Why the 10th Doctor Didn't Want To Go.

“I don’t want to go.”

Famously these were the final words of the 10^th Doctor before his regeneration into incarnation 11, and they’ve never really set well with me.  When 9 turned into 10, he had a good speech, praising his companion and setting up the new series.  When 11 turned into 12, he had a really good speech, one that reflected on the changes life brings.

But then there is 10.  I love 10, I really do, David Tennant is a phenomenal actor and brought so much to this role.  But there’s still that nagging little line, the final words spoken by someone who had contributed so much to the role.  Why would they do him like that?

Then I remembered something.  When I got into Dr. Who, I dove in head first.  9 was my first Doctor, but I went back and I absorbed everything I could about the character.  I wouldn’t get something close to an answer, however, until Matt Smith was getting ready to depart.  In that episode, it was revealed that the Doctor had actually used up all his regenerations.  Prior to this, we met the “War Doctor”, the actual 9^th incarnation, which made 9 actually 10, and 10 was actually 11.  So that meant that Matt Smith played the 12^th version of the Doctor, right?

Nope, in 10’s story “Journey’s End” we see him about to regenerate after getting blasted by a dalek.  He regenerates just enough to heal the damage, but then pumps the rest of that regeneration into his severed hand, which later becomes a new version of the 10^th Doctor.  11 explains in his final turn that THIS was his 12th incarnation, making Matt Smith the 13^th version of the Doctor.  It was explained much earlier in the series that Time Lords get 12 regenerations, so this was it…this was the last of the Doctors.

So, going back to 10’s line “I don’t want to go.”  Why would he say that?  Was it because he knew he was about to change into his final version, that there were no more continues to the video game he called a life?

To understand his real fear, we need to go back to the 6^th Doctor’s run, and his episode “The Mysterious Planet”.  In this storyline, he meets a character called the Valeyard, who causes him no end of frustration.  He soon discovers that the Valeyard is in fact a version of the Doctor, a culmination of all the darkness in the Doctor’s soul given physical form, and set to appear between his 12^th and final incarnation.

When 10 (actually 11) sent that regeneration energy into the hand, he created a hybrid creature, half Time Lord, half human, and it was the 12^th incarnation, like we just discussed.  But he had no ability to regenerate, which means that if the Valeyard was going to come, this evil creature was going to manifest, it was going to be from 10.  If you follow the logic that Time Lords get 12 regenerations and the 12^th incarnation can’t regenerate, that meant that 11 would have to become the Valeyard.  The dialog said that he appeared between his 12^th and final incarnation.  10 was about to become the incarnation right after 12.  He had no way of knowing that the Time Lords would kick him some more lives.  I noticed a distinct tone shift in the Doctor after “Journey’s End”.  Suddenly he was much more closed off, disinclined to recruit companions, ready to push people away and occasionally give into his darker impulses.  He was, essentially preparing for the coming of the Valeyard and that was depression and angst taking hold.  He fully expected the next Doctor to be this sinister being that would go on to menace his previous incarnations.

Of course those of us following the series know that didn’t happen, he went on to become new versions of the “good” Doctor…but that still begs the question:  “When will the Valeyard come?”

Later I’ll post my theory about that…

Until next time.