Russell Davies shits on Doctor Who one last time, The Doctor now has infinite lives.

What will it take to end this douchebag's reign of destruction?
The guy doesn't even work on Doctor Who anymore yet his idiocy finds new ways to creep in.

This new bombshell will be dropped on the Sarah Jane Adventures episode Davies is writing titled "Death of the Doctor".

Davies doesn't run Doctor Who anymore, only the spinoffs, and I seriously doubt Moffat would let him make such a drastic change to the Doctor outside of his own series. It'd be like outing Captain Picard as a Romulan spy on an episode of DS9.

Right, because more than 12 new lives is way more fantastical than 12 new lives.

To me it cheapens the character. They're essentially making the Doctor immortal, which takes away all the punch in the regenerations. Why not just have the Doctor regenerate every episode now? We can do the show Outer Limits style.

If they put some thought into it, I can accept it, but if they just say, "Fuck it, this is how it is," that's a piss-off.

I'd have no problem with the Bad Wolf turning the Doctor another a fixed point in time like Jack, or Susan or Romana handing over their leftover regenerations, or the Time Lords "punishing" the Doctor with immortality.


He doesn't have to be white though, as long as he's still British.

This isn't new news, is it? I thought they said they wouldn't limit themselves to 12 regenerations a long time ago.

But what's the point in changing it?

I know the original run was huge, like 25 years.

But let's face it. Even the best SciFi shows now call it quits after 7 or 10 years. NewWho is in year 6. Another year or two, another change it production management and the show will start to wind down, probably in the next 3 or 4 years.

There's no need to gay this up with infinite lives.

What's the point of letting it end prematurely?

It's like Law & Order. It can go on forever.*













*Yeah, I know the original got cancelled.

Well,

I'm not totally opposed to a Doctor somehow cursed with immortality.

But this is Russell Davies writing this, in a Sarah Jane episode!

What we'll get is the Doctor dying and his hand jumping out of the time vortex slapping him back to life while he screams "Dying! I've got too much livin to do!"

I'm expecting Davies to go full throttle with the Christ imagery this time. The Doctor actually gets crucified (by the Daleks!), comes back 3 days later, but now he can fly and turn water into wine. AND HE'S LONELY! ALL THE TIME! GET IT????



And Luke still wont be a good actor.

Then you'll love this episode.

I think the Who nerds are upset as they probably wanted a grand story arc to deal with the 13th regeneration, rather than some shitty gay throwaway line from Davies.

Still, the quote doesn't say he's immortal....only that he can regenrate more than 12 times. It could well be that there is an explanation for it but that he still has a finite regeneration cycle.

Maybe if a Timelords eats more vegetables he gets more regenrations.

The Master was clearly a beer and steak man.

....and it will be the Tenth Doctor's hand no doubt.

Sort like Davies slapping Moffat over the wrist. Its disgusting. Davies should keep well away from Moffat. How dare he send such a big fuck you...........and notice that he's even had the disgusting nerve to change the stripes on the 11th Doctor's shirt. That poo stabbing Davies bastard. THE FUCKING BASTARD! ARRRRRGGGH!!!

There is a big difference in tv production between the US and UK.

British TV shows tend to have shorter seasons (called series over there) but can go on for many more years. Sometimes shows will even have years between new series.

Doctor Who has at least a good five years left ahead of it, you need to understand how popular the show is. The finale of the latest series had disappointing viewer numbers because it "only" had 5 million people watching (that's equivalent to 30 million people watching a show on US tv) The series 4 finale had 10 million people watching (equivalent to around 60 million people watching a show in the US)

Long running television shows usually end up being killed because of one of these reasons:

1) The creative talent behind the show doesn't want to continue.

2) Viewing figures have dropped.

3) The cost of the show has risen too high due to years of being in production.

None of those really apply to Doctor Who, the actors, writers and production staff have changed numerous times over the four decades since it started. Viewing figures have been consistently high, and due to the ability to switch over actors the costs of the show do not sky rocket. In fact the latest series had a lower budget than the previous one.

Killing off the Doctor would be an absurd thing to do, and an extremely arrogant thing for whoever is in charge at the time to think they should do. It is possible that the BBC will decide to take a break from Doctor Who for a while by the time the 13th Doctor is in, but they will never kill him off entirely.

To my mind the best way of ending the current block of Doctor Who would be to have the 13th Doctor do something incredibly heroic that sacrifices his life, thinking he is out of regenerations. Then he regenerates, goes "Huh, that's weird. Oh well." and flies off ready to be brought back in another 10 or 20 years.

It was gay when they had him in Yankee-land.

It was gay when he kissed his companion in that same affront.

It was gay when they made the whole show about will they/won't they relationships.

It could be a reboot with a whole new 12 lives without even saying anything. Aside from the specials (featuring e.g. Hartnell's face on the monitor), there's virtually no internal references that would create continuity problems. They have series-long story arcs ('Bad Wolf'), and the odd Daleks and Cybermen ressurection, but nil references to past particulars that make the canon police-fans go nuts.

They could give him 12 new lives when they resurrect the Time Lords.

Eccleston's time war could've been the trigger to the 12-life clock reset.

They could create an alternate reality where he gains the memories of the past doctors but (somehow) has actually only used up a handful of lives, because his time-line crossed over.

Any half-assed sci fi writing team could come up half-dozen good storylines that would explain adequately more than 12 lives. Would a franchise ever allow a potential source of income to just die because of some constraint first penned in the 1960s?

Vetoed.

Finish this Doctor's run. Grand Finale. 4 years time.

Reboot BSG style 10 years from now. Doctor Who. Year One. Escape from Gallifrey.

Hello? Did you never meet Gene Roddenberry?

I think I am recalling correctly that the Master was the first Time Lord to go beyond 12 regenerations.
Now, this could be what made him crazy, or it could be that this was something that the senior Time Lords were hiding from the general population - after all, if everyone could regenerate, why marry and have kids, and anyway, this woulc really make things crowded on the planet and in the universe.
But now, there is only one Time Lord, and the death of the previous Doctor was really, REALLY different with that radiation. Perhaps that might have something to do with giving him more lives.
And didn't the Master do a sacrifice thing and might that not have gotten into that radiation and joined somehow with the Doctor?
Just asking and suggesting ways that the Doctor could get an extension to his life time?

BFD. Something tells me that when they originally created the "12 Regeneragtions" rule that no one anticipated the show would last this long. As long as the show is popular and the main actor wants to pursue other things, I have no problem with however many regenerations are needed to keep things going.

And I've always wanted to see a female doctor. I think they could have some great fun with that.

Man, they want a workaround to the 12 regeneration rule, they should bring back Colin Baker. They forced him out when he wanted to stay around. How entertaining to see him back--only a lot older, looking at his hands and at his reflection and going "Huh. That's odd."

Have you seen Colin Baker these days?

As long as Amy Pond continues to give me erections, I don't care.

They mucked things up IMO when they had all the Time Lords destroyed.

Besides, in the original series the Time Lords were able to give The Master a whole new set of regens in exchange for a service he did for them.

I suspect the whole 12 regens thing was a TL policy/limitation to prevent immortality and the power that would bring. With them gone, why shouldn't the Doc have it.

Because like you said, the Time Lords had to give that extra cycle of regenerations to the Master. He didn't naturally have them. The Time Lords didn't go around imposing death after the initial cycle was up.

Story wise it hurts The Doctor's character. Look at the Five Doctors. This is not a man looking for immortality.

Then he could be looking for ways to stop the regeneration.
Quit biting the lemon and look for the lemon squeezer to make lemonade.

You presuppose they have to give it, as opposed to them actually stopping the cycle at 12.

You are correct regarding the 5 doctors, however, I imagine that being the last of his whole species might have changed his outlook. The Time Lords being destroyed certainly changed him. I can easily see him not wanting to end the Time Lord species forever.

Yes, as that's what the series continuity supports.

The Master lived apart and on the run from the Time Lords and his regeneration cycle ended at 12, see The Deadly Assassin. The Time Lords didn't intervene and stop his regeneration. Certainly if avoiding the Time Lords were all one had to do to keep going then the Master wouldn't have had such trouble extending his life (Keeper of Traken, DW: The Movie).

507 regenerations isn't technically infinite.


Besides, you can still kill the Doctor if you do it fast enough. Regenerating doesn't bring a Timelord back to life, it just heals them before they die.

Nobody seems to have worked out yet that 507 was a joke.

^^^ RTD even said in an interview (I think it was with SFX magazine) that it's DEFINITELY a case of the Doctor winding up Clyde.