History Recap / DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor

* TheBeard: Clara gets the Doctor to pretend to be her boyfriend for her family Christmas dinner.

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* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: The church clock tower starts striking midnight just as the Doctor begins to regenerate.

JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here the Doctor [[NakedPeopleAreFunny gets naked]].

* RasputinianDeath: Tasha Lem is implied to have suffered a lengthy death after he initial defeat by the Daleks.

* DeagedInDeath: The Eleventh Doctor defends Trenzalore in a war so long that he eventually dies of old age. As this was his thirteenth and final life[[note]]despite being the eleventh incarnation in the official numbering system, he spent two additional regenerations: one to become the War Doctor, who didn't consider himself "the Doctor" until the very end of his life, and another after being shot by a Dalek in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth "The Stolen Earth"]], diverting the regenerative energy into his severed hand to avoid changing his appearance[[/note]], he would've been KilledOffForReal, but the Time Lords grant him a new regenerative cycle that allows him to keep going on. After spending the first half of his regeneration taking out a Dalek fleet, he reverts back to his initial youthful appearance before completing the process, which is treated in-universe as the death of one incarnation and the birth of the next.

* {{Expy}}: Tasha Lem, for River Song. Apart from being Mother Superious and being converted into a Dalek puppet, pretty much every line of her dialogue could easily have been spoken by River. She can even fly the TARDIS. This has led to some speculation regarding who Tasha Lem is, or whether she was a straight-out replacement character for River, maybe due to Creator/AlexKingston being unavailable; Steven Moffat is on record as saying he wanted River to appear alongside Amy and Rory during the regeneration, at least, but Kingston was not available.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Tasha Lem has some odd similarities with previous ''Doctor Who'' RecurringCharacter River Song. 1) Was[=/=]is in a relationship with the Doctor. 2) One of the few people who knows how to fly the TARDIS other than the Doctor. 3) Mentioned to have had [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] tendencies for her entire life. It's lampshaded by the the fact River is mentioned by name and the Doctor compares Tasha to her.

** 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 the original Supreme Dalek 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 ''[[JokerImmunity may]]'' have been the final end of the Daleks.

* CannotTellALie: The entire town of Christmas, due to the truth field the Time Lords are transmitting through the crack.
** Even with the truth field, the Doctor manages to tell a lie; he tells a cyberman that he reversed the polarity of his gun so it will fire out the back end. He simply neglected to mention that even though he sent that signal, it didn't work because it doesn't work on wood.

-->'''Amy Pond:''' [[MeaningfulEcho Raggedy man...good night]].

* {{Expy}}: Tasha Lem, for River Song. Apart from being Mother Superious and being converted into a Dalek puppet, pretty much every line of her dialogue could easily have been spoken by River. She can even fly the TARDIS. This has led to some speculation regarding who Tasha Lem is, or whether she was a straight-out replacement character for River, maybe due to Creator/AlexKingston being unavailable; Steven Moffat is on record as saying he wanted River to appear alongside Amy and Rory during the regeneration, at least, but Kingston was not available.

-->'''Dalek:''' [[AC:Information concerning the Doctor was harvested from the cadaver of Tasha Lem.]]\\

'''Dalek:''' [[AC:Several times.]]

* MakeRoomForTheNewPlot: It is clear that Steven Moffat wanted to use the episode as a way to finish up most of the Eleventh Doctor's running plot lines, so the incoming era of the Twelfth Doctor could start from a relatively clean slate. Most notably, the backstory behind the Cracks and the Silence are somewhat explained in a few lines of dialogue.

->''"And now it's time for one last bow. Like all your other selves. [[Creator/MattSmith Eleven's]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour hour]] is over now. The clock is striking [[Creator/PeterCapaldi Twelve's]]."''

The one where the Doctor [[NakedPeopleAreFunny gets naked]].

** The Doctor ends this regeneration cycle in the form of an old man with long, white hair who looks very similar to the [[Characters/DoctorWhoFirstDoctor First Doctor]]. Bonus points for both the First and Eleventh Doctors regenerating in a “Base Under Siege” [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet story featuring the Cybermen raiding a snowy settlement.]]

*** On a similar note, Clara's adventures with Twelve starts off much as her adventures with Eleven did: with the two of them on board a crashing vehicle [[Recap.DoctorWhoS33E06TheBellsOfSaintJohn which he asks if she knows how to fly]].
** The Twelfth Doctor is no longer the [[Characters/DoctorWhoWarDoctor War Doctor]], the Last of the Time Lords, or the "last" Doctor. He's starting again: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild an aged, runaway Time Lord in a TARDIS he doesn't know how to fly, with a companion who teaches at Coal Hill School]].

* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: A variation. While a huge part of the episode is made up of the Doctor's fast-paced confrontations with old foes, there's plenty of calm sequences when he's enjoying himself with the townsmen of Christmas or having heartfelt, cozy conversations with Clara.

* TheAgeless: Per the Doctor, Tasha "doesn’t do ageing".

** 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 ''[[JokerImmunity may]]'' have been the final end of the Daleks.

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

* AscendedFridgeHorror: Some people pointed out the Time Lords returning would mean the Time War beginning again due to the Daleks. This is the threat that is being staved off here, with the addition that by now a lot of ''other'' races would like to see the Time Lords dead.
* AsideGlance: The Doctor seems to throw one during his "when the Doctor was me" line. Hint to all the viewers from Matt Smith as a thank-you and goodbye, perhaps!
* AnAssKickingChristmas: The Doctor versus his greatest foes in all-out war. Merry Christmas. The Doctor spends over ''900'' years defending the town of Christmas from all of his enemies. From Clara's perspective, it takes place over the course of a few hours on one Christmas Day. (Not only that, but the first act of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath Deep Breath]]" appears to also, from Clara's perspective, take place on the same day.)

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

* BambooTechnology: There is a ''wooden'' Cyberman on Trenzalore, allowing them to [[LoopholeAbuse get around]] the technology ban in place.

* BelligerentSexualTension: The Doctor and Tasha Lem are hinted to have been ''involved'' at some point in their pasts, and those feelings haven't exactly vanished.
* BigBadEnsemble: The Silence, Sontarans, Cybermen, Daleks and Weeping Angels all appear in this episode to try and kill the Doctor (and each other). The Daleks win out in the end.

* BitingTheHandHumour: Even after [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E6TheBellsOfSaintJohn Clara has had an expert's computer skills uploaded into her brain]], and [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor figured out how to use Jack Harkness' Vortex manipulator on her own]], she still can't work out how to use iPlayer.

** The [[Characters/DoctorWhoEleventhDoctor Eleventh Doctor]], like the [[Characters/DoctorWhoTenthDoctor Tenth]], begins and ends in winter, and in a ChristmasEpisode no less.
** The Doctor's time as Eleven [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour begins]] and ends with him seeing Amy Pond, first as a child, then as he last knew her.
** The Doctor's first and last meal in this incarnation is fish fingers and custard.

** For one of the longest Brick Jokes on ''Doctor Who'', the Doctor uses the Seal of the High Council. In his Third incarnation he took it from the Master in the Death Zone in "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]", thinking the Master had stolen it and saying he'd return it. It turns out he never did.

** 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. And he isn’t exactly nice to said next boyfriend either.

** The Time Crack, not seen since the end of Eleven's first season, not only returns but its nature is finally explained.

** The Doctor produces the seal of the High Council that he confiscated from the Master waaaaaay back in "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]". It is perhaps not coincidental that this was the episode in which the concept of the High Council granting an extension/renewal of a Time Lord's regeneration cycle was first introduced.
* TheCameo: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E5TheAngelsTakeManhattan Amy]] makes a brief appearance, at the end, when the Doctor is hallucinating.

* CliffhangerCopout: For the "Daleks forgetting the Doctor" cliffhanger from "Asylum of the Daleks". It's revealed in this episode that they... just remembered him off-screen by getting his memories from Tasha Lem.

** Clara acts like this a little. Here is a woman who splintered herself though history to save multiple versions of the Doctor, who on several occasions is shown mastering alien tech without so much as a manual handy (the speeder bike in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E7TheRingsOfAkhaten The Rings of Akhaten]]", the vortex manipulator in "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]"), yet she panics when faced with cooking a turkey, and if the Doctor is to be believed she uses the TARDIS instead of bothering to learn how to make iPlayer work.

** When the kid (Barnable) sits by the TARDIS and tells the Doctor he'll wait for him, a melody of "Amy in the Tardis" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgd5rfPe-0]] plays (specifically the melody around the 1:30 mark). Another kid who waited.

** The Doctor bought Handles from the Maldovar Markets, as in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens Dorium]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar Maldovar]].
** The Doctor briefly mentions a story where he arm-wrestled [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E3FrontierInSpace a Draconian]].
** The Doctor remembers Amelia as [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E4ThePowerOfThree "the first face this face saw."]]
** The Doctor has Handles decode a message sent by the Time Lords, using an algorithm embedded in a Seal of the High Council of Gallifrey, which he mentions that he "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors nicked off the Master in the Death Zone]]".
** The Doctor mentions "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor Captain Grumpy]]".
** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E8LetsKillHitler Let's Kill Hitler]]", as the Doctor is dying from Melody's poisoned lipstick, he mentions that the kidneys are always the first to go. Here, he gets new ones, but "I don't like the colour."
** This isn't the first regeneration-related episode in which the Doctor was naked, although the last time [[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace he was taking a shower]] ''after'' regenerating.
* 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. Maybe Missy put it there?

* DiedInYourArmsTonight: Due to nearly ''three hundred years'' without any maintenance, Handles stops functioning in the Doctor's arms.

* TheDreaded: Even when he's ''dying of old age'', the Daleks are still too afraid of the Doctor to JustShootHim.
* 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 a version of 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]]:

** The Doctor teams up with the ''Silence'' to stop the Daleks. It turns out the ones he fought before were a RenegadeSplinterFaction.

* EvilGloating: The Daleks spend a long time gloating about how they're finally going to kill the Doctor, during his last stand, instead of going ahead and shooting him. This is because they're scared that the Doctor's got some sort of plan waiting and he shouts this up at them.

-->'''Tasha:''' I tried. I died in this room screaming your name. ''[{{beat}}]'' Oh. I died. It's funny the things that slip your mind.

* 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, you guessed it, this is ''exactly'' what they'd do.

* FailedASpotCheck: The Doctor misses all the "Dalek bumps" on the first spaceship he beams on to.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* 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 regenerating, this is simply the reset.

** To "Orbis", where the Eighth Doctor gets trapped on the planet Orbis for '''600''' years, (though he points out in this story he doesn't always use Earth years) and protects the people from monsters. Finally, his companion is flown in the TARDIS to this world by a woman.
** Not the first time that the Doctor has had a robot sidekick... though Handles is in no way as autonomous as K-9.
* InvisibilityCloak. Appropriately, they're from Strax's clone batch.

** The Doctor believes that he's destined to die in the battle of Trenzalore. The siege goes on for centuries but in the end he is about to die of old age.

* KindaBusyHere: The Doctor takes a call on the TARDIS telephone from Clara, who urgently needs him to turn up for Christmas dinner and pretend to be her boyfriend. The Doctor is in the middle of investigating this week's mystery, and being the Doctor he doesn't stop to finish the conversation before barging onto a spaceship without checking to see if it's full of Cybermen. Clara, having SeenItAll as the Doctor's companion, has equally SkewedPriorities.

* [[SirNotAppearingInThisTrailer Lady Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer]]: Creator/KarenGillan as (the Doctor's hallucination of) Amy Pond.

* LateArrivalSpoiler: If you've watched [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor the 50th anniversary special]], then you know that the Doctor's imminent demise isn't going to stick [[labelnote:note]]The special featured a cameo by the 12th doctor (played by Creator/PeterCapaldi)[[/labelnote]]

** The story also leans on the fourth wall by establishing that the Doctor has to manually set the holographic clothing to be seen by others. He sets it for Clara, but does not for her family. Since we also see the holographic clothing (''before'' they leave for the town of Christmas) that means he's also set the clothing for ''us'', the viewers to see as well.
* LiteralMinded: When the Doctor asks Handles (rhetorically) to give him a reminder, he does so a few ''seconds'' later. When he then asks him to pick a random time interval and remind him then, he waits ''several hundred years''.

* MakeRoomForTheNewPlot: It is clear that Steven Moffat wanted to use the episode as a way to finish up most of the Eleventh Doctor's running plot lines, so the incoming era of the Twelfth Doctor could start from a relatively clean slate. Most notably, the backstory behind the Cracks and the Silence are somewhat explained in one of the episode's subplots.
* MeaningfulEcho: With "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]". There the Doctor regarded regeneration as a form of death and something to fear and resist. Now, he sees it 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 Doctor was only Ten 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 as Eleven, he not only endured ''900'' or so years on Trenzalore, but had also already lived for another 200 or so prior to this, making this arguably the longest-lived incarnation of the Doctor to date; he was ready to change).

* MedievalStasis: Over nine centuries of siege and many active battles, the culture and buildings of the town called Christmas don't change ''at all''. It is mentioned that a ban on advanced technology was instituted during the Siege so that is justified, and rural, isolated places tend to change much more slowly than urban ones with lots of contact with other places.
* MexicanStandoff: All of the invaders have weapons pointed at Trenzalore, and the Doctor only needs to say his name to bring Gallifrey back. This allows for an uneasy peace for a few centuries.
* MisfortuneCookie: The poem in the Doctor's Christmas cracker acts as the foreshadowing type. It's not necessarily a misfortune, as it foreshadows that the Doctor will end up [[TheNthDoctor regenerating]] again instead of dying. It's still a somber note but just not bleak.
* MomentKiller: Clara, scared by the Silents, bursts in on the Doctor and Tasha Lem just as things are getting really flirty. Since it's the Silents, she promptly forgets why she just did that.

** The end of Eleven's regeneration. He takes off his bowtie, slow music begins playing, Clara cries for him not to change... and just as the audience is expecting a dramatic explosion of regeneration energy like the previous Doctors' big finales, he throws his head back and his appearance literally flashes over in less than a second.[[note]]This makes sense in a FridgeBrilliance kind of way, since the Doctor had an '''immense''' regeneration explosion several minutes prior that crashes a Dalek mothership and blew up a bell tower. This was apparently his reset button for a new regeneration cycle and finished most of the process with just the change itself left over.[[/note]] Fast Celtic-style music starts to play, the Doctor [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} complains about the colour of his new kidneys]], the TARDIS begins crashing and the Doctor forgot how to fly it.
* MsFanservice ''and'' MrFanservice: It's left to the imagination, but, technically speaking, for a good chunk of the episode Clara and the Doctor are fully nude, the only people seeing their holographic clothing being each other (and [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall the viewers]]).

** Lampshaded by the fact that we, the viewers, don't see anything thanks to holographic clothing, and so the Doctor and Clara appear fully clothed at all times (except for the Doctor, briefly).
* NeverForgottenSkill: Averted. After the Doctor spent over 900 years on Trenzalore, he admits he's completely forgotten how to fly the TARDIS. (Mind you, regeneration ''does'' tend to scramble one's circuits.)

** How much of this could've been avoided if the Doctor didn't have Handles translate the message going through the cracks in the Universe from the Time Lords?

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: For the whole "Silence" and cracks arcs -- it's mentioned that Kovarian splintered from the Papal Mainframe to make sure the Doctor would never reach Trenzalore, even engineering a psychopath to kill him. All of these things led to the blowing up of the TARDIS, creating the cracks that Gallifrey was transmitting through in the first place, and the Doctor married the "psychopath". He even admits he'd never have made it to Trenzalore ''without'' River. If Kovarian had just sat tight, the crack would never have existed, none of the armies above Trenzalore would have even shown up and the Doctor would have likely been killed much earlier on in his incarnation.

* NostalgiaHeaven: The Doctor has visions of his previous companion, Amy Pond, as he starts to regenerate. The inside of the TARDIS also fills up with drawings made by generations of the children of Christmas.

** The Doctor teleports onto a spaceship, wielding a Dalek eyestalk as proof of courage and comradeship. OhCrap, the ship is full of Daleks. A bit later, the Doctor teleports onto another spaceship, carrying a Cyberman head. He has the same reaction when he sees it's a Cyberman ship.

** The look on the Doctor's face when he's told he's on ''Trenzalore''.

** At the end, when the TARDIS is flying out of control, and the new Doctor has apparently forgotten how to fly it. Deer-in-the-headlights expression for both of them.

* 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]]". The Doctor 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.

* OverlyPrePreparedGag: The Doctor needs to be naked before he can go to the Papal Mainframe. He also needs to holographically project clothes. Why? So that he can accidentally not transfer that perception to anyone but Clara and the audience, therefore inadvertently [[NakedPeopleAreFunny shocking her family by showing up to them naked.]]

* PrayerIsALastResort: Invoked. It's the DarkestHour and the Doctor is hobbling out to face the Daleks for the last time, and Clara's final solution is "praying"... ''to the Time Lords.'' And in lieu of a miracle, ''the final crack closes!''

* ReversePsychology: When Tasha Lem is turned into a Dalek puppet and holding Clara hostage, the Doctor berates Tasha and her religion, negatively compares her to Clara... all of which rouses Tasha's real mind and spirit to reclaim her now Dalekized body and use her new Dalek weapons to kick Dalek ass (fortunately, she doesn't decide to zap the Doctor too for good measure).

* SceneryCensor: When Clara finds the Doctor naked in the TARDIS the console blocks the view of anything that's not suitable to be seen before the {{Watershed}}.

** The subplot in which Clara enlists the Doctor to be her "pretend" boyfriend (a later episode will establish that the Doctor didn't see it as pretend).

** Technically speaking, the Doctor and his female companion are naked, together, for part of the episode. Including one scene where they're rolling around on top of each other.

* ShirtlessScene: Much like the [[Creator/DavidTennant Tenth Doctor]] in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]", [[Creator/MattSmith Eleven]] gets a naked scene.

* SingleTear: Clara is quite moved Gran tells of how she met her husband.
* TheSlowPath: The Doctor takes it this time. Clara is sent back to her family every time the Doctor thinks it's getting too dangerous, and every time she returns he's aged considerably. According to the e-book ''Tales of Trenzalore'', this ultimately amounted to over 900 years. For Clara, the entire course of the episode takes place over a single day.
%%* SmoochOfVictory:

** This potentially extends as far back as the Time Lords having survived the Time War sealed in a pocket universe, as without the threat of their return through the cracks that the Silence themselves created and the war restarting, the Silence would never have established the fixed point in time of the Doctor's death at Lake Silencio. This means Gallifrey always had to survive the Time War to ensure this fixed point occurred. It has rather interesting ramifications for what will occur when and ''if'' Gallifrey ever leaves its other-versal stasis.
** And another thing: ''thirteen'' Doctors were involved in saving Gallifrey. The eleven numbered Doctors to that point, plus the War Doctor, make twelve. With the revelation that the Tenth Doctor wasted a regeneration, that means Gallifrey must have realized that ''they need to grant The Doctor more regeneration energy'' in order for there to be thirteen Doctors to finish the calculations to freeze and save Gallifrey.
* StuffBlowingUp: The Doctor goes out in one very massive explosion of explody-ness; it's so big that it blows up all the Daleks (both in a ship and on the ground), ''and'' destroys Christmas town's clock tower.

* TruthSerum: A truth ''field'' in this case. The town of Christmas is surrounded by a field which compels all those within to speak only the truth. When they first arrive, both the Doctor and Clara blurt out random truths about themselves before they can adjust, including [[UnresolvedSexualTension that Clara fancied the Doctor]].

** The "eleventh" Doctor is actually the thirteenth, as the Metacrisis from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]" and the War Doctor from "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]" used up two regenerations. He is instead the eleventh distinct personality to use the title (the War Doctor renounced it at the start of his life and only reclaimed it at the end).

'''Tasha:''' I did! I died in this room screaming your name!
** This one:
--->'''Twelfth Doctor:''' Stay calm! Just one question... [[IHaveNoIdeaWhatImDoing Do you happen to know how to fly this thing?!]]
* 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.
** 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.

** The Doctor even taunts them with this as he's dying from extreme old age, daring them to shoot him and even admitting that he has absolutely no plan this time around. The Daleks ''still'' don't try, as they're too skeptical to believe him.
--->'''The Doctor:''' But you're still too afraid to shoot me! You're still afraid I've got something up my sleeve!

** When the Doctor realizes that there are Weeping Angels buried in the snow ''right underneath him''.

* CryCute: Clara turns on those PuppyDogEyes at the end when the Doctor is dying of old age.

** When the kid (Barnable) sits by the TARDIS and tells the Doctor he'll wait for him, a melody of "Amy in The Tardis" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgd5rfPe-0]] plays (specifically the melody around the 1:30 mark). Another kid who waited.

* ItMakesSenseInContext: When the Doctor first sees Clara this episode, he's naked. Why? Because he's going to church. This isn't explained to the viewers (or to Clara) until the Doctor and Clara are invited aboard the Papal Mainframe, where it's implied that it's traditional to be naked apart from holographic clothing when on board.

* BaldOfAwesome: Again covering for the actor, the plot features the Eleventh Doctor revealing himself to be bald in a wig (before the Doctor gets 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 bald 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'' had a shaved head and is in a wig; she revealed live at a panel earlier that year she had gotten shaved bald for her 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.