#tenthree

[unexpectederawhilesubmitting]

WARNING: DOCTOR WHO SPOILERS EXPLAINING REGENERATION SHENANIGANS

-------------------

okay so I was kind of not on board with the concept of bi-regeneration, mainly because of how it seemed like all of the Sad and the Trauma that the Doctor had undergone got kind of handwaved away? i'm all for ncuti's Doctor being sort of a fresh start/jumping on point for new viewers, but i didn't get how that could work if like, literally 40 minutes ago he was David Tennant being a sad wet puppy dog of a man

however, after rewatching it, i've realized what i think happened there, and it goes all the way back to something introduced with the 4th doctor's regeneration that was never explained: the Watcher

^this spooky guy

so, for those that don't know (or haven't seen every episode of a show that is over half a century old), the Fourth Doctor regenerates at the end of a story called Logopolis (he falls off a satellite dish, but that's not important right now). all throughout the episode, this weird figure, The Watcher, stands off in the distance, and even intervenes slightly by saving the Fourth Doctor's companion. there's not much given in the way of an explanation until the Fourth Doctor regenerates, saying "it's the end. but the moment has been prepared for..."

the watcher walks up, and gets absorbed in a super rad 1980's digital effect (never change doctor who), while his companion just gives us the not-super-helpful-for-lore statement "He was the Doctor all the time!"

then, in a crossfade, the Doctor goes from Four to weird-powder-man to Five

canonically, the Watcher is explained as a future version of the doctor that comes about in sort of a weird overlapping thing with the doctor's timeline, it's very wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey.

-------------------------

SO what does this have to do with biregeneration and satisfying character arcs/moving on from trauma?

Well, remember, Fifteen said this, about Time Lords doing rehab out of order:

so, here's the thing: Fifteen is the Doctor AFTER Fourteen (duh, I know?) But to be clear...Fourteen lives out an entire lifetime with Donna and family, gets to a ripe old age, and then, when his lifetime of healing is over, he gets yeeted back through his own timestream just to zoot himself out of David Tennant's chest.

Remember, his first words to Fourteen (after popping out of his chest) are "So good to see you! So good!", not the RTD classic "what?". He greets himself like he's almost expecting this, he then says "does anyone want to tell me what the hell is going on here?" which only makes sense if he's coming from a different point in his own timestream (remember, when two doctors interact, memory gets really weird, 10 and the War Doctor don't remember the events of Day of the Doctor until they live through them as 11).

SO TO BE CLEAR: Ncuti Gatwa is playing the Doctor AFTER he has spent years healing from his traumas. His Doctor is fine because Fourteen takes the time to rest and work on himself.

tl;dr: I didn't like biregeneration at first because I thought it looked like this:

In actuality, it looks more like this:

[timetravelingsherlockian]

I love that in 48 hours we've collectively decided upon the new adventures of the Fourteenth Doctor...

Getting milk

Doing dishes

"Helping" with Rose's homework

sourcing craft supplies

go to mars (nothing happens)

avoid nrys

visit Wilf

parent-teacher nights

sneaking off at 3am from the Nightmares (gets caught & drug back to bed)

taking Sylvia to the grocery store

drinking tea

watching the new Doctor run past while London's on fire and NOPE walks in the other direction

co-sleeping

crying about the Terrors

breaking kitchen gadgets

gardening

(please add more in the tags.)

[the-patrex]

we popping the biggest bottles when the tensimm reunion happens in the Specials <- delusional

[spacerelativity]

me and my best/boyfriend who is also me but not

[eldestsiblingsyndrome]

[mndvx]

Who is he? DOCTOR WHO – THE GIGGLE (9 December 2023 – 60th Anniversary Specials) ››› David Tennant and William Hartnell as The Doctor ››› Neil Patrick Harris and Michael Gough as The Celestial Toymaker

[banaynay-art]

ZOOMIES DOCTOR

[northernfireart]

3 of them

the depression sisters

[madwomanwithawarehouse]

I'm sorry but I refuse to call David Tennant the Fourteenth Doctor. Let's call him what he is: TenThree

[idkaguyorsomething]

¿they really went “we are going to open the second of our three specials celebrating the 60th anniversary of our tv show with an isaac newton febreeze commercial and it is going to have absolutely zero bearing on anything beyond giving the doctor and donna something to gossip about and making a thousand tardis wiki editors burst into flames” huh?

[sarahwatchesthings]

So, after the apple fell on Newton's head, and he was then interrupted by Tenthree and Donna who told him the stupid gravity pun and then fucked off, Newton returned to his tree and found Four in it. He then told Four to get out of his tree and went to dinner with him, whereupon Four explained gravity to him. Which should have counteracted the "mavity" thing, unless Four just heard it and decided to go along with it.

[headcanonsandmore]

*Half an hour after that scene in Donna's garden*

Mel: Well, Doctor, I'm really glad to hear that you've been able to work past your grief about Yaz-

TenThree: *falls backwards off their chair and freezes up*

Donna: *swivelling her head slowly around* Spaceman... who's Yaz?

TenThree: *eyes widening in horror* Er, well...

*ten minutes later*

Donna: WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU LEFT HER BARELY THREE DAYS AGO?

TenThree: Listen, it made sense at the time, I swear-

Rose: That seems rather cold, Doctor.

Mel: Maybe this is a bad time to mention that I told the companion group-chat about you being here...

TenThree: *groaning* Tegan is going to bash my head in-

[meljayne]

14, you will always be famous

[the-patrex]

talking about being the change you want to see in the world. 10three post regen with 13s clothes

[spacerelativity]

[donutdrawsthings]

I'm literally OVER THE MOON with joy to see these two together on screen and talking like 2 girls at a sleepover again

so much has changed since then yet at the same time nothing has changed at all