Asking for a friend

This is almost off-topic, but there's just enough DW content that I'm not going to punish myself.

>Although Doctor Who is now made with U.S. money, he reiterated previous remarks that the sci-fi smash is still not as lavishly invested in as rival American shows. For a recent scene in the currently-filming Doctor Who season, Davies said he demanded 200 extras for the first time in his career, only to turn on the first episode of The Day of the Jackal and see that, in his mind, there were 500 extras. “I just think, ‘How do you keep up with this?’,” said Davies.

>While Davies stressed that he wanted Doctor Who to “look like Stranger Things,” hence the attraction of the Disney money, he said it “would have found a different shape, a different form,” had the Mouse House not jumped aboard. As we revealed recently, the future of the BBC-Disney deal hangs in the balance and Davies said no decision has yet been made over Season 3 of the regenerated version, which stars Ncuti Gatwa as the 14th Doctor.

> > > what are Davies and Moffat’s secrets to telling a great Yuletide yarn? And what do they get up to at Christmas themselves? In [Radio Times'] exclusive fireside chat, they reveal all. Are you sitting comfortably? Then they’ll begin… > >

In which the writers of christmas episodes past and present discuss

• each other's christmas specials;
• how Joy to the world came about;
• why the Doctor doesn't just solve everything by going in the TARDIS;
• writing, and why AI won't steal creative writers' jobs; and
• what comes next on Doctor Who?

According to Radio Times,

> > > this new version of the serial will feature a 'lost' piece of Doctor Who history – while the Second Doctor's regeneration into the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) originally took place off-screen, the special edition of The War Games will depict the changeover on-screen. > >

and

> > > We're also promised the new release – which will air on BBC Four and be available on BBC iPlayer – will feature "recovered footage not seen since the original broadcast". > >

!I see you've done up the TARDIS a bit — I don't like it

>Writing in this month's edition of Doctor Who Magazine, he said: "In the office, this show is generally shortened to TWB, which makes me think it stands for Torchwood: Birmingham. We’re in the third week of filming. Very exciting!

>"The shoot will go on until just before Christmas, and it’s a mammoth task, all wrangled by one director, Dylan Holmes Williams.

>It's worth noting that Gatwa's statement appears to contrast somewhat with those made recently by showrunner Russell T Davies.

>He wrote in the most recent issue of Doctor Who Magazine: "The decision to commission Season 3 won’t be made until after Season 2 has transmitted. And that’s always been the deal since the start. Hey, we might even have a day off!

>Friendship is Universal is a celebration of the companionship and camaraderie that is at the heart of Doctor Who, both in the characters we love, and the heart (or hearts!) of every fan of the Whoniverse. Why not honour the friends and friendships you hold dear by entering this competition?

>You could win the chance to bring Doctor Who to your local cinema this Christmas for an exclusive screening of the festive special, before it airs. Plus, you can invite your friends and family too!

>For today’s generation of children, his voice will be instantly familiar as that of Grandpa Pig, in the Peppa Pig series.

>Previously, for nearly two decades he created the sound of the evil Daleks in the long-running sci-fi show Doctor Who – adopting a staccato style and then feeding his voice through a synthesiser.

Jo Martin and Alice Krige star in a brand-new box set of full-cast audio drama due to be released in January 2025, as the long-awaited Fugitive Doctor lands at Big Finish Productions.

For most of this episode I thought it was a good (if a bit on-the-nose) commentary about our societal distraction sickness and everyone living literally in a bubble. The hero was someone who literally able to walk on his own two legs, etc. But once they went underground everything kind of went loopy?

Where did the slug monsters come from? The idea that they came from "outside the (city's) bubble" kind of reinforced the idea that it's dangerous to hide from what's scary. But then we see the homeworld was also eaten destroyed by the same slug-monsters? If the slugs are controlled or created by the dots, are we meant to understand that the people of the home world are similarly walking around in bubbles? If so, then why does Finetime exist? The whole premise of an off-world "perfect" colony seemed to imply they were providing some service to the home-worlders beyond their 2 hours of "work". Why would a society of people living in bubbles send their youth to a faraway planet?

Then we see that the dots are capable of quickly killing the inhabitants. So where did the slug monsters come from? Why did the dots not just kill zippoty zop? Were the slugs obeying the dots alphabetical order parameters? Were they created by the dots?

At this point I was like "whatever it's Doctor Who, the plots are never as consistent as the vibes!" But then the vibes changed completely when it's revealed everyone is racist?!

My best guess is that this is some bungled way of comparing the people of Finetime to our modern social problem with radicalization on social media, like "look beyond yourself man" but that feels a bit of a stretch. I feel like I'm missing something big here!

Since returning as show runner of Doctor Who, RTD has stated fairly confidently that he was going to make sure the show delivered one season per year going forward. That made the reduced episode count a bit easier to swallow... a tiny bit...

In the meantime, though, streaming companies have become more cautious splurging money on show commissions, and it seems that includes distributing deals like the Disney+ one that boosted Doctor Who budgets for the most recent season, as well the forthcoming, already filmed season.

Quoted from an interview with SFX magazine, RTD now says that we won't have a definitive answer about a third Ncuti Gatwa outing until season 2 has finished airing:

> It’s an industry decision, it's like any business – these things take time. I think the decision will come after the transmission of season two. That's what we're expecting, that's what we've always been heading towards.

Given the time it seems to take only producing 8 episodes and a special these days, that will likely mean at least an extra one year gap between seasons 2 and 3 airing, if the show is even renewed by all current production and distribution parties.

Maybe, just maybe the spin-off The war between the land and the sea can fill in such a gap, but only time will tell.

I do appreciate that the Lemmy Doctor Who communities are less prone to wild fan speculation and continuity semantics rabbit holes, I really do. Sometimes, though, I dip back onto the main subreddits, and boy, do they get into massive circle jerks over little things that only jar others slightly.

Having exposed myself to the fandom mind virus, but refusing to join the fray on Reddit, I'll just infodump my own head canon explanations to (apparently controversial) occurrences in the latest season of the show here:

Is the Shalka Doctor now unredacted from continuity?

In the episode "Rogue", holograms of the Doctor's past selves loop around 15 like an old iTunes cover gallery. One of them is clearly Richard E Grant, who played the a ninth Doctor in "Scream of the Shalka". The animated series was short-lived and written out of the show's canon when the 2005 revival show introduced Eccleston as the "authoritative" ninth Doctor.

IRL explanation: Russell T Davies thought it would be fun to throw in Grant's face in the line-up. There's probably not more to it.

My in-universe explanation: The eighth Doctor actually regenerated into the Shalka Doctor, but because the Time War happened and rewrote timelines several times over, 8's eventually solidified upon the events of "Night of the Doctor", where he instead regenerates into the War Doctor.

However, time being relative, the Shalka Doctor is still extant if only as a wisp of an individual timeline, because a) he is a time traveler and therefore a complex temporal event not easily erased, and b) the Time War left the time stream in such a disarray that he may exist in a state of flux (no, not that one), and either continues adventuring as an offshoot of the Doctor's timeline, or is suspended in some kind of quantum field just slightly removed from it.

Pretty handwavy, yes, but all of Who continuity sort of requires you to gesture wildly like the eleventh Doctor having a thought, just for it to make some sort of sense.

The Doctor "was a dad", but 15 "hasn't had children yet"?!

In "The legend of Ruby Sunday", the fifteenth Doctor talks about his granddaughter Susan, who traveled with the first Doctor in the early years of the show. He then pivots to saying that he hasn't had children yet.

This is despite several if not all NuWho Doctors having referred in some form to having been a dad — including 15, just a few episodes earlier, in "Boom"! So which is it?

IRL explanation: As above, Russell T Davies likes to throw in non sequitur comments and details that mess with people's understanding of the show's lore. On a positivist note, it keeps that lore dynamic and throws some mysteries out for himself or subsequent writers to glom onto, like the Morbius Doctors or "half human on my mother's side" of the past. If it doesn't stick, ignore it.

My in-universe explanation: Ignoring the extended universe here, we don't know a lot about the Doctor's life previous to "An unearthly child", and nearly none about their family relations. What we do know is that they are a very prolific time traveler, and as witnessed from 11 and 12's relationship with River Song, things tend to get complicated, and invariably nonlinear.

With that in mind, it's perfectly feasible that 15 or a future incarnation has a child (the birds and bees part, or possibly looms?) that, for whatever reason, they leave for their previous, Hartnell self to raise (be a father to). Heck, given the above Shalka Doctor explanation, he could be the father, and 15 would be off the hook. Exactly what can we assume about a Time Lord's sense of self when alternative timelines come into play?

Along with the Doctor's realization that they are an "adopted" Timeless Child, as well as Ruby's search for her bio-mum in the past season, this explanation plays nicely into the twin notions of parenthood as giving life to a child versus raising it. Add to this that the Doctor's relationship to his companions (post-Susan) have always been stories of found and/or extended family.

It all makes sense when you (don't) think (too hard) about it!

So there you have it, the Doctor Who Reddit post to end all Doctor Who Reddit posts, deliberately not posted to Reddit. The important TL;DR is, time is in flux, several things can be true at the same time, and don't break your mind thinking about a TV show.

Anything else that needs explaining?

> Ruth Madeley is now confirmed to be reprising her role as UNIT's scientific advisor Shirley Anne Bingham in the spin-off.

> Though fans might have anticipated Shirley's appearance in The War Between The Land And The Sea, the second new cast member is rather more surprising... > > Colin McFarlane will also appear in the series as General Austin Pierce, a role he last played in the 2009 miniseries Torchwood: Children of Earth – 15 years ago.

Good to see Madeley back on screen! Her replacement in the recent season by Lenny Rush did give us another memorable UNIT character, but I'm looking forward to see more of Shirley.

Now, my memory of "Children of Earth" is a bit rusty, but iirc General Pierce will probably be wary of invaders from another world after that experience... We can hope that is the reasoning for his inclusion in this storyline?

>Doctor Who: On Ghost Beach

>by Niel Bushnell

>A haunting tale of mystery and adventure for the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday!

>The TARDIS arrives in County Durham, England, in 1958. Seaham Chemical Beach was once a scene of heavy industry, long since abandoned, but now local residents are having nightmares and seeing apparitions.

>It isn’t long before the Doctor and Ruby are affected by the beach’s peculiar atmosphere. As they begin to forget exactly who they are, Ruby hears a distant voice calling her on.

>Whose memories are filling the travellers’ heads, and what is the significance of Ghost Beach, in the Sea of Despair, on the planet Farfrom? Even more importantly – who is Reg?

>Susan Twist, who played the recurring woman in the BBC TV series, reads this atmospheric original chiller by Niel Bushnell.

---

>Doctor Who: Sting of the Sasquatch

>by Darren Jones

>A full-throttle adventure in America for the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday

>In a National Park in North-West America, the Doctor and Ruby are pursued by large, ape-like creatures who seem to literally disappear into the trees. When Ruby falls ill after apparently being stung, the Doctor believes the infection is extra-terrestrial in origin.

>They meet Dixie and Greg, two Bigfoot hunters determined to track down the mythical Sasquatch. Standing in their way is Ranger Peone, who’s adamant that the forest is too dangerous to explore. Dozens of people have vanished, or reappeared with no memory, in the last month alone.

>Then the ape creatures kidnap Ruby, and the Doctor is determined to both save her life and solve the mystery of the Sasquatch.

>Genesis Lynea, who played Harriet Arbinger in the BBC TV series, reads this tense and dramatic original story by Darren Jones.

> co-creator Alexander Woo told The Hollywood Reporter: "There was another sequence that was really fun and played really well and would have been a fantastic cameo appearance for an actor that I don’t want to name —because I don’t want to make someone feel bad for being cut out of the show. > >"However, it is a former Doctor Who, I’ll say that much. Fans of that would probably would have found it delightful. But for the sake of the rest of the episode, we had to set it aside." > > DB Weiss joked: "Jon Pertwee – 124 years old and still showed up."

Leave it to the former GoT showrunners to casually axe a high profile cameo. Apparently even their cutting room floor is like a Red Wedding.

So we'll never know which surviving Doctor didn't make the final edit, but speculation is fun, and free. Go nuts in the comments 🙂