Doctor Who: 10 Beautiful Things About 'The Time Of The Doctor'

3. The Doctor Finally Grew Up

He'll be known as the young Doctor, despite living to be older than all the others; all the others combined maybe, he's lost count. Even the lasting image of Matt Smith in 'The Time of the Doctor' will be of a 30-year-old regenerating, and not the older, prosthetics-aided Doctor that withered on Trenzalore. But the centuries that elapsed over this hour-long episode are actually irrelevant: this is the story when the Doctor finally grew up after three whole series. He wished he didn't run out on the people he cared about, and here, for once he didn't. He stayed in Christmas, but more significantly than that, he turned around a huge part of his character. He's the Doctor who doesn't like endings; he sulked on a cloud because of an ending. And yet, he stood there, in the TARDIS, accepting his fate, and knowing that as long as he remembers his story, it doesn't matter if it's the end. Just as long as he makes it a good one.