Tom Baker’s final words as he began to morph into Peter Davison have been quoted a fair deal in the run-up to Peter Capaldi’s last season finale before he regenerates in this year’s Christmas special. However, as he lay on the floor of the Tardis towards the end of the episode, apparently dead beyond regenerative trickery, it was Jon Pertwee’s last scene I was most reminded of. From the dandified cuffs of Capaldi’s shirt to the bat-splayed red lining of his ragged jacket to the creased face and bedraggled silver locks, the Twelfth Doctor mirrored the Third with Moffat-fuelled accuracy.
That he later quoted his more immediate predecessor’s last words would have been no whimsical notion nor a spot of nostalgic fanboy onanism from the outgoing show-runner. The moment when it is (of course) revealed that he's not dead after all harked back to the flashbacks Davison had when it was his turn to hand over the sonic screwdriver but let's not dwell on that as the Sixth Doctor was a multi-chrome clown in all the wrong ways.
The Doctor Falls deliberately draws on iconic imagery from Moffat’s own tenure too but more in the spirit of a greatest hits package than the feel of the regeneration echoes (I will grant him kudos for inverting Eleven carrying Amy during Asylum of the Daleks and having CyberBill hold the failing Twelve in the same tragic pose). By alerting long-time fans of the show to the ripples of so many other Doctors running through the energy of Capaldi’s oncoming regeneration it led us to the final twist of the season: Twelve looks to be spending Christmas with the first incarnation of The Doctor.
If you want to nitpick it's the third incarnation of the first incarnation of The Doctor: William Hartnell and Richard Hurndall being far too real-life dead to appear so David Bradley has stepped into the role. It's only fair, he did play Hartnell and thus Hartnell’s Doctor brilliantly in the 2013 anniversary drama about the genesis of the show itself.
My reaction is mixed. It is a thrilling prospect indeed for the Christmas special to feature the original Doctor as well as a soon to golden-glow his way into somebody else Twelve. But the prospect of incoming show-runner Chris Chibnall deciding to reset the entire programme by somehow having Capaldi regenerate as Bradley’s version of Hartnell lurks at the back of my mind like the stench of a rotten cucumber lingers in a refrigerator.
The concept is fine but I pray it's not one that Chibnall has given any serious thought to. Anniversaries are one thing, a great excuse to gather up a couple of previous Doctors and let them squabble their way to harmonious solutions to some devilish alien plot, but a Marvel Spider-Man style reset would most likely lose fans rather than push the show onwards towards 2023’s 60th jubilee.
I've loved every minute of Capaldi as The Doctor and applaud Moffat for bucking the previous trend of recruiting younger and younger actors to the role, seemingly to ensure fangirls came along with the fanboys, but the best regenerations and smoothest transitions in the show’s history work when a proper contrast of personalities (rather than vomit-hued jackets) is set up. Since returning to our screens no Doctor has been too similar to the previous one; there would be a danger of chiming many familiar Capaldi notes if Bradley becomes the next Doctor full time.
I don't know that anybody else is squawking about this or even considering it a possibility. I may be putting Twelve and One together and not coming up with Thirteen. A cryptic Moffat statement about this regeneration being rather different to those we’ve seen before and the continuing lack of announcement about Capaldi’s successor are the fragmentary foundations of my thesis, not really enough to give credence to the idea, right?
Or maybe that's exactly what Chibnall hopes geeks like me will be imagining, the better to help us accept a female Doctor this time? Personally I've been fine with the idea of a woman taking on the role for most of my adult life (once I'd got past the prepubescent ‘girls are pooey’ stage) so I don't really need subterfuge to help me cope with gender changes in a science fiction series.
Hey ho, on with the show. Only it seems like on with the show minus Pearl Mackie, John Simm, Michelle Gomez and Peter Capaldi as the Master/Missy double act reversed the polarity of multiple Doctors by killing one another towards the end, and Bill Potts looks like she’s off to snog around the universe with her romantic interest from the first episode of the season. Talk about regime change.
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