When my brother and I were working our way through the Doctor Who new series to catch up to Season 5 (which we watched with the rest of the world, finally), illegally I might add, some episodes were missing. Recently I discovered the magic of Netflix Watch it Now, and at the same time realized that seasons 1-4 are available for it. So I watched them all, again, discovering three new episodes we’d missed the first time around. But more importantly, I finally watched the two-part episode that led up to the Matt Smith regeneration.
Since I hadn’t seen The End of Time before, I just gathered what I could from other people who had. David Tennant has an epic adventure and then regenerates in front of some Ood (or something like that). I didn’t really care- the start of the Matt Smith era was so phenomenal I sort of forgot about what happened to everyone’s favorite 10th Doctor.
But now I can’t, and it’s haunting me. So for his last two episodes, The Master is somehow revived and figures out a way to turn everyone on Earth into himself, because his regenerated body is dying. The something happens with his drum beat and the Time Lords and at the very end he sacrifices himself to save David Tennant. At the end of that adventure, David Tennant goes around looking in on his friends from the first four seasons. He destroys something that was chasing Mickey and Martha (now married… which I didn’t like at all), saves Sarah Jane’s son from being run over by a car, presents a winning lotto ticket to Donna’s grandfather as a wedding gift (yeah Donna’s getting married again), and goes and sees Rose on New Years the year before they met, when she’s still in that universe. He did it all with a very somber look on his face (except, of course, when he goes to see Rose, but that’s another story entirely).
There were several conversations during this episode with David Tennant and other characters about regeneration. The Ood have predicted that the “Doctor’s song will end soon”, and most people interpret this as him dying. During an episode that aired just before this two part series, The Next Doctor, Tennant discusses the possibility with another character that he’s not actually going to die, he’s just going to have to regenerate.
But, as Tennant quotes, “I can still die. If I’m killed before regeneration, then I’m dead. Even then, even if I change, it feels like dying. Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away… and I’m dead.”
Christopher Eccleston, the 9th Doctor, never had this kind of an issue with regeneration. Granted, he’s sort of rushed into it, but as he explains it to Rose, he’s just changing his face, not his entire person. And he’s not too broken up about it anyways.
And this is where I have the biggest problem with the finale of the Tennant era. The 10th Doctor makes it very clear he doesn’t want to regenerate. At all. And that he’s terrified of doing it. But that’s not even the worst part. The worst part is the last two minutes of the episode, the regeneration scene. Right as his hands start glowing, Tennant looks up at the camera, eyes wide and wet with sadness and fear.
“I don’t want to go” are his final words, and then there’s Matt Smith, jumping around like a lunatic in his dad’s suit. Matt Smith does a tremendous job with such a sudden and no doubt stressful last minute of the episode. But even I, who love Matt Smith and the latest series, couldn’t help but feel this bubble of hatred for him.
You killed David Tennant! I think. And then I remember two things. 1, it’s just a TV show and no one’s killing anyone, and 2, I’m being irrational because I still love both Doctors.
But you can’t blame me for my reaction. That was the most horrible way to end the Tennant era ever. The writers knew Tennant has been one of the favorite Doctors of all time, and that everyone was broken up over his leaving. But it had to happen, and something had to be written. To me, though, it sounded like the writers were trying to screw Matt Smith over before he even got there. They didn’t set him up for success at all. Essentially, it’s written as though Matt Smith is some goofy intruder into the otherwise happy life of poor dead David Tennant, and that poor dead David Tennant finds him extremely unwelcome, even though technically he’s still the same person.
I think a better final line would have been something like “allons-y” with a classic Tennant half-smile as his head whips back to regenerate. (allons-y is French for “let’s go”, and it’s a line Tennant uses almost every episode of his three season run) Because that would have been the right flavor of bittersweet- it’s bitter because everyone loves David Tennant and he has to change, but it’s sweet because he accepts it and is almost a little excited about what the future has in store, because hey, at least he has a future.
In all, I still love David Tennant, but Matt Smith has been incredible, and although his start on the series was anything but fair, he’s been a great sport and I can’t wait for April, when the new season (series 6) begins.
