History Recap / DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor

* ContrivedCoincidence: Clara pulls a Christmas cracker with the Doctor. Inside there is a poem which is so specifically about the Doctor's current situation that it's impossible to imagine what the poem was actually supposed to be about in-universe.

** The Doctor's eleventh incarnation, like his tenth, begins and ends in winter, and in a ChristmasEpisode no less.
** The Doctor's time as Eleven begins and ends with him seeing Amy Pond, first as a child, then as he last knew her.

** The Twelfth Doctor is no longer the War Doctor, the Last of the Time Lords, or the "last" Doctor. He's starting again: aged, runaway Time Lord in a TARDIS he doesn't know how to fly, with a companion who teaches at Coal Hill School.
** The Eleventh Doctor's run began in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour The Eleventh Hour]]". It ends atop a clock tower, as the hands strike Twelve.

** The Doctor [[Characters/DoctorWhoFirstDoctor begins]] and [[Characters/DoctorWhoEleventhDoctor ends]] this regeneration cycle in the form of an old man with long, white hair. Bonus points for both regenerating in a “Base Under Siege” [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet story featuring the Cybermen raiding a snowy area.]]

** The Doctor [[Characters/DoctorWhoFirstDoctor begins]] and [[Characters/DoctorWhoEleventhDoctot ends]] this regeneration cycle in the form of an old man with long, white hair. Bonus points for both regenerating in a “Base Under Seige” story featuring the Cybermen.

->''[[FamousLastWords "I will not forget one line of this. Not one day. I swear. I will always remember when the Doctor was me."]]''

** When Clara wants the Doctor to be her (pretend) boyfriend, he quips "Well I hope you're nicer to the next one." As Danny Pink would find out, not really.

* AllThereInTheManual: Why the Doctor starts walking with a cane and a limp midway through the episode is never actually explained. Reading the spin-off short story collection ''Tales of Trenzalore'' reveals that the Doctor actually loses a leg at one point due to a blind Tsunami Snake and spends the remainder of the regeneration using a wooden leg. References to the wooden leg were deleted from the episode. That plot point was meant to serve as a cover for the fact Matt Smith injured his leg during filming.

** The book ''Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe'' (2017) confirms that the booming Dalek voice heard in the climax was a Supreme Dalek, the original white Supreme from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E3VictoryOfTheDaleks Victory of the Daleks]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks Asylum of the Daleks]]", with the Parliament of the Daleks from the latter participating in the Siege of Trenzalore in their saucer, ''Nacrana Va Hateen'' ("The Highest Authority"). When the Daleks regained their memories of the Doctor, the Prime Minister had a FreakOut which led the Supreme to deem it insane, exterminating the Prime Minister and taking control of the Dalek forces. Ultimately, it is the ''Nacrana Va Hateen'' which looms over Trenzalore and is destroyed by the regenerating Doctor, killing the Supreme and the rest of the original five of the New Dalek Paradigm. InUniverse historians consider that this ''[[Main/JokerImmunity may]]'' have been the final end of the Daleks.
* AllThereInTheScript: Ken Bones, who portrayed the Time Lord General in "The Day of the Doctor", provides the voice asking the Question, "Doctor who?". A connection between the voice and the General was never made explicit, although the subtitles on the Blu-Ray and DVD identify the voice as that of "the General".

->''[[FamousLastWords "The first face this face saw. We all change, when you think about it. We're all different people all through our lives. And that's okay, that's good, you've got to keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be. I will not forget one line of this. Not one day. I swear. I will always remember when the Doctor was me."]]''

* TheExtremistWasRight: Tasha Lem and the Papal Mainframe want to stop the Time Lords returning to prevent the Daleks starting another Time War. When the Daleks show up, they confirm that this is ''exactly'' what they'd do.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** When Clara says the Doctor is her boyfriend, the Doctor says he may be rusty in some areas but he'll look at a manual.
** Although we see them wearing clothes, for a good chunk of the first part of the episode both Clara and the Doctor are actually naked. During this time they take a roll in the snow together in order to fight off some Weeping Angels, after the Doctor gives Clara a rather thorough rub-down to warm her up (at one point it basically becomes him hugging her from behind) -- and she seems to enjoy the experience...[[note]]It should be noted, though, that the Doctor does keep his lower half away from Clara when he does this. He's awkward but he's no scoundrel![[/note]]
** Related to the above, Tasha remarks at the Doctor's latest body being "tight". Once again, ''we'' see him clothed, but as indicated earlier in the episode, that isn't always the case, so was Tasha actually seeing him naked, then?
** Not everything got past the radar. One scene where the two share a warm hug, only for Clara to remember the Doctor was still naked, was filmed but cut from the episode, later appearing as a deleted scene on the DVD.

->''"Kidneys!"''

* BaldOfAwesome: Again covering for the actor, the plot featured the Eleventh Doctor revealing himself to be bald in a wig (before the Doctor got much older, of course) to hide a TARDIS key beneath his coif- evidently, being himself, Eleven got bored one day and shaved his head (but his eyebrows are not razor victims, they're delicate). Later takes a more dignified meaning when Eleven's severely aged appearance is all balded and has the most epic regeneration ever. The bad angle was brought about because Matt Smith starred in a film in the off-season of 2013 where he needed to have short hair and shaved his signature coif. Even funnier still, Karen Gillan ''also'' has a shaved head and is in a wig; she revealed live at a panel earlier that year she had gotten shaved bald for role as Nebula in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy''. So both actors are bald in the touching regeneration scene of the episode. Karen Gillan has remarked that [[WhatCouldHaveBeen they both regret not seeing what they looked like in each other's wigs]], but it didn't occur to them at the time.

* BaldOfAwesome: Again covering for the actor, the plot featured the Eleventh Doctor revealing himself to be bald in a wig (before the Doctor got much older, of course) to hide a TARDIS key beneath his coif- evidently, being himself, Eleven got bored one day and shaved his head (but his eyebrows are not razor victims, they're delicate). Later takes a more dignified meaning when Eleven's severely aged appearance is all balded and has the most epic regeneration ever. The bad angle was brought about because Matt Smith starred in a film in the off-season of 2013 where he needed to have short hair and shaved his signature coif. Even funnier still, Karen Gillan ''also'' has a shaved head and is in a wig; she revealed live at a panel earlier that year she had gotten shaved balled for her villainous role in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy''. So both actors are bald in the touching regeneration scene of the episode.

** Although we see them wearing clothes, for a good chunk of the first part of the episode both Clara and the Doctor are actually naked. During this time they take a roll in the snow together in order to fight off some Weeping Angels, after the Doctor gives Clara a rather thorough rub-down to warm her up (at one point it basically becomes him hugging her from behind) -- and she seems to enjoy the experience...

** Like Ten before him, Eleven's life begins and ends in winter, and in a ChristmasEpisode no less.
** Eleven's life begins and ends with him seeing Amy Pond, first as a child, then as he last knew her.
** Eleven's first and last meal is fish fingers and custard.

** The Eleventh Doctor's final resting place ends up being on [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor Trenzalore]].

** Eleven mentions his [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth tenth regeneration]] once used up one extra transformation.

** [[ResetButton The Doctor's body brought him back to his original form before dying]] just like how [[Creator/DavidTennant his previous incarnation]] had [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime healed from his wounds and lacerations]], before starting the [[TheNthDoctor regeneration.]] More depressingly, this is [[HopeSpot mistaken for a reprieve]] in both cases.

*** And of course, the song "Trenzalore" plays when Eleven remarks he's running out of time, and then again when Clara returns to the TARDIS to witness the Eleventh Doctor give a final speech to her.

** Eleven mentions "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor Captain Grumpy]]".

* DoNotGoGentle: Even in the fate of just growing old and dying, the 11[[superscript:th]] Doctor simply would not stand down or go down without a fight.

* DyingDream: The Eleventh Doctor's final moments, seeing Amelia, and then Amy, could be interpreted partially as a hallucination, as he describes to Clara that he can see "the first face this face ever saw". He then imagines the elder Amy saying the last words she ever spoke to him, but in a much more comforting and happier tone than [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E5TheAngelsTakeManhattan the time she actually spoke them]]:

* GoOutWithASmile: The Doctor is at peace at the end of his eleventh incarnation because he has had time to come to terms with his death, he saved the town of Christmas, and his last sight is that of his first companion.

* HeroicSacrifice: The Doctor is willing to spend the rest of his life on Trenzalore, fighting an enldless war, to protect the Time Lords and the people of Christmas.

* HopeSpot: Following his apparent regeneration on the clock tower, the Eleventh Doctor shows up, youth restored and seemingly healthy, in the TARDIS, to Clara's relief. But he's still dying, this is simply the reset.

** The Doctor knows that he's destined to die in the battle of Trenzalore. The siege goes on for centuries and the final cause of Eleven's death is old age.

* MeaningfulEcho: With "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]". There the Tenth Doctor regarded his regeneration as a form of death and something to fear and resist. The Eleventh Doctor regards his as a source of hope and something to embrace. He also borrows another one of River Song's declarations, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary not one line]]". (A major difference, however, is that the Tenth Doctor only existed for a relatively short time -- as little as ''five years'' if the age he gives in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]" is correct -- whereas Eleven not only endured ''900'' or so years on Trenzalore, he had also already lived for another 200 or so prior to this, making him arguably the longest-lived Doctor to date; he was ready to go).

* NeverForgottenSkill: Averted. After the Eleventh Doctor spent over 900 years on Trenzalore, the newly regenerated Twelfth Doctor admits he's completely forgotten how to fly the TARDIS. (Mind you, regeneration ''does'' tend to scramble one's circuits.)

** Tasha Lem's conversion of the Papal Mainframe into the Order of the Silence basically gave rise to all the problems the Eleventh Doctor was facing for most of Series 5-6. Although considering it's results, (i.e. the Kovarian faction engineering the very cracks through which Gallifrey was able to contact the Doctor and grant him his new regeneration cycle, and the existence of River Song), it was NiceJobFixingItVillain as well.

* OutOfContinues: This special confirms the thirteen-regeneration limit to be in canon, even factoring in the War Doctor and the metacrisis Doctor (or "Doctor Blue" or "Handy") from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]". Eleven chuckles and chalks it up to his past self's "[[GallowsHumor vanity issues]]", though he's clearly feeling irritated at his Tenth incarnation about now.

* PetTheDog: Near the end of the Eleventh Doctor's life waging a (now)-700 years war, Tasha Lem pilots the TARDIS in order to fetch Clara back to comfort him. This ends up being just what was needed to save the day.

** The Time Lords are trying to get back into the universe through the cracks in time, thus proving that War, Ten and Eleven succeeded in saving Gallifrey.

** The Doctor criticises Clara for using the TARDIS for restaurant bookings and watching TV shows she missed, telling her she should learn how to use [=iPlayer=]. In ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'', Reg uses his time machine to let Richard book a restaurant for tonight three weeks in advance, and says that he wouldn't use it at all of he could work out his video recorder.

* AndIMustScream: The Doctor says that Tasha would die before revealing information. The Daleks inform him she did die. Several times. And she indicates she died screaming for the Doctor.

* BackwardsFiringGun: The Doctor convinces the wooden Cyberman that he has converted its weapon into one of these. When the Cyberman reverses its gun, it shoots itself in the chest.

* MedievalStasis: Over nine centuries of siege and many active battles, the culture and buildings of the town called Christmas don't change ''at all''. (Although it is mentioned that a ban on advanced technology was instituted during the Siege.)

* PutOnABus: In-universe, this is what the Doctor attempts to do with Clara by having the TARDIS drop her back off at home. Twice.

* RenegadeSplinterFaction: The Silence from series 5 and 6 are revealed to have been this.

* ShoutOut: Handles is strikingly similar to the character Wilson in the 2000 film ''Film/{{Castaway}}''. As the main character who is stranded somewhere talks to him, both have faces and not bodies, and they both "die" (as in Wilson's case, the main character loses the ball when he builds a raft and tries to head back to land) reducing the main characters to tears.

* SingleTear: Clara when Gran tells of how she met her husband.

The one where [[MovingTheGoalposts the Doctor's continues got a refill]] and Eleven goes out with a ''very'' large bang.

* PutOnABus:
** Tasha vanishes from the narrative after returning Clara to be with the soon-to-die aged Doctor. She is not seen, nor referenced again, even after the Daleks are destroyed. She isn't referenced once during Series 8, either.
** In-universe, this is what the Doctor attempts to do with Clara.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Clara runs out on her family during Christmas dinner, and when she gets back to the present day, the Doctor accidentally drops her off in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath Glasgow]]'', and not on Christmas Day either. We have no idea how they reacted to this.

** The Daleks consolidate this status: in the end, they've outlasted every other race above Trenzalore, including Cybermen and ''Weeping Angels''.