Whoever was in there already would have stayed in there. So after the 'battle' was over, there would still have been a human behind the glass, asking those on the other side to save him. Are we to believe that, if Wilf hadn't gone in, the Doctor would simply have turned around and said... "oh, hi random person... enjoy the radiation, see ya" ... I sincerely hope not because I don't buy that for one minute.

I suppose the Doctor would have saved that person, too, so maybe it wouldn't have made a difference. All that it makes a difference to is the validity of his "Wilf you're a ****" speech.

Well according to RTD in the EoT2 commentary, it was originally planned to have the doctor save the "random person" or in RTD's case "Trevor Adamson" instead of Wilf... even if he didn't know who he was, he'd still save him.

Kinda like,
Doctor: "what's your name?......who are you?" etc.

I think it will have been better if it HAD been a random person that he saved.

He likes and respects Wilf and classes him as a friend. He would die, no questions asked for his friends if needed.

If it had been a random, it would have made it all the more significant. As it shows he was prepared to 'die' to save 1 human that he has never met before.

But he was willing to screw over 6 billion Humans in order to not kill The Master.

Yes, this has been one of my two main bugbears about the whole thing.
(The other being: "When did the Doctor gain the ability to fly - or rather fall - from a great height, through a glass roof and be unhurt?" - But that's another thread )

The Doctor has shown on several occasions that he would happily sacrifice one of his regenerations for someone.
Troughton's sacrifice was poignant, because he had to contact the TimeLords to warn them about someone messing with time, but knew by doing so, he would be put on trial - but he did it anyway to save the victims.
Baker (I) did it to save a planet.
Davison thought nothing of giving the anti-poison to Peri so she could live.
But now we get the "Oh I don't WANT to!!!" as if he's a little kid.
Yes I know he's had to sacrifice a lot already. He's lost Rose, he lost Martha, he lost Donna. He lost his people. Twice.
But to rant at an old man?? That really made me say "That's NOT who the Doctor is!"

Eccleston regenerated to save Rose. So the tenth Doctor came into being thanks to a sacrifice to save a companion.

I didn't like the rant (after all, Wilf didn't force him to make that choice- he went into the box so the other guy could get out of danger, and told the Doctor not to save him), or the 'I don't want to' either. Couldn't help but think that while the Doctor was busy having his temper tantrum, the device might have quietly gone critical, and he'd turn around and Wilf would be dying Which would be horrible (Wilf is great and I didn't want him killed off), but might have made more impact. Of course they'd have to do something else for the regeneration then (maybe have the Doctor try to save Wilf but it's too late- Wilf dies and the Doctor still has to regenerate), but I wanted a shock to snap him out of it. After all, he'd already said he'd let a single maniac live rather than save the whole human race, just to keep his supposed moral high ground.

The Doctor said Wilf was old and unimportant, implying he considers Wilf worth less than him. That's horrible. Not to mention complaining that Wilf has lived his life- all 81 years of it (assuming he's the same age as Bernard Cribbins) while the Doctor is complaining that he doesn't want to go after (apparently) 906. And knows he'll probably regenerate rather than die anyway- it may not be nice, but it's still better than death- after all, he could have chosen to die, like the Master in series 3, but didn't.

I get that he's scared and it should be emotional. Unfortunately, the only effect it had on me was to feel glad we were about to get rid of him. He came over as self centred and cowardly- neither traits we usually associate with the Doctor in any incarnation. I know he changed his mind at the end, but even so, the rant sticks with me as a very unpleasant thing. The drawn out regeneration didn't help.

The Doctor was okay regenerating for others.... but he didn't think he was going to survive that one.

He knew he was going to do it... but he wasn't going to be happy about it.

he wasnt saying wilf was old and unimportant at all, he's being sarcastic - its obviously a no brainer for him, thats why he rolls his head when he hears the four knocks but he's thrashing out the emotions, he knows what he's got to do and is annoyed that its almost a 'i've locked myself in the toilet' way to go which is why he digs at wilf, and is also genuinely gutted that that he's leaving that incarnation. it was kind of perfect in a way i think, he/us were expecting god knows what and it came down to wilf's little knock and saving the one human that he could.

The rant was one of the many moments of the episode that I found cringeworthy. In a way, it just felt like plot for plot's sake. Just so the Doctor/RTD could turn around after it and say "lived too long", and it would be ~Poignant~. I just don't really buy it.

It's just another minute of that episode that was wasted, when it could have been devoted to a plot that wasn't so tragically... vacuous.

What people are missing is that The Doctor thought he was going to die completely.

It wasn't until he encountered Ood Sigma after speaking to Rose he realised he was about to regenerate (the line about the song ending, but the story going on).

You seem to miss the fact that it doesn't matter whether he thought he might die completely (and he did), because he told Wilf in the Cafe that even regenerating is like a death because another man goes "sauntering off."

The one thing I thought when we saw it was Wilf tapping out the four beats on the glass, was what a silly bugger!

He knew that the Doctor was waiting for the four knocks, so he goes and does it himself - he should've knocked in a beat of three instead

I think the Doctor knew he would regenerate from when he stepped out the chamber and his face and injuries healed.

I don't see why the Doctor would think he would die and not regenerate.

And?

In "The Waters of Mars", he said to Ood Sigma "is this my death?". He then said to Wilf that he would die if he didn't regenerate before dying.

There is a distinction between "death" and "regeneration".

To be fair to the script writers, they did add that scene where he discussed the fact that regenerating does feel like dying - and even Classic Who treats it like this - Pertwee hates Troughton (the comment in Five Doctors "Oh no, not him again." as well as their first meeting in Three Doctors).
But I agree with Shineyteapot that the whole rant was wrong.

Did 5 know he was going to Regenerate?
Did 9 know? After all, he did say "I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex. And no one is meant to do that"

The Doctor was utterly utterly f****d off.

He was angry and stressed and that remained with him, which is why (HD rebuild aside!) he inadvertently torched the tardis during his regeneration. He ranted at Wilf because he was so angry and also he knew he could show his feelings to Wilf - they were like family. Whem Im angry I do sound off to my family cos you know they know you really and you can vent to them.

I think the regeneration process was triggered the second after The Doctor landed on the
floor in the Naismith mansion. Any human being would've very been killed outright from a
fall like that, or at the very least, suffer broken bones and other very serious injuries.

When The Doctor landed on that floor, he was quite badly injured, although we only saw
a few cuts on his face from the broken glass of the dome, it's likely he'd have had a few
broken bones and quite a few other internal inujuries.

He was clearly in quite a lot of pain before he finally got up, so I think the regeneration
energy inside him would've most likely healed up most of his internal injuries, right up
to the last moments, the pain became too much and he could hold it off no longer.

Of course, he had to delay what he thought would be his death so he could embark on
his "farewell tour". As mentioned earlier, it wasn't until he saw Ood Sigma near Rose's
flat ... he then realised he was going to regenerate after all and not die completely.

If Ood Sigma hadn't showed up, The Doctor would've probably gone even further back
on his timeline to wave goodbye to his friends and companions from the old series!

No he wouldn't.... he knew the regeneration was happening and he was struggling to the TARDIS to do it.


and this was the tenth doctor saying goodbye to the tenth doctor's companions.

Why, though?

It's not as if the Doctor forgets following a regeneration. Sarah-Jane, Rose and Jack are three prime examples.

Which wasn't very valid anyway. The fault lies with whoever designed a pair a cubicals such that one of them must always be occupied. And then routed the radiation through them.

The design of the cubicles was so that there was always one person at the controls.

And the radiation was vented into them so as to contain it.

The Tenth Doctor going to another old companion would mean nothing to the companion (unless he want up and introduced himself).

I think its more he'd thought he'd gotten away with it - he thought that the Master was the one who knocked four times to signal his death/regen, and as he was struggling to get up you could see it on his face; no more Time Lords, Master gone and he was still alive. I think he was maybe more annoyed with himself for thinking too soon or something like that, if that makes sense.

This was my big problem with this episode. I kept waiting for him to apologise to Wilf for blaming him, but he didn't. Not even the second time. He still looked like Wilf left a bad smell under his nose.

Spoilt him, it did. He seemed bratty, rather than full of pathos.

why should he have accepted his death gracefully? he was hurt and broken and devastated. and he wanted - needed to rant to someone.