Ncuti Gatwa Regenerates Into Billie Piper, Confirming Every Rumor Reported For Doctor Who
It turns out every laughable rumor about Doctor Who this season was true, as Russell T. Davies and the BBC went full fan-fiction by tacking on a regeneration scene where Ncuti Gatwa transitions into Billie Piper.
Doctor Who has been in desperate condition over the last few years. Fans rejected the show ever since Jody Whittaker’s involvement, leading to record low ratings, especially in the face of unpopular retcons like The Timeless Child. It seemed like a desperate attempt to bring back Russell T. Davies and David Tennant in hopes that fans would return for the nostalgia of the 2005 reboot.
This was all combined with Disney throwing massive investment dollars into the show to give it a polish and some of the biggest budgets Doctor Who had for episodes for all time.
Unfortunately, the 60th Anniversary Specials revealed that Russel T. Davies had a new bent toward extreme-left political activism in his writing. He created a new “Rose,” played by a transgender black man, to fly in the face of fans who loved the Doctor’s relationship with the original blonde female character. In addition, the first special had constant lectures on feminism and disabilities, even calling David Tennant a “male presenting Time Lord” to rub it all into fans.
The result was the lowest-rated Doctor Who Special of all time, which had its records broken by subsequent specials. The third, revealing Ncuti Gatwa to be “bi-generated” by splitting out of Tennant, was another insult to fan continuity and was a part of Russell T. Davies’ favorite thing to do to try to act clever in its wordplay, “bi-generation” being code for bisexual generation which illustrated the propaganda he aimed to insert into the show.
Interviews with Davies and Gatwa showed that they very much intentionally were trying to push the show in this overly political direction. Ncuti Gatwa even famously told fans not to watch the show and to “touch grass” if they didn’t like it.
He got his wish. When Gatwa took over the show and Tennant left, even the few fans who were rubbernecking to see a Doctor who was many’s favorite tuned out, and the show took a turn for the worse.
Not only did Russell T. Davies’ writing contain ham-fisted political messages that overwhelmed every episode, combined with casting choices to make sure those messages hit home with drag queen Jinx Monsoon and an evil plant filled with only white people, but it was clear the stories were lazy as he admitted he was turning the show from science fiction to fantasy so he wouldn’t have to come up with explanations with what was going on. Most of the stories came down to “magic,” and it didn’t feel like Doctor Who at all.
The second season fared even worse as every episode seemed to be a reaction of Russell T. Davies to the fans. He doubled down on the political messaging, but this time with a personal twist as the villains all seemed to mirror his perception of the “toxic fandom” that he was fighting, making the show a bizarre self-insert of Davies rather than feeling like an adventure of a timeless being saving humanity.
A lot of rumors were given to Fandom Pulse by an insider of the show for this season and every one of them ended up being true, including the big reveal that Billie Piper was then brought back and cast as The Doctor, something that sounded so absurd fans couldn’t even believe the BBC would do it.
The regeneration scene, of which there were two in a twenty-minute tacked-on ending that felt very strange, first featured Jody Whittaker showing up and assisting the Doctor by encouraging him. It gives the meta-commentary to the fans again, where Gatwa proclaims he’s the best Doctor, and Whittaker corrects him by saying best “male,” implying she was somehow better. This is a moment of woke solidarity where the feminist and BIPOC/homosexual characters bond together in a moment that makes no sense given the rules of time travel established by the show multiple times.
After more exposition explaining the ending, Gatwa then runs back into the TARDIS one more time, at which point he regenerates into Blilie Piper, who merely says, “Oh, hello,” before the credits roll.
Fans across the internet decried this move as another cynical attempt to bring back nostalgia but also with a feminist twist, showing that they’re doubling down on turning the Doctor into a woman again. It’s a gimmick to get the internet talking about the show, which has been notoriously silent in the last few episodes as even the hardcore fans have tuned out.
Regardless, the Gatwa era is over and so is the current Disney contract with the BBC. No announcement has been made as to what’s happening next with the show.
Will Billie Piper be enough to bring Doctor Who back to fans or is this going to further create a spiral of Doctor Who into irrelevancy? Leave a comment and let us know.
For a great alternative to mainstream science fiction that Doctor Who fans will love, with spy thriller action, read The Stars Entwined on Amazon!
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And thus dooms the doctor.
I'm calling it. Next regeneration The Doctor literally becomes a set of jingly keys.