Doctor Who’s Surprise New Doctor Teases A Bi-Generation Reveal That Changes Everything

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 14, episode 6, “Rogue.”

Doctor Who may have just changed the entirety of the Doctor’s existence once again, and all by showing a brief image of a previously unseen version of the Time Lord in “Rogue.” In recent years, the Doctor’s backstory has been altered so much that it’s become almost unrecognizable to the long-standing fans of the show. However, it seems that Doctor Who‘s Disney era isn’t planning to stop the alterations to established canon, and there could be enormous repercussions for the character going forward.

Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor entered the show due to the shocking bi-generation twist near the end of the Doctor Who 60th-anniversary specials. Although Gatwa’s version of the character has since confirmed he can’t bi-generate again, the impact made by the groundbreaking scene has yet to become completely clear. That being said, the tease in “Rogue” about an unfamiliar version of the Doctor provides some insight into bi-generation’s fallout.

Richard E. Grant May Be Playing The Bi-Generated Eighth Doctor’s Successor

Grant voiced an animated version of the Doctor in 2003

Russell T Davies has stated during the commentary for “The Giggle” that when David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor bi-generated, so did every previous Doctor. Therefore, a new version of the Time Lord spawned from every Doctor leading up to the Fourteenth, meaning every preexisting iteration also survived. So, when Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor regenerated into John Hurt’s War Doctor in Doctor Who‘s 2013 minisode, “The Night of the Doctor,” both men now survived the sequence, creating a sort of Doctor Who multiverse. So, McGann could have eventually regenerated into Richard E. Grant’s Ninth Doctor, whose hologram is shown in “Rogue.”

Grant voiced a version of the Ninth Doctor in the 2003 animated series, Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka. The show was originally intended to be a continuation of the main franchise. However, Doctor Who was revived in 2005, and Scream of the Shalka became nothing more than a non-canon adventure. Grant’s alternate Ninth Doctor is now commonly referred to as the “Shalka Doctor” to avoid confusion with Christopher Eccleston’s version of the character. “Rogue” excitingly re-complicates matters, with the Toymaker’s meddling in the Doctor’s timeline proving to be more severe than originally assumed.

This Bi-Generation Reveal Would Be Massive For Doctor Who

Grant’s presence in “Rogue” transforms Doctor Who continuity

Bi-generation is already a huge introduction to the Doctor Who canon, but if Richard E. Grant is actually playing a live-action Shalka Doctor, then the implication is that the number of Doctors in the universe has doubled – at the very least. Grant’s Doctor would have just as much of a legitimate claim to the title of Nine as Christopher Eccleston’s – if not more so, due to the War Doctor iteration being skipped. However, the show hasn’t confirmed if a bi-generated Doctor, as Grant’s may be, can regenerate again. That being said, there’s nothing to suggest they can’t.

Related

Why The Third Doctor’s Hologram Looks Older In Doctor Who Season 14, Episode 6

Jon Pertwee’s brief cameo in “Rogue” takes the form of a holographic image that doesn’t align with the actor’s time as the Third Doctor.

At present, it’s also unclear if every new Doctor also bi-generated at the same moment as Fourteen did in “The Giggle.” If they did, then there could arguably be an infinite number of Doctors throughout the multiverse who went on to have vastly different experiences from one another. To give just a very small example, Grant’s Ninth Doctor could have gone on to regenerate into an alternate Tenth Doctor, who was nothing like David Tennant’s Tenth. The possibilities are utterly mind-boggling, and they essentially mean there will always be many active versions of Doctor Who‘s main character.

Doctor Who

Originally premiered in 1963, Doctor Who is a sci-fi series that follows a powerful being known as a Time Lord, referred to as the Doctor. Using an interdimensional time-traveling ship known as the TARDIS, the Doctor travels time and space with various companions as they solve multiple problems and help avert catastrophe as much as they almost cause it. Though the Doctor is always the same character, they experience regenerations, allowing them to be recast every few seasons as a unique immortal being with new personality traits.

Release Date

November 23, 1963

Seasons

14