Alden Bates' Weblog
Feigning normality since 1973
A Modern Regeneration Story
Filed in: Doctor Who.
With the filming of the new Doctor Who series in the UK, there's been talk of a regeneration story. I have to agree with the idea it would be silly to have a regen story (I'm going to abbreviate this to save typing :P) at the start of the series, due to the fact that after a regeneration the Doctor almost always starts out with an unstable personality and it'd be better to start out with an established Doctor so the audience have a better idea what to expect.
OTOH, I'm all for them doing a flashback to a regen story later in the series. Of course, it's unlikely to be like any regen story we've had before.
Most regen stories are along the lines of "The Doctor regenerates at the start and then has this unrelated adventure". I would think that a modern regen story would make the regeneration part of the story. Little really has been done with the concept of regeneration during Doctor Who's run, other than to use it as a plot device to change the leading actor occasionally.
You could have a story, for instance, where the bad guy tortures the previous Doctor to death, followed by regeneration, then the Eccleston Doctor kicks the bad guy's arse and steals his leather jacket. Or my favourite concept, where the previous Doctor and Eccleston Doctor meet up at the start of the adventure, and at the end the previous Doctor is wounded and sent back in time to the start of the story where he regenerates into Eccleston and encounters his previous self. Just to make things confusing.
Posted September 20, 2004 6:27 PM
Comments
I'm sure if they decide to do one, it'll not be like any other regeneration story that's been done before...
Posted by: Alden Bates | September 20, 2004 8:29 PM
* tries this adding comments to blogs thingy *
Actually I'd think that most of the previous regenerations happened at the end of a story that led up to that point: definitely 2->3, 3->4, 4->5 and 5->6. 1->2 was tacked on at the end of an unrelated story, 6->7 was a quick vignette unrelated to either the preceding or the following stories, and 7->8 was tacked on to the front of a story.
What I'd like to see (from my point of view as a fan of the show who has no knowledge of how to write a decent TV script, or how to herd cats - sorry, I mean work with actors) is this: It's the end of the season. A two-part story. Ideally it would be the Daleks (the poor little salt shakers never having managed to off the Doctor, making them a lesser threat than... well, just about anything including a bunch of spiders, FFS) showing up early on in the first episode, and the Doctor suddenly gets sort of impending doom deja vu sort of feelings. The audience is led to believe that this is because of how mean and horrible the Daleks are... and then Paul McGann shows up at the end of the first episode, wearing the Doc8 costume and wondering what's going on. Episode 2 of course leading up to the regeneration, with the two Doctors trying to either watch out for each other or keeping out of each others way due to laws-of-time shenanigans (whichever fits the plot better) until McGann ends up pushing up daisies at season's end. Then two Doc9's stare each other in the eyes (assuming the effects budget is greater than £10 per episode). Musical sting. Roll credits. Get a decent script and it will keep fans talking for years.
Posted by: Dave Joll | September 20, 2004 7:00 PM