The original post: /r/television by /u/Narrow-Tear on 2025-06-04 14:27:41.
Or am I just misinterpreting this whole story?
So the Doctor uses his regeneration energy to restore reality, and we won’t even ask how he exactly does that or how he’s sure that the original reality can be recovered, aiming to bring back his popped out of a wish daughter, Poppy. However, the timeline shifts, and Poppy exists as Belinda’s daughter with someone else, not his. The Doctor accepts this altered reality as the new normal and departs, while Ruby just minutes before that had told him that he had a daughter in another reality!
And here’s another part of the issue: Belinda, introduced as a reluctant companion who just wanted to return home to her parents, is now suddenly a mother in this new timeline. She never chose this path, so it feels like the narrative imposes motherhood upon her without consent. Throughout the season, she just wanted to get home to her parents, only to get home where she is a parent now? Isn’t this ethically problematic on so many levels, when the Doctor is attracted to Rogue, flirts with Ruby and many before her, and had never really cared about Susan or his biogenerated girl?
Not only that, but the season even explores themes of loss and desire, then the resolution seems to prioritize the Doctor’s wishes over Belinda’s autonomy. No one asks the doctor: “how do you know which reality is the true one?” - as the episode unintentionally raises questions about consent and the implications of altering someone’s life so drastically without their input.
I don’t know if the episode intended that or not, but I felt just like Ruby/Bel at the end: “why it feels like we have forgotten something?” - and then I came to this subreddit to clear my head, only to find out there’s another version of this finale that didn’t include the regeneration. So Ruby was right in a meta way: there’s another version of reality out there, which we are never going to see…
And even the doctor, who regenerates just to reincarnate a humanized version of his hybrid baby, doesn’t care about that reality. Wibbly wobbly in a horrible way.
TLDR: So 15 restores reality and brings back a wish-born daughter, Poppy, but the new timeline makes Poppy = Belinda’s daughter, not his. Bel, wanting to return home to her family, becomes a mother in an unchosen timeline. 15 accepts this altered reality without questioning its validity, prioritizing bringing Poppy back over Belinda’s autonomy. The show brushes past consent, agency, and the cost of rewriting someone’s life, leaving a haunting feeling of loss in an indirect way.