After last night's extremely divisive finale, The Reality War, the future of Doctor Who seems to be a much dicier place than before.
Where to begin with this one? Let's start with THAT regeneration scene.
Last night, and after 18 and a bit episodes, Ncuti Gatwa regenerated into Billie Piper. Yes, I couldn't believe it with my eyes and I had known about it for two weeks as did most Doctor Who fans. What the hell is going on?
If you look at the credits, Billie Piper is credited but not as the Doctor or Rose Tyler or even Bad Wolf/The Moment. It's very unusual, is it not? I mean, surely she's the Doctor. If not the 16th, then a yet to be labelled differently one.
The BBC press site had comments from Russell T. Davies and Billie Piper and both of them were vague about the nature of Piper's return to the series. Also with no news as to when the next series is happening, the show does seem to be in rather murky waters at the moment in regards to it's future.
Russell T. Davies has mentioned writing for the third series in his run with stories mapped out for a fourth run. It's also been rumoured in the press that the show will continue on BBC1, even if Disney+ abandon the series and I'm suspecting they will at this point.
Looking a bit closer ahead, last night also saw the first trailer for upcoming spin-off, The War Between The Land And The Sea released and it too confirmed a lot of rumours from months ago. It also looked pretty good, so I'm intrigued by it.
First of all, we've got Gugu Mbatha-Raw playing a Sea Devil named Salt. In fact, she's clearly the main character from the Sea Devils and her motive does seem to be one of peace. In particular, Salt seemed to be drawn to a human named Barclay, played by Russell Tovey. If rumours are correct, expect a romance between Salt and Barclay akin to The Shape Of Water.
Created and co-written by Russell T. Davies and Pete McTighe and directed by Dylan Holmes Williams, the five part series is coming soon to both BBC1, iPlayer and Disney+. The show will see the returns of current UNIT team Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), Shirley Bingham (Ruth Madeley) and Colonel Ibrahim (Alexander Devrient). There also the inclusion of General Austin Pierce (Colin McFarlane) from Torchwood: Children Of Earth.
The trailer was brief but tantalising enough to intrigue. I just hope the spin-off can stick the landing.
Last but not least, here's a picture of a deleted scene from The Reality War. It's supposed to be the original ending, which would have had the Doctor, Belinda and Ruby celebrating May Day with Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford) spying on them, setting up the arc for a third season had Ncuti Gatwa remained on the show. That's the rumour at least. I would've preferred that ending.
We'll have to wait and see the future of Doctor Who. There's an episode of Doctor Who Unleashed celebrating twenty years of the revived series, featuring Russell T. Davies, Steven Moffat, Chris Chibnall, David Tennant, Ncuti Gatwa, Jodie Whittaker, Billie Piper, Varada Sethu, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill to name a few. Hopefully answers are coming soon, regardless of outcome.
What do you think is about to happen to the series? What should happen with it?
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