‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special spoilers: Steven Moffat teases Matt Smith regeneration

In just over a week now, it is going to be time to move on to the next phase of “Doctor Who’s” grand history. Matt Smith has been on an incredible run as The Doctor, appearing in three seasons of the BBC hit along with the Anniversary Special last month. He’s also promoted the series all around the world, and really been front and center to see the show become bigger then it ever has been before. For years, this was a cult favorite in Great Britain; now, there are people in America that will be able to actually tell you more about Daleks and the Tardis.

This popularization of the series worldwide to us really started with David Tennant, and some may remember the specific way in which his Doctor regenerated in order to become #11. As we grow near to the time where Smith will give way to Peter Capaldi and #12, showrunner Steven Moffat teases per SFX that you are going to see something that will trigger an emotional reaction; however, this is not going to be the same regeneration that you saw with Tennant all over again:

“[It] would feel not like death, but something quite mortifying … I think that’s what contemplating regeneration must be like for the Doctor. So there’s an element of that, but because it was played that way the last time we wouldn’t play it the same way this time – that would just be wrong.”

From a critical standpoint, the hard thing about doing a regeneration during a Christmas Special is just that it’s Christmas, and the last thing you want to do is smash hearts everywhere right after people are done with their breakfast and opening gifts. Therefore, we’re choosing to look at this (however it happens) as a time to celebrate what happened for Smith thanks to the show. Plus, we also figure that it can’t be any worse than what “Downton Abbey’ decided to do to us last Christmas.

“Doctor Who” has already began to extensively promote the Christmas Special, including with some fun images that you can see here. Just as you would expect, we’ll have some more news related to the show the rest of the way, so be sure to stay tuned for some more of that.

Photo: BBC