That's kind of turning into my new theory on future forms of the Doctor - by Capaldi he's used up all his new body energy or whatever BUT... he can still heal and inhabit a past form. Who knows they have talked about how since Capaldi was that father that the 10th Doctor saved in Pompeii that somehow that wouldn't be forgotten. So I'm thinking a) he can't regenerate completely anymore he can only take new forms of people he's met in the past - OR that's how it's been all along, everyone he's been is based on someone he's met or saved or failed or whatever - OR... he maybe can't regenerate into a new younger form, but he can regenerate into a new form entirely, just one that ages. So would this mean the end of young 20 something- 30 something Doctors? Or does he get the choice to 'look' older and thus chooses to regenerate into an older form as his last form because he knows its his last and it's only down hill from there, but knowing what he knew about Gallifrey he's forgiven himself, allowed himself to grow back up again, he's had his second childhood so to speak and his mid life metacrisis... so...
I'm kinda looking forward to seeing how they'll handle this in less than a month! I wasn't expecting what all happened in the 50th it happened totally unlike I was expecting so maybe they'll surprise us again.
I do hope they don't do an imposter Doctor - then that really doesn't work. And I do hope that Clara sticks around for a little while longer, at least another full series. I like her, she sort of inhabits the best of all his past companions from the modern run. The youth and perkiness of Rose, the intelligence and wit of Martha. The sassiness and don't take no crap from the Doctor-ness of Donna. The adventurous spirit of Amy. And I'd even say the bravery and dedication of Rory. Plus she's just so darn cute to look at. Definitely a great companion after Amy and Rory, keeps that 'let's go on an adventure' spirit yet still tempers it with 'hey I have a life y'know...' and I think after the Doctor's experiences with Amy and Rory that he has a new respect for that. So he's willing to drop her off - and oddly enough his TARDIS actually kinda goes to the right time now - maybe that's why it looks so different in the past half series - it finally "matured" after regenerating itself in Eleventh Hour. And after Doctor's Wife - we learned that the TARDIS herself had some role in controlling when and where the Doctor went. So maybe despite her not 'liking' Clara initially, knows the Doctor needs to arrive at certain points and places without diverting.
I'm kind of over the TARDIS being quirky like that and sending them to 1854 instead of 1954 or whatever and just going where they need to go. Plus I'm thinking after he lost the Ponds, he probably rejiggered the TARDIS so it could be flown properly by one pilot not 6. Plus it does seem to have lost some of it's more fanciful elements like the rubber mallet on a rope and the bike pumps and especially like the junkyard TARDIS all the random bits of crap - it matured like the Doctor matured.
Which in my long winded way is saying - I think Moffat has been about returning the Doctor to a more mature and more confident place. Much closer to say the 3rd and 4th Doctors - which given Moffat's age are probably the Doctors he most remembers from his youth as well with probably a smidge of Troughton - given how much of the 2nd Doctor's mannerisms and little tics that Matt Smith used - the double thumbs ups, the sorta clownish behavior, the fanciful TARDIS that almost seemed more than a little childlike. Plus the fact that from the Eleventh Hour onward the Doctor Dies has been his 'thing' much like the Post Time War Doctor/The Hero Doctor was RTD's thing. 11 had an expiration date stamped on his butt since the first day. Think about it, most of series 6 was all about his death. Then series 7 was mostly about mortality. The Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, the Ponds dying in Manhattan, the Dalek Asylum, just because the Doctor basically rebooted the Universe and fixed the cracks in space in Series 5 it was still about his end. This past series he meets Clara a girl who 'died' twice. They confront a lot of death really. A lot of ends. So I think yeah Christmas he'll "die" but I think at the same time, time being as wibbly wobbly as it is, they'll figure something out so that while yes, Trenzalore is his final resting place, somehow he can re-assume a form from that light show scar tissue. So maybe he can no longer regenerate but he can he take a physical form again as long as he returns to his "Corpse" on that far future Trenzalore. So maybe that's the new regeneration - instead of simply creating a light show where he is and turning into a new man, he needs to return to Trenzalore and pass through his temporal scar tissue and hope that he comes out with a new form. So maybe yes - Matt Smith is the last Doctor - but it's his scar tissue that forms future Doctors. Which maybe is what the regeneration energy was all along - it comes out of that rift energy he creates by time traveling, only it's internalized. So when he loses his physical form and becomes energy - which the other Time Lords were planning to do in End of Time - it's more a force of will to somehow pluck a form out of the time stream to have a physical body again.
Does that make sense? Instead of having it within him, it's external and he needs to return to Trenzalore to heal/regenerate
