Capaldi Already Filmed Regeneration

Despite not leaving until the unfilmed Christmas special, Peter Capaldi claims to have already filmed the 12th Doctor's death, saying, "I did it the other day. It was a strange day. It was explosive. He goes out a fighter." How this will play out remains to be seen. There could be a David Tennant-style thing where he holds the regeneration in for a long time. Or perhaps the regeneration is stopped by something, only for him to get killed again in the next episode.

Listen Review

There has been some debate as to whether there was actually a monster in this episode. If there was something in the TARDIS, it could easily have been a Silent. The Doctor would have seen the Silent pick up the chalk and write, but then immediately forgotten about it. It's the same with the guy in the children's home and the TV/coffee. Remember in series 6 when the Silence were in control of that home where Melody lived? It seems eerily similar.

One question I have, and I'll chalk this up to a continuity error on the part of the BBC, is why was Orson wearing a space suit from Sanctuary Base 6. If you don't remember SB6 is the space base on the planetoid in orbit around a black hole that was seen in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit. The exact time period those episodes took place in isn't given, but based on the Ood involvement, it can't be any earlier than the 40th century. The Doctor said Orson was from 100 years in Clara's future, so there's no way he could have gotten a space suit from that time period. Also, in The Waters of Mars (which takes place in 2059) Steffi Ehrlich said she had "never seen anything like it" in reference to the Doctor's space suit that he got from SB6.

So this episode was technically a multi-Doctor story what with appearance of the first Doctor as a child. Now if you're wondering if this really was a younger version of William Hartnell's Doctor, in The Five Doctors, Peter Davison's Doctor confirms that he is indeed the fifth. Also, in either The Three Doctors or The Five Doctors (I forget which) William Hartnell's Doctor claims that he is the original. However, in The Lodger, Matt Smith's Doctor claims to be on his eleventh face, so this may not stop Steven Moffat. The thing is, creating an extra past Doctor is only a good trick once. Moffat would probably face a lot of criticism if he tried to pull it again.

Now, the Doctor seems to think that Orson had some connection to Clara's life. Before anyone goes saying he's Clara and Danny's great-grandchild, I just want to point out that <SPOILER>Danny gets turned into a Cyberman in the finale</SPOILER>. The connection is more likely through the toy soldier and Clara's interaction with it earlier in the episode. However, I may just be saying this because I refuse to ship Clara with anyone other than myself.

Moffat on Hurt Regeneration

In the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Steven Moffat explained why John Hurt's regeneration did not include Christopher Eccleston

It was one thing to include [Eccleston] among all the other archive Doctors, as they flew in to save the day -- in fact, it would have been disgraceful to have left anyone out -- but placing him in that scene might have given the impression he’d actually turned up for filming, which would have been crossing the line.

Not taking part in the 50th was a difficult decision for Chris, taken after a lot of thought and with great courtesy, and not respecting his wishes would have been grossly unprofessional and disrespectful to a good man and a great Doctor. Number 9 may not have turned up for the celebrations, but there would have been no party without him.

Via

The Time of the Doctor Review

Here is my review of this year's Christmas special, starring Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman, and Peter Capaldi, written by Steven Moffat, and directed by Jamie Payne.

I'm glad they addressed the issue with the telephone I mentioned in my last review. Normally, the phone is supposed to go through the console; the one in the door is just a pretend phone. Hopefully, the Doctor will have this fixed by the time the next season comes around. Although, with a regeneration like this, we're likely to pick up where we left off, so it might not be fixed for a few episodes.

I am satisfied some of the explanation for series 5 and 6. Madame Kovarian's offshoot blew up the TARDIS so that it created the cracks. By having the Doctor be responsible for the creation of the cracks, he was part of their history, and therefore couldn't alter it and simply close the crack at Trenzalore. I'm still not sure I understand why they thought River and the astronaut suit was a good way to kill the Doctor. I mean, if they can build the suit, then surely they can turn it into an android with no need for an operator. The only explanation that makes sense is if they used her to hurt the Doctor emotionally by taking away his friend's baby.

One thing I don't understand is how the crack can still be here if the Doctor fixed them all. All the cracks in series 5 seemed to have one of two places on the other side: either a random other point in space-time or the collapsing reality of The Big Bang. I'm guessing that on the other side of this particular crack is a parallel universe where the cracks still exist. The Time Lords are able to manipulate the crack in order to get the other side to point wherever they want, in this case, the Doctor's universe.

This episode raises an interesting question regarding Clara's existence. Now that the Doctor's grave is no longer on Trenzalore, then Clara could never have jumped into his timestream in The Name of the Doctor. That means that the Doctor could never have met her at the Asylum or Victorian London. That of course, raises the question of how they met in the first place and how Clara could be at Trenzalore now. I'm guessing that time rewrote so that they still met each other, but some other way, and they remember both versions of history.

Clara now knows the Doctor better than most companions. She's met more than one of his regenerations, including the one he never talks about. She knows his name and what really happened on the last day of the Time War. Plus, she's seen him naked. Now, they're only the question of whether he accidentally saw her naked when she changed into the hologram clothes. Also, can you feel holograms? Because they were doing an awful lot of hugging while naked.

One thing we've learned about Clara in this episode is that she's been misusing time travel. She's gotten the Doctor to get her there on time when she's been late to a variety of things. Apparently, Clara even calls the Doctor when she's missed her favorite shows on TV and can't be bothered to use iPlayer. This adventure with the turkey clearly isn't the first time she's called him to help.

I was actually expecting the ending to be a little different. I thought that when Clara walked into the TARDIS, she would find Peter Capaldi already there. Instead, Moffat decided to use the same ploy as in The End of Time and The Angels Take Manhattan and give us a false happy ending where Matt is standing there all young again. The key giveaway is that there's too much time left in the episode.

Matt Smith and David Tennant on Regeneration

Matt and David talk about regeneration in this Doctor Who Insider from BBC America.

Who John Hurt Really Plays

I posted in this article about John Hurt possibly playing the Valeyard, but we now know that not to be true. The Valeyard was artificially created as an amalgamation of the Doctor's dark side. John Hurt's character isn't an artificial creation, he's just another regeneration of the character we all know and love. Also, the Valeyard was created between the Doctor's twelfth and final regenerations, meaning the Doctor hasn't properly met him yet. But the current Doctor seems to already be familiar with everything the John Hurt character did, suggesting he's already lived through that regeneration.

The current Doctor stated that taking the name "Doctor" is like a promise, and that the John Hurt character somehow broke that promise. The only question is, what did he do to break that promise? It was more than likely something involving the Time War (seeing as the only place we could have an extra Doctor is between McGann & Eccleston, during the war), but it could be anything really. If this were Davies, everything would relate back to the Time War, and this would probably be true, but this is Moffat. Moffat is likely to throw us a curveball, he could have done anything, really.

I'm really thinking that this promise is some sort of promise that all Time Lords and Ladies have to take, probably the promise not to interfere. We've already seen the Doctor interfere many times, and even get put on trial for it. He always managed to justify his interference by claiming to be saving innocent lives. Well, perhaps this regeneration killed innocents. He claimed to be doing it "in the name of peace and sanity," but the Matt Smith Doctor seems to think that it was a despicable act. He agrees with the motives, but claims it is something the Doctor would never do.

Regeneration DVD Set

A DVD boxset containing all ten of the Doctor's regenerations is being released on June 24th. It comes with a set of six DVDs, a limited-edition book, and an advance release of The Tenth Planet.

The first regeneration story, The Tenth Planet, has had its fourth part beautifully restored in animated form and will not otherwise be released until this fall. The book is adorned with photography and behind-the-scenes info on each of the stories from William Hartnell to David Tennant.

A list of the stories in the boxset includes The Tenth Planet, The War Games, Planet of the Spiders, Logopolis, The Caves of Androzani, Time and the Rani, Doctor Who: The Movie, Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, and The End of Time.

The item is currently available for pre-order here.

The Very First Regeneration, Animated

Doctorwho.tv has released a sneak-preview of the animation of the first Doctor classic, The Tenth Planet. One of the episodes lost to history, The Tenth Planet sees the Doctor regenerate for the first time, one of the only scenes still surviving. The story has now been brought back in animation form, to be released on DVD later in the year.

What if Jenna-Louise is going to play Amy's next regeneration?

So, what if Amy is actually the Doctor's and Romana's daughter? Maybe the Doctor got Romana pregnant, and she ran off to Earth before the Time Lock engaged. Romana then used the chameleon arch in her TARDIS to turn herself into a human. The chameleon arch had no effect on the unborn baby, allowing Amy to have regenerative capabilities. This could explain Amy's memory abilities and River Song's Time Lady traits. Also, the reason no one ever noticed this is because Amy has always had perfect health, so she was never taken in to a doctor's office.

Matt Smith's Reign as the Doctor

So if David Tennant's length of stay as the Doctor is going to be the standard for the new series (4 years), Matt Smith should be around until 2014. On the other hand, they might cut it a bit short and have him go out in the 50th Anniversary Special (that post earlier saying he would was an April Fool's joke), though they've never had a regeneration on an anniversary before. One reason it might be longer than four years is if they decide not to get rid of the 12-regeneration limit, but want to keep the show around as long as possible before that. I can't imagine them ever wanting to kill the show, this time permanently. I think they're going to try and find a way of making 507 the new limit.