Could Doctor Who Time Jump Past The Rose Doctor?

Sure, we all knew the BBC wasn’t going to go with MY idea to use the Rose Doctor to fix Doctor Who‘s recent failings. For one thing I’m an obscure blogger they probably never heard of. I’ve also heard that some of the rules for the tender include things that didn’t exactly make fans happy before with the past three Doctors. The idea was a last-minute addition because Davies didn’t want it to look like an ending, which the planned open regeneration apparently appeared to be while editing. I still like making it the Doctor trying to finally put everything behind him and return to the Doctor he was would be better than just ignoring it.

However, Fansided contributor Daniel Bibby posted the possibility of them doing just that. In an article for the “Winter Is Coming” section (odd to stick the Doctor into a blog I thought was based on Game Of Thrones–maybe they were confused by Matt Smith showing up in one of the spinoffs?), Bibby suggests a time jump is the better option.

Although it hasn’t been confirmed who the BBC will be partnering with when Doctor Who returns, it has at least been made known that 2028 is the general target date for the long-running British sci-fi series’ comeback. The BBC recently revealed what’s being asked of whoever wins the competitive tender process. In short, it’s more of the same, which proves the BBC’s confidence in Doctor Who‘s timeless (if you’ll pardon the pun) formula.

However, there’s been no real information about what the show will look like when it returns. It’s all but a given at this point that the off-the-wall Billie Piper twist will be all but ignored, or at least swept under the rug if not retconned entirely. As such, it stands to reason that the show’s next era will introduce the actual Sixteenth Doctor and go from there. Exactly how much time will have passed for the franchise’s main character hasn’t been announced, but a behind-the-scenes reveal suggests the Doctor will have had quite a few adventures that will remain unaccounted for.

Call me bias towards my own solution if you want, but I’m not so convinced this is the right move. It beats a reboot, but that doesn’t mean I’m on board.

As reported by Radio Times, the TARDIS that was introduced for David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor and duplicated for use by Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth is no longer standing. Former producer Jane Tranter has recently shared the news that the set has been dismantled. While it’s sad to hear, it’s not exactly surprising. The dazzlingly white TARDIS set represents a deeply divisive era in Doctor Who history, one that saw the BBC and Bad Wolf Studios partner with Disney during Russell T Davies’ return to the showrunner’s chair.

Also, it’s not a very good TARDIS console room. It might be better than the death trap Chris Chibnall designed for Jodie Whitaker, where the only interesting thing was a cookie dispenser…and I’m not convinced the cookies weren’t stale or poisoned or something, but Davies’ second console room was just too big and empty. There’s just a series of ramps and a jukebox for 15, and considering his stance on wheelchairs that ends up being useless. It’s better than his first design since it has actual lighting and didn’t look like they went to a junkyard (I still miss the wall monitor versus the one attached to the console), but at least it had something visual to look at. Dibby also wants to see the sonic screwdriver retired with it because both the console and Gatwa’s screwdriver were connected to a “divisive” period of the show with Disney’s interference, but I want it gone because it doesn’t look like a screwdriver. It looks like a coaster. It looks better to me when it’s part screwdriver and part magic wand.

See what I mean? This console is somehow too much and too little at the same time.

There are two main reasons the TARDIS’ interior gets a makeover. The first is when it’s destroyed or damaged, such as when Ten’s violent regeneration led to the TARDIS rebuilding itself ahead of the era of Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor. The other reason for a TARDIS overhaul is when the Doctor simply tires of how his craft looks, and he decides to redecorate. One example is when Eleven, who lived for centuries, updated his TARDIS interior during his life, ditching the warm and playful vibe for a darker aesthetic.

At least it looked like a spaceship. Put Davies Second TARDIS’ lighting and wall color into Steven Moffatt’s Second TARDIS design–I prefer to match the TARDIS to the showrunner, since the changes actually come from them–and I would have been much happier. Dibby focuses on the in-universe change but the change only exists because they wanted the change. There’s no reason for Seven to have changed the design so radically for the TV Movie, which is what started all these radical departures from the traditional design of Classic Who. I’m not sure this is proof of the time jump theory like he seems to believe. Do we know how long the Doctor was in hiding after Amy and Rory were locked to the past? I’m also not a fan of blowing up designs like the new show does. The console room introduced in Peter Davidson’s time lasted through the rest of the series, and the point was to keep it looking sci-fi as real science moved past it technologically.

2005’s Doctor Who revival brought the show back, providing the first live-action, fully canon episodes since the BBC pulled the plug in 1989. As long as it had been for the fans, it was even longer for the Doctor. Russell T Davies brilliantly introduced the concept of the Time War, a concept that happened off-screen after the classic era, transforming the Doctor and his mindset as we knew him. The real-world 16-year gap did Doctor Who a lot of good, but the bigger gulf of missing time in-universe was even more beneficial.

The Time War existed for the same reason as the Timeless Child: because they wanted the Doctor to be the most important person in the universe, not just the story. Making the Doctor the Child instead of just having it be the source of Time Lord regeneration was also done for that reason. The show didn’t end because it was bad. It ended because a BBC higher-up hated the low-budget sci-fi show despite its international appeal and worked to scuttle it while some old lady activist tried to “save the children”, a phrase often misused these days by people who hate children and just use them to support a cause. That makes Mary Whitehouse somehow better. I believe she cared. I just think she was an elitist who thought she knew kids better than their parents.

It made sense to time jump at the start of the new series for the same reason they did it for “Scream Of The Shalka”, the Richard E. Grant web cartoon series that was planned before Davies wanted to push Torchwood on the BBC. The show had been gone for so long that it seemed the right thing to do, even though many of us would have rather Paul McGann finally get to more than canon-questionable Big Finish audio dramas, while all he got officially was a cameo in a web short and the last time the Doctor self-explored during regeneration. It had been years, but it was also some time between the end of the original series and the TV movie, and we still got a radical change with no idea of how long it had been for the Doctor outside of Ace being gone and Sylvester McCoy looking older.

More recently, when the BBC tried to softly reboot Doctor Who ahead of the 60th anniversary in 2023, the new era was a relatively straightforward continuation of the rest of the modern episodes. And yet, it was sometimes treated like it was a suitable jumping-on point. It was, to put it lightly, a little bit of a mess. I’m not saying we need another Time War between now and when Doctor Who returns, but something along those lines is pretty much essential to draw a line between the 2005–2025 era and the imminent comeback run.

I’m not convinced we needed the original Time War. “Scream Of The Shalka” managed to add a mystery (possibly a mystery box) with the Doctor on the run again, only with a little Master in a human sized robot body (like that guy in the first Men In Black movie) tied to the console for some reason. I’m not a fan of that, either, but it didn’t kill off all the Time Lords so the Doctor could be the most special person in the universe. Good stories came out of it, but that doesn’t mean it was a good idea.

Not addressing Rose, a questionable move from Davies whatever the editing looked like, feels like a cop out. There are old reports that Mort Weisinger would come up with covers and force DC Comic writers to make a story about it during the Silver Age. A lame idea if true, but they often made it work. Until we get an actual production company willing to attempt to give this dying franchise another attempt and risk their reputation, all we have for now is a cartoon for preschooler that may or may not matter in canon. The first look above came out earlier this week, and we know too little to judge. It would be a shame that the adult stuff is canon to the family show and the kids show isn’t, but I’m not sure how that would work with a younger Doctor, unless that’s the next regeneration. The Sarah Jane Adventures was a family show in canon, and sadly K9’s solo show probably isn’t because it was produced in Australia. I can only say the art style doesn’t quite work for me, with the Dalek in particular really throwing me off, and before you say I’m not the target audience you clearly know nothing about me. I wonder what that console will look like?

Technically the time jump isn’t a horrible idea, and it’s one way to ignore the Chibnall and second Davies years. Ignore those and jump from Capaldi’s finale right to a new Doctor…provided the new studio doesn’t make the same mistakes (they probably will). Or if for some reason you like those years, you can keep them in. Everybody…wins? Some fans would rather get that out of our minds by doing a real world time jump and let the series return to the wilderness to rethink everything, come back with a fresh start. I don’t know. There has been serious damage to the Brand and we still don’t have the right people coming to fix it. #RIPDoctorWho isn’t going away anytime soon. That’s all I know for certain.