Is RTD really correct in assuming that future writers and showrunners won't want to use any of the old cast? (With Donna maybe being the exception.)

I think that's why my gut reaction to the self-indulgent goodbyes was that it was RTD saying "you can't play with my toys. I've given you a clean slate, Moffy, now go make your own toys."

Because the opposite is what I loved about Nine's transition. Rose (omg, I just typed rover) was there for both, she bridged them, so there was something familiar while viewers adjusted to the new guy. And the whole thing about time travel, and he's not dead . . .

I wish there wasn't that meta-feeling, because I get that while the Doctor remains, Ten will be gone, and before the Doctor becomes 11, Ten wants to say goodbye, and for Ten it is the last time that "he" will see them, with his eyes, and his quirks and emotions and whatnot. I get that there is a form of finality. But in the grand scheme of time and the Doctor, it's not over, so with this big long goodbye, it would be weird if the next day 11 popped back into town and said "Hullo! I'm the Doctor! Let's go grab some chips!"

Weird from a viewer standpoint, at least for me, having seen, you know, the big long goodbye of emo angst with eyeliner and bells on. Not from a storypoint, because he totally could. Go back and see them or bump into them or they into he.

Is RTD really correct in assuming that future writers and showrunners won't want to use any of the old cast? (With Donna maybe being the exception.)

Did he say that? I didn't think it was his assumption but other peoples, um, assumption of his assumption. Any writer with the slightest imagination could riff off of any of those vignets.

I'm not getting what's so dreadful about him having a Doctor version of "dying in bed surrounded by fat grandchildren" He's spent the past however long saying he needed to be alone and at his death he realized he did not, he went ahead and loved them. It was good old-fashioned character arc, imho.

Did he say that?

I was actually asking if that was a reasonable interpretation. I always thought one of the point of the Doctor (even the original) was that the past was never really dead, that anyone could be a continuing character. I mean I don't see why Donna and Martha and Rose and Donna's mother shouldn't continue to pop up. They could just write everyone out and start fresh, but having established all of this back story why wouldn't they take advantage of it?

Heh. You and I manage to circutiously agree about 99% of the time. I think its our initials.

Is RTD really correct in assuming that future writers and showrunners won't want to use any of the old cast?

Did he say that?

Yes, in the Confidential.

Actually, he said something like: he doesn't know whether or not they'll be used again, but has no reason to assume they will; new crew, new stories, and all that. Unfortunately I've already deleted the Confidential from my PVR or I'd go and write up the quote verbatim.

I don't think it really matters whether or not we'll see these characters again, it was DT and RTD saying goodbye through the Doctor.

The rest of the cast can act;

But not necessarily do accents (yes, still stuck on that).

I'm personally still holding out for Ace to return.

I'd love to see what Ace is doing twenty years on! And since we never saw her leave the show, we have no idea where she might be.

ETA: I always liked her--she was so impulsive. Like Leela, only with explosives!

David Tennant's farewell speech on set.

Sighhh.....

Reason 4,691 I should be Trudy Tennant.

I thought that Mickey/Martha showed just how much character growth Mickey had gone through.

I mean we are a long way from "I'm the tin dog!" realization. He has built up to the potential he showed in the alternate reality (boyfriend notwithstanding).

Also, we don't know where in their time lines that scene was IRT Martha and Mickey, could be a couple years hence...