Review: Leaning out on diversity

My analysis of the last 10 seconds of The Power of The Doctor

Before you read on

• SPOILER ALERT Read no further if you haven't watched The Power of The Doctor
• Learn about Regeneration

And just so you know, my opinions here are directed squarely at the BBC and showrunner Russell T. Davies. David Tennant has every right to accept roles he wants to take, especially one he clearly loves so much.

The 13th Doctor's story has concluded

Jody Whittaker's run as the 13th Doctor hasn't been easy, and like the first of anyone in a role, she's been subject to criticism not experienced by other actors who played The Doctor save for Colin Baker's experiences in the 1980s¹. And thanks to Covid-19, she also experienced the first truncated season since 1986².

Her final episode, The Power of The Doctor was a rollercoaster of emotion, funny, exciting, scary and at the end I was genuinely sad to see her leave the role.

And then this happened:

13 Doctor regeneration scene

What's wrong with this picture?

From a purely observational standpoint, here's the situation as I see it.

• Jody finished filming her run back in 2021.
• This was the close of her era and she didn't hand-over to a new Doctor at the time because one hadn't been chosen.
• Ncuti Gatwa was announced in May 2022 as the next actor to play the coveted role by returning showrunner Russell T. Davies³.
• After leaving the show in 2010, David Tennant and Catherine Tate will be returning in 2023 for three specials to celebrate the show's 60th anniversary.
• And at the conclusion of The Power of The Doctor, Jody's 13th Doctor regenerated into... David Tennant?!

What, indeed.

Good intentions and the road to hell

I expect that on paper, the idea to have David Tennant return to the role of The Doctor after 12 years absence would have looked like it was made of SOLID WIN!!⁴. I mean, there he is, he loves the role and his era is held to be a high-point in the same way as Tom Baker's was from the perspective of the 1980s.

Had Tennant returned as the 10th Doctor, I'd be all in. It's really cool to "discover" episodes of a show's run you've never seen (and I get that in this case, they're brand new episodes).

Except David Tennant is the 14th Doctor, which means he's now had three cracks at the role⁵.

And the fact this occurred during the UK's Black History Month makes the decision a real head-scratcher.

That's because Ncugi Gatwa is, in fact, a Black man⁶.

Load the canon!

It's said that what's transmitted is canon, the fact of the show, and can't be undone. This means we must respect the premise offered at the conclusion of The Power of The Doctor⁷.

Within the narrative we can hypothesise the 14th Doctor has the face of the 10th because of the Master's meddling in The Power of The Doctor. Call it a Reversion rather than a Regeneration if you like.

But rather than give the job to someone who's already had a full run of 3 seasons, a full year of specials and appeared in the 50th anniversary special The Day of The Doctor, why not appoint someone whose tenure has been patchy at best, for instance:

• Paul McGann's 8th Doctor who got a backdoor pilot back in the 1990s, then a ten minute short during the 50th Anniversary; OR
• Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor who has appeared in one full episode and had cameos in three subsequent episodes since then.

Hell, the showrunners don't even have to look very far because they both appeared in The Power of The Doctor!

But he's a fan favourite!

Yeah, and so are all the other actors to play the part, so let's not get carried away here. Oh, and there were seven of them in the episode, not including the 14th Doctor.

The dastardly plan to erase the Doctor

Jody Whittaker's final adventure involves a complex storyline, which includes attempts by her nemesis The Master played by Sacha Dhawan to erase all incarnations of The Doctor from existence.

His hate isn't new⁸, and in this case is the result of discoveries revealed in Spyfall then in The Timeless Children.

Splitting quantum hairs?

As part of The Master's absurdly overcomplicated plot, he forces the 13th Doctor to regenerate not only with his appearance but his memories. For a while it looks like The Doctor is dead.

Importantly, The Master ends up wearing the 13th Doctor's outfit, plus the dangly earring which came in handy during The Legend of the Sea Devils.

But then we get to the regeneration scene right at the end of the episode and not only does David Tennant appear, he's wearing a suit and overcoat, that looks a lot like his original costume.

There are a whole bucket of problems with this, not least of which is that it breaks the very continuity that the trolls have been screaming about since 2017.

Don't feed the trolls

Once upon a time, there was an angry mob of Tiki-torch wielding trolls threatening to burn your hovel down. They're protesting because you've hired Cinderella and they say she doesn't sweep the dirt nearly as well as your previous 12 employees.

And back to reality, we've got something similar going on with a toxic subset of Doctor Who fandom whose members have been screaming like cut pigs ever since Jodie Whittaker got the role back in 2017. Here's a small sample:

• The drinker on the 13th Doctor⁹
• Not the doctor
• The fall of Doctor Who

...and it's not hard to find more.

The Continuity is more like guidelines...¹⁰

It's an established fact in the Doctor Who continuity that Time Lords regenerate their bodies, not their clothes¹¹.

But "Fuck continuity," say the trolls, because Space Jesus is back to vanquish the Woke brigade, smite the Social Justice Warriors and restore the show to its former glories! Hallelujah!!. And best of all, there's not a trace of the 13th Doctor, not even her clothing¹².

Or in other words, the regeneration scene vindicates the opinions of the very toxic fandom that has plagued the entire run of Jody Whittaker's Doctor.

And to add insult to injury, by re-establishing the character's dominant, traditional appearance, the showrunners have prevented another first for the show: the first female Doctor regenerating into the first Black male Doctor.

Thankfully, Cinders' contract is up, so you've hired a former employee in the hope the mob will be appeased. That'll give you a year to prepare, because the trolls will go ballistic when they see the next guy...

Leaning OUT on Diversity

In the opinion of this humble scribbler, the world established by Verity Lambert and Waris Hussein back in 1963 deserves better than fans who aggressively pursue a view of racial and sexual purity and refuse to let anyone else play in the universe of Doctor Who.

And by delaying Ncuti Gatwa's appointment as the next Doctor as announced in May 2022, the BBC and showrunners have missed a golden opportunity to lean-in on diversity during Black History Month, and continue to reflect the variety of faces, genders and genetics we see in the society of the third decade of the 21st century.

EDIT 2022-11-16 It's now come to light that Russell T. Davies decided to have David Tennant regenerate in a different costume to avoid giving bigots fuel. And you know what, maybe this is another of those cases of best intentions going awry because no-one thought that by erasing the 13th Doctor so completely, they gave the bigots EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANTED! Sigh