Doctor Who: Classic or Dud?

I would never willingly stand up for Chibnall, but from the start there seems to be a certain consistent idea that
1. the new Doctor retains all the memory of the old Doctors BUT
2. the new Doctor is a new personality (though more or less broadly consistent with their past selves, except when writers decide they need the Doctor to do a genocide or Pip and Jane Baker try to do comedy) AND SO
3. the previous Doctor does die, in a way--the person who carries on their life is not exactly them HENCE
4. different regenerations always squabbling when they meet up in anniversary specials, etc

Sure but she talks as if she is going to somehow not going “to see what happens next” and is sad about that, which is just not how it works. And I’m far from a Who cognoscento!

SHE isn’t, someone who inherits her memories is.

But this is all interpretation.

I have been intrigued by retention of memory between Doctors. If they are experienced as personal experience despite having happened to a different regeneration or if they're retained on a more factoid level. I think there would tend to be a difference in valorisation between the 2 but of course the Doctor is an alien with a vastly different level of intelligence

When I was a kid i used to think I regenerated in my sleep, like “when I go to sleep the today me will die, tomorrow I will be someone else but the same”. I don’t remember being a gloomy kid in general

Anyway xpost — I think this is one of the things Doctor Who is very good at, and Moffat often used to talk about: deliberately not overexplaining things so children have room to make their own guesses. Obviously Chibnall broke with that somewhat, but he seems to have gotten away with it, because his over-explanations make even less sense than the under-explanations.

I would never willingly stand up for Chibnall, but from the start there seems to be a certain consistent idea that
1. the new Doctor retains all the memory of the old Doctors BUT
2. the new Doctor is a new personality (though more or less broadly consistent with their past selves, except when writers decide they need the Doctor to do a genocide or Pip and Jane Baker try to do comedy) AND SO
3. the previous Doctor does die, in a way--the person who carries on their life is not exactly them HENCE
4. different regenerations always squabbling when they meet up in anniversary specials, etc

I agree with all of this; even the early Doctor regenerations are very much presented as deaths imo. The Doctor is always reluctant, often frightened; they always say a sad and heartfelt goodbye to their companions, and not just in a "I know this is going to be hard on you because it seems like I'm dying but really I'm going to pop up again in a minute with a new face" kind of way. It's never said explicitly that there's a part of the Doctor's consciousness or sense of self that doesn't carry over, but it's a reasonably short step from what we've seen, I think.

Agree with all of this; particularly in nu-Who, it’s been established that a regeneration is a full-on personality reset. The various incarnations are all variations on a common theme but they are very distinct from each other in non-trivial ways and exist as their own entities even as they contribute to the whole that is The Doctor.

for sure, except The Doctor definitely will "see what happens next"! i guess i'm harping on this but look this is a safe space

I am sipping from the Buddhism non-self connection in this milkshake

Right, but that specific version of the Doctor won’t see what happens next (unless of course she comes back for a special, but in that case she’s already seen what happens next so it’s kind of a dumb line however you slice it)

James Bond shd do this imo

of course when he was wearing the Crown of Rassilon he had access to all the other Timlord's memories too

Just struck by idea that if one doesn't have direct personal experience of a memory it is somewhat foreign.& a different personality has a different perspective. So how one experiences and accesses memories belonging to a not quite you is interesting.
Like there's an impermeable membrane between things one directly experiences and what another person with different prior experience would.
Like thinking even if you could experience directly what another person felt, your prior experience is part of your filter system for interpretation of that experience so it would subsequently not be the same anyway, surely.

OBviously it's a fictional device allowing tv show to change actors more easily but it does seem like instead of the character being a blank slate at the time the regeneration happens but that (s)he's come back as a fully formed personality. Just that they have to get used to taht new personality not form it from blank.
Like they've just stepped into a new version's own timeline which is only externally manifest to the world from that point

I hate the fact that I often remember things wrong - of course many things I dont remember at all- now that we all take a billion digital photos per year our memoery can be verified I guess.
And one day shall we wear video contact lenses that record every waking moment?

Season 9 blu-ray trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1rHwBiVyJQ

Somewhat addictive

https://www.doctorwho.tv/play/thirteen

Great UI there that covers up part of the rules.

This rules

there goes my work week... can't get past the 8th doctor

I got to 9

Yeah, this is a total time hole.

Haven’t played for a couple of years, but clicked through and got to McGann on my first go, so tapping out gracefully.

Broke 3000 called it a day

Got Eccleston! Weirdly satisfying seeing Pertwee next to Davison, they are so unalike

McGann and about 3200 playing "properly", and then I remembered from the 2048 craze five years or so ago that just bashing a particular sequence of keys yields good results?
I dunno about that, but left-up-down relentlessly for about a minute got John Hurt and 5504. But where's the fun in that?

I did get John Hurt twice but nowhere near that score

I can't reproduce that fluke! Just circling through three cursor keys since has resulted in a very early blocked board. Oh well. I had to look up Hurt's number as it all happened so quickly I wasn't sure who he was worth two of :) How do I get Peter Cushing?

I did laugh when I finally hit #9 and it was the War Doctor instead of Eccleston... nerds!

3969 and I only got to McGann.

6692 - I think I actually had one of everyone on the board up to and including Hurt by the end.

MJ otm, it's totally 2048 reskinned - I think I saw a sudoku once, using the nine doctor's faces instead.

Got to Eccleston, personal best 18736

Damn, and I was happy to break 6000.

Can we have a Masters version

it's totally 2048 reskinned

It’s been up for three years, and was promoted as a 2048 variation at the time

curse you for sharing this today when I had a lot of work on

i got 7164 and John Hurt on my first go and have never gotten that far since lol

you know I'm sure that isn't William Hartnell.

also Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy seem to have the same hat

also I am terrible at this, have yet to reach 4000 points

Yes I’m not sure my efforts are any better than random

just got 6848, still can't get to 9th Doctor though.

12908, Eccleston, late for nursery pickup

16584, Eccleston, and I'm done

How do you get such high scores?? Honestly I have no strategy

there are strategy guides to 2048 but i find them all as useful as this one - https://www.gameskinny.com/lnagr/2048-game-strategy-how-to-always-win-at-2048

basically keep your highest numbered doctors along the right-hand edge, combining using up/down and right shifts, and never, ever shift the board left.

Got to 10,860 and Eccleston, good enough for me.

21180, got to Tennant

Make that Tennant, 30816

Nice. I stopped at 17k and Eccleston - too scared to go back on that site now lol. It’s such a time-sink!