Had it gone fully through on the clock tower it would have been brilliant. The Doctor becoming a new man whilst actually in the process of defeating daleks. What we got was something which was a blink and miss it change looking pathetic compared to the grand regenerations we'd become accustomed to since 2005.

The only purpose of that regeneration happening as it did seemed to be that they wanted to make him an old man for the episode, but then for some unfathomable reason thought that viewers wouldn't be able to handle seeing him regenerate whilst looking any different to usual, so felt that they had to shoehorn in a reason for him to go back to normal before changing. Then they'd already used the showy, impressive regeneration stuff for the clock tower scene so couldn't make the actual regeneration as impressive, all for the sake of him having to change twice. It's almost as if they were exclusively pandering to the part of the audience who make fan video's that they were so certain he had to look the same for the regeneration. To me it diminished the whole idea of him having grown old at all.

Totally agree with the above. One of the worst regeneration sequences ever. Even the war games one was better!! Moffatt seems to come up with these ideas that he thinks are wonderful and unique but just end up being naff!! I feel so sorry for Matt. What an anti climatic way to end his era.

It does seem that Mr. Moffat wanted to be the one to address the 13th regeneration. As you say it did feel contrived, almost crow barred in, and for me the regeneration question really should have been Matt Smith's Doctor's quest from the off, it should have been his 'Last of the Timelords' character arc. We the viewer should have been along on that ride, his own search for answers and how to get more regenerations, all played out over 3 series. But far too much importance was placed on mysterious companion arcs (Amy/River/Clara) leaving 11 with very little purpose other than being a passenger, with the obligatorily 'Hmmm who is that strange girl' final add on scene and random mentions of Trenzalore.



The whole Tenzalore placements through out the series fell flat and failed to raise any excitement or spark of interest in this viewer. I found myself not caring how it would all pan out. Just as well, as I would have been disappointed with a little skirmish in a backwater town called Christmas on Trenzalore. One thing I had learnt from series 5/6 is not to invest too much hope in Mr. Moffats arcs actually paying off.

So whilst I liked the spectacle of 11's regeneration, the road there was rather tepid I must say. As for the Timlords just chucking a new Regeneration cycle from the heavens....hmmmm...well. Any other writer.

Thought the Tardis scene was brilliant (apart from the breath on a mirror line), very well acted by Smith, Coleman and Gillan and the score was breath taking.

I thought the change from 11 to 12 was poor, if I'm honest. Just a quick flick back of the head, and wham! Along came Peter Capaldi.

Could've been thought out better. I thought the regeneration from the Tenth Doctor to the Eleventh Doctor was better, as was the move from the Ninth Doctor to the Tenth.

Also, I thought The War Doctor's regeneration was ok, but nothing more than that. We didn't get to see enough of Christopher Eccleston for that one to be in any way excellent and memorable. Shame Chris didn't want to appear in the anniversary special.

It seems as though Chris doesn't want to be involved with anything to do with Doctor Who, anymore. I remember Tom Baker was the same for years. Didn't appear in the Five Doctors, so a couple of clips from the unfinished and unbroadcast story Shada were used. It was only when the BBC decided to put Shada onto vhs, that Tom decided to be involved. So he recorded some bits for the beginning of the Shada tape.

How can 11 have both the largest yet smallest regeneration at the same time?

It seems Steven Moffat can write some really good stories, but also write some quite crap ones too! Two examples of this I think, are: Silence In The Library/Forest of the Dead being the good one, and the Bells of Saint John being a poor one.

Sadly it seems they are getting worse as they go along. Eccleston to tennant was the best, it was an intricately detailed change where we saw the features transform and the Tennant hair flop up. Then came the Tennant to smith regeneration which was a brilliant scene but the actual regeneration moment itself was just a quick all at once morph. Then with Tennant to Capaldi they just couldn't be bothered at all.

Whoops. obviously meant to say Smith to Capaldi on this line. Know most people would know what I meant but also know someone was bound to call me on it, so I've done it myself. That's what happens when your a bit tired and writing a post about multiple doctors.

Personally liked the BAM! IT'S CAPALDI! moment (said before on here, it reminded me of Peter D to Colin) and think it was an artistic choice rather than the production team not being bothered. Or, should I say in honour of the brilliant Ms Tate, bovvered....

Uh... Can't you say that about every writer ever? ^^'

Regeneration is a great idea which has suffered from terrible execution over the years.

In the old days they tended to be ridiculously underplayed and mundane (Tom suffering a bad fall, McCoy getting shot).

And more recently they have been ludicrously overplayed and bombstic (Tennant's farewell being a never to be repeated nadir).

Matt's was more at the bombastic end and that whole episode was really disappointing.

Basically I hope they opt for something more straightforward for Capaldi when his time comes. Why can't the Doctor just get shot by a Dalek while riding to the rescue rather than all this 'tap, tap, tap' or 'I've run out of bat milk' nonsense.

You think the Doctor unconvincingly falling of a satellite dish is better than the Doctor sacrificing himself to save Peri?

I disagree

Where the hell was the regen energy.

I wouldnt go that far. he has been a terrible writer at times. Sure he had a good story in Blink but Day was terrible and he just couldnt write a decent multi doctor story. Fans rave on how its the best story ever made but all it was about tennent/smith comparing their virtual knobs i mean screwdrivers how big they were.

Honestly 3 doctors was a better story.

Yep, that's all they did. After the first scene when they actually did that.


This

regeneration

energy

yeah?

You can't seriously be that foolish to dull the story down to a fan pleasing scene which has been joked about since 2010, surely? Wow.

You know, The Doctor hasn't received a new regeneration cycle before. Perhaps this is just how it works. 9-10-11 set some kind of precedent for the regeneration scene which apparently cannot be changed now as it has been used for other characters too. But I don't see why not.

Just because the CGI is fancier now doesn't mean they can't change an effect - as it was changed repeatedly all the way up to Eccleston's regeneration. Doctor Who hardly tries to set the bar for continuity. Watching reactions to Time of The Doctor usually results in the same look of shock as Capaldi suddenly appears with a deadly stare.

The same look of shock as his first appearance. Only with more tears.

All the fangirls went on about david tennant this , david tennant that! All they did was just walk and talk the whole time and it was soooooooooooooooooo BORING!

There was no action pace. Where were the daleks? (Not by shown in the time war but elsewhere), where was the Master.

Sorry but it was a shit anniversary story. So many things were missing, namely Doctors 1 - 3 via CGI & 5 - 8 as well as a stack of villans and monsters that should be in a massive story thats joined forces that requires all doctors to stop.

It was a huge letdown and just showed Moffatt is a terrible writer. He has had good stories in the past but this wasent one of them.

I didn't care for it at all. First of all, Moffat forced the resolution of the regeneration limit a lot sooner than it needed to be simply so that he could be the one to address it. And so if he was going to mess things up by "discovering" unknown regenerations, etc., the least he could have done is come up with a really good, creative resolution to the regeneration limit.

Instead, what happens? The Time Lords mysteriously appear behind the crack. Well, that's certainly convenient. And then Clara appeals to the Time Lords' love for the Doctor to get their help (!). Apparently when Clara was busy "saving" the Doctor in "Arc of Infinity", she failed to take notes.

Also, the scene where the Doctor opens his mouth and swallows the regeneration energy brings to mind the image of some elderly person who is unable to feed himself and has just been fed a teaspoon of applesauce.

And then finally, there is the matter of the Doctor's regenerations becoming so powerful. What's next? When the Capaldi Doctor eventually regenerates, does his regeneration blow up an entire planet? Is the Doctor now a superhero? Perhaps he should join the Justice League.

That sounds awful. I'd much rather have something solved with logic and cleverness than action, and I don't need all the Doctors teaming up to stop all the bad guys, that sounds terrible. I loved that the anniversary was about changing a major event in the show, about showing the Doctor discovering something about himself, I much preferred that to lots of Daleks and Cybermen and Sontarans and Silurians and Weeping Angels etc all appearing at once and needing all the Doctors. Hell, he never needed all of them to stop them in The Big Bang etc, why now?

Ultimately we'd been saying for years as fans that "all it would take would be Time Lords granting him a new cycle during the Time War" or saying that "they're not around so the limit doesn't apply". Well that's what we got, and it works logically that they'd be the way around it.


Alright, it wasn't their love that did it, but they realised that if he dies they're stuck so oh shit better help him for now.


We've seen them exhailing regeneration energy post regeneration, so inhailing it was logical enough for me.


10-11 was more powerful because he absorbed loads of radiation and held back the regeneration for hours rather than just getting on with it.

11-12 was more powerful again because it was a whole new cycle so endless energy.

12-13 will probably be more restrained again, more of a standard regeneration like we saw for 9-10 or 10-10.5 or Mels-River.

If you had a load of baddies joining forces to destroy the doctor then logically if there is no help he would need to ask his other selves to help him out.

Big Bang was just lazy! It could have been written better which is something new series writers lack!

"Joining forces to destroy the Doctor" is not really a plot, though, is it?

Smiths was too long winded. just like Tennant's.

Why can't we just have a doctor that changes into another without the dramatics? Regenaration is like child birth. Themost natural thing for time lords!

Maybe there were some people gutted and were tearful when Smith and Tennant regenarated, I remember seeing Baker and Davison regenarate and thinking there was more of an impact because they were more sudden.