Romance plots with the Doctor, the War Doctor, the Fugitive Doctor, the Timeless Child, bringing back Gallifrey in the 50th anniversary, destroying Gallifrey again, bigeneration…
There were many very controversial decisions taken since DW came back in 2005. Which do you like, and which do you dislike, which have you grown to accept over the years? Justify your answer!!! (but be nice)
My two cents:
I cannot believe they destroyed Gallifrey again when there was so much they could have explored with it.
I’m fine with Fourteen’s bigeneration, BUT I really don’t like the idea that all Doctors bigenerated. What does that even mean, how does it even work? Feels like it cheapens their deaths, to say ‘oh, but they regenerated AND also got better and didn’t die at all, so you cried for no reason’.
I think 9-10Rose was a good, very solid story and made perfect sense, but that was overplayed by the time we get to series 4.
The more I think about the Timeless Child, the more I realise it’s not the world ending cataclysmic Bad Move fans were making it out to be when if first came out. It can lead to a lot of interesting stuff.
I have things to say about DoctorRiver, but I don’t want @shauny to kick me out so I better not…
i agree with you about the bigeneration. and destroying gallifrey–it’s not even so much that they could’ve done a lot with it but more that it keeps getting destroyed and then undestroyed and it might just be time to think of a new plot.
but my strongest take on any of this is that i actually love the timeless child concept. i have issues with the execution (as i do with anything in chibnall era) but i am fully 100% sold on the backstory.
I am fine with romance to a point, and I do quite like River (with Ten and Twelve, not that much with Eleven). Not a fan of The Timeless Child, I do prefer the Doctor to be just a time lord that decided to leave Gallifrey and not the origin of it all. Plus a hater of there being any pre-Hartnell incarnations so that put a barrier between me and Fugitive.
I don’t mind the Time War (don’t like when they tied it to the Daleks so much it became its central idea), but when Gallifrey was brought back it should’ve stayed so.
hate destroying gallifrey a second time and rtd’s last of the time lords nonsense when there could be heaps of time lords out there, they weren’t all on gallifrey surely when the master destroyed it? also hated the bigeneration!
I don’t like it because I headcanon them as aro but it’s not the worst thing in the world. Some (doctorriver) are better than others (tenrose).
Hate him. If I believed in a canon I’d say he’s not canon. 8 fought in the time war and destroyed gallifrey and the fact that they cared more about getting a famous actor than the storyline of the best incarnation of the doctor is disgusting.
I love her, especially since listening to her new audios. Don’t have a problem with the existence of pre-Hartnell doctors; it doesn’t affect the characterisation of the incarnations that follow her.
Again, this is fine because the doctor has always had multiple competing backstories. Were they the timeless child, or the other, or the morbius doctors? Are they the child of ulysses and penelope, or the child of leela and andred, or were they loomed? Are they fully Gallifreyan, a human from the future, or half of each? Who knows? Nobody. I love it.
I liked this because it meant Romana could come back.
This was stupid because I want more Time Lords, not less. I hate this and the original 2005 destruction of Gallifrey equally because they both mean no Romana. And I don’t like the doctor being so special and unique.
Fine in theory but terrible in practise. We need less, not more, Doctors Who played by david tennant. Please for the love of god stop bringing him back and keeping him in existence I’m so tired.
Did you hate it the first time? Because I think that it was a great move to destroy it that one time. I think that the Time Lords, in general, are better when we see them less.
My general opinion is that I want the showrunner to tell the story they think is best for the show. Even if it might contradict something that has happened before. Good stories are the most important thing.
Well firstly I should probably clarify that that sentence was my own favourite interpretation, not an absolute statement of fact.
Evidence: prior to 2013, there was no “canon” Doctor between 8 and 9, which means one of them must have destroyed Gallifrey. 9 implying that he’s not looked in the mirror before in series 1 suggest he is newly regenerated. This is not definitive proof, and of course the EU has reinterpreted it to give 9 some pre-Rose adventures, but looking at authorial intent (which I believe is an important way to analyse fiction; i.e. not just what do we know but also why might the writer be wanting us to know this) it is clear that as of 2005 the deliberate impression created was of 8 as the time war incarnation.
Secondly, the Last Great Time War was based on the War in Heaven, which is a plotline heavily associated with the 8th doctor.
Considering these 2 things, I just find it horribly disrespectful towards the character of the 8th doctor to remove him from this plot point by adding a new incarnation. This is a perspective coloured by my own personal biases, I will admit, as I have a strong emotional attachment to 8 and his stories, and it can be incredibly difficult to e.g. talk to fans of new who only, who don’t know all this about 8 and think the war doctor has always been the destroyer of gallifrey.
Even if it was somewhat implied, which I don’t really think it is, I think it is the prerogative of the showrunner to bring the show in a direction that they think will give the best stories. Even if it rewrites previous entries.
I didn’t know this, but even if that’s the case I don’t see an issue with having a hidden incarnation be the one to “pull that trigger”, and can’t see how it can be seen as disrespectful.
But I am well aware that we won’t see eye to eye on this one
A thread was made a few months ago discussing opinions on romance in the show, for anyone who wants to read: The Doctor’s Love Affairs.
I love the Fugitive Doctor (haven’t listened to her standalone audios yet)
I don’t care about the War Doctor.
I don’t like the concept of “chosen ones”, but as someone who writes a lot of fanfiction where the Doctor is human, the Timeless Child gave me an easy way to write his backstory as I can just make him an a person who went no-contact with his adopted parents and call it a day.
Gallifrey - eh. As Gallifrey’s culture hasn’t been explored much except repeatedly talking about the elite Time Lords in the Capitol, there isn’t enough for me to be interested in. I want to see more about how the common people live.
Bigeneration - don’t like it for the reason you mentioned and while I understand the behind-the-scenes reason Tennant (or anyone else who had played Fourteen; I’m not just picking on him) had to come back, canonically its completely unfair.
Yes I have read that (and didn’t really care for it ).
I still see it with the lens that Steven Moffat was the one with the reigns at the time and thus shouldn’t have to adhere to any thoughts RTD had on that subject. Sticking to continuity is great, but if something isn’t stated outright on the main show I really don’t think the showrunner should have to go with someone else’s explanations or interpretations.
Haha I’m not that precious, feel free to say what you want!
I actually just love River as a character and really I see it as a very asymmetrical relationship.
River loves the Doctor dearly, partly because of her brainwashing to be obsessed with him. The Doctor barely knows her at first, so the Tenth Doctor doesn’t know her (although meets her more in the audios), the Eleventh Doctor has the most adventures with her but he’s always learning more about her, and for a while it was a kind of love/hate relationship. He marries her to stop her destroying all of time and space.
It’s not until the Twelfth Doctor, in The Husbands of River Song, that we really see the Doctor love River. But it could absolutely be that he deeply cares for her, maybe even feels a bit guilty about what she has been through, and a bit of pity for her, but ultimately he wants her to be happy. I don’t really see it as a sexual relationship. This is how I see that the Doctor can still be asexual and yet he has a wife.
agree with this 
