The Time Of The Doctor (Grading/Discussion)(SPOILERS!)

[Mitty]

A nice tweet from Karen Gillan with Caitlin Blackwood, her real life cousin who played young Amelia She has grown up a bit, and is almost certainly much taller!

http://twitter.com/KarenGillan2/status/416243017113026560/photo/1

 

[Gov Kodos]

I also wonder, where Tasha Lem is concerned, whether it was written for River and Alex was unavailable...

Or whether Moffat was just unable to decide whether she was meant to be River or not.

Perhaps a DVD or interview will ask if Moffat had thought of making the 50th and the Christmas special a two parter then decided to separate them or was asked to by higher ups? The 50th was so blatantly set up to either bring back the Time Lords or start the search that spending so much time on Trenzalore and the Crack without that set up being resolved or moved on makes for a lot of the flatness. Too much time was spent on dealing with the Doctor getting past his 'last' regeneration. That was a sham problem which was always going to get solved, so this would have been more satisfying had they focused more on tying this back to the 50th.

 

[EnderAKH]

Maybe this has been mentioned before, but if Smith's Doctor had no more regenerations left, then how did he use the regenerative energy to heal River's wrist in The Angels Take Manhattan?

Or why was it such a big deal that the poisoned lipstick prevented regeneration in Let's Kill Hitler?

Well, it was never said that it did. All that was said was "regeneration disabled." It could have been disabled because he was out of regenerations.

No, he said, "Ok, so, basically better regenerate, that's what you're saying?" to which Amelia replies "Regeneration disabled." Why would he bring up regeneration as an option if he knows he's out?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I also wonder, where Tasha Lem is concerned, whether it was written for River and Alex was unavailable...

Ed Russell has, according to Gallifrey Base, said on Facebook that Alex was unavailable for the filming dates.

I admit a part of me wants to think that Alex was "unavailable" in the sense that she read the script and said, "No effing way."

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Or why was it such a big deal that the poisoned lipstick prevented regeneration in Let's Kill Hitler?

Well, it was never said that it did. All that was said was "regeneration disabled." It could have been disabled because he was out of regenerations.

No, he said, "Ok, so, basically better regenerate, that's what you're saying?" to which Amelia replies "Regeneration disabled." Why would he bring up regeneration as an option if he knows he's out?

Maybe he hadn't connected all the dots yet and didn't know it was out? It's not like they taught what happens if your regeneration energy gets fed into your spare hand in Time Lord health class.

 

[SeerSGB]

Well, it was never said that it did. All that was said was "regeneration disabled." It could have been disabled because he was out of regenerations.

No, he said, "Ok, so, basically better regenerate, that's what you're saying?" to which Amelia replies "Regeneration disabled." Why would he bring up regeneration as an option if he knows he's out?

Maybe he hadn't connected all the dots yet and didn't know it was out? It's not like they taught what happens if your regeneration energy gets fed into your spare hand in Time Lord health class.

Plus at that point he was still denying, even to himself, the existence of the War Doctor. So he probably wasn't thinking about or counting that regeneration.

 

[Mr Pointy Ears]

Didn't think much of it,i reckon the second half of season 7,the 50th and the xmas specials wernt as good,hope they get capaldi to drop his Scottish accent.

 

[Pauln6]

I enjoyed it but it didn't really hit enough of the right notes for me. Since the series began the worst elements of the new format were the Doctor being too smug, the plot being too rushed, and the absence of any real drama. I think this was a classic example of too many of those elements all at once. I was swept along by it but it didn't really involve me.

I've rather enjoyed Smith's run overall but I didn't feel emotionally involved in this episode at all. The absence of Alex Kingston may have had something to do with that, I suppose. The (not) return of the Time Lords is going to become very boring very quickly if they don't take it somewhere soon in the same way that using Daleks and Weeping Angels as throwaway villains who just turn up on a whim rather cheapens them as decent villains.

However, I did like the way they baked the number of regenerations into the plot and the cameos that we did get were very sweet.

 

[Skellington]

No, he said, "Ok, so, basically better regenerate, that's what you're saying?" to which Amelia replies "Regeneration disabled." Why would he bring up regeneration as an option if he knows he's out?

Maybe he hadn't connected all the dots yet and didn't know it was out? It's not like they taught what happens if your regeneration energy gets fed into your spare hand in Time Lord health class.

Plus at that point he was still denying, even to himself, the existence of the War Doctor. So he probably wasn't thinking about or counting that regeneration.

Alternatively, he thinks the Silence may be present and for some reason doesn't want them to know he's out.

 

[shivkala]

The people living on Trenzalore were established to be a human colony. It would only make sense, then, that they would celebrate Christmas. This was the case with "A Christmas Carol," as well.

It would ONLY make sense? How very ethnocentric of you.

Just because they appear human you don't think it weird that they celebrate Christmas because you do now? A celebration you just happen to know about because you were born in a specific time (and place) in human history.

Actually, I didn't celebrate it, being Jewish and all. About the only thing I was looking forward to yesterday was "The Time of the Doctor."

The TARDIS Data Core is where I got my information about the human colonists carrying Christmas with them into outer space"

When the human race colonised other worlds, Christmas came with them. On Ember, the first settlers there referred to it as "The Crystal Feast". (TV: A Christmas Carol)

They also make mention of the fact that Christmas was enough to draw space tourists aboard the Titanic.

Besides, The Doctor loves Christmas, I could see him spreading it throughout the universe. Not necessarily the religious aspect of it, but the aspect of it being about peace and thanksgiving, ah, who am I kidding, it's always about death and destruction with the Doctor around!

 

[Shawnster]

So, 11th was actually 13th, and mega-regenerating made capaldi 1st of another 13? Or was the 1st of 12 new regenerations spent making capaldi? (Which would make him the new 2nd )

Yes, this is my question (sorry, I'm on page 14). Is "a new regeneration cycle" or reset or whatever just 1 additional regeneration or is it a completely new cycle of 12?

 

[Captain_Amasov]

Or why was it such a big deal that the poisoned lipstick prevented regeneration in Let's Kill Hitler?

Well, it was never said that it did. All that was said was "regeneration disabled." It could have been disabled because he was out of regenerations.

No, he said, "Ok, so, basically better regenerate, that's what you're saying?" to which Amelia replies "Regeneration disabled." Why would he bring up regeneration as an option if he knows he's out?

Perhaps he was saying it out loud as a resignation of his fate. Because the only way to save himself, or indeed any Time Lord at that point, would be regeneration, which he knew he couldn't achieve.

 

[I am not Spock]

Frankly, I've never seen a Doctor Who thread where the posters weren't being nit-picky, myself included. Yay!

Or Star Trek either, for that matter!

 

[SeerSGB]

So, 11th was actually 13th, and mega-regenerating made capaldi 1st of another 13? Or was the 1st of 12 new regenerations spent making capaldi? (Which would make him the new 2nd )

Yes, this is my question (sorry, I'm on page 14). Is "a new regeneration cycle" or reset or whatever just 1 additional regeneration or is it a completely new cycle of 12?

Whole new cycle. He states that when he was saying go bye to Clara

 

[Guy Gardener]

We should have figured that out when he mentioned the seal of Rassilon acquired form t he Master in the Gallifreyan Death Zone halfway through the episode.

 

[1001001]

We just finished the episode.

I thought the ending was bit abrupt, but overall very good.

Matt Smith did a great job, I think. Tennant is still my favorite, but Smith brought a child-like charm and humor that we really enjoyed.

Lots of questions...is this a total reboot of The Doctor? Does he remember anything? Does he get a whole new set of regenerations?

A long wait to find out...

 

[Guy Gardener]

My post above yours.

The Master was offered a new 12 in the five Doctors.

That episode, was referenced in the Time of the Doctor.

 

[1001001]

My post above yours.

The Master was offered a new 12 in the five Doctors.

That episode, was referenced in the Time of the Doctor.

Well, that's how it seemed to me, but it didn't seem 100% clear.

Since he couldn't remember how to fly the TARDIS, I was thinking total reboot.

"Love from Gallifrey, Boys!"

 

[Awesome Possum]

My post above yours.

The Master was offered a new 12 in the five Doctors.

That episode, was referenced in the Time of the Doctor.

Well, that's how it seemed to me, but it didn't seem 100% clear.

Since he couldn't remember how to fly the TARDIS, I was thinking total reboot.

"Love from Gallifrey, Boys!"

He's had memory loss after regenerations before, they just haven't really done it in the new version. He recovers over the course of a story and gives an excuse to reintroduce the Doctor.

 

[kirk55555]

I thought this was a pretty good episode. The ending was pretty cool, and I liked the somewhat dramatic regeneration reveal, then the very abrupt finishing of the regeneration in the TARDIS (Capaldi has crazy eyes ). I'm assuming the "amnesia" is just temporary, since he was talking like he knew he had regenerated, so he knew at least what he is. If it wasn't just temporary that would be pretty lame, but I'm sure it is just for a little while. I liked Matt Smith pretty well, although not quite as much as 9 or 10. I'm excited to see what we het with Capaldi.