I do think there’s a slight blind spot for some Doctors because of their popularity.
If any other Doctor had taken Tennant’s place in all of the crossovers/places on covers (it’s the covers really, I haven’t played the games he’s part of but his prominence on cover art was definitely pronounced) then I think more people would go, “That’s a bit much actually.”
Like if it were Davison more people would be like, “Why does the Fifth Doctor keep showing up in Thirteen’s EU stuff?”
But it’s Tennant so doesn’t seem as odd to people. I think Tom and Matt are the only other 2 Doctors where it wouldn’t have seemed odd to people because of their perceived popularity.
I mean, given the amount of Thirteen stuff in the EU, he showed up in a small percentage BUT it was still a disproportionate amount in my opinion. That many multi-Doctor team ups wouldn’t register as much if it were a different Doctor each time but I agree, favouring the Tenth quite so much did feel a bit like a distraction.
EU content bar BF (which tends to happen after an era) was at an all time low during 13’s era, it kept declining really, 12 didn’t have much. But 13 only even had one year of the 3 books releases which were a staple for New Who prior. Even comics wise I’m sure there was less, and yeah to have 10 feature in a leading role rather than a wee cameo…
I actually think it is the other way around. I think that the reason why people complain this much is that it is Ten. I don’t think that it would have been nearly the same type of reaction if it was five.
I really don’t, I think people definitely would have still said, “This is weird,” but more people would have joined in with that because it would have been, well, odd if Davison was over Thirteenth Doctor stuff as much as Tennant was.
But the Tenth Doctor’s prominence in stuff isn’t as unusual to a lot of people because he’s one of the most recognisable Doctors. It would have been the same with Tom or Matt, I think. Less strange to many people by virtue of how all over Doctor Who those Doctors have been at various points.
But Colin or Sylv, nearly everyone would register it as odd that that Doctor featured so much alongside Jodie.
Past incarnations aren’t the same as a returning monster or recurring ally. So to have the same one that much (whichever it is) is noticeable. Tennant, Tom and Matt blend in just a little more for many consumers because of how totemic they were during their respective eras and how much they dominated pop culture.
Okay, I think I need to clarify what I meant. I believe the negative reception was largely because it was Ten. If it had been Seven, for example, I doubt people would have reacted the same way. You probably wouldn’t see comments like, “I really hope 13 and 7 don’t meet in the Big Finish stories because he keeps showing up in her stuff.” In fact, the reaction might have been the opposite—something more like, “I wonder if they’ll continue building on 7 and 13’s relationship in the audios.”
I also feel like this has been blown way out of proportion. We’re talking about just two comics and a brief cameo in a video game.
I don’t think it’s blowing it “way” out of proportion to hope two specific Doctors don’t meet again for a bit because they’ve done so several times already? Or to even just notice it.
I think it’s a percentage thing as well rather than rampant negativity. It may only be that little an amount in real terms but it wasn’t really any other Doctors (unless, say, a board or card game with every Doctor on the cover) and Thirteen has a bit less EU stuff than others have had so it just felt conspicuous is all.
I’m not a big comic book guy and have found, on the whole, that Doctor Who videogames suck so it didn’t really affect me, but I still noticed it even without consuming those products.
My other half who isn’t as into the show as I am even remarked on how often she was seeing Tennant next to Jodie in promotional stuff. These things are just noticeable sometimes, it doesn’t necessarily mean people have pitchforks out when they remark on this stuff.
I wanna jump in and say that at least for what I’ve been saying, I’m not trying to suggest that people are wrong to not want another 13/10 crossover relatively soon after we’ve already gotten a couple. It’s a crossover I’d enjoy and hope we get eventually, especially because I’d love to get Jodie and David actually performing together, but I’m not clamoring for it. I’m mostly responding to “13 deserves to have a medium of the EU where she’s able to escape from 10’s shadow. It really quite disappointed me the way she was barely allowed to have any EU content to herself.” which is a sentiment I see a lot but just doesn’t hold up. I think it’s reasonable to dislike that her Titan comics went that way (I’m not a fan of it either), it’s just not really true of her EU stuff as a whole. And I agree with what Tian said that I think if it were any less popular Doctor people might find it weirder but they’d probably be less upset about it, though that’s not to say it’s unreasonable to be upset when it does seem that the comics were likely using 10 to try to boost sales and didn’t have faith in 13 to sell well enough. (Though fwiw in the case of Edge of Reality I think it likely has more to do with wanting something special and marketable to entice people who had already played Edge of Time rather than a lack of faith in 13)
Definitely agree with this. There were a LOT of right-wing misogynists who used this against 13 to say how bad the show was they had to bring 10 into the stories etc, and there was generally a lot of annoyance in the circles I was/am in at the time too.
One thing I’d personally bear in mind is that if you go to put a classic Doctor in something, 1-3’s actors are dead, and 4-7 are old enough to look fairly noticeably different. 8-13 are the easiest to use, war is gone, and 9 isn’t coming back. 12 doesn’t want to do multi-doctor things. So, really, you want a Doctor back, easiest would be 8, 10, 11, or 13?
I’m sort of with @ChrisStokes on this because I do think Tennant as the Doctor has been normalised. It’s a bit during the Wilderness Years all the mocking around fans was based around ‘where’s your scarf?’ because even into the 90s, the most recognisable Doctor was Tom.
I do think more comment would have been made if it was McCoy or Colin who kept popping up over and over again. The reaction to Tennant featurnig tends to be more of a ‘yeah, that figures’. I remember when the Tennant/Tom audio was announced and everyone got excited about what other combinations were coming and then it turned out it was going to be Tennant + another Doctor and for a brief moment it was - oh that’s disappointing, but it didn’t last long and soon enough people didn’t seem bothered.
Not to drag this up again, but I’m only just reading this now…
The “Apple Arcade” exclusive game Hidden Mysteries also felt it was important to add David Tennant to the game after a little while (and put him on the cover, on the left):
Sorry, I’m a bit confused by this. In comics and voicework, there are possibilities for every Doctor to have new stories and come back so do you mean purely TV team-ups or have I misunderstood what you meant?
