Doctor Who Trailer Teases How Season 14 Is Changing The Show’s 60-Year Story Tradition

The recently released Doctor Who season 14 trailer suggests a major departure from the show’s canon. Doctor Who has played fast and loose with established traditions since its 2005 reboot, most notably removing the 13-regeneration limit established during the original run. More recently, the 14th Doctor bi-generated rather than regenerated, something that has never happened before in Doctor Who history, and which likely accounts for David Tennant’s surprise appearance in the Doctor Who season 14 trailer. Given that Ncuti Gatwa’s run began by reversing established tradition, it’s unsurprising that the trailer teases a storyline that may also contradict the current lore.

The Doctor’s original backstory involved escaping Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS to rebel against Time Lord laws that forbid changing history. Throughout the years, the show has been remarkably consistent about the idea that every change has consequences and that certain aspects of the timeline are fixed points that cannot be changed without dire consequences. Many of the best Doctor Who episodes involve the Doctor and his companions struggling with this limitation. Yet the new Doctor Who season 14 trailer teases a story where the Doctor and Ruby throw this limitation out the window to save the Earth.

Do The Doctor & Ruby See The End Of The World In Season 14?

The Doctor Who trailer contains cryptic clues as to the nature of the threat against the Earth. One sequence of clips includes the Doctor saying that the world could slide into a pit and telling Ruby that “this is what we’re trying to stop.” He also promises Ruby’s adoptive mother that he will ensure Ruby’s safety, which suggests that Ruby will face serious danger that tests his ability to keep that promise. These scenes do not explicitly promise the Doctor and Ruby witnessing the end of the world, instead teasing they will embark upon a mission to save it.

Ruby Sunday’s involvement in this story suggests she may be driving the action, which is part of what makes this story a significant break from established tradition. In the trailer, Ruby declares that she has discovered her purpose is to save the world. The only other time a human companion has tried to change history, the results were disastrous. Following established tradition would require the Doctor to step in to fix the mess that Ruby has made rather than working together to accomplish the goal of saving the Earth.

Doctor Who Season 14 Is Totally Changing The Show’s Time Travel Rules

The Doctor and Ruby traveling to the future to stop the destruction of the Earth again repeat the mistakes of the Chibnall era. This storyline completely changes established traditions about how and when the Doctor can change the timeline. The trailer teases that the Doctor can do anything he wants because he has the power of time travel behind him, but that’s never how it has worked before. The Doctor had to call on the Time Lords for assistance to resolve the problems caused during 1969’s “The War Games” and was exiled to Earth because he broke non-intervention laws.

The ban on non-fettered intervention is not supposed to be merely imposed by Time Lord leaders. It has always been a matter of universal consequences for messing with fixed points in time. Some points are so fixed they can’t be changed at all, as “Waters of Mars” established. The death of a planet should either be unchangeable or unable to be changed without causing serious harm to the fabric of space and time. At the very least, the Doctor should be considering potential consequences rather than jumping into this type of adventure without a second thought.

Knowing The World Will End Can Give Doctor Who Season 14 A Main Focus

The Doctor becoming aware of the potential end of the Earth could provide a storyline that drives the action forward throughout season 14. Other shows that deal with time travel and fate, such as Umbrella Academy, have done this successfully, allowing the characters to learn about the coming apocalypse in the first episode so that they could spend the rest of the season trying to stop it. Similarly, the Doctor’s love for Earth and humanity in general could drive him to embark on a wide variety of adventures to stop it.

Doctor Who season 1 promises adventures throughout all of human history, from prehistoric times to the present and future. The Doctor and Ruby could visit different eras as part of a bid to save the Earth from destruction, similar to the way that the Fourth Doctor and Romana searched for various aspects of the Key to Time. This structure would allow the season to consist of loosely linked stories, which would be ironically reminiscent of 1980s-era stories despite the change to canon.

Doctor Who also has another overarching story. Ruby Sunday needs answers to burning questions about who her birth parents are and why they left her on the church doorstep. These answers could possibly be connected to the Earth’s destruction, similar to the way the Bad Wolf mystery was resolved at the end of Doctor Who season 1. Ruby’s connection to the end of the Earth could explain the need to change history, though it remains to be seen whether it is strong enough to justify this major change to canon.

Is This What The Mavity Joke Was All About?

Donna’s accidentally changing the word “gravity” to “mavity” has been a running joke ever since, but that throwaway line could turn out to be important. The trailer features Ruby turning into an alien that resembles a butterfly after accidentally stepping on one while visiting a prehistoric setting. Like the mavity joke, this seems like a lighthearted moment. There is a darker overtone, however, as Ruby’s seemingly insignificant mistake leads to serious consequences. Similarly, the change from “gravity” to “mavity” could have far-reaching consequences and may contribute to the eventual destruction of the Earth.

The mavity issue can be read in two ways. It suggests that history can be altered permanently, but also that any change to the timeline will have ripple effects. The best case scenario would be for the Doctor to identify the change in the world as the source of the Earth’s future problems and reset the change that Donna made. This would bring the new story back in line with the established canon. This scenario is less likely because the modern era of Doctor Who has shown a willingness to rewrite canon to expand plot possibilities.

Doctor Who has already changed canon in significant and divisive ways by introducing bi-generation and the Timeless Child backstory. It is poised to do it again in Season 14 by allowing the Doctor and Ruby to jump to the far future to stop the Earth’s destruction, which should be a fixed point in time. This clear deviation from canon opens up the possibility of a season-long focus on preventing the end of the world, but it may also cause more division among fans and lead to more retcons.