That's okay, you're clearly an intelligent person using the word with thought. As an English teacher, I get fed up of seeing it used so casually such as in the awful term "frape", that I get easily wound up.

I still think Ten was always headed that way. Look at how Eleven described him - vain to the point of wasting a regeneration!

Couldn't agree more.


Agree with mostly everything in your post but can you honestly say Colin Baker had a goodbye scene??????????

This maybe??
http://www.drwhoguide.com/whobbk72.htm

Yes, that has to be the worst. To just dissapear halfway through The War Machines and not say anything to the Doctor. Instead, getting someone else to pass on the message.

Jackie Lane's character didn't get a proper send-off. I liked Jackie Lane.

It's so sad that we don't get much Dodo on DVD. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the only stories that survive in full that feature Dodo are: The Ark, The Gunfighters and The War Machines.

Also, episode 4 of The Celestial Toymaker that's on the 2004 DVD Box Set Lost In Time.

Love this picture of her:

http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsL/9821.gif

Shame it's small.

I found this as well:

http://centerandmain.org/wp-content/...ackieLane2.jpg

Gosh! She hasn't aged very well. She's let herself go a little.

Now that is a good story. Defiantly the regeneration Six deserved.

I've just been to my local librarie's website and requested this book Spiral Scratch.

It is going to take a week to arrive, my local library not having a copy. Once it has arrived, I shall read it the first chance I get. I've never read this before, so I think I'm in for a treat. Apparently it is set directly after the 'Trial' season, and before Time and the Rani.

I do get three weeks to read this, but as it's not a huge book, it should hopefully take me only a few days.

It's not very large, I split it into four days and had no problems. It also leads directly into "Time and the Rani".

Okay, Dr6 didn't have a goodbye scene, but we did get to see him regenerate and get to see what caused it.

Dodo FTW though, and it's not often that anyone says that ...

BIB: If only it had been an engaging episode! Personally, I thought the whole thing was tripe and a massive let-down after the glory that was the 50th anniversary episode. Matt Smith deserved far better than that miserable, limp coda to his era.

Even more so when you think the BBC only produced two episodes of Doctor Who in 2013. You'd expect both to be half-way decent!

Always agreed with you about Dodo, I think her exit is the worst of all time, even worse than Leela.'s. At least with her she was actually in her last story in full. Dodo's, they could have done what they did with Ben and Polly at least and pre-filmed a goodbye scene. It's still an awful way to go but at least we would have seen it.

I absolutely hate Ten's exit. A two-part story with so much plot and actor potential, ultimately squandered on the atrocity that we got. The End of Time is the longest single story from NuWho, and it doesn't deserve to be. The story is slow, dull and deviates to make all sorts of ridiculous scenes happen. When it came to the final minutes it was wonderful to see the faces of everyone else that had been in Ten's "family", but the actual regeneration scene was whiny and doesn't leave you in a good place to set up the next Doctor. Matt Smith had big boots to fill, and Russell T Davies didn't make his job any easier.

Rose's second exit was also very cheap, tacky and idiotic. It was weird, awkward, and tainted the rather well done exit the character had in Series 2. The fact they filmed on the same beach was completely unoriginal and it didn't tap into sentiment like I think it was meant to. How can it when you're standing there with Jackie, two Doctor's and a DoctorDonna?! It's just... overkill.

I have my problems with the Moffat era exits too, though perhaps less severe. I really liked Amy and Rory's exit, and can even accept the harsh suddenness of Rory's departure. But the fact that these two companions get less than a third of the screen time for their final scene compared to Rose in Doomsday is abominable. No time is spent lingering on the slightly more emotional scenes, so despite some sublime acting from all concerned the aftermath is just rushed and ruins the whole feel of things. The episode needed five more minutes in my opinion.... drag out the scene just after Amy is taken a little longer, and somehow get that epilogue with Brian Williams filmed as well.

The Eleventh Doctor's exit was similarly flawed. It was an awkward script to work with, but Smith did what he could with it. It's a slow build to the cameo from Amy which was done beautifully, and then out of nowhere the episode has an adrenaline shot and goes completely madcap for its final minute or so. The Eleventh Doctor should have had a final, defining hero shot - just as Nine went out smiling and Ten went out crying. Eleven simply sneezed and turned into Peter Capaldi. It's perhaps not the worst exit of all, but it's so frustrating that such a brilliant Doctor was just suddenly gone in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment.

Oh yes! I read that whole book during a particularly long and tedious plane journey. An good story but I'm not sure it would translate into the screen too well lol

But it wasn't sudden... he aged to a gazillion years old, had an emotional exchange with Clara over a Christmas cracker and then walked incredibly slowly to his apparent death at the hands of the Daleks and then began to regenerate in the clock tower and then destroyed the Dalek fleet and then somehow became young-looking again in the TARDIS, and then had about two different speeches ("I'll always remember when the Doctor was me" etc), had some fish fingers and custard, hallucinated seeing a bewigged Amy Pond, talked with Clara a little more... and then, finally regenerated. How much slower a process do you want it to be?!




But I would have written:

If only it had been an engaging episode! Personally, I thought the 50th anniversary episode was tripe and a massive let-down compared to the glory of the Christmas episode. Doctor Who deserved much better than that miserable, limp coda to its 50 year history.

I have to agree with this. I've been thoroughly bemused by the comments that it was sudden and a terrible exit. The specific change from one face to another was sudden but the exit was a huge, emotionally charged extravaganza of a regeneration spanning multiple scenes. I thought it was one of the most spectacular exits yet.

The Delgado Master had a fairly pathetic exit Frontier In Space although that's largely due to Roger Delgado's untimely death. He had been due to get a proper exit in a subsequent story

This is what myself and I think a few others have been having issues with. It wasn't the lead up, I understand about all that, or the speech or anything else, it was the point of regeneration that sucked.

The fact there was a gap between starting to regenerate and the regeneration itself didn't help either and I hate this new thing in the New Series where The Doctor seems to take an age between starting to regenerate and actually regenerate. Only the 9th/10th changeover got this right.

In this, the story is over, he goes back to the TARDIS. He notices his hands start to go yellow and he knows he's going to change. After a brief goodbye speech to Rose he changes. Job done.

However, the in thing now seems to die and then take forever in a day to regenerate. The 10th Doctor spends days on end checking up on everyone after his started and now we have the 11th, on the Clock Tower and it still takes him at least another five minutes before he actually regenerates and even then it's over and done with so quickly it ruins the whole moment. The only saving grace with the 10th Doctor is that the Regeneration itself was at least done in a way where you properly saw the Regeneration itself and it wasn't over and done with in one second flat.

When you have been brought up on Classic Who Regenerations you get used to them being a one scene deal. Story ends, Doctor Regenerates and it lasts long enough for you to say goodbye properly. I think the TV Movie started this trend of taking an age to Regenerate and it sucks.

To make the Regeneration itself so quick you wonder what the hell it was all about. It was like buying an Instant scratchcard. You get excited you may win something, you buy it, you realise you haven't won anything and within half a minute it feels it was a waste of time and money. That feeling of what was it all about is pretty much the same I felt about that changeover. It was a nice build upto something that wasn't there.

Good come back And, it's all subjective, of course. But I still can't forget my crushing disappointment on Christmas Day as the ep - which seemed to be a summary of all Moffat's faults as a writer - droned on. I watched it again, giving it another chance in case it was me. But, no, I find it just lies there and dies there. But that's just me.

Mrs Chuff and I really chuckled at the "head thrown back quickly" regeneration. Cut all the schmaltzy, snivelly crap that surrounds regenerations nowadays and just GET ON WITH IT!

Especially since his last words were 'carrot juice'. Which unfortunately means my last memory of the 6th Doctor was that he was getting a bit out-of-shape.

I agree. There were people who complained about the 10th Doctor going on a farewell tour while in the midst of regenerating (and I didn't care for it myself) but the 11th Doctor does a similar thing. After all, he has time to walk back to the TARDIS, change his clothes, make himself fish sticks, chat with Clara, see a vision of young Amy, see a vision of older Amy, chat with Clara some more and then finally finishes regenerating.

Certainly in the Classic series, the regenerations were short and sweet. Now, the Doctor has time to go to Disneyland while he's in the middle of regenerating.

It's funny you should say that. I saved a funny article from an old "Doctor Who Magazine" which was a tongue-in-cheek look at what it takes to be a companion. Here's part of the article:

"Finally, it is advisable to plan the time and nature of your departure from the Doctor's company right away. It may seem premature, but failure to do this will result in him growing so sick of you that you will be summarily dumped in a wholly inappropriate locale. Past companions have been left on a planet of savages (Steven), with an intergalactic dodgy geezer in a freezer centre (Mel) and in Ancient Greece (Vicki).

The Doctor has even been known to invent Gallifreyan laws just to get a companion or two off his hands (Sarah Jane Smith). Worse still, the crafty old devil could marry you off to someone from another species entirely, with whom you've only just held hands (Susan, Leela)."

Speaking of exits, here's another funny part from the article:

"However, if you're hoping to buck the odds and to enter the TARDIS as a 'unique' companion, you should consider the possible consequences. The Doctor once took on a gun-toting security agent with questionable morals (Sara) and a Greek handmaiden from ancient times who thought he was a god (Katarina). They both died sudden and violent deaths. And one Liz Shaw, who made the mistake of showing herself to be his intellectual equal was packed off to Cambridge off-screen."

Another sad thing about Leela's exit was that she told the Doctor to his face that she will miss him and he shuts the TARDIS door and tells Leela that he will miss her to the inside of the door and she doesn't even hear it.

I've wondered if Tom Baker not really wanting to have the Leela character on board had anything to do with that less-than-touching final scene.

Can I add Sergeant Benton?

Ok not an exit from The Doctor but the show in general. Last seen lying on the floor of the space research centre having been ambushed by a couple of androids. No mention made afterwards, he could have been dead for all we knew!

What a way for such a long running character to go out!