If you were in charge of doctor who and you had to write Matt Smith's swan-song, what would you do for the episode? Would you use old or new villains? what pace would you go with it? Would you make it a huge celebration of Smith's era, or just a standard one? Discuss! _____________________________________________________ For me, I'd have a classic villain. If Idris Elba was ever the doctor and I was writing his last episode. I'd do a Dalek invasion of Earth. Full on. It's be based on 28 Weeks Later, but basically with Daleks instead. Not sure how that'd translate with Smith though. Maybe I'd bring back the Timelords for good this time. I like using the Master, but I feel he'd been over-used in regeneration stories (Keeper of Traken/Logopilis/Castravava, The Trial of a Timelord: the Ultimate Foe, the 1996 movie, and the End of Time). However although the Daleks are the most famous enemies, they've only been used once in a regenerations story, and that's Ecclestons Parting of ways and Bad wolf (you could also count Troughtons first episode though). Maybe I'd revisit the Asylum of the Daleks concept, but do it properly this time by Making it a milestone for doctor who. Could use the cybermen again, only used in the tenth planet and would honour the fiftieth anniversary well by using the same villains as were used in the first regeneration story.
I think I'd have it be a River-centric episode, where she sees the end of his life (much like he saw her die in The Library). Make it the last River episode ever. I know she's probably traveled around with future Doctor's but to me her story will be forever tied to the Eleventh Doctor, so even though she knows other Doctors, we don't necessarily need to see it. I'd even mix things up and make it a quieter, more character-driven story. Lay off the sonic screwdriver and the running and the big monsters. Make it more personal.
Oh, that's easy ... The Doctor, Captain Jack, Rory, Alonso, Ross Jenkins, Doctor 10.5, and 60s-era Jamie decide to get together and make gay porn. Ok, ok, it "probably" won't happen ... but we never know!
I wouldn't have a River centric episode, but maybe she should be in it. Why not make her the dominant companion for a couple of episodes and dump Clara off at home for a few episodes like Martha, but she'd go back to being the main companion after. It'd be fun to see Clara's reaction to the doctor changing. And yeah, I'd make it the last River episode. What I'd like to do to make sure she'd not come back is make it so she's wearing her space suit she did in the 10th doctor story and she reveals "I'm going on a mission for a while, we'll see each other again" although the doctor knows he won't, which would bring in a nice tragic element to the episode. But I wouldn't have a quiet one. It'd be a big episode. Maybe we'd see the origin of the real cybermen, I'd love to see an episode of doctor who one day where we see the cybermen before and after their transformation into cybermen. We'd get to see the old cloth face ones again, but they'd have to make it more realistic by making the human hands sort of greenish so we know there's no blood flow, and there'd be like small fragments of blood on their cloth faces left over from operating. Maybe that'd serve as a great regeneration episode. I know the title would be parodying, but Genesis of the Cybermen would work as the title. I wouldn't want her to know any of the other doctors. I'd like it to remain that it's just 11 and at the end of her life, 10 that she knew.
I do like the idea of having a kind of "closing arc" for River. Give her a string of 3 or 4 episodes where she is the only companion, and then end her story.
I'd be tempted to make it small scale, more Androzani less The End of Time and ooh aren't I brilliant! No giant Dalek invasions, no farewell tour, no saving the Universe. I'd have 11 sacrifice himself to save a single child, I think that'd sum up Smith's tenure rather well.
9 sacrificed himself to save Rose. 5 sacrificed himself to save Peri. It could happen again. I still like my idea better.
I'm tired of the whole River thing we don't need anymore from her. The 11th Doctor had 200 years to travel on and off again with her we really don't need anymore. Hopefully when 11 leaves, Moffet will to and we can go in a new direction with 12.
I'm actually tired of seeing the regeneration. Hold a couple of Matt Smith episodes in reserve and just start airing the next Doctor's episodes without any explanation. Hit the ground running with a new Doctor and a new companion and none of the usual Regeneration tropes. Then, air one of the Smith episodes. Maybe it has a few teases about Eleven facing something big. Then, back to Twelve. Keep going like this for at least a year. This keeps the formula fresh, the audiences buzzing, and the Doctor's age unknown. Then reveal we haven't been watching Twelve at all. It was the Thirteenth Doctor!
So when the Doctor told him to "Get a girlfriend," I guess "GIRLFRIEND" was in really big, euphemistic quotation marks. Personally, I would like River to continue beyond the 11th Doctor's tenure. I think that she & Jack should be like the new version of the Brigadier, a character that runs into nearly every version of the Doctor at some point or other. I don't quite know how to end Smith's tenure. I imagine it ending with a planet exploding and the Doctor & River escaping in the TARDIS at the last minute. But, generally, I think it should be more low-key & quirky than "The End of Time," just as Smith was more low-key & quirky compared to Tennant.
I'd have a big action-y run-around that only makes a little bit of sense, once you stop and think about it. But it would include: -- Prisoner Zero, who has been causing trouble for the Doctor in the shadoes since Series 5. He's the one to ask the question, which makes him the evilest creature in the universe. -- The Silence. They'll make one last conentrated effort at stopping the Doctor; Also that one eye-patch lady chick appears in a flashback. -- Strax, Jenny, Lady Vastra, and River Song are involved in the story -- Rory's dad would also help the Doctor, to represent the Pond era -- The Doctor would die because he refuses to answer the question, and then the Silence kill Prisoner Zero while he's in the throes of regeneration. -- the 12th Doctor's regeneration line/entrance would have him stand up and ask, "What was the question again?" and that plotpoint would be forgotten for the rest of the series.
No because the Doctor sacrificed himself to save Wilf after saving the Universe/Multiverse/All of time itself...having to save Wilf was a direct result of saving all of reality, or something. Compare that with Androzani where the Doctor's entire motivation throughout the story is just saving Peri.
I would like to see something we haven't seen before. I still like the idea of a de-generation where the Doctor is poisoned and starts reverting through his past incarnations; and the price of the cure is that the Matt Smith Doctor has to die and regenerate into 12.
I hear you. BUT, 10 could've walked away, Wilf wanted him to walk away. Ultimately, because of who he is, he sacrificed himself to save a single person. That was the point of that moment. Yes, there was lots and lots of noise before that moment. But, saving Wilf was a quiet moment. Which is what I see in your idea.