Also, the Doctor might have learned new skills in the intervening years, like how to land properly to avoid injury.

I took the whole visiting friends thing as part of the parallel with terminal illness, along with the mood swings. It's the only profound, creative reason I can think of that can justify such a huge deviation from the character's normal approach to death / regeneration.

I realize I am way way behind you all, but watched the last of the Tennant's Dr. Who last nite and am so emotional about it I had to find a thread and commment. lol

MY OPINION ONLY HERE:
BUT I was SO disappointed in the WRITING of the last 3 shows -especially last one - as far at the Doctors attitude towards his upcoming regeneration.

It was WAY TOO out of character for the hero he has been throughout the whole series, throughout the whole doctor who show itself.

He had regenerated before and lost others he had loved and NEVER did he feel sorry for himself. He always was courageous and already knew he would regenerate. Totally unfair to end this terrific character with such a depressing attitude. He played it all superbly though, didnt he.

I was NEVER disappointed in Tennant or his acting though.
He totally mezmorized me throughout the whole series. THE MAN CAN ACT!!!!!!! Wow, I will be watching absolutely everything he does in the future.

I assume the last character parts of writing was done mostly by Davies?

I loved most of the Matt Smith series and I think I prefer Moffat writing, if he is the one doing the nice courageous Time Lord character that this Doctor was most of the time.

As to the now new Doctor coming up - I love Capaldi's acting ability and think he will be a great Doctor so long as most of the writing is done by Moffat or someone who wont take a good hearted Doctor character out of character again.

Thanks for listening.

Oops, old thread Soz!

It was truly an amazing swansong for an amazing doctor. Where some see overblown, I personally see epic. yes it wasn't exactly welcoming for matt the way david tennant tried to fight his regeneration all the way, but it just seemed that even though he'd been fairly casual about the act of sacrificing at earlier points in this incarnation, now that he had been forewarned and had a long time to think about it, he was horrified that he had grown to love his current form so much and now had to change it. It almost seemed as though the thought of living on, but changed, actually seemed worse to him than death.

I agree with the part I bolded and that is what put me off so much. His character throughout the series, throughout the whole show for 50 years actually, just was never like that and for the Doctor to rage "it isn't fair" and insinuate to his good friend that he wasn't as important and the Doctor just totally put me off the writing. Was hurtful.
Not wanting to go would have been fine if it hadn't been handled in so very depressing a way, and they could have given David Tennant a bit better send off.
He may be my most favorite Doctor. Matt Smith was great too.
jmo and I have moved on to waiting for Capaldi!

Personally, I HATED how Tennant left. I mean, it ruins what regeneration os supposed to be i.e. change, not death. It wouldn't have been so bad either if it hadn't been SO dragged out. When he was visiting all his companions I was just like, DIE already. It's one of the things that made series 5 feel like such a blast of air, and has actually ruined how I remember 10. Obviously I still like him, I like pretty much all the Doctor's except maybe 6 and 7, but what with all the moaning and groaning that precipitated his demise I just became more and more eager for him to leave (which is sad really cos he was a good Doctor, though been redeemed by the 50th, I think).

Janus_Mars - I totally agree and I hated how they dealt with this Doctor leaving. The writers really upset me with that. And yes, change, not death has always been the norm which is what makes it so accepting to me as an audience and exciting too. I never blamed the Doctor (ha ha) but was so happy to see him smiling in the 50th.

It was great seeing Rose, Jackie, Mickey, Martha, Donna, Wilf, Sylvia, Jack, Sarah-Jane, Luke and various others one last time. But the regeneration itself, overblown and awful.

I didn't really like how Ten or Eleven's regenerations were approached, but at least Eleven's didn't make the job harder for the new guy coming in - it welcomed him essentially. Ten's exit made it feel like all there was was loss and tragedy... I usually like depressing or bittersweet, but this was poorly done.

As for the final line, David Bradley delivered it better near the end of An Adventure in Space and Time. Just saying!

The best part about it was when it was over. Blech. Self indulgent twaddle that killed any remaining affection I had for 10.

Meh, I loved it at the time.

I felt it went beyond David Tennant. It was also making a point, this old man who has seen so many galaxies and races and conflicts was getting angrier, and god like. He could not well do what he wanted, why not, why follow rules made by other people who no longer exists, why stay burdened by these metaphorical chains. He needed something to knock him off his pedestal. He needed to be brought back down to earth, to realise he had pushed the line and so his time was up, he hadvto answer to in the cosmic scheme of things, he had to finally forget the loss of Rose and remember he was a good man. "I don't want to go" was as much as a statement of selfish pride as it was of a man being eating a bit of humble pie, and regretting ever thinking he was able to cheat/control fate, destiny and the course of history.


Caution, i think i just went into bks mode

I do love imaginative responses to it all like this, and really wish that there was that much depth to it - I love it.

I just don't see the depth myself. With Eccleston and Smith you didn't know the final line was coming when it was spoken. You only realised it was the final line as it was uttered, or perhaps even just afterwards. You had to think about it backwards to realise "Oh, that was their last words" and it provokes an element of thought into what they were saying.
With Tennant, we had the big speechless stumble into the TARDIS complete with dramatic Ood-song playing over it all. We get a gradual pan in towards Ten, and we know WAY in advance that the next thing he says will be his last. So when he says it, we don't need to think it though...it's all laid out, just as his emotions were. Because of that, I personally don't feel Tennant's final words resonated to some greater meaning than he simply didn't want to change. If I clutched at straws I could really hope he had some kind of regeneration-caused epiphany and realised that he was now on the path towards Trenzalore to build up to that big story... but it's really reaching. To me, there is just no substance in his final words. I didn't need to think any more about them other than "Oh, okay. That's it then".

All my own personal bks by the way