A longform video essay about regeneration in Doctor Who, and the history of regeneration.
#doctorwho
channel: https://www.youtube.com/@williamwinsett
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wrwinsett/
tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wrwinsett
VHS Sound Effects by freesound_community from Pixabay
Whoosh Sound Effect by Jurji from Pixabay
Regeneration Effect by Max Bell from YouTube
Diamond Vortex by the Final Minutes
Time Vortex by Delta FX
"Secret of Tiki Island" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
When it comes to television, the process of recasting a main character is daunting. Recasting is not that uncommon in the entertainment industry at large, but one could argue that while theater audiences are used to the idea of a different actor or actress having to take on a role, and films can leave audiences with enough time between installments to make the change less noticeable, on television the goal is to produce a new story every week with the same characters - and one change to that status quo can ripple throughout these stories and ruin the integrity of entire seasons of their show. I think this is why on TV you see so much rushing to rip off the bandaid - shut up you idiot viewer we know Aunt Viv looks different, we know Corvo sounds different, we know there's two Beckies, you idiots. A recasting will either be avoided altogether by just writing off a character and quickly introducing a substitute, or will be thrown into the show as quick as possible so as not to throw off the momentum of the other characters. That's why I find it so interesting that nobody has really attempted to copy the long held recasting plot device introduced on the BBC SciFi series Doctor Who. For almost as long as the show has been around, they've been throwing out their main actors and replacing them with new faces. And it doesn't alienate any of the audience, on the contrary it is one of the most beloved and talked about aspects of the show. And it's because Doctor Who uses recasting as a plot point, and in doing so provides an interesting blueprint for how behind the scenes changes can be used to benefit the plot of a show and its characters.
If you're unaware, which IS possible - I know there are lots of Doctor Who fans laughing at me right now - Doctor Who is a series about a time travelling genius named the Doctor that started in 1963. It was only three years later that the titular Doctor had to be recast for the first time, and to deal handle this, the creators of the show introduced the concept of regeneration. As he's dying, the first actor to play the Doctor, William Hartnell, saves himself by morphing into a new form - that of Patrick Troughton, the actor who would take the role Hartnell. From then on, it was one of the Doctor's established abilities, and the way the show would go about its recasts until it drew to a close in 1989...