‘The Reality War’ featured a shock regeneration for the Fifteenth Doctor, marking a true first in the history of Doctor Who.
For the first time ever in Doctor Who, the lead actor departed without a prior announcement. Normally, when a Doctor regenerates, the public is told many months in advance, and their successor is announced. But in ‘The Reality War,’ the BBC decided to shake things up, and the public was treated to a surprise regeneration. In the episode’s closing moments, the Doctor sacrificed himself to save a child, and miraculously transformed into… well, we’ll come to that.
Of course, there is also the Internet, and rumours had been circulating about Ncuti Gatwa’s regeneration prior to ‘The Reality War’s transmission. But this is the Internet: it also predicted that ‘Marco Polo‘ would be returned in 2013, and we’re still waiting. We have to take things with a pinch of salt.
In addition, in the build-up to ‘The Reality War,’ it had been rather difficult to pin down what, exactly, Doctor Who‘s future looked like. A third series had been rumoured, but Russell T Davies made it clear that no announcement about Series Three would be made until after Series Two had aired. The same was true of Disney’s future involvement; nothing was being said. Ncuti Gatwa was remaining tight-lipped. In theory, the second series of this iteration of Doctor Who could have ended and simply not been recommissioned.
In short, most people went into ‘The Reality War’ knowing that all bets were off. But whether they were quite prepared for the surprise appearance of Billie Piper is another story. Because, in the final moments, Ncuti Gatwa’s face faded away to reveal that of his former companion Rose Tyler, who looked down the lens and said, with a grin, “Oh, hello!”
So did this mean that Billie Piper was the Sixteenth Doctor? Well, even that wasn’t made clear. In the aftermath of ‘The Reality War,’ all concerned were very careful with their words. This is what Russell T Davies had to say: “Billie once changed the whole of television, back in 2005, and now she’s done it again! It’s an honour and a hoot to welcome her back to the TARDIS, but quite how and why and who is a story yet to be told. After 62 years, the Doctor’s adventures are only just beginning!”
This was followed by a statement from Billie Piper: “It’s no secret how much I love this show, and I have always said I would love to return to the Whoniverse as I have some of my best memories there, so to be given the opportunity to step back on that TARDIS one more time was just something I couldn’t refuse, but who, how, why and when, you’ll just have to wait and see.”
Eagle-eyed viewers also observed that she wasn’t actually credited as the Doctor at the end of ‘The Reality War.’ The credits simply said, “And introducing Billie Piper.” This could be because she is actually playing some mysterious, alternate character, such as the Moment from ‘The Day of the Doctor,’ (the Moment took the face of Rose Tyler, after all.) The more cynical explanation would be that she couldn’t contractually be announced as the Doctor if there was no guarantee that the series would be returning. And at the time of writing, we simply don’t know.
As such, the Fifteenth Doctor’s regeneration at the end of ‘The Reality War’ is one of the most mysterious and unexpected in the series’ history. Certainly, there have been surprise regenerations in the past (like the Tenth Doctor’s in ‘The Stolen Earth‘ and the War Doctor’s in ‘The Day of the Doctor’) but ‘The Reality War’ takes it to a whole new level, and it’s a testament to the production team that they managed to keep the whole thing largely under wraps before transmission.
But was ‘The Reality War’ a good send-off for the Fifteenth Doctor? It was certainly epic in scale given its run time of 66 minutes, making it one of the longest Doctor Who episodes ever. And it was rammed: there were two versions of the Rani, the ancient Time Lord Omega, UNIT, two former companions (Ruby and Mel) and even a daughter for the Doctor.
In fact, had it not been for this daughter, the Fifteenth Doctor might have survived. She was a product of the dream world created by Conrad (from ‘Lucky Day‘) and the two Ranis, and so when reality returned to normal, she ceased to exist. The Doctor therefore had to sacrifice himself and pour his regeneration energy into the heart of the TARDIS to break the current form of reality and haul his daughter back into existence. Only in Doctor Who, right?
But as he was regenerating, viewers were treated to another surprise in the form of Jodie Whittaker, who made a re-appearance as the Thirteenth Doctor. It’s not entirely clear why her Doctor showed up in the TARDIS during ‘The Reality War,’ but it was a nice surprise for fans of her incarnation.
A more puzzling surprise was the lack of Susan Foreman, who had been teased in the build-up to the finale. She appeared briefly in ‘The Interstellar Song Contest‘ and ‘Wish World,’ so many fans were expecting her to make some sort of appearance in ‘The Reality War.’ After all, she had been interviewed wearing a distinctly futuristic-looking outfit in Doctor Who Unleashed.
Indeed, the Internet continues to abound with rumours that there is, in fact, a secret alternate ending to ‘The Reality War’ that has now been consigned to the same vault as Eric Stoltz’s Back to the Future, and the original cut of The Shining. Was Susan originally meant to appear in ‘The Reality War’? Are some unreleased Susan Foreman scenes sitting in the Black Archive? Did the episode originally end without a regeneration? We may never know.
So tell us, reader: where do you think Doctor Who will go next? And is Billie Piper really the Sixteenth Doctor? Let us know in the comments below.
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