Doctor Who: Casting Rumors and Reckless Predictions

[rabid1st]

You all know better than to listen to me, in season, about what Doctor Who is going to do. However, my track record PRE-SEASON is pretty darned good. So...there have been some casting rumors recently in the Sun about the next season of Doctor Who and I thought I would throw out my "arc speculation" and then see how it develops. Under the cut we go for spoilers and more info on my speculation...as always...if you know MORE than I do not share, as I love to make up stories based on sketchy information. ;->



So, I hear the Rani is coming back. YAY! Those of you who have been around here long enough will remember I was all for her being the lone Time Lord survivor in the first place. I think she is a far better villian than the Master because there is so much unmined story there. The Master, as I predicted he would, showed up, chewed the scenery a bit, threatened the end of the world and had his ass handed to him. Same old. Same old. I don't really know why people want to see that over and over again. Tradition, I suppose.

But the Rani...well...she's had what amounts to a draw with the Doctor. She's got him pegged a bit. And you do feel that maybe she IS smarter than he is. I am all for her being Mrs. Doctor...I think she is exactly the sort of person who would have initially attracted him. She's bold and brilliant and funny and tends to be sexually appealing. He would be fascinated by her and then learn that she is cold hearted and cruel and be repelled. She would find his risk taking and quick wit charming at first but soon dismiss him as a maudlin fool. It would be a great marriage for tragedy and misunderstanding.

So...I predict...for this season...1) The Rani is (one of) the Doctor's wives 2) She is working on restoring the Time Lords via genetic engineering and 3) She might be working with Davros (that might even be how she survived the Time War...by being with Davros). Because the Rani and Davros are cut from the same cloth. Both of them believe in pushing cold, hard science to an ultimate answer and neither of them care who gets hurt in the process.

Beyond that...if I was writing Doctor Who...I would restore the Time Lords this season (and have them exile the Doctor to Rose's world -- Okay, Okay...that's just me) because then the new producer of Doctor Who could take the show in any direction he liked without being burdened by Russell's vision. Also, most of Russell's vision has been played out...there isn't a lot more they can do with Lonely God Doctor that is expansive. Though there is a lot of derivitive clinging they could do...and may well do...because nobody has any better ideas.

Anyway...that's it for me pre-season. Don't listen to me once the show starts up...as I will be too involved in it to be objective. ;->



Rae

Comments

[principia.livejournal.com]

The Rani has always been the Lady de Winter of the Whoniverse. I'd love to see her come back if they're going to do her properly.

I don't know if they're going to try to bring back the Time Lords in one fashion or another. What I would actually find really compelling is if they've never been dead to begin with - Gallifrey was destroyed, but the TLs actually skived off to another universe (e.g. E-Space) to hide out... and left the Doctor holding the bag, both emotionally and in a practical sense.

[shaela]

What I would actually find really compelling is if they’ve never been dead to begin with—Gallifrey was destroyed, but the TLs actually skived off to another universe (e.g. E-Space) to hide out…

Or Pete’s World… <g>

[principia.livejournal.com]

Not to be pedantic - okay, to be pedantic - if they had been in Pete's World, wouldn't the Doctor have sensed their psychic gestalt when he, Mickey and Rose were there? Either/both times?

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Nope! Because there was no connection to the Eye of Harmony. He could be as cut off as the TARDIS. I'm not saying he was...but that could be easily explained.

Rae

[principia.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they can come up with an adequate handwave if they choose to do so, but the absence of the Eye of Harmony wouldn't cut it - the Doctor's statements that he would be able to sense his people postdate the destruction of the Eye of Harmony.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Yes...but HOW does he sense them? Is it via the Vortex in some way? Does the TARDIS help? Is it simply psychic connection...that seems unlikely as he never knew there were other Time Lord's about in the past. And anyone who watches loads of Who knows that the Doctor is constantly making sweeping statements that have no validity at all. ALA...the Master hiding behind human form. And the Rani...if you ask me...is smart enough to confound anyone trying to discover her via psychic connection.

I think the laws of connection may not apply in an alternative universe...just as the TARDIS couldn't connect with THAT universe's vortex. You could just as easily say that he WOULD hear them because they were from HIS time. Since we don't know how the Doctor would hear them...we can't assume anything about his "knowing." And even he...when he said he would hear them...seemed to have a bit of doubt about it.

Rae

gallifreyan esp

[shaela]

I honestly don’t know. I don’t know all that much about Gallifreyan ESP. If they didn’t get to Pete’s World till after Bad Wolf Bay, would the Doctor still have sensed them?

(Besides, the Master hid from the Doctor, so it’s not impossible.)

Re: gallifreyan esp

[principia.livejournal.com]

Right, but why would it have been after Doomsday? The Time War was quite some time before that.

And the Master was a single person on a single world hiding from the Doctor. I think a few billion people would be a bit harder to hide.

I think she means...

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

...that the Time Lords arrived in Pete's World at a later point than Rose did. So they weren't there when the Doctor was. Another way to handle it. I think it is more likely they simply couldn't communicate with him in the same way that the TARDIS couldn't communicate with the Vortex. We don't really know what links the Time Lords but we do know they are mentally linked to their ships. Perhaps they are linked THROUGH their ships.

Another possiblity is that it was the Doctor and not the Time Lords who moved. He should have been the closest to the temporal event as he is the one that set it off. In that case, maybe he and the Rani and the Master and Davros are in exile already. There is a book canon precident for this idea...the poison universe. It would certainly explain all of the radical differences between Doctor Who Earth and our Earth. Two massive alien events.

But Pete's World isn't the right world either. And I'm back to my exile to Rose idea...because the Time Lords might pluck the Doctor back for some reason into "real time" and then send him to Rose...and then pluck him back AGAIN for Season Five. The only problem I have with this idea is that it has overtones of "it was all a dream" and we already went there in LAST season's finale.

Rae

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I personally...think Pete's World. But that's me. And apparently...you! :grin:

But I still say the Rani would try to genetically engineer them back...because it is sooooo her.

Rae

the doctor and the infinite multiverse

[shaela]

I personally… think Pete’s World. But that’s me. And apparently… you! :grin:

:grins back: Well, I’m a New Who fan. It’s practically a mathematical formula: Doctor Who plus Alternate Universe equals Pete’s World. (If the Doctor ended up in an alternate universe that wasn’t Pete’s World, after everything he said about “it’s impossible” and “the walls are closed”… well. I think I’d cry.)

But I still say the Rani would try to genetically engineer them back… because it is sooooo her.

She sounds… interesting. <g> And they’re not mutually exclusive—she very well might try. But she’s the villain—wouldn’t she be doomed to failure?

Yep...that's why I'm going with what I said

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

She will try to genetically engineer them back...but I think they will come back some other way...accidentally, I'm betting. I feel they are in some backwater of time, actually. Though, I did postulate Rose finding them in Pete's World way back when she went there. Because it would make sense to have them trapped like that...no working TARDIS between them...no way to communicate...sort of cast on their resources without their best thinkers...ie. the Doctor, the Rani and the Master...they would be floundering about trying to get home.

I mean...they are a hidebound lot. I just think that they would exile the Doctor to Rose...and I want that to happen...so I want them back...but also, I feel that they are probably coming back as RTD leaves...because they are a major part of the show...and while it has been reimagined...he's pretty much a traditionalist...and that would leave whoever followed him with the option of taking the Doctor in a new direction.

Rae

[tsukara.livejournal.com]

RTD said (supposedly joking) that the hand picking up the Master's ring at the end of LotTL was the Rani's. All of the Master's posturing about bringing the Time Lords back and having a new Gallifrey in the heavens was something we never saw gone through with. And it'd be far more interesting to see that plot with the Rani than the Master again, IMHO.

And I agree completely that when RTD leaves, he needs to leave the show on some kind of starting again/new direction note, so we don't go over and voer the same old themes again and again in the same old ways. We'll see.

[crimedoc1.livejournal.com]

>I don't know if they're going to try to bring back the Time Lords in one fashion or another. What I would actually find really compelling is if they've never been dead to begin with - Gallifrey was destroyed, but the TLs actually skived off to another universe (e.g. E-Space) to hide out... and left the Doctor holding the bag, both emotionally and in a practical sense.

Or if the TLs were alive but somehow blocking their psychic resonance from the Doctor for some reason or another. Perhaps because they are afraid of him. He *did* destroy Gallifrey and it's quite possible that he did it because he was the only one who could - perhaps none of the other TLs would have been strong enough to do it. The doctor has spent so much time depressed/angry/lonely/sad/ because he is the last of the TLs; imagine his reaction if he found out he wasn't the last and they'd be hiding from him deliberately, and all his mental agony was unnecessary after all.

I could definitely see the Rani and Davros working together, although she is in many ways much colder than him - Davros is a bit of a fanatic while the Rani is basically a scientist without ethical limits (she wants knowledge, he wants supreme power and glory for the Daleks). The Rani wouldn't have seen anything wrong with the Milgram electric shock studies that are generally held up to intro psych students today as how NOT to do research.

Oh well, regardless of what RTD and the Powers That Be decide, we'll always have fanfic and ANYTHING can happen in fanfic. ;-)

[padawanpooh.livejournal.com]

...as long as she's not Kate O'Mara trying to be Bonnie Langford...

[webeh.livejournal.com]

I guess you decided to not mention the actual casting rumour of who would play the Rani. Do you have any opinion on who was cast?

Is the Rani supposed to be young (-40) or a little older looking?

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

She was old and vampish...like a has-been film siren. So...the casting is perfect. I tend to think of her married to the First or Second Doctor, therefore, looking younger than him.

I think the other bit of casting news re: the Children in Need special is going to be interesting. I wonder if it will carry over somehow into the Christmas Special. I'm not sure that's usual...I've only seen the one CIN special, the post-regeneration one.

Rae

[ladyofgallifrey.livejournal.com]

Ok, I'm confused (but since I don't know canon at all that's no surprise): why would we/you want someone who's a villain to be the Doctor's wife? (my inner Rose says "What?!??!? Wife???? - No WAY Jose!" and gets insanely jealous...) So, that whole line of thinking/speculation hurts my heart. Ouch.

And, well, you know how I feel about the exile thing already... (^.^)

And what news about CiN? That was between S1 & S2, right (I had thought it was a full ep like Runaway Bride - imagine my disappointment when I watched finally - a few weeks ago - and it's only 6 minutes...) Are they doing it again or what?

I don't know how RTD will do it, but I think he has to give some kind of closure for 10 & Rose in S4.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

From comments in New Who, we now know the Doctor has a dim view of married life. It's not for him and never was. But we also know that he WAS married. There could be any number of reasons for his disillusionment, of course. But one obvious way to go is to have the woman (women) he married turn out to be a trial to him. His society doesn't seem prone to love matches. They were a formal, bloodless lot, the Time Lords...highly likely the Doctor may be comfortable in that setting (ala GitF) but he repeatedly ran away from it. It did not fulfill him.

In the next chapter of Disheveled...he makes a reference to a wife who he hopes never finds out he survived her last assassination attempt. I see the Rani as a natural for former Mrs. Doctor. Also, she makes some sort of allusion to that type of relationship in one of her earlier appearances. So, it makes sense to me.

As for Children in Need...it's a charity that Doctor Who supports every year with a special of some kind. There was one last year with Freema...and the one this year is rumored to feature multiple Doctors...specifically, Doctor #5.

Rae
who thinks the idea of an unhappily married Doctor leaves Rose/Doctor completely unscathed...there are any number of ways to marry and father children without love involved. Rose is the love of his life...totally different relationship than WIFE. Not that you can't be both soulmate AND wife...but sadly, marriage is no guarantee of happiness.

[ladyofgallifrey.livejournal.com]

Ah, I understand now. FORMER wife is, well, better than... never mind. And you're right - marriage does not guarantee happily ever after. Sigh.

I should slap myself though, I promised my partner I would stay away from any S4 speculation posts because they tended to get me depressed and I don't write well when I'm depressed.

BTW, I finally read Disheveled (all that there is so far). What can I say except "Hot! (very hot!)" (fans self just remembering chap before SB)

[miladyhawke.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking about you the other day and wondering how you've been. Been a while ;) Missed you *hugs*

Now that Rani theory is interesting - I hadn't realized that there were fresh Rani rumors (she'd been rumored for S3). I haven't seen any of the old series with her, but it sounds like there's a ton of potential there for a very interesting dynamic with the Doctor. And of course the purely-scientific-without-moral-restraint attitude you're describing would make her a fascinating villain for me, albeit a morbidly/grotesquely fascinating one.

I also really like the idea of another attempt to bring the Time Lords back and have felt since the end of S2 that that is where the story is going and what makes the most sense from character and narrative standpoints. Or perhaps, as someone said, the Time Lords were never really destroyed at all - love both ideas, particularly the latter :)

[wildecate.livejournal.com]

I heard a rumour that they were casting Joan Collins as the Rani....

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Yes! I heard that as well. I think it would be fine to cast her. We've all aged a bit since I saw her last but the Rani always had this sense of aged siren about her. Joan Collins should deliver pitch perfect on it. And again...there is no chance...even if she is the Doctor's ex-wife (or one of them)...that the relationship will be viewed as sexual NOW. So, from RTD's perspective it's fantastic.

Rae

[inwe-amandil.livejournal.com]

This was interesting so I actually had to go and check out firstly who the rani was/is (I know knew who fan here.) and after checking out everything which has been said about her by RTD and other sources in regards to S4 I'm gonna say that this time I don't think RTD was lying when he said the hand picking up the ring wasn't the hand of the Rani, but I do think that it's interesting that he chose that particular reference and when added to the rumors about HER playing the rani next season which have yet to be denied I think my votes going to be going down as yeah she's back.

Also the whole bringing back the time lords thing well I could be really really wrong as I don't know too much about old school, but despite how depressed the doctor is over them all gone I've always got the impression that an awful lot of that is because he feels guilty for (as far as we can suppose) being the reason that they're gone, rather than that he particularly liked them. Seeing as how I get the impression Gallifreyan relationships were not quite as affectionate as human ones. But then there's all the crying over the master soo like I said I'm most prob just twisting things in my confused little mind. :)

Also I wonder I get the feeling from this post that you are fairly sure that you don't think there's gonna be a rose theme kinda thing or appearance going on this season?

My apologies but I couldn't resist the rambling, and someone has to be subjected to the insanity that is my dr who obsession. :)

[inwe-amandil.livejournal.com]

Sorry my bad I meant to say New Who not knew.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

My feeling about Rose is that this will be a season about "moving on"...not that the Doctor necessarily WILL move on...but he will see Donna and Martha doing it. This will make him think that Rose has done it, too. I don't think that we will see substantial "moving on" from the Doctor until S5...but I think we will deal with his oft mentioned marriage and I think he will be encouraged to move on by his companions.

My hope, as it always has been and will continue to be until the bitter end, is that the Doctor and Rose are reunited to live out her life on Pete's World at the end of Tennant's reign. I believe it is the right thing to do...and I hope RTD knows that. It is the most expansive thing for the franchise and the character and it will send the new writers and Doctor in a whole new direction while keeping the legions of Doctor/Rose fans happy.

Rae

[binah1013.livejournal.com]

I know this isn't exactly on topic, but have you had any progress with Disheveled?