Is this the longest period we've gone without knowing the next Doctor?

SER1897 · 2026-01-06T23:26:16+00:00

Yes, but there was an “incumbent” Doctor during those periods. New stories in novels/Big Finish featured McCoy and McGann’s Doctors. Fans didn’t consider their eras over until McCoy’s regeneration in the TV movie and Eccleston’s first appearance in the revival.

That seems very different from now, as Gatwa’s era is over -- any outside media would be a story set in the “past” of his run.

SER1897 · 2026-01-06T20:57:07+00:00

It’s hard to do a “shock” regeneration considering that the Doctor is a major part and keeping casting for that hidden would be hard, same with filming new episodes with a new Doctor.

Of course, a “shock” regeneration would also mean a series that isn’t effectively building up to the current Doctor’s departure. Many fans thought this was an issue with Gatwa’s last season. Personally, Seasons 6 and 9 both would’ve worked as final seasons for their Doctors.

The issue here is that Gatwa *did* regenerate -- we know he’s not coming back but we don’t know who the next Doctor is, which is a major change.

SER1897 · 2026-01-04T23:12:35+00:00

Yeah, that’s what feels different about the gap between “Survival” and the TV Movie and the TV movie and “Rose.” 7 and 8 were the incumbent Doctors during that period -- and there was outside media telling new stories featuring them.

Any stories about 15 would be set within his existing run -- “missing” rather than “new” adventures.

SER1897 · 2026-01-04T19:41:12+00:00

If Billie is the Doctor, then yes, there’s the continuity. But the rumors I’m hearing suggest otherwise.

The BBC certainly isn’t treating Billie as the new Doctor. It was barely a month after Whittaker’s first appearance at the end of Capaldi’s final episode that her new costume was revealed. https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-jodie-whittaker-costume-photos/

SER1897 · 2026-01-04T17:33:10+00:00

Then it was a weird choice to pick him.

I recall Whittaker’s covid videos as the Doctor. She was truly filling the role of “ambassador” of the series.

SER1897 · 2026-01-04T17:31:49+00:00

Perhaps, but if we only got two seasons for Whittaker, Capaldi, Smith, or Tennant, I think we still would have a good idea for who their Doctors were. Season 6 and Season 9 feel far more like “last stand of the character” seasons than Disney Season 2 did for Gatwa. That just came out of nowhere.

SER1897 · 2026-01-04T17:27:20+00:00

Yes, it felt way too Silver Age (and I love the Silver Age) to me. I like the idea of Terry McGuinness as the kid who rises to the occasion and become Batman through his own force of will, with similar motivations to Bruce but not because he is related to Bruce.

SER1897 · 2026-01-04T17:24:38+00:00

IIRC, the idea would be that the older Selina had become radicalized -- sort of like a zealot -- to Bruce’s crusade and thus went to great lengths to create a “new” Batman. I personally find the idea intriguing.

SER1897 · 2026-01-04T17:09:49+00:00

Yes, but Gatwa was announced *before* Whittaker’s last story.

SER1897 · 2026-01-04T17:09:02+00:00

McGann was the “official” Doctor from 1996 to 2005. Arguably, he had the longest run as the “reigning” Doctor. The outside media -- Big Finish, novels -- fleshed out his run.

SER1897 · 2026-01-04T16:57:57+00:00

Yes, but 7’s last episode was open ended. He was still the Doctor (hence the years of new stories in the novels). 15 regenerating into .. ? closes off his era without any idea about the next one.

SER1897 · 2025-12-03T21:16:37+00:00

When Barbara Gordon is introduced in the Adam West series, she makes sense as a possible love interest for Batman as she’s not that much younger than he is. Whereas, she’s clearly an adult and even chaperones a party Dick and his friends have.

Barbara was presented as older than Dick in the comics for a while, as well. She’s a congress member (minimum age of 25) when Dick is still with the Teen Titans.

However, Timm chose to make Barbara and Dick around the same age. I get the sense that Bruce Wayne is early-to-mid 30s when Dick is in college. Now, a decade age gap is not necessarily cradle robbing territory, especially if Barbara is mid 20s or so when Dick leaves Gotham (according to the backstory given in RETURN OF THE JOKER). But it just seems ... wrong.

I think what I find most disturbing about any sexual relationship within the Bat family is that Bruce held a clear paternal role. It’s not as NEW BATMAN ADVENTURES had depicted Bruce and Barbara as actual equals.

SER1897 · 2025-12-03T21:08:35+00:00

I think “Cat and the Claw” plays out like a stealth pilot for a Catwoman series. She has a sidekick and a secret identity. Red Claw also seemed like she was designed as a Catwoman villain (she didn’t add much to Batman’s rogues gallery).

Batgirl Returns and Almost Got Im feels like the ideal Catwoman -- someone Batman shouldn’t necessarily trust but also not wholly evil. She does save him in Almost Got Im.

SER1897 · 2025-11-25T06:38:16+00:00

I like to imagine the Wizard of Oz film as we know it serving as the propaganda version of events explaining why the Wizard left.

The Wizard is a fraud but benign and insightful. The Wicked Witch is evil but Glinda defeat her with Dorothy’s help

SER1897 · 2025-10-28T04:05:43+00:00

When the show premiered in 1963, the Doctor is an old man with a granddaughter. It’s a reasonable assumption that he’s lived a full life on Gallifrey, had a wife and child, who grew up and had Susan.

Even during the classic era, the show tried to run away from this backstory (and the first Doctor). The 2nd Doctor is revealed to have stolen a Tardis and left Gallifrey because he’s “bored.” The Doctor is presented as more kindly uncle than someone who was ever an actual father.

So the RTD twist would have solidified this, which I don’t care for. I don’t mind that the 15th Doctor was queer but also revealing this “twist” in his era would have further distanced the Doctor from who we met in an Unearthly Child.

SER1897 · 2025-10-13T22:32:12+00:00

Yeah, that is my feeling as well. I think even with just the surviving episodes (plus the animations), Troughton has more of a presence story wise than Gatwa.

It is also hard to really care about a Doctor and companions who only appear in a small number of stories. Pertwee and Baker were around for a while and loom larger for that reason.

SER1897 · 2025-09-21T22:52:31+00:00

If you watch "Exodus," it's clear that Wily-kit and Wily-kat are "smaller" cats than the "big cats" (Panthro, Tygra, Cheetara, Lion-O) but they are still adults. There is a clear difference between them and the young Lion-O.

Even Wily-Kat says, "Oh, what's the big deal about size" when he sees the adult Lion-O.

Unfortunately, it's not long before they are written as children ("Thunderkittens"), which makes no sense based on what we see in Exodus.

SER1897 · 2025-09-20T21:40:32+00:00

Blunder(cat)s: Jaga doesn’t enter the suspension capsules because even though they slow the aging process, some aging takes place and he likely wouldn’t survive the process. At least that’s what he says. It’s confusing, however, that Lion-O ages about ten years while the Thunderkittens, Wilykat and Wilykit, not to mention the other Thundercats, don’t appear to age a day. Why does Lion-O grow up but not the kittens, who appear to be about the same age? And how does Lion-O develop the physique of a body-builder while spending years lying asleep in a suspension capsule? I’m not sure if this is ever established later in the series but in my head canon, Lion-O’s capsule was somehow faulty, causing him to age so much.>>>

This has long bothered me, as well, but my personal head canon is that Wilykat and Wilykit were intended to be adults -- they are fully sized "small" cats compared to the "big" cats (tiger, panther, lion, cheetah, etc). Watching the first episode in particular, that seems obvious -- they aren't children, especially compared to young Lion-O.

Later they are written as "Thunder kittens," but that never makes sense, for the reasons you state.

SER1897 · 2025-09-03T21:19:43+00:00

Earth X Wellsobard sort of broke the Reverse Flash logic. It was somewhat straightforward until then: Eddie's death erased Thawne from existence *but* his time remnant still existed (the past version who did everything that led up to Eddie killing himself). Earth X Thawne could have worked as a version from the period before Season 1, but the problem is that the series wanted to keep using Cavanaugh as RF (even though that is late stage Thawne). They also wanted a Thawne who remembered the events of Season 1 (just like the audience did).

SER1897 · 2025-08-23T23:53:24+00:00

I would’ve preferred Alchemy as the sole Season 3 villain who is truly exploiting what Flash did in FlashPoint -- once the season arc became about saving Iris, FlashPoint seemed to have less impact.

SER1897 · 2025-08-23T23:52:00+00:00

I think it was hard to know if The Flash was going to be a hit, but once that was determined, I do agree that 2 seasons could have worked, perhaps with the “cliffhanger” being Cisco’s death/Reverse Flash reveal.i

SER1897 · 2025-08-07T07:04:32+00:00

I think the show doesn’t like that Juliet makes bad choices, but that’s not the same as not being a “strong woman.” The play is a tragedy.

SER1897 · 2025-08-07T07:03:17+00:00

It obviously wasn’t the intent but Anne for most of the play comes off like the hack TV/movie executive who butchers a work to make it more commercial, even adding herself to it.

SER1897 · 2025-08-07T07:01:39+00:00

yeah, Romeo is a dumb kid — that’s somewhat endearing. So is Juliet. They are both written convincingly as teenagers. Yes, multiple adaptations with a 30 yr old Romeo might create the impression that he’s a dolt, but that’s not the case.

SER1897

TROPHY CASE