Amid news that Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf have left running Doctor Who and the BBC is putting the show out to tender, just what loose threads have been left behind?
Whoever wins the BBC’s tender process to become the new custodians of Doctor Who will have to decide whether to answer the questions left by their predecessors or forge on without acknowledging them entirely.
Film News Blitz’s Dan Lawrence looks back at the show’s recent history and examines the major story beats that still linger.
A confusing canon
When Davies was announced as a returning Doctor Who showrunner in 2021, the hope was that he could steady the TARDIS ship.
In fact, he has probably left the show in more of a state of confusion than he found it, so let’s track back and see how we got here.
Davies succeeded showrunner Chris Chibnall, who was groundbreaking in casting the first-ever female Doctor, Jodie Whittaker.
Whittaker, a powerhouse performer, brought giddy energy to the role as the 13th incarnation of the lead, exhibiting every quality of a great Doctor, but the sentiment was that she was underserved by Chibnall’s writing.
Moreover, several storyline decisions by Chibnall confused viewers.
First, he reintroduced the Master, casting the deliciously dastardly Sacha Dhawan to face off against Whittaker’s Doctor.
Like Masters of old, Dhawan’s character was incredibly vicious, which fans felt directly contradicted the arc of Michelle Gomez’s Missy, who saw out Steven Moffat’s tenure as showrunner, opposite Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor.
If Dhawan’s Master is an incarnation post Missy, it directly contradicts what’s gone before.
It’s something that has been left unexplained.
Dhawan’s Master also laid waste to the Time Lords, not long after Moffat brought the Doctor’s people back from extinction.
Will the Time Lords return, again? That’s just one thing the future Doctor Who custodians could tackle.
The Timeless Child
Chibnall’s biggest bombshell was the Timeless Child storyline, which shook up the Doctor Who backstory and divided the fandom.
It introduced the notion that the Doctor preceded the Time Lords as a foreign child from another world, perhaps even another universe, blessed with regenerative powers.
After being experimented on, the Timeless Child became the genetic template upon which all Time Lords were modelled.
The Timeless Child lived through several incarnations before becoming the Doctor, with their memory wiped along the way, which neatly separates this groundbreaking backstory change from Doctor Who’s initial inception.
This storyline also introduced Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor, who also precedes William Hartnell’s First Doctor, but her character remains incredibly untapped.
Fans have criticised the ambiguity around the Timeless Child saga, with Chibnall dropping one of the biggest bombshells in Doctor Who history, but failing to expand on it with further lore or explanation.
When Davies returned to writing Doctor Who with the 60th Anniversary specials, it was implied that the villainous Toymaker had a hand in messing up the Doctor’s backstory.
In doing so, Davies acknowledged and validated what Chibnall wrote into the show’s lore, but in a short, simple way that things could continue relatively undisturbed.
Now, thanks to several major plot twists, Davies’ successor will have to do the same.
Bigeneration
The Doctor’s first regeneration in the late 1960s was an incredible concept that gave Doctor Who the perfect platform to reinvent itself continually.
However, when he returned to Doctor Who, Davies felt that regeneration alone wasn’t special enough.
First off, Whittaker regenerated into David Tennant, who returned to the show for the 60th Anniversary specials as the 14th Doctor.
Then, in the third 60th Anniversary special, Tennant’s new Doctor was killed by the Toymaker, but instead of regenerating into Ncuti Gatwa’s 15th Doctor, he split.
All of a sudden, two Doctors were living simultaneously.
A second TARDIS was also conjured, and Tennant’s 14th Doctor was effectively retired to live with Donna Noble’s family.
Later, Mrs Flood also bi-generated, when it was revealed she was the evil Time Lord, the Rani.
In the most recent episode of Doctor Who, ‘The Reality War’, the Rani explains in a throwaway line that bigeneration is Time Lords just figuring out how to survive after nearly going extinct.
What we still don’t really know is what causes bigeneration or what happens to the original pre-bigneration Time Lord.
Archie Panjabi’s Rani was killed by Omega in ‘The Reality War’, leaving Anita Dobson’s pre-bigeneration Mrs Flood to escape.
Mrs Flood is one loose thread that could be picked up on in the future.
So is Tennant’s 14th Doctor.
Will he continue to live out further regenerations? Will there always be two Doctors living simultaneously, and why, when there are major earth conflicts, doesn’t he get involved?
Despite Tennant having returned several times to Doctor Who, one more episode to put a firm bookend on his 14th Doctor would help the show move on uncluttered, with one true heroic Time Lord.
Who is the Doctor right now?
Likely knowing the Disney deal was coming to an end, and Gatwa handing in his notice as the Doctor early, Davies ended ‘The Reality War’ with a desperate Hail Mary.
Gatwa regenerated into the likeness of Billie Piper, the actress famed for playing companion Rose when Doctor Who was brought back to screens in 2005.
And that is the last thing audiences saw of Doctor Who.
Curiously enough, Piper wasn’t credited as the Doctor as ‘The Reality War’ closed out, which has fuelled speculation that this isn’t a credible regeneration.
But, within the context of the story, why has this happened?
Why does the Doctor now look like a former companion? If this isn’t the true Doctor, how can that be, and will Piper continue in the role for long?
These questions are perhaps the hardest for the show’s future custodians to answer.
The future
Doctor Who is heading into the unknown, but once the tender process is carried out and a new production team and showrunner are chosen, things will become clearer.
It’s more than likely that whoever comes in will want to start things fresh, with a brand new take on the show.
That will more than likely mean a new actor/actress will be cast as the Doctor, rather than Piper continuing.
The big decision will be whether the Doctor Who newcomers decide to tackle both Tennant and Piper’s most recent appearances, and their implications, or whether to press ahead with scant acknowledgement.
An issue with tackling these subjects is starting a new era of the show with two faces firmly associated with the past.
Still, in the world of wibbly wobbly timey wimey, anything is possible.
Doctor Who is now a blank canvas, which, for a show that prides itself on reinvention, is quite something.
Sure, the web is incredibly tangled right now, but the history of Doctor Who means there are many ways to untangle it and fly forward into new adventures through time and space.
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