Written by The Wandering Fox
(The TARDIS materialises in Totter’s Lane Junkyard, out steps the Wandering Fox with him tossing the 60th anniversary DVDs in the trash pile.)
Wandering Fox: You’ll feel right at home, back at the beginning in the junkyard! Difference is I’m not taking you with me!
(The Wandering Fox huffed and looked out.)
You ever have that moment in which there’s somebody you loved since you were a kid, and you grow up feeling uncertain of them after they come back? It's how I feel with David Tennant in Doctor Who. I don’t hate David, I still love him as an actor, but last year I think I got fed up with him in Doctor Who. You may recall one of my biggest criticisms of the 60th was how it seemed more like RTD was just celebrating his era of Doctor Who and tossed in Beep the Meep, Mel and the Toymaker to make up for the lack of celebrating the show’s history. Yes, I know Power of the Doctor got there first but what was stopping RTD from having Tom Baker, Paul McGann and Matt Smith make an appearance or Susan or Leela? Seriously, just set up a makeshift studio at Tom’s home, invite Paul, Matt and David then do the scene.
Still, my point being is that I've had enough of David Tennant in Doctor Who and I’m ready to even have the show take a break. His return to Big Finish as the Tenth Doctor is fine, but then you have his Doctor lead a multimedia story event which shrunk the Thirteenth Doctor down and then you have him play the Doctor in the 60th is just a bit much.
Though my problem is how I think they messed up with the 14th Doctor. So, everybody, ditch the trainers and the sideburns cos I’m here to talk of why I don’t like the Fourteenth Doctor.
What Is It I Don’t Like
The Fourteenth Doctor to me isn’t even another whole new Doctor despite what RTD says and he’s said a lot of incredibly dumb things lately. If you ask me, he’s just an older Tenth Doctor wearing a variant of his old costume, and he’s humbled. Seriously, you look at him and I would go as far as saying they’ve just made him like the Fourth Doctor near the end of his life, you could tell Tom was knackered and his Doctor’s grumpier, weary behaviour in his final stories as well as the burgundy coat had you see his Doctor had lived long with the dark burgundy wrapped around him like he was getting much older.
Difference was, with some harsh reality in there, Tom actually looked the part of his Doctor being more tired and grumpy. Its why watching him from the Leisure Hive to Logopolis was honestly hard to take in and his regeneration was just so sad.
We were promised David’s Fourteenth Doctor would’ve been different and the characters in the episode almost try telling us David’s Doctor is different. The only difference is he’s written to be humbler, with him quieter and not so loud as before. And they say he’s tired and running on fumes. Uh, I can see David isn’t doing that, he’s still running around and jumping with ease in his 50s as he played this Doctor. Thats not enough in my opinion and to me it was RTD just trying to hide the fact he just wanted to resurrect his Doctor and give him a happy ending.
It doesn’t help this Doctor goes straight back to Donna and the whole plot of the Meta Crisis from series 4 is brought into play. How is the Fourteenth Doctor meant to be a different Doctor if he’s just going back to the Tenth Doctor’s supporting cast and stories?
There's some part of me that feels RTD could’ve looked at what happened after he and David left Doctor Who. I mean, there’s the fact David now has more experience at different roles under his belt and RTD could’ve looked at Tom Baker’s Curator in Day of the Doctor and think it over. The Curator is meant to be the Doctor far in the future and he’s well different from the Fourth Doctor, he’s not so standoffish, he’s much less grumpy and he doesn’t even wear the Fourth Doctor’s clothes.
RTD could’ve looked at this and David’s acting experience and thought “Hey, I could bring David back and have him play a different Doctor, hinting how the Curator comes to be!” I know some think David’s Fourteenth Doctor will just end up regenerating into the Curator but that goes against the hints the Fourteenth will regenerate into the Fifteenth eventually.
With this I can imagine RTD will lose his temper and smugly ask “Oh, well tough for you, how would you do it?”
Oh I'm glad you asked Russel, cos here’s exactly what I would’ve done!
How To Make Him Different
Step One: New costume. Don’t give him a costume which looks like something the Tenth Doctor would wear. Instead, dress him differently. A small double breasted or single-breasted coat which he buttons up, it reaches his thighs. Give him a waistcoat, no trainers, just smart shoes and different trousers. Ideally, I’d give him an ascot. The coat would be a dark red, his waistcoat would be a seaside blue colour while he wears grey trousers with burgundy shoes.
This will help differentiate him from the Tenth even more. In fact, I’d even comb his hair to the side, let David grow a beard and let him do the voice with his real one.
Step Two: Attitude. The Tenth Doctor was a good hearted but egotistical man who was driven by anger and loneliness as his life went on. With the Thirteenth Doctor though still troubled by the Timeless Children, she still had this friendly thing about her which I think the Fourteenth would take on though he’s wiser and very brisk and to the point with him facing a villain. It’d work well with the beard, giving you this old man look who has seen it all and though he’s friendly, he’s a stern advisor.
Step Three: New companion. Oh yeah, I’m going there. Don’t bring Donna back if you want this to be a new Doctor. Instead, I would go with the companion the Doctor was supposed to have in Series 4.
Obviously Penny did appear, but she was more of a joke. So maybe not go with Penny again and just make a character like Penny or you could revisit Penny and do her some good as a character but cut out the love story crap cos by now we’ve had enough of the Doctor having romances with anybody. The idea of having another journalist kind of companion after Sarah Jane is an interesting subject, in which you have a well-educated person who is at first seeing things black and white until she meets the Doctor and her adventures with him make a load of difference. With modern journalism different from the old days, it would’ve been a fun dynamic to explore and have Penny maybe figure herself out on how to be as a journalist.
Step Four: Anniversary series. Just do an anniversary SERIES with him. You could adapt Beep the Meep’s later appearances in Doctor Who in which the Meep has taken over the BBC, there’s a mystery going on Penny is trying to uncover, she meets the Doctor and they find all of London’s citizens have ended up brainwashed, they go and stop the Meep, Penny is fascinated by the Doctor and goes with him. You then do some nostalgic stories like we go back to Peladon, the Ice Warriors can return, go to the future and reunite with Susan, then in the final you bring back the First, Eighth and Eleventh Doctor’s to help fight the Toymaker. After that you can then end the story with the Doctor and Penny continuing their travels in the TARDIS, then you end it with.
“Doctor Who Modern series 2005 to 2023. Coming soon, new Doctor, new companion”. Leaving the fate of the Fourteenth Doctor unknown can at least then leave the door open for Tennant to return much later without some copout in place for him in case audiences are somewhat annoyed by Gatwa’s Doctor.
This also works as a true goodbye to the 2005 to 2022/23 series instead of having lingering plot threads coming back up in the reboot.
There Russel, hope you like it. Don’t be rude about it.
Well, there, y ou see? If only we could’ve had such a different Doctor instead of the Tennant and Series 4 celebration, we got in the 60th year special of Doctor Who.
I’m the Wandering Fox and I’ll see you another time and space!
He then disappears into the TARDIS and it dematerialises.
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