'Train wreck': Doctor Who fans react to season finale with Billie Piper surprise | indy100

Ncuti Gatwa leaves Doctor Who as Billie Piper returns

Doctor Who, BBC

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the series finale of Doctor Who, “The Reality War”.

The 15th series of the rebooted Doctor Who – also known as Season Two following the BBC’s partnership with Disney+ - came to an end on Saturday (May 31), with 15th Doctor Ncuti Gatwa leaving the Tardis and seemingly regenerating into Billie Piper, who is already established in the sci-fi drama as former companion Rose Tyler.

“The Reality War” followed on from last week’s episode “Wish World”, in which it was revealed the two versions of the evil Time Lord known as The Rani (played by Archie Panjabi and Anita Dobson) were looking to bring back another classic villain in the form of Omega, one of the first ever Time Lords, from the Underverse.

In addition to the Doctor sacrificing himself to save companion Belinda Chandra’s (Varada Sethu) baby girl Poppy, the series ended with the show bidding farewell to Belinda, and the Doctor’s companion from his first series, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson).

And with the show closing many chapters of its story and throwing everything up in the air with Piper’s return, Whovians have been pretty critical of how “The Reality War” concluded, with one describing it as an “absolute train wreck”:

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“Something doesn’t feel right,” wrote another, in reference to Gatwa's departure:

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One Twitter/X user wasn’t happy that the 15th Doctor didn’t get to face the Doctor’s iconic foes the Daleks, after Gatwa previously told Entertainment Weekly that he would be “so angry” if he never takes on the creatures from the planet Skaro during his tenure:

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Elsewhere, many fans noted that while previous incarnations of The Doctor are credited as such in their first appearance on the show, Piper’s appearance at the end of “The Reality War” was credited simply as “introducing Billie Piper”:

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Elsewhere, people weren’t impressed with Omega’s new look, going from a human-like figure with a pointy metallic helmet in classic episodes of Doctor Who, to a giant, skeletal and computer-generated monster in “The Reality War”:

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Davies’ wrap-ups of Ruby and Belinda’s storylines also faced criticism, with one tweet branding the latter’s plot across Season Two “confusing and unnecessary”:

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There was some praise for the episode, though, as many celebrated the brief return of Jodie Whittaker as the 13th Doctor:

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There’s some excitement for Piper’s return:

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And people noticed that Christopher Eccleston – who played the 9th Doctor - once said that Piper should play a version of the Doctor, with one writing that the actor’s wish “came true”:

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While it’s unknown when Doctor Who will next appear on our screens (the show typically has a Christmas special, but this has not been confirmed), “The Reality War” was followed by a teaser of upcoming UNIT spin-off “The War Between the Land and the Sea”, which will see the return of the classic villains, the Sea Devils.

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