Doctor Who’s Future Is Being Blown Apart by a Bizarre New Rumor

Whenever Doctor Who is able to solid a brand new Doctor, the web is at all times aflurry with wild ideas and outlandish “leaks” that, most of the time, by no means play out as true. But as Doctor Who fandom seems towards the return of showrunner Russell T Davies—and the 14th Doctor arriving in time for subsequent yr’s sixtieth anniversary—the sequence has discovered itself caught up in one of many strangest rumors it’s confronted in years.

For weeks, effervescent up right into a frenzy over the weekend, Doctor Who fandom has been gripped by discuss of some of the out-there rumors the sequence has seen in a very long time. Alleged leakers working on fan boards like the favored Gallifreybase have pointed to a wild rumor for the climax of Jodie Whittaker’s time because the Doctor, one which has been picked up exterior of diehard fan circles and even been mentioned on national British television. But as giant a rumor because it’s gotten, it’s additionally one which feels by some means much more absurd than the truth we have already got of Davies returning to the present he left behind in 2009. Here’s what you should know—and the way seemingly it may truly occur.

Who Could Play the 14th Doctor?

So what’s gotten everybody right into a fuss? The id of Jodie Whittaker’s alternative as the subsequent, 14th incarnation of the Doctor (different incarnations previous to these 14 can be found too, after all). Given that the returning Davies is about to start his official tenure with Doctor Who’s sixtieth anniversary in November 2023, the present rumor piggybacks over different latest rumors that Doctor Who was trying to solid a big-name actor to play the Doctor in a sequence of anniversary specials, earlier than regenerating into the fifteenth Doctor for Davies’ first season in 2024. Instead of being any large casting identify, nevertheless, the rumor that has put Who followers right into a frenzy is that it’s none aside from David Tennant who will return because the Time Lord.

Instead of taking part in the tenth Doctor once more—that’s actually one thing the present already did again in 2008’s “Journey’s End”—Tennant can be purportedly taking part in a wholly new 14th incarnation of the Doctor. One who has a face from their previous for unknown thriller causes, a thriller that may, presumably, play out over the course of those alleged specials and be solved in time for an precise new regeneration to commonly play the Doctor in 2024.

Is There Doctor Who Canon That Could Explain It?

This wouldn’t be the primary time that an actor returned to Doctor Who in a serious approach, after all. Colin Baker performed Time Lord Commander Maxil in 1983’s “Arc of Infinity” earlier than he turned the Sixth Doctor a yr later, and Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor famously touched upon simply why the Doctor had chosen the face of a person he’d already met, Capaldi’s character Caecilius from 2008’s “The Fires of Pompeii,” as a lesson for his or her newest incarnation to study two regenerations later. But it would be the primary time we’ve seen a Time Lord regenerate right into a likeness they’d beforehand inhabited in a previous regeneration.

That mentioned, we do know that with sufficient observe Time Lords can have a degree of affect over their regeneration, in addition to quickly change kind with the residual mobile power unleashed within the instant aftermath. Tennant’s personal tenth physician reformed a severed hand inside 15 hours of his regeneration in his debut story, “The Christmas Invasion,” after which within the aforementioned “Journey’s End,” delayed potential regeneration after struggling a deadly wound by channeling his regenerative power into that severed hand, making a part-human, part-Time Lord “Metacrisis” being along with his personal likeness. In basic Doctor Who, Romana, the Time Lord companion of the Fourth Doctor, selected to regenerate between the 16 and seventeenth seasons of the sequence, “trying on” quite a few our bodies earlier than finally selecting the likeness of Lalla Ward’s character Princess Astra from “The Armageddon Factor,” who Romana had met the yr prior.

So it’s not like Doctor Who wouldn’t be capable to discover a option to clarify why the Doctor has a new-old face. Especially if, as this alleged rumor explains, Tennant can be nonetheless be taking part in a wholly new incarnation of the Doctor, slightly than the tenth Doctor over again. That mentioned…

How Likely Is It, Really?

… The actual reply might be not, and that is only a fanbase—caught within the unusual interval of getting to attend over a yr for the “current” period of Doctor Who with Jodie Whittaker and showrunner Chris Chibnall to finish, and a brand new one to start—going a bit bonkers within the course of. Tennant has, after all, not been afraid to return to his time on Doctor Who within the years since he first left. He reprised the tenth Doctor for the sequence’ fiftieth anniversary particular, “The Day of the Doctor,” and in years since has returned to voice the character in audio adventures at Big Finish.

But there’s a really large distinction between Tennant reprising his previous function in ancillary materials and him returning as the newest Doctor on TV. And contemplating this rumor has managed to garner such excessive ranges of consideration exterior of even normal fan circles, with the BBC saying nothing about it, seemingly signifies that it’s not even price denying in an official capability. That, and “David Tennant is coming back to Doctor Who to save the show” has been a rumor earlier than, to bludgeon no matter newest inventive choice somebody was upset by. Time will inform if that is all wibbly wobbly nonsense, however don’t get too excited whereas we endure the lengthy wait to study extra concerning the subsequent Doctor.

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