#Bi-generation

[frankencanon]

I like to think that the reason bi-generation was so rare and mythical and unheard of and why it happened now is because it's an extreme self defense mechanism of the Time Lords — even more extreme than regular regeneration.

Simply put: the Doctor was too stressed. All of that stress built up over time more and more and more, until...

Until, much like with Donna and Rose in The Meep, the Doctor split themself into two so that they could share the burden.

[katelynsimpsince2016]

after sleeping on the latest anniversary special i think i’m at peace with the whole bi-generation thing because it does something i don’t think it would’ve been able to do if it was executed in any other way. it allows the show to move the fuck on.

nuwho began with this mysterious sense that something bad happened. that this man, this alien, is filled with guilt and pain from something terrible. that theme of a horrible anguish being thinly veiled under a witty, dorky shield has been consistent throughout every incarnation of the doctor since. it’s a brilliant piece of characterisation but the doctor always being weighed down by this insurmountable grief i think was always going to hold the show back eventually. tragedy is inherent to doctor who but when does it become hard to believe that the main character is somehow able to continue on after everything they’ve gone through. what effect would this have on the audience, especially long-term fans? letting go of past companions and doctors is something that doctor who fans are notoriously bad at and i just wonder if it would become too much for the show to handle at one point. but now it won’t anymore.

bi-generation allows the doctor to heal from everything they’ve gone through whilst still being able to barrel into the next adventure. there’s a million theories on where 14 will end up but i think what matters the most is that the doctor is finally happy. not in a temporary, tenuous state of thrill that will only last until the start of the next episode or when the next threat appears around the corner but truly happy. unlike in previous versions of this story where the doctor gets an impossible happy ending which we never get to see onscreen (e.g. tentoo settling down with rose) we are actually going to witness 15 be joyful and alive, no longer held down by what’s come before. a fresh start almost. not to say that the time war or the flux were so horrific that the doctor never could’ve gotten over them but i don’t think the doctor healing would’ve been believable without him literally splitting in two, allowing him time to breathe and slow down as 14 whilst untethering him from the past and allowing him to fully spread his wings as 15. it’s not a perfect conclusion to this era (and discussions on whether bi-generation undermined ncuti’s entrance and role as THE doctor are completely valid) but i’m ultimately glad it happened

[variousqueerthings]

i think it's very funny that in the past there's always been a bit of an antagonism between past and present doctors, but fourteen and fifteen took one look at each other and went "I love you I want the best for you I want you to be cared for I want to hug you and heal all your traumas I think you're incredibly attractive I would kiss you right now but the humans might think that's weirder than the asexual reproduction they just witnessed"

[whovianderson]

Thoughts on the bi-regeneration

(This plot line was leaked on twitter, so I knew it was coming, which is frustrating)

The positives

I love that it allowed the Doctor to physically comfort themselves as a representation of their healing.

I love how it said that when you’re emotionally exhausted, it’s okay to give yourself a break.

I love that it allowed Fourteen to stay on earth, because sometimes you don’t need to look to the stars for wonder - sometimes the wonder is right there around you.

I love that it finally allowed Fourteen to settle and have a family, the culmination of a long arc.

I love that it gave Fifteen a completely fresh and more emotionally mature personality.

The negatives

I hate how it took the spotlight from Ncuti. He deserved to be the focus of his first moments as the Doctor, his post-regeneration scene, as every other incarnation has been.

I hate how Fifteen doesn’t get his own TARDIS.

I hate that it was Ncuti, our first full-time Black Doctor, to whom this happened. To me (admittedly a white person!), it feels like it undermines his ownership of the role. RTD shouldn’t have enabled any more discrediting of Fifteen when he unfortunately already experiences that in the wider fandom due to his race. Even regardless of his race, I’m not sure if it’s fair to any new actor to be put in that situation.

I hate that the other Doctor involved was played by David. As he’s a fan favourite, I really don’t think it’s fair to immediately pit Ncuti against him (although in my opinion he outshone him!).

RTD says in the commentary that every Doctor bi-generated, and so still exists in a “Doctorverse”. Part of the beauty of Doctor Who for me is that “everything ends, and it’s always sad, but everything begins again too, and that’s always happy”, and I feel like this takes some of the mavity out of that.

Overall

I’m not fussed about the changes to lore at all. In fact, I think it’s a (mostly) brilliant concept, with unfortunate implications. I hope we can move past the fact that Fourteen remains alive, and focus on Fifteen - because he is pretty fucking incredible so far! Bring on Christmas Day!

[denimbex1986]

'It's a moment Doctor Who fans have been talking about since it happened – the epic bi-generation, which saw Ncuti Gatwa and David Tennant's Doctors exist alongside one another.

In the final 60th anniversary special, The Giggle, viewers saw the Doctor split into two, with both incarnations of the Time Lord appearing side-by-side, and while the moment was truly iconic, there was a bit more to it in the original script.

Featured in this month's edition of Doctor Who Magazine is an excerpt from the script that didn't make the final cut, between the Doctor (David Tennant), Donna (Catherine Tate) and Mel (Bonnie Langford) – and it includes a notable mention of the Rani.

The Rani, who was first introduced in 1985's The Mark of the Rani, was portrayed on screen by Kate O'Mara and later voiced by Siobhan Redmond for Big Finish audio dramas.

She is a nemesis of the Doctor and is a renegade Time Lord, who experiments on other species, including humans.

In the scene, with the Fourteenth Doctor's hands glowing, Donna asks Mel: "Have you seen this before?"

Mel responds: "No, I missed it, I was unconscious," going on to clarify to an inquisitive Donna: "Well, the TARDIS was attacked, by the Rani, she was this evil Time Lady, although not evil, more like amoral, and she dragged the TARDIS down to this planet called Lakertya-."

The Doctor interrupts and the focus is back on him again.

Even though the moment didn't make the finished episode, this script detail is bound to fuel fan speculation that the Rani could return in future episodes.

There are currently lots of theories about the identity of Ruby Sunday's birth mother, while Anita Dobson's mysterious Mrs Flood is also keeping secrets.

Plus, eagle-eyed viewers have spotted actress Susan Twist in two recent episodes and suspect there could be more to come involving her.

And that's before we get into the unidentified figure who picked up the gold tooth that trapped the Master in The Giggle, or the Meep's boss, or even The One Who Waits.

Could the Rani be involved along the way? We'll just have to wait and see.'

[rainbowpopeworld]

[dumbfandomaccount]

I just watched The Giggle, the last of the Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials.

I wish they had spent more time on the concept of humanity losing the ability to change their minds.

Bi-generation seems… unnecessary? Like, from what I can tell, the point seems to be so that 14 can have an extended sabbatical so that 15 can be less weighed down by all of his emotional baggage. So, if 15 has all of 14’s memories from the time he’s going to spend with the Nobles, what happens to 14 when he’s done? Does he just disappear from wherever he is and appear inside himself as 15 at the moment of the bi-generation? Also, what happens to the extra TARDIS at that point? It all seems unnecessary. Skip the bi-generation business (maybe having 15 show up from the Doctor’s personal future if you want the Doctor to be the one to tell himself to go on hiatus) and just have a scene at either the end of the episode or the beginning of the Christmas special where 14 is really old in the 30th century or so, and have his body die of old age so he can regenerate into 15.

Also the game of catch made for an anticlimactic climax. The Toymaker seems like the kind of villain who is tailor-made to be defeated by outsmarting, but clearly RTD couldn’t think of a clever way for the Doctor to win a game, so instead he opted for a montage of three people throwing and catching a ball.

[aka-patsy]

Bi-generation? you mean THE device that's gonna be employed in all of the Regenerations as siblings fics?

[platypusbunnyfromthetardis]

The Master is a golden tooth.

The Doctor is in his boxers.

The TARDIS is wheelchair accessible.

Grampa's shooting moles.

The moles have a protection field.

Love and peace on planet Earth.

[the-autistic-spider]

spoilers for the giggle episode doctor who

im being honest i thought the doctors where gonna kiss when they held each others face in the new Tardis

also bi-generation is amazing and i hope they do a spin off with David Tennant

[chippedmoon]

The more I think about it, the more I hate the bi-generation conclusion. I hate the inability to move past David’s Doctor, and always having him lurking somewhere in the universe to trot out for one appearance or another.

Ten wasn’t my first doctor (that was Eleven) nor was he my favorite (because I hated his relationship with Rose), so seeing how, somehow, he gets to stay when all the other doctors, naturally, move on, is just so frustrating. Doctor Who isn’t the David or RTD show, even if they are the fan-favorites.

Just because Ncuti (who is fabulous!) gets a good amount of screen time in the episode, doesn’t mean his introduction wasn’t undermined. Just having the fan-favorite still existing and traveling in the universe will always make people think Ncuti’s doctor is a clone and that Tennant can always just show up again whenever ratings get a little too low.

The ending feels cheap. I don’t want to go? Well, guess what, you don’t have to.

[katelynsimpsince2016]

another thing i love about the bi-generation thing is just how fucking buck wild sci-fi it is. how 14 and 15 both exist at once but are at two entirely different points in the doctor’s development. 14 is at the very beginning of the doctor’s journey towards self-love whilst 15 is at the other end of that journey, joyful and full of life. he’s so obviously not chained down by his past and so much more mature it’s almost startling. i know we were all caught off guard by 14’s emotional vulnerability but 15 is just name dropping companions left and right completely unprompted, something the doctor NEVER does. also the way that they interact with each is just a walking visualisation of self love. it’s hard to get my head around but just so beautiful. and when they look at one another they’re both staring into a mirror, a manifestation of the different diverging paths for the doctor (that might unite again if you believe 14 will eventually regenerate into 15). the way they’re both fundamentally the doctor but totally different all the same. how 14 closes out the doctor’s story and 15 starts it anew

[variousqueerthings]

my cute post about fourteen with the noble family is flying off the shelves, but not enough people interested in the queerness contained within the deeply intimate erotic implications of fourteen/fifteen being consciously inside one another? no fans of science fiction premises queering the visceral physical nature of knowing someone/oneself deeper than anyone else? the queerness of asexual reproduction depicting an intense connection with the self that is nigh-indescribable but is canonically beautiful and loving? the queerness inherent in fourteen's and fifteen's relationship with one another retroactively stretching back to encompass every single iteration of the doctor? the queer ideas encapsulated through depicting one being with oneself like that? the queerness that is pushing the limits of thinking up language about how we relate to our own/others bodies in space/time that is possible in science fiction? nobody think bi-regeneration is very sexy queer-coded?

[smithytw4666]

@wheresthewater

[denimbex1986]

'“The Giggle,” the third and final Doctor Who 60th anniversary special, was more than just a laugh. After two adventures with David Tennant back as the 14th Doctor, a bout with the Toymaker and a nasty U.N.I.T. laser forced him to regenerate again. But just like last time, this wasn’t a normal regeneration: the 15th Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, split from the 14th Doctor like a cell undergoing mitosis.

While this was an exciting development for those hoping for a Tennant-led spinoff, it caused a lot of questions about just how the timeline works, and most importantly, what happens to the 14th Doctor when he inevitably dies. But one line from the episode may reveal a theory that could solve everything.

After the 14th and 15th Doctors come to terms with the “bi-generation,” which was previously thought to just be a myth, the two figure out the logistics of how their co-existence will work. While 14 is giving him a tour of the Tardis, 15 reveals why he thinks the bi-generation happened: because the Doctor has never stopped to rest.

All the Doctors just kept running never stopping to feel their feelings or cope with the massive losses they’ve encountered over the years. “But you're fine,” 15 says. “I'm fine because you fixed yourself.”

This seems to mean that 15, as he exists now, has all the memories that 14 is going to make with Donna and her family, and is benefitting from his previous self-care. If that’s true, that means that when 14 dies, he will simply cease to be — his regeneration into 15 is simply an advance on what would have happened later.

There’s even more evidence for this theory if you know where to look. Donna tells 15, “He's younger because you came after him. So you're the older Doctor.” If the two truly were “born” at the same time, that would make them the same age. But if 15 has the lived experience of 14, then he’d be a good deal older.

Like every good Doctor Who plot twist, there’s timey wimey stuff involved — in this case, a good old-fashioned bootstrap paradox. 15 tells 14 he needs to take a break and get better because that’s what he was told, so there’s a time loop going on. Much like the DVD extra in Blink, that statement has no origin: it exists in a loop, folding in on itself.

It may have completely torn up the Doctor Who playbook, but this theory could actually restore some order. We won’t see two branches of Doctor regenerating on their own divergent paths from here on out. Instead, the 14th Doctor is just sticking around a little while longer and enjoying a well-deserved (semi)retirement.'

[agenderhyde]

:/