Regeneration is controlled in that each and every Gallifrayian that has become a Time Lord, not including the now Gallifrayan Donna Temple-Noble and her “child” with 10, the Meta Crisis, as they only have one heart, has 13 lives, and twelve regenerations, but the High Council can grant and/or take away regenerations, as they did with the Master to get him in the Time War and to use them to bring the Time War out of the Time Lock/Pocket Universe, even force a regeneration as they did to turn the 2nd Doctor into the 3rd. So now, being that the 12th/13th Doctor is being played by an actor they used twice before, it may mean that he is trying to learn how to control his regenerations, so that one day he can take on the appearance of the 4th Doctor and live out his life as the Curator as it is implied at the end of the special. Also, when Melody learns that she is River, she saves the Doctor in Let’s Kill Hitler by using up her remaining regenerations. We have seen her use at least two, meaning that she has ten regenerations left. Now, when she saved her soon to be husband, many fans speculated, myself included, that she gave the Doctor her remaining ten regeneration, which was also pretty much confirmed by the 4th Doctor/Curator.
December 26th, 2013 at 3:40 pm
Well, thanks Moffat, we could have had a nice season long thing but thanks to the Christmas special, that’s thrown out. Oh, and so is my above theory!