3. The Big Finish Elements Have Been Canonized!
As a fan of the Big Finish audios, I can't tell you how happy I am to have this wonderful moment. Every single companion he mentions, the ones he apologizes to and salutes, were creations of Big Finish, where all of them became important parts of Doctor Who history. I'm so pleased about this! We'll never get to see Lucie Miller or Charley Pollard on the TV show, but at least they got a shout-out by the Doctor during his last moments. I also loved the fact that this Doctor's last thoughts were of his companions. This is very reminiscent of the Fifth Doctor's last moments; lying in the TARDIS as the images of his friends swirled around his head, with his last word being "Adric". It was a nice touch and a wonderful bit of continuity. Slightly less in importance is the return of the Sisterhood of the Flame. Now they were introduced in the Fourth Doctor story "The Brain of Morbius", but Big Finish really used the heck out of them at one point. As a result, they became a fairly big part of the 8th Doctor's personal canon, and I'm very pleased to see them back.