We Don’t Need Another Tennant Doctor

I have nothing against David Tennant personally, outside of that whole “right side of history” nonsense we won’t get into because it doesn’t matter. I’m just stating that this has nothing to do with the actor himself. Any issues I have with the “God Doctor” as I call him due to how he was treated comes from Russell T. Davies and the various writers of BBC Wales and Bad Wolf Productions. So let’s be clear on that; I don’t hate Tennant or his Doctors…and therein is the problem. Doctors. Plural.

At issue is the rumor examined in the following video from YouTube channel WhoCulture, part of the WhatCulture network of channels and website. It may be a rumor that Dean Devlin, the movie director, wants to take over the Doctor Who series. And of course he put out the possibility of bringing back David Tennant. Arguably the most popular Doctor of the New Who era, it makes sense that the belief is bringing back Tennant means bring back audiences. At one point that might have been true. Now? I’m not so sure. I think that Tennant’s “brand” may be a bit weaker than it was, not from his political statements but due to oversaturation as he may be overused by this series.

I feel sorry for Elle Littlechild. This is the second time something like this came up while she was on break. As a commentator myself it is annoying when something cool happens that you want to discuss, but the whole point of taking a vacation is to NOT work, whether you’re getting paid or not. She is, I’m not, but Sean Ferrick of TrekCulture steps in to discuss this news, a possible Devlin-produced TARDIS trip, and a slight sidebar about AI videos. Trust me, it all matters.

As far as the AI video…eh. It’s not like he was going to get the actual actors to do that and the set is probably long gone. It is the best of the New Who TARDISes, though I’m still a nostalgic sucker for the last of the classic TARDIS console rooms. Imagine that built with a real budget.

We’ll also get Devlin as showrunner out of the way. There are Americans who don’t like the idea of the show being taken out of British hands. The TV movie wasn’t that bad and mostly suffered from going to Fox, where sci-fi usually goes to die, to air it. The only sci-fi they ever seemed to like in live action was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Every other show has suffered under poor airing and promotional choices. The Stargate franchise kind of flourished without him, and animation (aired on Fox Kids so it got treated better) did a better job with the 90’s “Zilla” Godzilla than the movie did. So he’s not my first choice to take over this sinking ship of a franchise.

If they had the same outfit you’d never tell them apart.

It was hinted at in the video and comments, but the biggest issue with Tennant coming back is that there’s already three of him running around active. 10 is still somewhere in time and space, and even if you ignore bigeneration being retroactive so there’s always more Doctors, which makes little sense nor is it needed thanks to time travel, he’s not the only one with the same face. The “Meta Crisis” Doctor may be a “human” clone, but he still exists back in the alternate universe with Rose Tyler because of Davies’ obsession with them both. He even got left behind his own piece of the TARDIS to regrow into a full TARDIS, so odds are his coral console room is also out there, ugly as it was. It’d be the worst TARDIS ever if not for 13’s.

Bigeneration also gives us the 14th Doctor still active. 14’s job was to find peace for the Doctor after the Time War because Davies can’t let that go. The Doctor did. 11 became “the Doctor who forgets” because he remembered what the trauma did to 10, especially the “Time Lord Victorious”, and the only reason we didn’t see more of it with 9 is because Eccleston got sick of the treatment he and others got at BBC Wales by Davies and his staff and left the show. 11 let it go because he had to if he ever wanted to be The Doctor again instead of hanging on to the crimes, necessary or not, by the War Doctor. In fact both of them helped the War Doctor not so much alter history as tweak it. Instead of destroying Gallifrey they shunted it into another dimension so that everyone lives (something 9 would have appreciated), leading to the painting “Gallifrey Falls No More”. Until Chibnall came along and made it fall, which Davies was of course totally on board with because he believes the Doctor must be the most specialist person in the universe simply because he’s the title character. See also the Timeless Child.

14 also has his own TARDIS, thanks to the “reward” of defeating the Celestial Toymaker along with 15, so if he actually does heal he could go off on his own adventures, meaning the most boring TARDIS console ever will also get to exist. That’s two of Davies’ console designs that will forever exist regardless of what changes are made in the future, along with all three Tennant Doctors. What I don’t understand is how 14 healing would ever benefit 15 and onward if they are now separate people. And what happens if the separated Doctors regenerate? Will they subdivide again? How many versions of the same Doctor will be running loose in time and space? Imagine a time where there are three or more separate incarnations of just 10 and you’ll see a gleeful Davies. He doesn’t care about reason, he cares about his Doctors living forever.

So there are three Tennant Doctors, possibly two Tom Baker Doctors if the Curator really is another incarnation of the Doctor, and one of everybody else, bigeneration nonsense aside. Why should Tennant get to be three Doctors? Because he’s the most popular New Who Doctor? So? My favorites are 5 and 11, the guy after the most famous. Baker as the Curator is a nice nod to the most popular Classic Who Doctor plus events causing him to miss out on “The Five Doctors”, 4 and Romana showing up through footage of an unfinished episode due to a worker strike, while Baker’s schedule didn’t allow him to return alongside the others. They used a wax statue of Baker for promotional shots. Otherwise, every actor has played the Doctor exactly once, with the First Doctor having three actors due to necessity. William Hartnell had passed away so another actor took over as the First Doctor to have him there with his future selves, while 12’s regeneration used the actor who played Hartnell in the docudrama An Adventure In Time And Space.

It’s not really fair to the other actors that Tennant got to be the Doctor three times. Richard E. Grant voiced a Doctor in an animated attempt to bring the show back that was killed off for the live-action TV revival, which by the way Tennant has a brief cameo in that he begged for because he’s such a huge fan. (Huge enough to marry Davidson’s daughter. Yeah, I’m kidding, but someone will mention that and Georgia Tennant playing the Doctor’s clone daughter, Jenny. We know. We KNOW!) Peter Cushing’s was based on the early ideas for the Doctor as an Earthling who built the TARDIS, something debated in the writers’ room for years. Everyone else returns as their solo Doctors for Big Finish and the occasional crossover, like the charity skit where 5 met 10. Again, it’s not fair for Tennant to have his face on so many regenerations and clones. Even 11’s “flesh” clone stopped existing before the story was over.

So while I hope it’s not a true rumor, it’s because using Tennant again is just a bad idea. We had him. Three times. He could do a Doctor crossover all by himself. Plus 14 started chasing more fans off who stayed through 13, with 15 running them off, again because of the writing and direction. The Tennant Doctor is kind of ruined now, and I’m sure he can play other roles, or make a cameo as one of his other Doctors. Choose someone else. AND MAKE HIM GINGER! It’s about time, no pun intended. You set that joke up, now make it pay off!