All of the discussion around Belinda becoming a mother has reminded me of Amy Pond and how different but similar there stories are. Belinda had a child in Wish World, who she believed was real and her child despite being from the alternate world. Amy Pond found out she was having a child when giving birth, she had no choice in if she wanted to keep the pregnancy, her choice was taken from her by the people who kidnapped her. Both women had their right to choose taken away from them, but both still chose to fight for their children. Their situations differ in that Amy never got to raise her daughter, aside from growing up with her. Belinda in the current timeline got her choice back, she got to choose to not get an abortion or give her daughter up for adoption.
Ok, I couldn’t sleep the other night so I took my first tongue-in-cheek stab at fan-fiction. Here’s how I want the Thirteenth Doctor’s regeneration to go down, and yes it is a rip-off of Avengers – Endgame:
She’s in Park Hill Flats with Graeme, Ryan & Yas but the Master has found a way to control Sheffield’s mutant spiders to burrow into the foundations of the building, causing it to collapse. 13 climbs out of the rubble but her companions are nowhere to be seen. The Master rides up to her on the back of a giant spider, dismounts and tells her that he’s going to force open the heart of her TARDIS and use the power of the time vortex to destroy the universe, and that she’s got no way of stopping him. Loads of villains’ ships appear in the sky like in ‘The Pandorica Opens’.
But then they hear the sound of TARDIS engines and a different TARDIS materialises a few meters away. The doors open, revealing three silhouettes at first obscured by the light of the console room. As they approach 13 sees that it’s 12, Nardole and a Cyber-converted Bill. At this point (I don’t even care) Portals by Alan Silvestri starts playing. Another TARDIS materialises, in a darker shade of blue. The doors open and Rose Tyler steps out, followed by Mickey, Martha, Donna, Jackie & Wilf. They part down the centre, revealing 10 striding forward.
Silurians start teleporting in, as well as Judoon from the Shadow Proclamation, basically anyone from ‘A Good Man Goes To War’. The Paternoster gang show and maybe Strax says something funny. Another TARDIS appears and out steps 11, Amy, Rory and River circa-‘Day Of The Moon’. An American diner lands awkwardly amid the rubble and Clara and Ashildr climb out. Kate Stewart and the Oswins show up with a bunch of UNIT troops and at the same time as Gwen Cooper arrives with whatever’s left of Torchwood. A final TARDIS appears, it’s 9’s! Out comes the ninth Doctor with another Rose and another Captain Jack.
“Wow that’s a lot of people” says Ryan gormlessly. “I reckon that should do it, don’t you Doc?” says Graeme. At the sound of a screech, everyone looks up to see the 8th Doctor flying in on the back of Ramsey the Vortisaur. 13 turns to Yas and explains to her what Vortisaurs are for ten minutes while everyone awkwardly waits for her to finish. When she’s done, the six Doctors that I, as millennial, actually care about line up facing the Master’s army, screwdrivers in hand. Twelve somehow produces his electric guitar and starts shredding the Doctor Who theme and then they all charge.
It’s brilliant! River’s zapping Silents, Graeme’s using his laser shoes to zap Kasaavin and Amy’s duel wielding a hand mirror and a sledge hammer to smash up Weeping Angels. Clara and 12 have a memory-loss themed reunion just like Star Lord & Gamora’s one in Endgame, only he doesn’t knee her in the crotch. 9s headbutts the Master because of course he does and both Cpt. Jacks keep making dirty jokes about there being two Roses, only no one’s actually listening.
When the battle takes a turn for the worse, they fall back to their TARDISs to protect the time vortex. They all start piloting around the battlefield, evading attack. Lady Christina (who’s also there) gets immediately arrested by UNIT so Graeme takes her flying bus and starts flying it round the battlefield along with Ryan & Yas. 11 ends up in 10’s TARDIS and starts flying it but Sontarans keep jetpacking on board. He uses his sonic to jam their guns while Donna, who’s still on board, whacks them in the back of the neck. A jolt makes her fall and nearly touch the Doctor’s severed hand from ‘The Christmas Invasion’. 11, knowing what happens if she touches it, snatches it away from her but that forces the metacrisis to happen anyway, this time with his own DNA. Another Sontaran jetpacks onboard and is about to shoot Donna but suddenly falls over with a clunk, revealing the metacrisis Doctor who just hit it on the back of the neck. Only this time, he’s half 10, half 11 – 10.5, if you will. 11 chucks him a prototype screwdriver that looks like 12’s one from series 10 and tells him to get to work. He dives out of the door, still naked, yelling “Geronimo!”
Series 4 Rose, who followed 10 into 11s TARDIS, goes on the intercom and tells them that the only way to defeat that many enemies is to do what she did in ‘The Parting Of The Ways’ – open the heart of the TARDIS before the Master can and use it to stop him. But no ordinary human is strong enough! “I can do it” says Bill, who’s much stronger since her Cyber-conversion. Still, she’s on 12’s TARDIS and the weakest console is onboard 9’s. “You’re not gonna like this, Bill” says 12, piloting his ship high into the air. “Big ears, you’ve got incoming!”, he shouts, then unceremoniously boots Cyber-Bill out of the door, sending her plummeting toward 9’s TARDIS. She nearly makes it but a Crillitane catches her first and they start tussling in the air. It drops her and she nearly plummets to her death but 8 catches her on the back of Ramsey and gives her a lift back up to 9s TARDIS.
The Master and Ashad (who’s alive again now) jet onboard 8’s TARDIS (which is there for some reason, I dunno, maybe he parked nearby). It’s manned by 10.5. The Master villainously shoots Ashad, activating the death particle, before jumping out of the front door. This kills 10.5 before he can regenerate (presumably, after all this 10 cuts his hand off and puts it back in the jar) and cripples the TARDIS’s flight systems which, as it’s the oldest iteration of the TARDIS in the battle, does the same to all of them. The six Doctors manage to land their ships in a hexagon, with the doors all pointing inwards, meaning enemies can only get in from above. Series 4 Captain Jack gets a big gun and mans the bottle neck, fighting off wave upon wave of enemies, getting killed sometimes but then resurrecting, each time letting in a few monsters who end up in the various TARDISs.
The Master gets through and ends up in 11’s TARDIS. 13 and her companions follow him but he runs deep inside the internal corridors, losing them. He finds a part of the TARDIS where time passes in reverse so that when he comes back into the console room he’s on board 8’s ship again which he then materialises inside 9’s. Bill tries to stop him but he threatens 9 with his shrink ray and forces her to use her strength to tear open the console and expose the time vortex. She does and he’s about to absorb its power but all of a sudden, the floor panel gives way and he falls down below. Camera pans down revealing Wilfred Mott, holding a regular screwdriver that he just used to loosen the floor panel. He gives everyone a little salute.
13 steps forward and absorbs the power of the Time Vortex. It’s even cooler than when Rose did it because she’s a Timelord. She rises up in the air like Captain Marvel and tells all the villains they have a chance to leave (earning an approving look from 10). Most of them do except the Daleks, obviously, so she melts their asses. Then she floats back down and returns the energy to the heart of the TARDIS, restoring its flight systems at the same time (except for 8’s, sorry). The 6 Doctors look down condescendingly at the Master like in that shot from the end of the first Avengers film. Only the Master hit his head falling down so he’s died (and pooped himself). He regenerates into… Missy! Which makes so much more sense for her character arc. “I’ll take her off your hands” says 12. Then they all go and get chips like in ‘The End Of The World’ and eat them outside Sheffield train station before the various Doctors and companions go their separate ways.
13 feels the regeneration coming, just like the last time she absorbed the time vortex. She and her friends go to Graeme’s house. She normally does this in the TARDIS but she’d rather be with the people she cares about. There’s no big speech, I reckon she just says “Laterzzz” and actually clarifies that it’s spelt with a z. She regenerates, leaving big scorch marks on the walls, setting fire to all Graeme’s furniture. The companions are freaking out. When it’s over the new Doctor slumps to the floor before getting to their knees to reveal… a handsome young Indian guy with floppy hair and a moustache!
The saddest scenes in doctor who always involve gingers.
When Rory has to lock old Amy out of the Tardis to save young Amy, but when he realises he can’t do it and is about to let her in, old Amy tells him not to and sacrifices not only her life but her entire existence.
When the Doctor and Amy show Vincent Van Gough his art exhibit in 2010 and he gets so happy and emotional about how loved he is in the future but he kills himself anyway.
When the Doctor wipes Donna’s mind to save her life, and when he says farewell to her for the final time and she just turns to look at him with no recognition and goes “yeah see yah”
And finally the one that always makes me cry, when Pete Tyler tells Rose he’s going to have to sacrifice himself to save the others, but he’s lucky that he got to have one extra day and to get to see is baby daughter all grown up and when Rose sobs “my daddy” before they hug. And when she goes to him after he’s been hit by the car.
