But his was a forced regeneration, something he hadn't experienced before (only having done it once when his first body failed) as a sentence from the Time lords. I can quite understand him being upset. Besides, he was quite vocal about a lot of things when he wanted to be.

The 2 episodes left me feeling very confused. Having been a Who fan for 30 years, seeing him trying to reject a regeneration jarred somewhat to his previous incarnations noble acceptance of it, as each sacrificed himself for the greater good.

His rant at Wilf about "oh you WOULD go lock yourself in" etc just made it look like he begrudgingly saved Wilf at the expense of his 10th incarnation, whereas right up to that point he was ready to sacrifice himself. Seemed to be a case of "oh I'd die to save the universe, but now I'm gonna die saving a man in a glass cabinet - bah!"

The procrastinated regeneration jarred too. How long has that actually taken? From when he knew he was gonna regenerate to it actually happening? A few hours? A week? A year? How many adventures did he go on before he actually got round to regenerating???

I was prepared to feel sad at the passing of the 10th, but by the time he got round to it, I started to lose interest, he didin't need to go and see his old companions, it's not like he actually went up to each and said goodbye, he gave them a glimpse of him then disappeared!

The appearance of 11 at the end was a relief!

I love Dr Who, but the ending of EOT 2 just seemed like a self glorified finale with previous cast taking to the stage for a bow. But I do believe that if it had gone any differently, some of the new generation of fans would be up in arms claiming there was no emotional involvement with the character passing and then end of the world is nigh etc etc. (Some do seem to have a heavy emotional involvement with the programme now!)

It's happened before and it'll happen again. The regeneration of the Doctor is an exciting time, not one to feel sad and remorseful about. Yes, a phase has ended, but the adventure continues!!! GERONIMO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I take the 4th Doctor's attitude to SJS as being closer to her. Afterall he did refer to her as 'my best friend'.

That was my reading too. He chose not to regenerate. It seemed to fit his conversation with Wilf about having lived too long. I thought it was because he saw himself on a slippery slope to evil, what with the Time Lord Victorious, and his deciding to go armed with a handgun. He saw himself turning into The Master, and chose to die instead.

So he went and said goodbye to all the RTD characters, and that somehow made him change his mind, so he said, "I don't want to go", and didn't. He regenerated instead.

I gather most people didn't reach this interpretation. I may be wrong, but I think the story was very muddled in leaving it so unclear.


I'm the opposite. For me the fundamental essence is what makes him the Doctor and always remains. It's what enabled Rose to recognise him as the same person. It's why she still loved him despite the different body. That's why I don't see a mere regeneration as worthy of the fuss he made.

I believe that, as has been done before, the Doctor was being used to give voice to another beyond the fourth wall.

In the Children in Need special "Timecrash" Tennants "My Doctor" conversation was channelling Moffat's view of Peter Davidson.

In End of Time I believe the Doctor was chanelling all the fans who were saying "I don't want David to go" or "I'll stop watching when he leaves" or "it won't be teh same" or "Matt will be rubbish". With this as a starting point it could then get the message across that this incarnation will die but Doctor Who lives on. That the title of the show isn't "David Tenant" it's "Doctor Who".

Argh! You beat me to this reference. I was just reading this thread thinking Tennant's last line was in the same vein as the Timecrash "you were my doctor" line. It's about David Tennant and has nothing to do with the narrative for all the reasons identified in this thread already. At least in Timecrash, you can make the excuse that it's all for charity rather than canon.

I've loved DT as the doctor and applaud RTD as a producer for bringing the show back to the mainstream so well but my god am I glad RTD is buggering off now. His un-script-edited writing and absence of logical storytelling has resulted in some of the worst episodes of new Who. He's been extremely frustrating.

To back this up. In the last episode the Ood voiceover says something like "your song is ending but the story continues".

This is nearly a good line. But it makes no sense. Any script editor in TV drama would have vastly improved it like this: "your song is ending but your symphony continues".

Do you see what I did? It's a better line and the vocabulary makes sense and would have a greater impact.

But RTD's scripts could not be edited. So we're left with duff lines and self-references.

Of course 10 was devasted at regenerating - who wouldn't be? You go from looking like that to ....er....the new one

I know it's a bit evil but that did just make me snort.

Spot on! That's just the sort of thing that would have made a real difference. Excellent observation, dsrichard...and you're right, your version makes far more sense, as well as having a stronger impact.

He was so upset because that way everyone, characters and audience alike, can indulge in a protracted blub session.

"Ohhh, he's going, he's going, he doesn't want to, he's gone, bless."

If only Pertwee was there to open a can of Venusian whup-ass on the whole sorry mess.

I don't know about everyone else but I didn't think the DT to MS regeneration was as good as the CE to DT regen.

Eccleston's was more of a morphing and was done alot slower. You could actually see DT's hair growing as he changed appearance where as in the recent regeneration it looked more like one of those old dodgy fade in's they did in the 80's. Fade out Tennant's face to yellow fire, fade in Matt Smith. Didn't look as good as the last time IMO and looked like the special effects department may have decided to cut corners this time.

We've seen DT's doctor SO many times almost sacrifice himself to save some other people. He was always really stoical about it before, but suddenly all emotional on these final episodes. It didn't ring true, and was obviously more about RTD and DT being sad about leaving, rather than The Doctor.

Amazing series so far, I'm so glad that the first thing that came out of SM's mouth was ''There’s no such thing as the Eleventh Doctor, there’s one Doctor, with eleven faces. He is the same man.'' SM laying down the law there Pretty much answers this threads question

I don't think it would.....because the words song and story would fit with what most understand...symphony on the other hand, would have been lost on the musical illiterate. What could have been better was chapter would end...but not the story....but then I think the Doctor would be quite clued up that he was definitely going to regenerate, rather than die, which is what he felt that "song ending " meant....blame the Ood and the way the speak....after all they weren't exactly clear about the DoctorDonna either!



As for the whole Ten not wanting to regenerate....what got me thinking not long ago when watching the The Three Doctors....is how when the Second Doctor regenerated in the War Games, he put on a bit of a fuss.....because he loved who he was....yet the third Doctor looked down upon him in TTD, even though it was himself....and the first Doctor looked down upon his future selfs....yes by the end off it they were more or less merry with each other....but the fact that they get annoyed with each other quite quickly...is very telling for a bunch of people who are actually the same person. Maybe that is why Ten didn't want to become a new Man....knowing full well that he would end up appreciating what ever form he takes on, and this one that he loves so much as well, he will probably look down upon? It really put those scenes into context.

Anyway, I think his last words were perfect, he didn't need to put on some charade for a companion to keep them going and not be too frieghtend of change...even the past Doctors sometimes showed fear....the Second Doctor didn't want to regenerate, Four looked gloomy after he spoke to the watcher, the Fifth felt something different, and wasn't even sure he was going to make it and Nine, even though with smile on his face, seemed quite sad that he was going, hence the jokes about his daft old face, and calling himself fantastic, saying goodbye to himself. so there is no right way or wrong way.... but Ten was being honest......

The change between Doctors is usually due to the Doctor needing to regenerate a body mortally damaged in a fight against evil or a sacrifice to save another.

The one different time was Colin Baker to Sylvester Macoy.

The time the sixth caused the seventh to fall over and bang his head leading to a regeneration.

Yeh I know it was during an attack by the Rani but the seventh took advantage of an opertunity.


The story is basically that the seventh could see that the sixth would not be able to overcome future dangers due to his charactor and so had to push him aside.

The Whoniverse has always viewed the Doctors as completely seperate charactors with a common body/memories/soul etc.

With the exception of McCoy to McGann who was shot by gun totting gangbangers in the US and accidentally killed by medics trying to "save" him.

And Troughton to Pertwee who effectively had a regeneration taken from him as punishment by the Time Lords.

And why the hell not? Everyone I know is or was sorry to see DT go and RTD imho channelled that regret exceptionally well. Bloody hell, just search utube. There are countless vids dedicated to DT. He has a huge fanbase not just made up of hardcore DW fans who know every word of every line of every episode ever made (please remember lads and lasses, DW is not made just for you), but for the new fans RTD has hooked in.

A send-off in the same way as CE had would be seen as anticlimatic "you were fantastic, and you know what, so was I" burst of yellow light, gone. That is no good. For DT who is probably (at least with younger or new to DW fans, the best or favourite Doctor had to have a prolonged emotionally charged send-off. Irritating to a few as evidant on this forum, but it really did tug the heart strings of and push the right buttons for millions of viewers.

This doesn't make sense. Unless you mean the Seventh caused the Sixth to fall over and bang his head. Although, that still doesn't make much sense, unless you are saying that there is an essence of the yet to be Seventh present in the Sixth, and its that which makes him fall over and bang his head.

The latter, I think. And yes, it's implied in the New Adventures books that that is precisely what happened, that the seventh Doctor influenced his former self's regeneration somehow to get him out of the way.

I think the idea of that happening was bought up in the Doctor Who New Adventures: "Timewyrm: Genesys" group of books. They were a good read, as I recall.

I wonder if there could be a way of bringing DT back (dont flame me - just throwing ideas around).

Given the reluctance with which 10 had to regeneration and the existance of his human "clone" - there could be a way to write him back in by either 11 regenerating in the presence of the 10 clone - or 10s "spirit" being so strong that it re-asserts itself upon 11's regeneration.

There are other threads in here that discuss regeneration.

In the case of the Doctor, it would appear that a regeneration occurs when the doctor is too old or subjected to mortal trauma (wounded/injured/poisoned etc). That is, of course, with the exception of 2-3, which was a regeneration engineered by the Timelords (as they control things like this I accept it!)

Therefore it can be argued that each of the Doctors previous regenerations (apart from PT) all in fact died, as, presumably, regeneration kicks in at the point of death or just prior to it.

To my knowledge, in the Whoniverse, only the Doctor has met and worked with his former selves. All Doctors appear free thinking and mainly at odds with each other, they do not share the same conciousness unless they create the telepathic link.

IMO i believe that each persona dies!

TBH he could return as the Doctor alongside 11. They've done it in the past with "The Three Doctors" and "The Five Doctor's" and of course "Time Crash". So the idea is not impossible but would not happen for another series or so.

I love the idea of 9, 10 and 11 joining up for a one-off at some point. Maybe even number 8 (McGann) could come back for an episode.