The Physician is useless. Lengthy reside the Physician!
The period of Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Physician got here to a shock finish on Saturday night time, because the Time Lord regenerated on the finish of “Physician Who” season 2 finale “The Actuality Conflict”.
Huge spoilers forward should you’re but to look at “The Actuality Conflict”. You might have been warned!!!
With Time Lord supervillain Omega dispatched with out trouble, each Ranis out of the image, and actuality on the way in which to being restored, the Physician progressively realises that not all the pieces is again to regular. Poppy, his daughter with Belinda Chandra within the “Want World” fantasy, has been erased from historical past, so the Time Lord decides to sacrifice himself by firing a ton of regeneration vitality into the time Vortex to “jolt it one diploma” — and hopefully deliver her again.
It goes with out saying that his madcap scheme saves Poppy, as we study that, on this rewritten timeline, the little woman was at all times the explanation Belinda had been determined to get again residence. However arguably the largest speaking level of the episode — and, certainly, the season — is saved till final, because the Physician regenerates into a really acquainted face…
Who does the Physician’s new face belong to?
That is Billie Piper, the star of “Secret Diary of a Name Woman”, “I Hate Suzie”, “Mansfield Park” and the upcoming second season of “Wednesday”.
Far more related proper now, nonetheless, is the very fact she performed the Physician’s companion, Rose Tyler, alongside Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Physician and David Tennant’s Tenth Physician in the course of the phenomenally profitable first two seasons of the present’s 2005 reboot.
She’s set to develop into the second feminine incarnation of the Time Lord after Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Physician. Or the third should you depend Jo Martin’s Fugitive Physician — although the reason of how she matches into the Physician’s historical past is a little bit bit timey-wimey.
What occurred to Rose Tyler?
After two seasons of adventuring by way of house and time with the Physician, Rose was trapped within the parallel universe the place the Cybus Industries had created the Cybermen. She was presumed useless again residence.
The Tenth Physician subsequently used the facility of a supernova to make closing contact by way of a tiny hole within the universe, “burning up a solar simply to say goodbye”.
Throughout their emotional farewell, Rose advised the Physician, “I like you”.
“Fairly proper, too,” he replied. “And I suppose. If it is my final likelihood to say it. Rose Tyler…” After which the message minimize off, leaving his reply a thriller — although he positively shed a Time Lord tear or two again on the TARDIS.
That wasn’t the tip of Rose Tyler’s story, nonetheless, as a result of she managed to discover a means again to her residence universe to assist the Physician combat the Daleks in sequence 4 finale “The Stolen Earth”/”Journey’s Finish”.
What’s so particular about Rose?
The very fact she was the primary of the brand new “Who” companions offers Rose a particular place in lots of “Who” followers’ hearts, and Piper’s efficiency set an especially excessive bar for each subsequent TARDIS sidekick.
However there was at all times the sense that this was one Physician/companion relationship the place the love ran each methods. The “Meta-Disaster Physician” — a quasi-regeneration of the Tenth Physician who was primarily human — even settled down with Rose within the aforementioned different universe.
Rose has a very deep connection to the TARDIS, having seemed instantly into its Time Vortex in sequence 1 finale “Dangerous Wolf”/”The Parting of the Methods”. This briefly reworked her into the all-powerful Dangerous Wolf entity, however — regardless of successfully turning into a god — she’d absorbed an excessive amount of vitality for a human physique to deal with. The Ninth Physician saved Rose by absorbing the Vortex vitality into himself, triggering his regeneration into the Tenth Physician.
It was additionally no coincidence that Rose Noble (Yasmin Finney), daughter of later Tenth Physician companion Donna, selected Tyler’s title for herself after she got here out as transgender — though all of Donna’s recollections of her time within the TARDIS had been wiped, some residual reminiscences had been handed right down to her daughter.
Why has the Physician regenerated into somebody we have seen earlier than?
That is the massive thriller, although it is not the primary time the Physician has regenerated into a well-recognized physique.
Most famously, David Tennant returned to play a Fourteenth Physician who was the spitting picture of the Tenth Physician. In the meantime, Sixth Physician Colin Baker had beforehand performed Commander Maxil in Fifth Physician story “Arc of Infinity”, and Twelfth Physician Peter Capaldi had portrayed Caecilius in Tenth Physician story “The Fires of Pompeii”. (Capaldi additionally appeared in “Who” spin-off “Torchwood”, although the Physician was elsewhere in the course of the occasions of “Kids of Earth”.)
“Billie as soon as modified the entire of tv, again in 2005, and now she’s completed it once more!” showrunner Russell T Davies teased after the massive Billie Piper reveal. “It is an honour and a hoot to welcome her again to the TARDIS, however fairly how and why and who’s a narrative but to be advised. After 62 years, the Physician’s adventures are solely simply starting!”
That sounds deliberately ambiguous. Is Billie Piper positively enjoying the Physician?
One other wonderful query, and it might be unwise to make any assumptions — the truth is, even “The Actuality Conflict”‘s finish titles have been engineered so as to add to the thriller.
Though the present’s post-regeneration credit have historically featured the road “And introducing [insert name] because the Physician”, right here it merely says “And introducing Billie Piper”.
The omission of “because the Physician” is unlikely to be unintended, suggesting that Davies is enjoying a really elaborate sport with “Who” fandom.
(It is also value noting that Piper performed a personification of an historic Gallifreyan weapon of mass destruction referred to as the Second within the fiftieth anniversary particular “The Day of the Physician”. In different phrases, there is a precedent for the star enjoying new and sudden roles in “Physician Who”.)
When will we find out how and why Billie Piper has returned to TARDIS?
One other thriller!
The BBC and Disney+ are but to substantiate if and when “Physician Who” will return for a 3rd season of its present iteration. Davies advised Radio Times again in April that, “There is no resolution till after season 2,” so the powers-that-be are presumably ready to see the newest episodes’ viewing figures earlier than making a name. Hopefully, they’re going to be influenced by the truth that we nonetheless do not know why the Physician’s granddaughter, Susan, has been calling out to him. It is one hell of a free finish…
Within the meantime, it feels acceptable to go away the ultimate phrase (for now) to the Physician-elect:
“I like this present, and I’ve at all times stated I might like to return to the Whoniverse as I’ve a few of my finest reminiscences there,” stated Piper. “So to be given the chance to step again on that TARDIS yet another time was simply one thing I could not refuse. However who, how, why and when, you may simply have to attend and see.”
Each episode of “Physician Who” season 2 is now obtainable to stream on BBC iPlayer within the UK and Disney+ within the US. All of Billie Piper’s earlier adventures within the TARDIS are at present obtainable on BBC iPlayer within the UK.
