You might be amazed at how many canonical points about Doctor Who were not established until well into the series. Is the Doctor human or alien? How many hearts does he have? Is he from Earth or from another planet? I am not sure that anyone could have answered all of these rather basic questions definitively until the time of the 3rd Doctor.
In fact, I think Chibnall might have provided a potential way out on the number of hearts issue. There were two times when humans checked the heartbeat of the First and Second Doctors and noticed nothing unusual about it. We also know that Gallifreyans have two hearts -- but we also now know that the Doctor is not a Gallifreyan. Maybe his species actually had only one heart, and that was one of the things that was altered when the Timelords forced him to regenerate into the 3rd Doctor?
There are a lot of unanswered questions raised by the season finale, but this time around they are known unknowns for Chibnall or a future show runner to work out.
Honestly you have to wonder if the Biology is set at all for the Doctor's version of regeneration. Could be that it's normally meant to allow them to blend into what every species they encounter, it would be a good survival mechanism (EX: Welp I got killed by a Martian...So Now I'm a Martian cause it's less likely they would kill one of their own). The Doctor might have been Bio-locked to Gallifreyan simply because of the memory block.
All I know is my cannon has the Ninth Doctor meeting the 10th and the 11th and doing most of the Day of the Doctor with those guys. Even if Eccelston is a dick.
All I know is my cannon has the Ninth Doctor meeting the 10th and the 11th and doing most of the Day of the Doctor with those guys. Even if Eccelston is a dick.
Why is Eccleston a dick? His reasons for quitting the show are well-established. They may have been somewhat overkill (as the director he had the problem with was fired himself and never directed another episode of the series), as he himself admitted that things got a lot better to the point where he semi-regretted resigning by the end of the season, but then his mental health issues may have played a role in his response.
Also, you fire things out of a CANNON. CANON is the thing that makes people want to go and argue about things on the Internet.
I think the auto-correct got me on that one, Wert. But I still think he could have come back to reprise his role.
Also I like jeff's usage.
I'm finally caught up. I always have mixed feelings about when they try to explain more of the Doctor's origins, but ultimately I like it because as Greylurker said, it ultimately injects more mystery into the Doctor rather than less. The show has always been "Doctor WHO" and that, IMO that is a question you have to be careful to never answer fully or you wreck the atmosphere of the show (IMO). The more you explain who the Doctor is the more you trap yourself with who and what the Doctor can be or do and that can cause more problems than solve them sometimes. Sure, it's made sense since the series is so old to tip out nuggets of information over time to keep fans intrigued. I like that this creates as many questions as it answers and thus is the "right" kind of nugget to drop.
It also as others have mentioned actually creates allowances for some past continuity gaps--most notably the extra "faces" of the Doctor seen in Brain of Morbius. I loved that they actually showed the shot of that from that episode, as if to directly say to the most obsessive of Whovians "LOOK WE FINALLY ADDRESSED THIS CONTINUITY ISSUE STOP ASKING US OKAY!!!!!" (At the same time it actually brings up another continuity question from that same story, which is that the Sisters of Karn are the source of the Time Lord's regeneration, but it seems like that could have just been made up.)
What I worry about is that writers will then try to come up with all these past lives of the Doctor and continue to over-define her past, and wreck the fun mystery of it all. I want a lot of the Doctor's lives to just remain mysteries. I don't actually want to know where the Timeless Child came from. I want to see the Doctor's future, not her past, see her be freed by these revelations rather than be enchained by them as she indeed did seem to be by the end. I know I have to prepare to possibly be disappointed.
And at the same time if the revelations ever end up being cumbersome or causing more problems than solve them, they can always just reveal the Master was lying.
Speaking of, I did not like this new Master at all. I mean, I know you're not supposed to like the Master, but this one was definitely the most punchable of all Masters. The Master is supposed to be fun to watch even as you're horrified by him (or her). This one was just annoying as f*##. And of course we are supposed to think he's gone now, but I reckon with the Master, it's never that easy. Plus maybe I need to rewatch, but it was never made clear how he showed up to begin with. Well, at least his tissue compression eliminator no longer looks like an evil dildo.
I'm also still confused as to who the Other Doctor was, and if she is in the future or the past of "our" Doctor--or just an alternative.
I'm assuming that the Shobogans of Gallifrey we see in other episodes must have been a fringe group that must have rejected the direction the others took.
David Knott 242, while you may be right that this shows a possibly canonical explanation for the hearts, I actually always wrote off the First Doctor having a normal pulse because he was elderly and had an irregular heartsbeat, that might seem like a one-heart-beat to a high school science teacher who is just checking his pulse to be sure he's alive. I don't remember the scene where the Second Doctor's pulse was checked, but I remember him being electrocuted a lot and maybe one of his hearts temporarily stopped beating as a result. To be clear, this is headcanon, and you rightly point out he wasn't said to have two hearts until the Pertwee era. I think it was suggested, however, very early on in the First Doctor's era that he was an alien. Susan says something like "we're not even from your world" and he usually treats humans as a different species. In "The Meddling Monk" IIRC he notes the Monk is one of "his people" (though "his people" will not be named until the 2nd Doctor story "the War Games"). This is all fanwank and not arguing with the idea that they may be trying an origin that just explains all the weird inconsistencies.
And finally, at least this story was way freakin' better than Lungbarrow (a 1990s Doctor Who New Adventure novel that vastly overexplained the Doctor's origins and was pretty awful to boot IMPO, although a certain type of fan from that era loved it). Although even with that, the main revelation was that the Doctor was "the Other" in the Time Lords' official origin story about Rassilon and Omega engineering the Eye of Harmony alongside "One Other." The Doctor could still be that... or not... with this new story.
I'm also unclear where Ruth falls in the Doctor's timeline. But hopefully that will get cleared up in Series 13.
I'm also unclear where Ruth falls in the Doctor's timeline. But hopefully that will get cleared up in Series 13.
From what I can figure she is one of the early incarnations, I got the impression she worked for this secret department of Time Lords who meddled and shaped the history of different races and at some point said "I'm done with this" only to be hunted down by her boss. The Doctor probably knows a lot of dirty secrets under that Mind Wipe. Which is yet another fun thing for new writers to play with if/when Galifrey gets brought back.
It could be that the 1st stole the Tardis that was stuck as a Police Box because it was familiar to him.
Who knows really, there is a lot of ground to play with now, I mean we don't even really know when the Mind Wipe was set in. For all we know it could have happened when the 3rd was banished to earth. 1 and 2 might have still been on the run
It could be that the 1st stole the Tardis that was stuck as a Police Box because it was familiar to him.
That is one possibility, if we accept that the chameleon circuit issue was fixed while it was on Gallifrey between the Ruth Doctor and the 1st Doctor (as it looked like a normal Tardis when the 1st Doctor stole it in Name of the Doctor).
Another possibility is that the Ruth Doctor's Tardis came from her future. Do you remember what happened to the 13th Doctor immediately after her regeneration? Maybe the now empty Tardis for some as yet unknown reason went to the Ruth Doctor and carried her around for some time before showing up where the 13th Doctor found it.
If that is true, there would have been an accidental mind wipe whenever the Tardis left the Ruth Doctor, as it is not possible to retain knowledge from your personal future (and traveling in your future Tardis would certainly qualify for that).
Maybe David. I like the first theory better and thus Grey's idea.
Sorry you didn't care for it Bjorn...
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I'm also unclear where Ruth falls in the Doctor's timeline. But hopefully that will get cleared up in Series 13.
What would be amusing would be if they had both the pre-Hartnell Doctors thing going on and they also had Ruth as a Doctor between the Second and Third (the "Season 6B" Doctor).
That would explain why she's called "the Doctor" and why she has the police box TARDIS, both of which are more problematic if she's supposed to be pre-Hartnell. Having pre-Hartnell Doctors visiting 20th/21st Century Earth on a regular basis makes the post-Hartnell Doctor encountering them directly or evidence of their existence much more likely. It'd also be weird for the CIA/Division to let this happen when they're trying to cover their tracks.
I'm all for them just explaining this in Series 13.