Surprise! Without warning or trailers, without press or fanfare, Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor has sensationally regenerated into former Doctor Who actress Billie Piper, who played 2005 companion Rose.
The first half of The Reality War, written by showrunner Russell T Davies, is a break-neck whiz through the plot that was set up in last week’s Wish World: the Doctor battling Archie Panjabi’s wonderfully camp Rani to stop her unleashing classic villain Omega, the first Time Lord, in the hope of rebuilding Gallifrey.
Doctor Who finales are hardly subtle, muted affairs, but this entire section is a cacophony of nonsense and noise. Omega himself is something of an anti-climax: a big CGI generic monster who is vanquished as fast as he arrives.
Gatwa in his final episode of Doctor Who (Photo: BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/James Pardon/PA Wire)
The second half of the finale slows down into something a bit more interesting. Conrad’s traditional fantasy world had blessed the Doctor and companion Belinda (Varada Sethu) with a daughter called Poppy (Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps).
Having only been introduced an episode prior (although first introduced in 2024 episode Space Babies, as a different character), it is initially jarring to put so much emotional weight on a child that the audience barely knows.
Thus begins Gatwa’s march to regeneration. Having realised that he has saved the world at the expense of one person, he hatches a plan to shift reality by “one degree” using his life as the fuel.
Piper has replaced Gatwa as the Doctor, without warning or trailers, without press or fanfare (Photo: BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/James Pardon/PA Wire)It is a shame to lose the supernatural charisma of Gatwa, whose human star quality often had its own alienness. His regeneration into Bille Piper however raises more questions than answers.
Some of them are story-related. Why, for instance, has the Doctor chosen that face? But others are more profound. Is Billie Piper actually the Sixteenth Doctor or is she a placeholder name for a series we’ll never get to see? Until producing partner Disney renews its lucrative co-producing deal, and/or the BBC recommissions Doctor Who for a new series, the show’s future is unknown.
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