1. Is The Doctor Going To Regenerate Before The End of the Episode?
In the latest trailer for The Time of The Doctor, there's one snippet of dialogue that stuck out as particularly interesting. This line is more interesting than The Doctor's bold declaration of war against his enemies. For a brief moment, you hear a Dalek (in classically urgent fashion) exclaim, "The Doctor Is Regenerating". Traditionally, or at least more often than not, we've seen The Doctor regenerate at the end of whatever episode contained the event. We'd say goodbye to the current Doctor, get to say a quick hello to the new guy, and be left with a teasing first line for the wait between then and the next series premiere. But what if Moffat has the mad idea of regenerating The Doctor in the midst of this episode, during The Siege of Trenzalore? Think about it: The Doctor dares his enemies to, in modern language, "Come at him", and he takes a fatal hit causing him to explode in a brilliant burst of energy mid-battle. The Doctor uses his regeneration energy as a weapon to take out some of his enemies, and what starts as Matt Smith crushing his enemies with great might soon turns into Peter Capaldi picking a secondary weapon and finishing the job. The Doctor, establishing himself as a massive threat to those against him, stands strong and warns his enemies that while he won't be looking for trouble, he'll most certainly cause it when he has to. (Or, in an alternate, darker ending, turns into The Valeyard and lays waste to all of them with an evil smile on his face.) Whatever the case, it should be suggested that Eleven's regeneration not retread the sad route that Ten's regeneration already covered. A Doctor ruing his lot in life, breaking down into tears, and revisiting his old companions was pretty novel when it was done back in 2010. To revisit it again would be to ruin the emotional punch it had the first time around. (Which is exactly what happened when Russell T. Davies brought Rose back in Series 4.) The Eleventh Doctor deserves to have a big sendoff of proportions that have been set up as epic from the first whisper of "The Fall of The Eleventh". Please, for the love of Gallifrey, don't spoil this Moffat!
Mike Reyes may or may not be a Time Lord, but he's definitely the Doctor Who editor here at What Culture. In addition to his work at What Culture, Mr. Reyes writes for Cocktails and Movies, as well as his own personal blogs Mr. Controversy and The Bookish Kind. On top of that, he's also got a couple Short Stories and Novels in various states of completion, like any good writer worth their salt. He resides in New Jersey, and compiles his work from all publications on his Facebook page.
