Doctor Who 2013

[DC 536]

I would guess that it's a whole new cycle.

[BRM 220]

It was a brand new cycle.

[dsrchris 190]

I'm gonna feel a bit cheated unless we get a slightly better explanation than "regeneration dust through a crack in space time".

[ViciousPrism 177]

I figure it's the River Song Deus Ex Machina from Let's Kill Hitler. Time Lords passing on their regenerations onto The Doctor in much the same fashion, but amplified because it's pretty much Gallifrey doing so.

 

But it's not like in the old series they didn't do the same. The Time Lord council gave The Master extra regenerations.

[Evil Gringo 279]

I really liked the snap transformation into 12. Just throws his head back and BAMN! Capaldi! :lol

 

Jenna Coleman's face was priceless at that point, she actually looked like it had legit scared the crap out of her. Then again he had the eyes of Manson on him at the point so anyone would brick it lol

 

The problem with Doctor Who, when it comes to sending off current incarnations is they leave it to a special episode so there is so much hype, so much build and only so little time to actually do it. That was why we had the forced Christmas reference, the weird tone of the episode at the start, just everything having to crammed and fit into an episode.

 

What they should have done, if they had the guts to do was actually set the whole series and then finish with the special on the planet. Start with the Doctor discovering the crack and becoming trapped and then progress the series so that you see him age, you see him lose people, have a whole episode on his memories of Amy and Rory haunting him as well as River Song, an episode covering the infiltration of the Daleks and cliff hang that into the special.

 

The final episode would have been his last stand as he slowly begins to fade away and die with Clara making it back to say good bye and her final plea to save him (or she could have found another way to save him, like she did when she split herself into a billion pieces through time) before BOOM! Victory and then regeneration.

 

Also why can't they just pull the trigger on a Doctor and Companion romance? All the lust, the unrequited love, the posing as Girlfriend and Boyfriend but then the awkward barrier just shooting up and stopping it. They did the old c**k block with the Doctor and Rose, although they did it in a far less awkward way but with Clara and the Doctor you could tell there was a mutual attraction there but then they'd have both characters stop dead and not go any further or even make a case why it would be a bad idea, just a bloody great awkward pause and then carrying on with the story.

 

Shame to see Smith go out like that to be honest, it wasn't bad but it was built to be a whole lot better (and still better then Tennant's exit) - lets see what Capaldi can do with the run now. Although for a series that has made itself very open and friendly to children makes you would why they went with an actor who is known for being very intense and serious for a role?

[Guest Yodahew]

I watched this last night and i have to say much like the 50th anniversary ep i didnt like it. I have loved matt smith as the dr but his exit was terrible. He hid whilst all his foes fought each other? Thats not the dr who fought off them all at the pandorica! I still havent seen enough of capaldi to decide what sort of dr he will be. It all felt a bit rushed. I did enjoy all the nods to matts reign though.

[Guest Jamster26]

Just watched this back again, I loved Matt's speech after he received the new regeneration cycle, top notch stuff.

 

It seemed like Moffat was trying to fit too much into one show. They would have probably been better off splitting the final episode into two episodes, (which I think has been done in the past with Tennant's doctor?), just so we had more time to figure out what on earth was actually going on.

[Kam 243]

From Digital Spy:

 

BBC America achieved its highest-ever audience on Christmas Day, as 2.47m tuned in for this year's Doctor Who festive special.

 

'The Time of The Doctor' broke the US channel's ratings record that had only been set a month previously by Doctor Who's 50th anniversary special, which drew 2.4m viewers.

Good to see the show doing so well!