Let me start by saying, and if this turns you off, feel free to move onward, that while I don’t buy into the “piss off the right people” bullcrap, if I’m going to accidentally tick someone off I’d rather it be someone I disagree with it. I do not buy the modern idea of “multiple genders” because it doesn’t make any logical sense. It’s just another way to divide us into smaller and more controllable groups while obscuring what being “male” and “female” are for whatever dumb culture war reason there is. I’ll call a trans person by their preferred pronoun out of courtesy and avoiding argument, but I have to draw a line somewhere whether this site is openly involved in the culture war or not…and I’m trying to be not. So Grant Morrison will be called by male pronouns here and “they” are welcome to complain if it bothers “them”.
So with that disclaimer out of the way, and don’t waste our time calling me whatever the current divisive term is because I don’t care, let’s get on with his/they/whatever discussing how Grant Morrison would fix Doctor Who‘s terrible finale. In a recent post on his Substack, which I don’t read so hat tip to Bleeding Fool contributor Karina Smith, Morrison added a fix to the “Rose Doctor” as part of what I’m guessing are replies to his readers. Now I’m not a fan of Morrison’s style in general. His ideas are sometimes weird and very British while also leaning too much on nostalgia for even me. For example, trying to work every incarnation of Batman into one version where every story happened regardless of continuity differences between the various reboots. I have nothing against Morrison’s work, I’m just not into it.
Still, it is nice to see people not give up on a long-running franchise and trying to find ways to restore things, and while Morrison has written comics before, the article suggest the folks at the British Broadcasting Channel wouldn’t agree to get an episode past despite previous pitches sent the BBC’s way, at least according to Morrison. Does that mean I agree with Morrison’s ideas? Not entirely. Does that mean I think they’re bad? Well, why don’t we just look at the ideas and see.
As far as being saddled with a lot of dangling threads goes, ‘they’ could just reveal that Gatwa’s Doctor was an unstable bi-regeneration who tried to make the most of his brief mayfly existence but just sort of flickered along, barely there. When he glitched out, he reached for a familiar face and got Billie Piper off the telly. She then tracks down David Tennant’s Doctor, going mad with his earthbound ordinary life round at Donna’s. He can’t stop attracting terrifying, vengeful enemies from space so he’s on the run when they meet – and fuse back together with a lovely Rose and the Doctor scene to wrap the whole RTD era in a neat bow, while the Doctor’s understanding family cheer them on – then it all goes wrong – and new-new-Who picks up from there with nary a backward glance.
We all agree that “bigeneration” was a stupid idea. In addition to Russel T. Davies being obsessed with Rose Tyler I believe he’s obsessed with the David Tennant Doctor. I saw a short on YouTube recently that the hate between Christopher Eccleston and Davies might be mutual, suggesting the bit with Harriet Jones being taken down by “doesn’t she look tired” (so much for the Bountiful Human Empire) was a final middle finger at Eccleston, and that he made the same leak to ruin Eccleston’s career. Davies certainly comes off as being that petty, like the swipe he took at former Who fans who hated what he did upon his return and what Chris Chibnall did to the show in his time. Bigeneration only exists to allow the use of old Doctors and to keep a version (or another version) of a Tennant Doctor around, which if every Doctor bigenerated like the show said means 10 is somehow still around (not that it should matter give how often Doctors run into themselves), plus 14, plus the Meta-Crisis Doctor clone in another universe with the real Rose Tyler having the romance Davies really wanted for them.
On the other hand, we could just ignore the “bigeneration through the timeline” thing, let 15 just regenerate, ignore 14 still existing because it wouldn’t be the first ignored plot thread, and then move on with life. That seems the simpler solution, or make him part of the Doctor’s long overdue healing somehow. Morrison continues:
I would open cold as if the show is new. Strange and eccentric young ‘inventor’, amnesiac, with an odd TARDIS machine that can go anywhere and is bigger on the inside. That’s all you need to get started.
Where do all the Time Lords come from? Well, it’s all about the timebirds and the timebees…
But don’t listen to me, when we have experts near at hand…
If we can ignore the Loom from the novel “Lungburrow”, I’d be a happy camper. It does sound like he’s going with the Peter Cushing movie Doctor, though. When the two colour (hi, UK) movies were produced even the writer’s room for the show hadn’t decided if the Doctor came from Earth’s future or another planet. Eventually the planet won that debate, but Terry Nation was on the pro-inventor side and probably pushed the movie guys in that direction as his Dalek stories were used for the plot. However, this still feels like ignoring continuity as the Doctor wouldn’t remember, and one of the issues with the new show and its spinoffs is that Earth has to know about space aliens by now and the universe knows who the Doctor is and fears him because they needed to make him the most important person ever, not just a guy in a blue box who explores the universe and gets caught up in helping people.
Anyhow, I believe nostalgia will be kind to RTD and Ncuti Gatwa. I’ve seen reappraisals of the Jodie Whittaker years that make her tenure sound almost appealing. All that hallucinogenic weirdness, where she’s having mind bending visions of the Timeless Child and lost lives before life! The gloomy hopelessness of the Flux with those infuriating, evil-for-evil’s-sake Cenobite characters wiping out whole universes. The Doctor in Wonderland going insane, surrounded by damaged but strong people… there’s definitely a vibe that could be explored.
Let the Fugitive “Doctor” be the Timeless Child, the reason for Time Lord Regeneration, but detach that character from our Doctor. Fix the lore, kind of fix the numbering (there’s still that bit with creating the Meta Crisis clone and the War Doctor), and still not have the Doctor be the most importantest person ever and ever.
I reckon even Gatwa’s Barbie Doctor will surely inspire some great audio adventures or novels.
The what now? You mean the actual real world doll? Next you’ll be trying to include that fan series on YouTube about the Puppet Doctor.
Meantime, I expect they’ll opt for the young Doctor full reboot, which would be a mistake. You have a universe. You have lore in the bank. That’s good to have as long as you don’t rely on it. In fact, barely even mention it. It’s so easy to do a young ‘Doctor Who?’ showing up in a field where he’s found by some kids who think he’s Jesus. Amnesiac…TARDIS stolen…whodunnit…etc… Kids who get into the show will be excited to discover there’s a huge back story to get into – but who am I to say?
K9 was forced to do that due to weird licensing issues, with the character owned by his creator while the design and lore was owned by the BBC. I don’t see that making Doctor Who fans happy.
That’s pretty much it. Morrison wants to try to redeem the Chibnall and Davies2 eras and their respective Doctors, and it just won’t work. Too many fans have rejected them. Best to write them off and move onward. I have my own ideas for how to do that, but who knows if my idea is any better. It’s certainly less convoluted. I’m all for trying to save this franchise that lasted, both on TV and off, for decades on decades and now has garnered a range between “apathy” and “ragequit” among the fandom. We want Doctor Who to be good again, but it requires people who care to be in the right positions to get that done, and in the corporate entertainment industry that’s a dying breed.
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