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Doctor Who, Billie Piper & The "Schrödinger's Cat" of Regenerations

Love it or hate it, Billie Piper's surprise regeneration during the Doctor Who Season 2 finale has EVERYONE talking about the series again.

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Well, that was an end to a season of Doctor Who. The new Doctor is Billie Piper, and everyone can't stop talking about it. That's what Russell T Davies wanted, and he got it.  Casual viewers in the UK were pleasantly surprised. Longtime fans are pissed off and can't stop debating or complaining about it. People will be talking about it until there's news about whether or not there will be a third series. Until then, it's Schrödinger's Regeneration.

Fans have been coming up with all kinds of convoluted lore reasons for this not to be the "true" Doctor. This is always a sure sign that they're wrong. Why do fans always twist their brains into knots trying to come up with an explanation that something they saw in the series isn't true when history has shown again and again that what you saw was what you got? The Doctor regenerated into Billie Piper's face. Why would Davies contrive to create a fakeout cliffhanger when he has always been very straightforward in his twists and revelations? He has always clued the viewer in that he does what he says he will do on the packet.

Doctor Who Season 2 Finale:
Image: BBC Screencap

Many fans, including hardcore fans hated that regeneration twist and tell themselves and each other that this can't be real, that the TARDIS has contrived a failed or flawed regeneration fakeout when Steven Moffat set up the precedent all the way back in the 50th Anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor": The Doctor can choose to revisit some old favourites when they regenerate. Why wouldn't The Doctor take on the face of one of the people he loved most? Rose Tyler told him how to open up and love again after the trauma of the Time War. The Fifteenth Doctor heeded the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) to regenerate not in fear or anger or regret but in joy, to embrace that they're not dying but being reborn, surviving, to continue to live. For Davies, the emotions always take precedence over convoluted lore.

Doctor Who has always been what it presents itself to be. Yes, that is the 16th Doctor. It will be the 16th Doctor until she ceases to be. How long will that be? Who knows. You can debate endlessly about whether this was a good idea or not, whether Davies is out of ideas, or if he's just trolling everyone. In the meantime, he has turned Doctor Who into a major pop culture talking point again.

Doctor Who is streaming on Disney+ outside the UK.

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Adi TantimedhAbout Adi Tantimedh

Adi Tantimedh is a filmmaker, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote radio plays for the BBC Radio, “JLA: Age of Wonder” for DC Comics, “Blackshirt” for Moonstone Books, and “La Muse” for Big Head Press. Most recently, he wrote “Her Nightly Embrace”, “Her Beautiful Monster” and “Her Fugitive Heart”, a trilogy of novels featuring a British-Indian private eye published by Atria Books, a division Simon & Schuster.
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