{"id":791274,"date":"2026-10-04T02:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T02:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791274\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T02:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T02:28:13","slug":"it-looked-like-the-death-of-the-show-rtd-on-gatwas-original-open-ended-doctor-who-regeneration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791274\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt Looked Like the Death of the Show\u201d: RTD on Gatwa\u2019s Original Open-Ended Doctor Who Regeneration"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Doctor<\/p>\n

Russell T Davies has revealed that Ncuti Gatwa\u2019s final Doctor Who regeneration was originally filmed as an open ending, with no successor appearing, before Billie Piper<\/a> was later added to the cliffhanger.<\/p>\n

The details come from an edited extract from Davies\u2019 new memoir, The Queerest of Folk: A Life in Television, published by The Guardian<\/a> ahead of the book\u2019s release on 8 October.<\/p>\n

Davies explains that Gatwa\u2019s final episodes were made without knowing whether Disney would renew its Doctor Who deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we had no idea what was going on,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

With a third series uncertain, Davies says \u201cthe finale was intended to climax with an open-ended regeneration\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we shot that with Ncuti: he smiled and said his last line, and the screen melted into a golden glow\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

There was originally nobody waiting to emerge from the regeneration.<\/p>\n

For fans who would have preferred a completely clean handover to Doctor Who\u2019s next production team, that was effectively the ending that had been planned.<\/p>\n

However, Davies says it did not work once they saw it on screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcept when we edited that together, it looked like the death of the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the production team immediately considered how younger viewers might see it: \u201cThink of children watching that. It\u2019s like a death. We can\u2019t do that to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time the episode reached the edit, Davies says it was \u201cpretty much confirmed that Disney had said no\u201d, while the BBC was still deciding what would happen next.<\/p>\n

The production was left, in Davies\u2019 words, \u201cstuck in limbo with many months of inaction\u201d, while he continued watching an ending that \u201clooked like too much of an ending\u201d.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Davies called a meeting with the show\u2019s executives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t transmit this,\u201d he told them. \u201cWe need someone to step in. We need someone to be there. Someone for him to physically regenerate into in front of our eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davies says the answer quickly became clear: \u201cWe decided the Doctor should regenerate into \u2026 Billie Piper!\u201d<\/p>\n

Piper was subsequently approached about returning.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was so delighted to do it, because she loves Doctor Who and she loves the team,\u201d Davies writes, adding: \u201cShe gave us the fastest yes we could have had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davies believes the revised ending achieved what he wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it worked, because everyone paid attention to the show once more,\u201d he writes, recalling how people were suddenly talking about \u201cBillie, Billie, Billie!\u201d after transmission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russell T Davies has revealed that Ncuti Gatwa\u2019s final Doctor Who regeneration was originally filmed as an open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-791274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}