Whilst dramatically, I loved it, the idea that he self sacrificed himself for a human, in the same way many have for him over the years. Surely if there was a time to use the Sonic Screwdriver, that was it? Its default setting is to open doors! Is there something I missed? Would the Sonic Screwdriver activate the explosion or something?

The Doctor said, the screwdriver would set the chamber off. So it couldnt be used.

Yep because it had gone Critical even the screwdriver would have set the reaction off.

The screwdriver would have set it off, and probably taken longer to sort the problem than the action they took in the end, which was to simply swap places. The process started almost immediately as soon as he opened the door, Wilf got out in time, but if it's taken any longer (e.g. if they'd used the screwdriver) then he would have died rather quickly. Doc 10 only survived it initially because he's not human.

Yeah but, the Doctor has done that before. For Rose in PotW, and has on numerous occasions said "take me instead" or similar. I don't know why they made it so special that he sacrificed himself for Wilf, I'd have expected nothing less ... particularly as he doesn't really die at all, he just get's a new body.

The Fifth Doctor died of poisoning in order to let his brand new companion live too, so it kind of figures Ten would do it.

Thanks everyone, that's what I suspected, I just missed the line . Revenga it's because he really enjoyed being Ten, and didn't want to change! Nine was angry from war, so I think he was happier for a "fresh start" as it were, plus I think he was hiding his true feelings as not to upset Rose. As regard to previous regens I haven't watched Classic Who, but raised emotional feelings is a large aspect of Who now across the board. I mean if you knew you were about to change everything about yourself apart from memories, you'd be pretty upset!

Yeah, I know that's the "reason", but I really don't buy it at all.

Wilf was heroic. He was more than prepared to die in the fight, even at the end he told the Doctor to leave him, and he WOULD have died. The Doctor had a crisis about it even though he'd survive, albeit in a new form.

There are two ways of looking at this I can see. From one perspective we are told how it feels within the fictional universe. Like it or not, they're the rules as they're told to us. It is stated that it is like a new man saunters off.

The other, more interesting for me, view is looking at how memory work. Most people think memory is like a recording that gets played back. Actually, research has shown that memory is far more like a simulation, a recreation, of certain 'key facts' interpreted with the current mental state as a background. This is why, when you remember yourself thinking things as a child, they sound far more 'adult' than you could have possibly been at that time. This can also be seen in people who have lost use of certain areas of V2 (secondary visual cortex) through strokes, head trauma, etc. Complex concepts like faces are recognised by specific, specialised areas of V2 and when these are knocked out the person cannot remember faces any more. The memory traces are stored elsewhere, but without the bit of the brain to simulate what's in those traces the memory is effectively gone.

Imagine a dramatic shift of personality then; suddenly those memories of being Ten, once you're Eleven, sound like being Eleven doing things that look inexplicable to your new personality. You'd think of them differently, and remember them differently. This more than justifies, to me, the idea of regeneration being like your existing self dying. It is far more realistic to me than the idea of just carrying on.

would the only way of saving Wilf and the Doctor have been with Jack's help? If Jack had been there, he would have been able to go into the chamber instead of the Doctor and he would have survived it? So it's all Jacks fault lol

The real question is, if Wilf was so willing to die to save the Doctor, why didn't he just hit a button and trigger the radiation flood, sacrificing himself?

Oh come on, someone has to do it!

BARROWMAN!!!! *shakes fist*

Sorry, couldn't resist

Also, I don't want to be pedantic but surely it was 8 knocks and not 4?? ha ha

The Doctor made it clear that a Time Lord can die and not regenerate. He was convinced the radiation was going to kill him stone dead and he would be gone for good. He mentioned this in part one, which was obviously there to make the point that regeneration isn't a guarantee. The whole arc over these specials has been that the Doctor was due to die for good. Obviously this didn't happen in the end, but it was what doc 10 was expecting to happen.

Also, I recall (in the original show) that the Master regenerated into a steaming mess of a creature once. So regeneration isn't even a guarantee that you'll come back as something nice. Hence why Doc 11 was so glad to see he still had legs. There was a chance he might not.

One thing I think that was handled very well here was dealing with the issue of regeneration. We've seen the Doctor do it so many times, but we've never gone into what it means to him. Each time he comes out with a new personality, so each personality effectively dies and is replaced in a regeneration - even a good regeneration. Imagine the trauma is must be for him to die and be reborn like that. After doing that ten times, it might easily begin to take its toll on you.

This is how I was watching it, the Dr thought he was going to actually die by the prophecies. Time Lords can die if they don't regenerate before it happens. He said quite a few things that pointed to death, not regeneration.

Trouble is, we watch it knowing that someone else is already in the part, but would people view it different if they had kept it secret that the programme continues with someone else?