{"id":7151,"date":"2021-11-14T20:35:47","date_gmt":"2021-11-14T19:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1503223"},"modified":"2021-11-14T20:58:09","modified_gmt":"2021-11-14T19:58:09","slug":"is-doctor-who-still-hiding-a-secret-regeneration","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/is-doctor-who-still-hiding-a-secret-regeneration\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Doctor Who still hiding a secret regeneration?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Huw Fullerton\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Sunday, 14 November 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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New Doctor Who<\/a> baddie Swarm is still a bit of a mystery, with Sam Spruell\u2019s cadaverous villain battling the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) across the six-part Flux miniseries and drip-feeding his motivations and plans over the course of the episodes.<\/p>\n

So far, we know that he has weird dissolving powers, a goal of destroying space (somehow) on behalf of time (sort of) and an unknown connection to shadowy string-puller Awsok (Barbara Flynn) \u2013 but there\u2019s one wrinkle about his abilities that still has us a bit confused (OK, even more confused than the other bits) after this week\u2019s episode. Can Swarm regenerate?<\/p>

It\u2019s a question we asked ourselves after the first episode appeared to show Swarm rejuvenate his body when he escaped his prison, referring to the process as a \u2018renewal\u2019 (similarly to early incarnations of the Doctor) and changing actors in the process (from Matthew Needham to regular Swarm actor Sam Spruell).<\/p>\n

The idea of a character \u2018renewing\u2019 themselves with energy, changing their appearance AND switching actors just screamed regeneration to us at the time, leading us to wonder whether Swarm was a secret Time Lord (of sorts), or had some connection to the Doctor\u2019s own lost species (who had the power to regenerate before the Time Lords, as revealed in series 12).<\/p>\n

Seemingly, this theory was cast by the wayside in subsequent weeks, as we learned that Swarm (alongside sister Azure, played by Rochenda Sandall) was actually a being called a Ravager, with vague abilities over time that could explain his rejuvenation. Perhaps his older appearance was just a result of the millennia he\u2019d spent in prison, and his red-faced look his original appearance restored.<\/p>\n

\""Doctor\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Matthew Needham as \u201cOld Swarm\u201d in Doctor Who (BBC)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

However, this week\u2019s episode of Doctor Who \u2013 Once, Upon Time<\/a> \u2013 added a new twist. During the Doctor\u2019s flashbacks to her earlier missions against the Ravagers (where she imagined herself in the place of Jo Martin\u2019s Doctor) we meet the younger versions of Swarm and Azure. Azure looks the same\u2026but Swarm, surprisingly, is already his \u2018old Swarm\u2019 self, just as he appeared in the Halloween Apocalypse.<\/p>\n

Clearly, this appearance wasn\u2019t the result of years of imprisonment \u2013 Swarm did genuinely just look different before his \u2018renewal,\u2019 right down to the colour of his skin and the style of the prosthetics on the actor. He was the same skull-like species, but essentially a completely different-looking person.<\/p>\n

Yes, his renewal could somehow still be connected to his time powers. But given that Swarm didn\u2019t actually age in the thousands of years since his last defeat (and neither did Azure, who looked the same in both cases \u2013 though she may have been placed in a present-day time period) and hadn\u2019t bothered to refresh his appearance before facing off with the Division back then, it seems more likely that it\u2019s a similar process to the Time Lord regeneration seen in the show.<\/p>\n

\""Doctor\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n

Really, it has us wondering. Swarm clearly isn\u2019t a Time Lord \u2013 but could the Doctor be a Ravager? In series 12 finale the Timeless Children it\u2019s revealed she fell through a boundary from another universe, already able to regenerate and change her appearance and personality. Who\u2019s to say one of Doctor Who: Flux\u2019s big twists isn\u2019t that the Doctor has more of a connection to Swarm than she thinks?<\/p>\n

Of course, it could be that keeping Swarm\u2019s older appearance was pure continuity \u2013 this is how we looked when we first met him in episode one, so that\u2019s how he should look in the flashback \u2013 but as you start to pick at the logic of the change, you end up with more questions than answers.<\/p>\n

Maybe we\u2019re reading too much into it, but we\u2019d say the mystery of Swarm\u2019s renewal isn\u2019t quite closed just yet.<\/p>\n

Read more about Doctor Who:<\/strong><\/p>\n