Bigeneration breaks Doctor Who canon – and that’s totally fine

Doctor Who’s new bigeneration concept turns the franchise’s canon on its head. Here’s why that’s not such a bad thing.

A bigeneration is when a regenerating Time Lord splits into two people: their current and future incarnations. In “The Giggle,” this results in the Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant) and Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) existing independently of each other.

Following the special’s release, Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies further revealed that the Fourteenth Doctor’s bigeneration applies to all his past selves, as well. “A whole timeline bigenerated,” he said, adding that these legacy Doctors were now roaming the “Doctor verse.”

So, in short: bigeneration has changed Doctor Who forever. But don’t worry – the positives ultimately far outweigh the negatives. Warning: Major spoilers for the final Doctor Who 60th anniversary special, “The Giggle,” ahead…

How bigeneration breaks Doctor Who canon

And there are some pretty big negatives to bigeneration’s introduction to Doctor Who lore.

For starters, bigeneration lowers the stakes involved with regeneration even further. We already know that the Doctor isn’t dying when he regenerates – heck, the Fourteenth Doctor points this out himself in “The Giggle” – but there’s at least some sense of sacrifice involved.

For the Doctor, it means letting go of his current identity. For us fans, it means bidding farewell not just to the current version of the character, but also to the actor who played them. With the Fourteenth Doctor still on the scene post-Fifteen’s arrival, much of this emotional weight is gone.

Sure, David Tennant is no longer Doctor Who’s headliner, and Davies insists the Fourteenth Doctor is “parked” for the foreseeable future. But the ease with which he could return makes his exit less real. This also applies to the Fourteenth Doctor’s bigenerated predecessors – if they’re effectively alive again, why bother mourning them?

All of this dovetails neatly with another downside of bigeneration: it overcomplicates things. The reason why regeneration works so well is because it’s so easy to grasp. When Time Lords (like the Doctor) are on death’s door, they’re rejuvenated with a different face and personality. Simple.

Now, we have to reckon with a bunch of new rules – and questions. What happens to the current incarnation if the past incarnation dies? Do the two incarnations ever merge? Only Davies knows for sure.

Bigeneration likewise makes the Doctor Who timeline – already a wibbly wobbly, timey wimey ball of inconsistencies – even harder to keep straight by splintering it into a multiverse. Multiverses can be fun (even Oscar-winning), however, as the recent decline of Marvel Studios’ MCU has shown, their increasing complexity can alienate viewers after a while.

Why bigeneration is good for Doctor Who

Yet for all these headaches and others like them, bigeneration is still a good thing for Doctor Who.

BBC

Most obviously, the concept rehabilitates both the Doctor and Doctor Who itself. By having the Fourteenth Doctor work through the emotional baggage of decades’ worth of storylines off-screen, bigeneration allows Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor to start fresh.

It’s a way of rebooting without actually rebooting. Of not erasing Doctor Who’s past, but rather shifting the focus to its future. That feels right for a show built around the idea of change – and certainly doesn’t hurt post-Disney deal franchise newbies from getting onboard, either.

Prospective Whovians aren’t the only ones to benefit from bigeneration’s introduction in “The Giggle;” franchise veterans should get something out of it, as well. Because there’s an upside to the “multiverse” of it all: Doctor Who continuity is now more flexible than ever.

Ordinarily, this is the kind of thing the hardcore faithful hate. After all, if Doctor Who lore isn’t fixed, why even have it at all? Yet as Davies recently observed, “loosening the rules” means long-time devotees can stop fretting over storylines they don’t like by relegating them to a different time stream, instead.

“It just relaxes the rules to say [The Doctor] is whatever you want him to be,” Davies said. It’s hard to argue with that – even if it does mean breaking Doctor Who canon.

Doctor Who: The Giggle is streaming on BBC iPlayer (UK & Ireland) and Disney+ (everywhere else) now. For the latest Doctor Who news and updates, check out Dexerto’s full coverage here.

Please note that if you click on a product link on this page we may earn a small affiliate commission.