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Title: 'Doctor Who' Regenerates in Surprise Season Finale. But Will the Show
Return?

Link: https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/0...

"The Doctor is dead. Long live the Doctor!" writes Space.com. (Spoilers
ahead...) "The era of Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor came to a surprise end
on Saturday night, as the Time Lord regenerated at the end of "Doctor Who"
season 2 finale... [T]he Doctor gradually realises that not everything is
back to normal. Poppy, his daughter with Belinda Chandra in the "Wish World"
fantasy, has been erased from history, so the Time Lord decides to sacrifice
himself by firing a ton of regeneration energy into the time Vortex to "jolt
it one degree" - and hopefully bring her back. It goes without saying that
his madcap scheme saves Poppy, as we learn that, in this rewritten timeline,
the little girl was always the reason Belinda had been desperate to get back
home. But arguably the biggest talking point of the episode - and, indeed,
the season - is saved until last, as the Doctor regenerates into a very
familiar face... Hint: They played the Doctor's companion, Rose Tyler,
"alongside Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor and David Tennant's Tenth
Doctor during the phenomenally successful first two seasons of the show's
2005 reboot." Showrunner Russell T Davies called it "an honour and a hoot" to
welcome back Billie Piper 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!" Although the show's post-regeneration credits have traditionally
featured the line "And introducing [insert name] as the Doctor", here it
simply says "And introducing Billie Piper". The omission of "as the Doctor"
is unlikely to be accidental, suggesting that Davies is playing a very
elaborate game with "Who" fandom... Another mystery! The BBC and Disney+ are
yet to confirm if and when "Doctor Who" will return for a third season of its
current iteration. "There's no decision until after season two..." Davies
told Radio Times in April (as spotted by the Independent). "That's when the
decision is - and the decision won't even be made by the people we work with
at Disney Plus, it'll be made by someone in a big office somewhere. So
literally nothing happening, no decision." "For a new series to be ready for
2026, production would need to get under way relatively soon," writes the
BBC. "So at the moment a new series or a special starring Billie Piper before
2027 looks unlikely." The Guardian adds: Concerns have been raised about
falling viewing figures, which have struggled to rally since Russell T
Davies' return in 2023. Two episodes during this series, which aired in May,
got less than 3 million viewers - the lowest since the modern era began
airing in 2005. The Independent has this statement from 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."

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