Yeah, it makes sense and it's refreshing, but people have been speculating and expecting based on the past that it would be at Christmas, so to reveal that it might not happen then in the trailer is disappointing.
There is a logic to the BBC advertising the regeneration now instead of leaving it for a surprise in June. As we're constantly reminded, the series' ratings have been in decline, at least in the UK, and the impending regeneration becomes a hook to draw lapsed fans back into the series.
If, indeed, there's a regeneration in June, a casting announcement may come sooner than I thought. I didn't think there would be one while the series was occurring and certainly not before. But maybe just before the finale airs? Or maybe, again, if it is a regeneration, then maybe it doesn't finish until the Christmas Special? And that's when we finally see Hayley Atwell?
I dunno, seems more like a Regeneration fake-out to me. Wouldn't be the first one. And is that Missy's TARDIS in a few of those shots?
True. "The Stolen Earth" is the prime example, and if I recall "The Angels Take Manhattan" correctly, that episode had the Doctor using some regeneration energy (which came from... where?) to heal River's arm. Yet, it's a good idea for the BBC to advertise a regeneration, even if it's a fake-out, just to get people to tune in. Between the declining ratings and the year off, the BBC needs to sell the audience on reasons to tune into Doctor Who.
It looks like he's reaching for one of those Timey message cubes from The War Games, and his hand is starting to go when it gets close- I suspect he'll then pull his hand back, but with the foreknowledge (for us, anyway) that he'll have to go through with whatever it does at Xmas.
More or less my thoughts. The most I'm willing to go on this is that maybe it's some sort of prologue for the premiere, where we see the Doctor start to regenerate, then we go back and start seeing the events leading up to this, which in this case will be the entire season, leading up to the actual regeneration at Christmas. This might help explain Moffat's recent moaning about Capaldi's departure being announced too early. Maybe he was hoping such a scene could be a genuine surprise for the audience and hook viewers for the whole season. It's important to remember, an early regeneration would mean the new Doctor is already cast, and there's no way BBC would keep that a secret.
Ugh... I really hope it's not a fake out (but I admit it does make sense). I'm really tired of the footloose and fancy-free handling of regenerations these days. I long for the days when a regeneration was just a moment when that incarnation of The Doctor dies. No grand build-ups, no fake outs, no over-the-top ridiculousness. Is that really so much to ask for?
Since they haven't cast the new Doctor yet, the only other way to do it would be have him start to go, energy comes out, flares to white- To be continued. Then at Xmas we start with "Three days earlier..." or something like that. In other words, pretty much Moffat's usual way of getting out of the inescapable timey-wimery cliffhanger.
But we do have thirteen weeks or so to find a new Doctor and film the regeneration. After all, didn't David Tennant film his bit long after Christopher Eccleston did his?
Yeah, he did. I know it'll never happen, especially after the roll-out and fanfare for Capaldi's announcement, but maybe, just maybe we'll get surprised...? Yeah, I know.
Maybe Twelve will start to regenerate at the end of the season, only for it to become evident that he's all out. This would be a callback to two scenes in season 8; the one in The Witch's Familiar where he uses up an unspecified (but surely considerable) amount of regeneration energy, and the one in Heaven Sent when he mentions that a dying Time Lord's body would try to regenerate even when none were left. Or maybe he's not regenerating but using the energy for something else.
Part of me hopes it's a fakeout, but a non Christmas regeneration would be a pleasant change. The trouble with the Doctor regenerating at the end of S10 is that it means the 13th Doctor's first story is a special, and as we saw in The Christmas Invasion that can mean the Doctor barely featuring for a large part of the episode and more importantly not being him(her)self right away. That's always assuming The Wormhole isn't right. Maybe S10 ends with the regeneration, then we get a Capaldi voice over "You're probably wondering how I got here..." What would be fab would be a secret (at the moment) idea for a multi Doctor Christmas special. I've said for ages that Three Wise Doctors (or something similar) would make a fab Christmas special. Capaldi, Smith and McGann would do nicely! (never going to happen I know!) Given how long Ten's regeneration seemed to take (long enough to visit every companion evah!) maybe it starts at the end of S10 and ends at the end of the Christmas special?
That wouldn't happen. The new Doctor will be the purview of Chibnal. If Capaldi does regenerate at the end of season 10 then either Chibnal will be writing the Christmas special, or, as has been intimated, the Christmas special will most likely be a flashback.
It just strikes me there is another option. Capaldi regenerates into Tilda Swinton, who's the Doctor for the Christmas special before being forced to regenerate into Kris Marshall who's Chibnall's choice