Dr Who

We'll have two doctors to go before that is awnsered, the first challenge for the writers would be to get Oswin a new body this christmas.
 
There is an easy way for them to overcome the 13 regenerations...

For the Season 3 two parter 'Human nature'/'Family of blood', the Doctor puts his consciousness into the fob watch to hide. When he does this, his body becomes human.
In the season 4 finale - 'Journeys end', the meta-crisis produces a second doctor, however his physical form is human and he is left with Rose in the parallel dimension.

So, when the BBC get to the point when the 13th doctor (or 14th, depending on how you look at it) is going to die, they simply have the doctor store his consciousness in the watch again and do the story in a way that the other dimension Doctor is involved. Then he opens the watch and there it is.
Because it's sci-fi, you can say that because it is a new body, it resets the regenerations so he has 13 lives again.

If David Tennant didn't want to come back long(ish) term, you could even say that the strain of taking on the timelord consciousness means he has to regenerate really soon afterwards.
 
The regeneration thing is a compelling story... IF it's one they actually want to tell. But by all accounts, it absolutely isn't. If they really wanted to lead up to the doctor's FINAL REGENERATION then they'd have started lamp-shading it a long time ago (the show isn't exactly subtle about that stuff.) As it is, you're going to get something along the lines of a bit of dialogue mentioning that "by the way, a magic space-noun regeneration machine gave me more regenerations" at the most if it ever comes up again at all.
 
I dunno LOAF, the modern Doctor Who is pretty careful about not stamping on previous Who lore.
I would actually be very surprised if they just dismissed the whole thing so easily. As for the foreshadowing, they could have been doing it all along (like the 4 rhythmic beats and the Master). They also have 2 whole regenerations yet.

I'll admit that I'm not enjoying the Matt Smith Doctor half as much as either of the previous two, so I'm kinda looking forward to the next one.
 
Flashpoint said:
There is an easy way for them to overcome the 13 regenerations...

For the Season 3 two parter 'Human nature'/'Family of blood', the Doctor puts his consciousness into the fob watch to hide. When he does this, his body becomes human.
In the season 4 finale - 'Journeys end', the meta-crisis produces a second doctor, however his physical form is human and he is left with Rose in the parallel dimension.

So, when the BBC get to the point when the 13th doctor (or 14th, depending on how you look at it) is going to die, they simply have the doctor store his consciousness in the watch again and do the story in a way that the other dimension Doctor is involved. Then he opens the watch and there it is.
Because it's sci-fi, you can say that because it is a new body, it resets the regenerations so he has 13 lives again.

If David Tennant didn't want to come back long(ish) term, you could even say that the strain of taking on the timelord consciousness means he has to regenerate really soon afterwards.
Click to expand...

Problems with this is that the other dimension doctor is half human, and the fact that it was specifically stated in journey's end the other universe doctor can not regenerate, and will age as a human. Originally that scene also contained taking a piece of the Tardis and presenting it to him, so he could "grow his own", but it was cut out, Rose and the hybrid Doctor's storyline end there, and interdimensional travel is blocked(again).

There is another doctor clone out there though, Jenny("the doctor's daughter"), who is in her second life. She however does not have a tardis, and the doctor is unaware of her survival, but they might meet again in the future. It's possible that the thirteenth doctor will "retire", and settle down, with a companion of his choice, and present Jenny with the tardis, and graft his knowledge and memories onto her as he did with Donna, but since she is a timelord, she will not have the problems Donna had. No breaking the regenerations rule, a new, female timelord at the Tardis console with a set of regenerations. The actress who played her is the real-life wife of David Tennant, her father Peter Davison(the 5th doctor)
 
Mace said:
Problems with this is that the other dimension doctor is half human, and the fact that it was specifically stated in journey's end the other universe doctor can not regenerate, and will age as a human. Originally that scene also contained taking a piece of the Tardis and presenting it to him, so he could "grow his own", but it was cut out, Rose and the hybrid Doctor's storyline end there, and interdimensional travel is blocked(again).

There is another doctor clone out there though, Jenny("the doctor's daughter"), who is in her second life. She however does not have a tardis, and the doctor is unaware of her survival, but they might meet again in the future. It's possible that the thirteenth doctor will "retire", and settle down, with a companion of his choice, and present Jenny with the tardis, and graft his knowledge and memories onto her as he did with Donna, but since she is a timelord, she will not have the problems Donna had. No breaking the regenerations rule, a new, female timelord at the Tardis console with a set of regenerations. The actress who played her is the real-life wife of David Tennant, her father Peter Davison(the 5th doctor)
Click to expand...

I don't see the Alt Doctor being human as a particular problem, after all John Smith was human in Family of Blood. As for the dimensions being closed, we all know that those walls are closed only as long as long as it is convenient for the writers. :)

I'd like to see more of Jenny though!
 
I'd really like to pretend Journeys End never happened. The Dalek invasion force has already been swallowed up by the cracks, with any luck old handy has too.
As has been pointed out the timelords could grant more regenerations so it's not a hard set limit, there are a dozen ways to get around the issue and referencing (what will be by the time the issue arises anyway) little known plot details from a single episode isn't the way to do it.
I would personally like to see a story made out of it, I think it's a missed opportunity if there isn't one, but I don't want to get lost in a sea of continuity - Series 5 was a jumping on point for new viewers, no one needs to have seen anything before it (just as no one watching series 1 had to see the classic series). I'd rather see new ideas than writers rehashing some old ones (and I must confess I'm biased, much as I loved Human Nature the idea of reusing 'handy' from Journey's End doesn't sit well with me).
 
ROTFL@Handy!
Oh come on, give Dear rose her peace and lover...

And you are a bit off, you can follow the storyline, but you'll need the "other series", in the "human nature" he opens up his diary, and sketches all his previous incarnations. Again they are visited in the xmas special "The next doctor", and the opening of season 5. And you'll never get the reverse-thingie of River unless you saw silence in the library. And little known plot details from a single episode, like Rory's military training as a roman centurion, the master dropping his ring after his corpse was burned(funny enough in a similar way as Darth Vader was burned in return of the Jedi), and Queen victoria giving chase on him and to create the Torchwood institute, that existed in both and alternate universes, Rose creating the Immortal Captain Harkness, the rise of madam Kovarian, all references to the brigadeer, it is exactly what they do. Not to mention the Dalek emperor, or Davros, or the alt universe current cybermen

The thirteen lives issue was around since the 70's, and all ways to get around it was cheating from the masters side from that we have seen so far, the tardis has itself regenerated for over 26 times, and keeps all the obsolete control rooms intact. At sometime in the original series it was needed to jettison and materialize a part of her, but she(incarnated as a female) regrows and can cut or create links between the other chambers. There are other methods to "assist" regeneration, including the "eye of harmony", present in the TARDIS, but only used once.

As for the quality of the writers, that would make the dialogue, the way that they will give Oswin a new body/incarnation would give me a good idea of their brilliance or cheesiness as in how to resolve these things.
 
Mace said:
And you are a bit off, you can follow the storyline, but you'll need the "other series", in the "human nature" he opens up his diary, and sketches all his previous incarnations. Again they are visited in the xmas special "The next doctor", and the opening of season 5. And you'll never get the reverse-thingie of River unless you saw silence in the library. And little known plot details from a single episode, like Rory's military training as a roman centurion, the master dropping his ring after his corpse was burned(funny enough in a similar way as Darth Vader was burned in return of the Jedi), and Queen victoria giving chase on him and to create the Torchwood institute, that existed in both and alternate universes, Rose creating the Immortal Captain Harkness, the rise of madam Kovarian, all references to the brigadeer, it is exactly what they do. Not to mention the Dalek emperor, or Davros, or the alt universe current cybermen
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what point you're making here. If you can follow the plot then you don't need the "other series", references to old continuity are done as loving nods to old school fans and likely go entirely unnoticed by new fans. New viewers know about the concept of regeneration, they don't have to have seen any of the previous episodes to assume those faces are previous incarnations - and it doesn't matter if they don't as it's not plot relevant. We are told in Time of Angels that River and the Doctor never meet in the right order (one of the advantages of a new companion is explaining old point details to them and the audience simultaneously). Most of the subsequent references are only a series apart. I said there were jumping on points to the show, I wouldn't for example suggest anyone start mid series 6. The cracks in the Eleventh Hour set up the finale, I doubt the Big Bang would make a lot of sense if one hadn't followed the entire series, but the show would never rely on a piece of continuity from several years prior without re-introducing it first... and in which case why not introduce something new?


I'm not saying the show doesn't reference old continuity, I'm saying that it doesn't rely on it without re-introducing it to a new audience in a way that wouldn't seem odd if the original episodes had never been made and were simply referenced but unfilmed backstory (ala the timewar, frequently referenced).

I'm quite happy for Rose to have old Handy, I just wish she'd stop popping back over to our Universe.
 
The point I was making referenced to that a single small fact in every plot can bring someone back, and Georgia(Who played Jenny) is defeinetely one attractive issue to make a plot hole out of, the entire episode was about her, and the actress, who grew up with the character(she is the doctor's daughter, for real), would like to come back to that role.

and every companion re-introduced new continity(amy pond not knowing the daleks?), that is the very reason to let go of the old ones, and keep the show interesting..

And as for Rose, I would not mind she popped by this universe and on my doorstep, and I'll instruct her never to bother you again ;-)
 
Doctor Who has regenerated itself many times over the years - in fact, it's best to look at the show not by Doctor but by producer and script editor. The Hinchcliffe/Holmes Tom Baker stories are a different beast from the ones with Graham Williams and Douglas Adams for example.
 
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