Brainbox

indie | selective | 14th Doctor | DW RP low activity | not spoiler free | est. oct 22 written by blue

[xivthdoctor]

{ #twinheats } an independent and selective roleplay blog for the fourteenth doctor from BBC's Doctor Who. canon compliant until stated otherwise. written by blue (28, he/him, UK) low activity. est Oct 22.

NOT SPOILER FREE

Rules | About | Tags | Personal

Inactivity tags: I've got a queue and I'm on mobile

[davidtennan-t]

*THE GIGGLE ENDING SPOILERS*

EVERYONE STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING

I’ve just read the novelisation of the Giggle and the ending has me on my knees - it goes into much more detail than the show so guess what

THE DOCTOR BOUGHT THAT HOUSE

THAT IS HIS HOUSE

He chose it, he went to an estate agents and said ‘I want this pretty house’, offered them £60, then rang Kate Stewart and discovered he was getting paid by UNIT this whole time, was able to afford the house/mortgage and BOUGHT THAT HOUSE

The Nobles still have a house in London but they STAY WITH THE DOCTOR NEARLY ALL THE TIME

He chose the house with a sunroom so WILF COULD LIVE DOWNSTAIRS COMFORTABLY

[elena-gilbert]

Well, that's all right then.

[aceofwhump]

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Special "The Giggle"

[unexpectederawhilesubmitting]

WARNING: DOCTOR WHO SPOILERS EXPLAINING REGENERATION SHENANIGANS

-------------------

okay so I was kind of not on board with the concept of bi-regeneration, mainly because of how it seemed like all of the Sad and the Trauma that the Doctor had undergone got kind of handwaved away? i'm all for ncuti's Doctor being sort of a fresh start/jumping on point for new viewers, but i didn't get how that could work if like, literally 40 minutes ago he was David Tennant being a sad wet puppy dog of a man

however, after rewatching it, i've realized what i think happened there, and it goes all the way back to something introduced with the 4th doctor's regeneration that was never explained: the Watcher

^this spooky guy

so, for those that don't know (or haven't seen every episode of a show that is over half a century old), the Fourth Doctor regenerates at the end of a story called Logopolis (he falls off a satellite dish, but that's not important right now). all throughout the episode, this weird figure, The Watcher, stands off in the distance, and even intervenes slightly by saving the Fourth Doctor's companion. there's not much given in the way of an explanation until the Fourth Doctor regenerates, saying "it's the end. but the moment has been prepared for..."

the watcher walks up, and gets absorbed in a super rad 1980's digital effect (never change doctor who), while his companion just gives us the not-super-helpful-for-lore statement "He was the Doctor all the time!"

then, in a crossfade, the Doctor goes from Four to weird-powder-man to Five

canonically, the Watcher is explained as a future version of the doctor that comes about in sort of a weird overlapping thing with the doctor's timeline, it's very wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey.

-------------------------

SO what does this have to do with biregeneration and satisfying character arcs/moving on from trauma?

Well, remember, Fifteen said this, about Time Lords doing rehab out of order:

so, here's the thing: Fifteen is the Doctor AFTER Fourteen (duh, I know?) But to be clear...Fourteen lives out an entire lifetime with Donna and family, gets to a ripe old age, and then, when his lifetime of healing is over, he gets yeeted back through his own timestream just to zoot himself out of David Tennant's chest.

Remember, his first words to Fourteen (after popping out of his chest) are "So good to see you! So good!", not the RTD classic "what?". He greets himself like he's almost expecting this, he then says "does anyone want to tell me what the hell is going on here?" which only makes sense if he's coming from a different point in his own timestream (remember, when two doctors interact, memory gets really weird, 10 and the War Doctor don't remember the events of Day of the Doctor until they live through them as 11).

SO TO BE CLEAR: Ncuti Gatwa is playing the Doctor AFTER he has spent years healing from his traumas. His Doctor is fine because Fourteen takes the time to rest and work on himself.

tl;dr: I didn't like biregeneration at first because I thought it looked like this:

In actuality, it looks more like this:

[ocean-returns]

It didn't click for me right away, but "I'm fine because you fixed yourself. We're Time Lords. We're doing rehab out of order." is an explicit statement that, from the moment he begins to exist, 15 already has all the memories that 14 will ever accrue.

So rather than a true mitosis-style duplication like the term "bi-generation" might imply, what we actually have here is more an issue of temporal displacement and/or causality failure. 14 still ultimately feeds into 15, but with an inexplicable disconnect between cause and effect that's consistent with the reality-breaking nonsense of whatever the hell the Toymaker is. When the Toymaker says, "Your own rules have decreed I play my third game with the next Doctor.'' that's not just a fun way of saying 'I'm gonna kill you now', he's outright breaking causality to acquire the next Doctor fully formed ahead of schedule.

All of which is to say that 14 shouldn't spawn a separate regeneration chain when he dies, helping to mitigate the whole "cursed to outlive my loved ones" issue that's always the elephant in the room in this kind of plot.

[kliofyart]

WOT??? This man can't be 52 ...

[mysticaleyeliner]

Fifteen took half of Fourteen's clothes. Including his underpants.

[themastergifs]

DOCTOR WHO The Giggle

+bonus

[higheldertala]

you can hear the different masters laughing

[ngo2013]

She's the Doctor's home. MY HEART.

[tylerposey]

Can you pull?

[maudeisinthevoid]

Wait, so you’re telling me fourteen now has a family and is getting THERAPY?

Did not expect that ending, lol

[rylandsgrace]

DOCTOR WHO (2005 - ) I The Giggle

[stevenrogered]

You can't save everyone. Why not?

[halles-comet]

“Mom’s gay friend from her thirties had a mental breakdown so he’s going to live in our backyard for awhile until his antidepressants start working” is the funniest ending any of us could’ve hoped for God bless

[xivthdoctor]

ooc: just finished the last ep and I'm so happy I could die they actually gave 14 a happy ending and I just asdfghjkl It gives me so much to work with as an rper as well