Now, the title states the obvious a bit here really but this is something I've always wondered about.

I'm just watching the Unvision commentary of Doomsday and David Tennant just picked up on that the Doctor picked up 2 klamps to keep him on the right side of the void. Obviously the script requires 2 for Rose at end for when she falls... but did the Doctor have some sort of inkling that Rose would be with him otherwise we did he not just pick up the one?

Any theories cos this has always bugged me

Just me then.

Failover standby?

I always assumed it was supposed to one for each hand!

I guess he took two because there were two. Not sure if the plan was meant to be that well formed in his mind by that point.

I go with the one for each hand theory.

It would be very un-Doctor like and selfish if he just grabbed the one for himself when there were two, even knowing at the time the second one might not get used.

But in reality

It suited the script later on for him to grab two, that's it, nothing more nothing less.

Its also worth noting that part of the tenth doctors personality was that he was very cocky and self liked. In his mind he knew Rose wouldn't leave without being dragged away. So he picks up two.

Think about it two people had to be there to pull the levers, its not is if he would get a cyberman to help him.

Nothing was directly mentioned on screen why he picked two up, and by the looks of the scene there are only seem to be two......so maybe in the hurray he just picks up what he can with his two hands, while he is still conducting a plan of somehow sending the Daleks (at that time only four of them and the Gensis arc which he had no idea what it was)....and maybe he wasn't thinking about that he will lose rose at that time, as he had other things on his mind, only once he knew what exactly he had to do, he had time to think about what will happen to Rose, and by that time he already had the two handles....


or it could be he got it for one hand each, or even for his feet, after all when they were holding on the handles, there feet were up in the air almost....or even to stick one on each side, and depending on how fast he has to be, after he has pulled the lever on each side, the closest one is the one he grabs onto.....


but overall it was because Rose would indeed be holding onto one.....a handy tool really for the said situation.....

I consider my question answered.

One for each heart, obv

Still, there's no harm in redundancy. He was also in the middle of a pitched firefight so might even have grabbed both as a bit of a shield from all the ray guns!

Plus he had no idea if they would both work so its always better to be prepared, especially if your companion is likely to disobey your orders to get the hell out of dodge!