In this past Saturday's Doctor Who's season 2 finale, "The Reality War," the title character learned that Fourteen's "bi-generaton" was caused by his Time Lord life force desperately trying to find a way to survive and continue his species.
While attempting to rescue Poppy, his daughter created through a wish, the Doctor poured his own regeneration energy into the Time Vortex, triggering a regeneration. In doing so, he shifted reality so that she could continue to exist as the human daughter of Belinda.
A regeneration did eventually follow, with Ncuti Gatwa's adventurer transforming into a female Doctor with Billie Piper's face. She previously played Rose Tyler in the series and was once exposed to the heart of the TARDIS as "Bad Wolf." That and the fact that she wasn't introduced as The Doctor has led to speculation that this is a temporary change before the new Doctor is properly introduced.
Whether that's Russell T Davies' intention remains to be seen, though a recent leak suggested he doesn't have a firm plan, largely because season 3 seems far from a sure thing.
There's been chatter online that the series ended with an open-ended regeneration before Piper was cast and, prior to that, that we'd have seen a happy ending with the Doctor and his friends gathering at a party. Gatwa would have continued playing the Time Lord heading into season 3, but in reality, couldn't remain committed to a show indefinitely when Hollywood is calling.
Shortly before Saturday's finale, scooper Daniel Richtman wrote, "The original ending of [Doctor] Who S2 (before the reshoots) was The Doctor, Ruby, Belinda, etc. are all having a big party (think Amy [and] Rory’s wedding) everyone’s dancing [and] The Vlinx is a DJ. Susan is seen watching them from afar, which would’ve been the cliffhanger leading into a [season 3]."
As we first reported on SFFGazette.com, he's now elaborated on that by revealing, "Susan would have appeared in a Five Doctors-esque look (grey trenchcoat) overlooking the party that the Doctor [and company] are at. She [would] have been standing with Poppy to...Susan says, 'Let’s go Mum,' and then we cut to the credits."
"This was to be explored next season but was shelved once [season 3] was then not to go ahead as planned," he added, "and [Davies] wanted to give the Poppy storyline an ending instead of having to pick it up in a later season with a new Doctor."
When it became clear that season 3 wasn't guaranteed, an awful lot changed, and it's been reported that Piper was added as a way to drum up interest from audiences and Disney+ executives.
Unfortunately, we're still no closer to learning whether Disney+ will renew its deal with the BBC. It doesn't appear likely as we write this, and a smarter decision might have been to go with the open-ended regeneration just in case Doctor Who is shelved and eventually returns with a new creative team.
Do you think Piper should be the Sixteenth Doctor? Share your thoughts in the comments section.