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Television Sci-Fi

Doctor Who's 14th Time Lord Announced for 60th-Anniversary Season (cnn.com) 197

Posted by EditorDavid from the inspector-Spacetime dept.
Doctor Who's newest incarnation has been announced. Replacing Jodie Whittaker — and becoming the 14th Doctor Who — is 29-year-old Netflix star Ncuti Gatwa. (In 2020 the Scottish branch of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awarded him the prestigious "Best Actor in Television" award for work on the Netflix series Sex Education.) Fun fact: he also voiced the lead driver in Electronic Arts' racing videogame Grid Legends, according to Wikipedia.

In a BBC press release, he described himself as "a mix of deeply honoured, beyond excited and of course a little bit scared" to take over the long-running part of the TARDIS-traveling Time Lord, according to CNN.

"This role and show means so much to so many around the world, including myself, and each one of my incredibly talented predecessors has handled that unique responsibility and privilege with the utmost care. I will endeavour my utmost to do the same." "Doctor Who" showrunner Russell T Davies said in the press release: "Sometimes talent walks through the door and it's so bright and bold and brilliant, I just stand back in awe and thank my lucky stars.

"Ncuti dazzled us, seized hold of the Doctor and owned those TARDIS keys in seconds."

Gatwa joins the long-running sci-fi series — which follows an alien Time Lord who travels across space and time — ahead of its 60th anniversary in 2023.
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Doctor Who's 14th Time Lord Announced for 60th-Anniversary Season More

Doctor Who's 14th Time Lord Announced for 60th-Anniversary Season

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  • Ahem... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by beheaderaswp ( 549877 ) * on Sunday May 08, 2022 @01:39PM (#62514560)

    Aren't we like two regenerations past 12 here?

    Time lords can only regenerate 12 times.

    • Re: Ahem... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Lohrno ( 670867 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @01:47PM (#62514570)

      Something something second set of regenerations...

      • Something something war doctor. Sorry I lost interest in the series but he has as many regenerations as the script calls for. :P

      • Something something just a show and it's not real...?

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by vlad30 ( 44644 )
        Explained in the timeless child https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki... [fandom.com]

      • We are getting closer and closer to The Valeyard.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by tragedy ( 27079 )

          The Doctor only speculated that the Valeyard was like the Watcher (a sort of projection back in time of an intermediate form during regeneration that observed the Doctor before his death, a bit like a Doppelganger for Time Lords) but was trying to steal the Doctor's remaining regenerations to become real. That's not guaranteed to be the case, however. The Great Intelligence did claim that the Doctor would be the Valeyard in the future. Apparently the original intention was for the Valeyard to actually be th

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kremmy ( 793693 )
      Go back and watch from the beginning (the real beginning, Hartnell).
      They covered every argument you're going to make against the most recent seasons of Who.
      I'm just bummed because they seemed to do really good on the last couple 'special episodes' after the 6 episode season.
      They're probably leaving 13 on a high note but there was so much more they could have done with a little more inspiration from the old series.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Revek ( 133289 )
        They are better because Russell T Davies is back.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Mitreya ( 579078 )

          They are better because Russell T Davies is back.

          Are they going to undo The Timeless Children episode?
          Because I fear that nothing short of that will save the show now.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Kremmy ( 793693 )
            I'm still in shock and awe over how absolutely wild all of the deus ex machina episodes with 11 were.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tragedy ( 27079 )

            Are they going to undo The Timeless Children episode?

            What exactly do you have against it? Heck, some quite old novelizations of Doctor who established an ancient founder of Time Lord society (along with Rassilon and Omega) who died and was later re-incarnated as the Doctor. So the idea of the Doctor actually having a history that extends before his first incarnation and being, in some way, a founder of the Time Lords themselves is hardly a new, if not canonical idea. Basically we still have the same character with a mysterious past that we've always had, but

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            They will probably just ignore it, like they did with all the extra incarnations of The Doctor from The Brain of Morbius that seem to break all known rules about regeneration.

        • Better probably means driving more people away.

    • Re:Ahem... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @01:52PM (#62514582)

      The history of the show has been rewritten so many times you can't make heads or tails of what's happened.

    • Aren't we like two regenerations past 12 here?

      Time lords can only regenerate 12 times.

      The lore explicitly reset that limitation two Doctors ago. And it's just more honest that they synced the story limitation with the real limitation, which is "as many regenerations as will bring in eyeballs".

    • Aren't we like two regenerations past 12 here?

      Time lords can only regenerate 12 times.

      I have no idea, but it's been a few regenerations since the show was any kind of interesting. At this point they're just milking a dead cow.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by leonbev ( 111395 )

      As long as the ratings are good, I'm sure that the BBC will continue to come up with some absurd deus ex machina to keep regenerating them.

    • Re:Ahem... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by PsychoSlashDot ( 207849 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @02:12PM (#62514628)

      Aren't we like two regenerations past 12 here?

      Time lords can only regenerate 12 times.

      As it happens, the Tom Baker era, it was established that the number isn't concrete; The Doctor's foe The Master was being offered a second set of regnerations. So... it's been on the table since the fourth doctor and 1976. This isn't new.

      Matt Smith's doctor was supposed to be the last, in terms of incarnations that were revealed at that point. It was a huge point of his final episode... he spent a literal lifetime defending Gallifrey, and a second set of regenerations was his reward.

      Unfortunately, after Moffat ended his tenure running the show, Chris Chibnall came in and stomped all over everything that made the slightest bit of sense and dramatic tension, and invented a bunch of stuff that didn't make the canon more interesting. The current number of incarnations is canonically: utterly unknown because The Doctor is actually not the same species as the rest of the Time Lords, and their regeneration ability was literally stolen from The Doctor by a mad scientist type / mother figure. Also... The Doctor isn't from this universe.

      Everyone has their favorite Doctor and show-runner, but man... at least Moffat worked mostly within the existing canon to make dramatic stories about characters we could care about.

      • he spent a literal lifetime defending Gallifrey,

        Judging by how frequently they replace doctors, a time lords lifetime isn't very long at all, they seem to replace them every couple of years (judging by aging of their companions), if you extrapolate that is to how old he is now (about 900years) there should be around 450 regenerations. Maybe he/she has become sloppy in their old age.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by irving47 ( 73147 )

          Your dataset is incomplete or just flat-out not taking into account how long some of the recent-ish incarnations lasted. Matt Smith's lived over 500 years in that form. 200 during the events of Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon and then 300+ in his last two episodes where he very nearly died of old age.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tragedy ( 27079 )

          Judging by how frequently they replace doctors, a time lords lifetime isn't very long at all, they seem to replace them every couple of years (judging by aging of their companions), if you extrapolate that is to how old he is now (about 900years) there should be around 450 regenerations. Maybe he/she has become sloppy in their old age.

          Among the things you're missing is that significant amounts of time can pass between visits to companions and adventures with them.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Back in the 70s we saw Romana using regeneration to try out different looks before settling on one. It's portrayed as being as trivial as changing your outfit, she's not dying or in distress.

        There was also the War Doctor who seems to have been a free regeneration outside the normal limit of 12.

        Who fans have learned not to worry too much about canon because it's already screwed up beyond recovery.

        • Re:Ahem... (Score:4, Interesting)

          by PsychoSlashDot ( 207849 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @06:49PM (#62515258)

          Back in the 70s we saw Romana using regeneration to try out different looks before settling on one. It's portrayed as being as trivial as changing your outfit, she's not dying or in distress.

          There was also the War Doctor who seems to have been a free regeneration outside the normal limit of 12.

          Who fans have learned not to worry too much about canon because it's already screwed up beyond recovery.

          Not that nit-picking Doctor Who trivia is a worthwhile venture but... the War Doctor was the one revealed in The Five Doctors, making Matt Smith's Doctor not the 11th, but the 12th. Also, I guess one of the previous incarnations burned a regeneration to something something for someone, meaning that the "11th Doctor" was in fact the 13th (after 12 regenerations), and therefore... the last.

          I only remember this because I looked it up.

    • They addressed this during Matt Smith's final episode, "The Time of the Doctor." He was on his last regeneration (including his regeneration from Eight to War Doctor, and Ten's regeneration that kept his appearance and siphoned off the rest of the energy into his severed hand) when the Time Lords granted him a new regeneration cycle, just as they did with the Master, right when he was about to be killed by the Daleks.

      Then, in the Jodie Whittaker episode "The Timeless Children," we discovered that the Doctor

      • tl;dr - It's timey-wimey and spacey-wacey, and best not thought about too intently.

        That's ok, he'll explain later.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Revek ( 133289 )
      Something happened. After all the doctor is the timeless child.
    • It's a serial. They're designed to run forever and that doesn't bother me in the least. But a 29-year-old doctor who? He's supposed to be a goofy old fuddy duddy. You can have young and hip companions but I can't see a young Doctor who working. Then again the early Doctor who always seemed a little more geared at kids, and having Doctor who be an older gentleman basically made him like a father figure. Like when your dad comes in and fixes all the mistakes you made.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mitreya ( 579078 )

      Time lords can only regenerate 12 times.

      Ah, but the Doctor is not even a Time Lord anymore but some random alien race. How many hearts does she actually have, I wonder? Three? Four?
      There had to be a better way to do this if they were actually worried about the 12 regeneration limit.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tragedy ( 27079 )

        Ah, but the Doctor is not even a Time Lord anymore but some random alien race. How many hearts does she actually have, I wonder? Three? Four?
        There had to be a better way to do this if they were actually worried about the 12 regeneration limit.

        Since the Time Lords apparently became Time Lords by copying the Doctor, it's probably fair to consider the Doctor still a Time Lord. It's just that the rest of the Time Lords are actually inferior copies. Also, you're forgetting that they already fixed the 12 regeneration limit by giving the Doctor a brand new regeneration cycle with an unknown number of regenerations. So this was not about fixing the regeneration limit. As far as the plausibility goes, it's always been known that the Doctor is pretty spec

    • As of the Five Doctors, fresh regeneration cycles have been permitted. As of Traken, body-snatching as a way to regenerate has also been permitted.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      There are so many inconsistencies in the canon that the inconsistency of the Doctor is itself canon.

    • It's not real.

      They can make up whatever they like.

    • 4th doctor was the best.

      • must admit I did really like Tom, his cheesy grin and jelly babies combined with his over the top style.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tragedy ( 27079 )

      Aren't we like two regenerations past 12 here?

      Time lords can only regenerate 12 times.

      Spoilers ahead!

      They in fact brought the doctor to the end of his regenerations in the show. He was defending a planet against attack from an armada of various Dr who enemies: Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen, weeping angels, etc. for 900 years on his last remaining life. The planet was a target because there was a dimensional rupture there to the extradimensional hiding place of Gallifrey and the Time Lords from after the time war. Not only the enemies of the doctor were opposed to this, but so were many parties

  • riding a dead horse ? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Tom ( 822 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @02:10PM (#62514618) Homepage Journal

    I binge-watched much of the "new" Doctor Who (2005+) and while it had ups and downs, it was always a good show.

    It lost that with Capaldi. I didn't particularly like him in the role, but more importantly: He got a number of really bad story lines. There were still many good ones as well, and a couple epic ones.

    Then they just dropped it with Whittaker. Again, I don't think he did well as an actor, the character just was completely broken with some memory loss bullshit (that never prevented other doctors from clearly being, you know, The Doctor) and she played the most powerful being in the universe as a bumbling idiot. But worse, the storylines were complete shit, the ensemble cast idea was worse, and the meta story was a complete trainwreck.

    So if they use the opportunity to wipe that out, make The Doctor a Time Lord again instead of some bullshit saviour "child" eternal whatever special nonsense, I'll take a look. Otherwise, sadly this is another TV series driven into the ground by morons with no respect for what made the original great.

    • It's had a very long run without a reboot. Most shows have a maximum number of good seasons in them. After that it's a slide it in some cases falling off a cliff. Many only have 2 seasons worth it. How many good seasons did it have?

      • Many only have 2 seasons worth it. How many good seasons did it have?

        How many seasons did Tom Baker and Peter Davison play The Doctor? After that, everything went to shit.

    • Re:riding a dead horse ? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @02:41PM (#62514690)

      I liked Capaldi because he was old and a bit grumpy but it stopped being Dr Who and became the Clara Show.

      • I think that paid off though. After the trauma of losing the love of her life, AFTER trying to walk away from the Doctor for him, losing that tether to humanity she allows herself to do a full 180. She emulates the Doctor, tries to be as..chaotic...as he is but without the safety net of regeneration and being a fully squishy human. It seems manic but it's actually depression. Instead of "death by cop" it's "death by showing what really happens if you try to be as cavalier in the face of death as the Dr.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Kremmy ( 793693 )
          I feel like it's time for the Doctor to see some familiar faces again. A few OLD faces have actually been announced to be returning for the next special! I hope it's a good one... The Doctor needs a break from the companions being destroyed. Capaldi's Doctor had forceful reminders of why you don't do the things he did to bend time to save his companions. The Doctor always had to refrain from it. He flipped out when his companions asked him to do it. But the Doctor had a lot of companions that weren't lost t

      • I liked Capaldi because he was old and a bit grumpy but it stopped being Dr Who and became the Clara Show.

        The last few Capaldi episodes were some of the best ever.

        It's all down to the writing though. Sometimes the writers get it very wrong, eg. when they start using emojis and mentioning Donald Trump.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by imidan ( 559239 )
      I think Capaldi could have been great, if the writing had been any good. But this has always been the way with Doctor Who. They had a great high mark in the 70s, and then the writing deteriorated until the 80s when the BBC kept threatening to cancel the show, pausing production and meddling with casting, until they finally did cancel it in 89. Which I thought was too bad, because the writing seemed to be getting better by then.

    • Same. I was looking forward to Capaldi as the Doctor but he mumbled every damn line I couldn't figure out what he was trying to say. And the story lines were BORING.

      Then Whittaker was cast and while I could at least understand her, her story lines were boring as well and the cast companions were all complete duds. I stopped watching about 3/4 of the way through her first season.

      I'm hoping with this new Doctor they can bring it back to where it was with Tennent and Smith.

    • Everything that Tom wrote is how I view the new Who arc.

      In the (new) beginning it was the most incredible show. The stories were fresh and inventive and yet completely true to canon. Russel T Davies is the biggest Dr Who fan in the world and knew how to renew the franchise. Eccleston was terrific, Tennant was terrific and more nuanced, Smith was OK and I could watch Amy Pond forever. Capaldi was alright, but the whole thing was getting a little tired by then. Jodie Whittaker is a great actor but (a) the sto

  • I wasn't overly impressed with his character on Sex Education, though maybe it was just shitty writing and/or directing. So, I'll at least give him a shot and maybe he'll surprise me. Pity they couldn't figure out a way to make the doctor into Missy from the Capaldi era. She was great and didn't get nearly enough screen time.

  • still no ginger (Score:5, Funny)

    by Revek ( 133289 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @02:19PM (#62514646)
    Come on why can't we have a ginger doctor?

  • Still going on? (Score:3)

    by OneHundredAndTen ( 1523865 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @02:59PM (#62514722)
    Never a huge fan, I stopped watching when Capaldi took over - the episodes became self-important, pretentious and almost incomprehensible. I enjoyed the episodes with David Tennant, especially the one in which his assistant (I forget her name) was going out of her way to get queen Victoria to say that she, queen Victoria, was not amused.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ichijo ( 607641 )

      Sure, but "Heaven Sent" is worth watching, even though it has Capaldi in it.

      • "even though"? It is an actor playing solo. If that one works for you, then I'd consider crediting the actor. In fact it must have been a factor in writing the episode because a major question the writer will ask is: can the actor carry it off by himself.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by BigZee ( 769371 )
      I've read a lot of the comments people have made about their favorites. For me, I find it difficult to choose a specific Doctor or a specific companion that I might think of as 'best'. However, I have no problem in saying that the best combination was Capaldis Doctor and Clara. I also want to say that I think it is great that everyone has their favorites and many people disagree or agree on who that is. At one point in time, everyone would have said Tom Baker was the best doctor ever. I think that you would

  • Just realize what made the Doctor interesting (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @03:34PM (#62514840)

    The Doctor was a powerful, very old alien that had a human companion. That companion was key. That companion (or the companions) were the Doctor's "humane" side. They were always the one(s) that reminded the Doctor that the world does not revolve around him and that his point of view was not the only one.

    With the last Doctor, the companion essentially became cue cards so the Doctor can do an exposition dump to explain to the viewer just what they should think and feel.

    And it doesn't work that way.

    • You missed everything between Patrick Troughton and Tom Baker, then.

      • Quite possible, I wasn't a huge fan of the Doctor. I just watched what happened to come my way.

        Maybe I should qualify that better: It was what I liked about Dr. Who. That's the part that I enjoyed a lot. I also only saw two episode of the new Doctor and decided it's not my cuppa java, for the aforementioned reasons, so I stopped watching again.

        • If you are not a huge fan of the Doctor then how can you generalize about what you did not see? That's like me saying the Marvel movies are shit. I have not seen the last ones but I am sure they were terrible based on the trailers.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kremmy ( 793693 )
        The Doctor doesn't need an assistant, he needs someone to tell him how brilliant he is.

  • hmmmm (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bloodhawk ( 813939 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @04:57PM (#62515054)
    disappointing, don't really care whether they are black or white, young or old or male or female. But this is obviously a choice made just to avoid the look of switching back to a white male after the unmitigated disaster that was Jodie Whittaker.

  • While I didn't care for Jodi Whittaker at first, her rendition of The Doctor grew on me. What I didn't like was the overall feel of the show in general. Previous doctors had the "nobody dies" attitude. That phrase specifically was mentioned a couple of times by The Doctor in several episodes. The latest Doctor, however, seemed to take on more of a "just kill the bad guy" stance. I suppose it could be said that "that's just the result of the circumstances The Doctor found herself in" during the last cou

    • This one resonated with me. I've still got a bad taste in my mouth from the whiplash of cutting Martha off because she associated with people with guns (though we're great pals with Churchill?) but rootin-tootin-shootin River gets a pass for the pistol. Tennant did a really great job regarding being forced to violence and carrying that weight. Removing it just feels... disingenuous to who the Doctor is.

  • As a long time Dr. Who fan... (Score:3)

    by Sitnalta ( 1051230 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @07:49PM (#62515360)

    Please just cancel it. PLEASE. I beg you.

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