"I don't want to go..."
- Granted, we know it doesn't come to fruition, but the scene where Sydney is ordered to kill production on the show after the four episodes currently being made are finished.
- The look on Hartnell's face during the changing publicity shots of the cast, especially the last with Michael Craze and Anneke Wills, is just of someone who is lost; everyone that made Doctor Who such a thrill for him has since moved on to new things and he just stays where he is.
- The Doctor doesn't like to say goodbye, and neither does Hartnell. This is where it all begins.
- Hartnell and Ford's bittersweet discussion about her imminent departure from the show, which then transitions to the filming of the ending of "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", where the Doctor and Susan part ways. Hartnell puts on a performance that moves everyone on the set.
- When William Hartnell is told — as kindly as showrunner Sydney Newman can put it — that he has been let go from the show and recast with Patrick Troughton; though he approves of the actor taking over, he still drives home in shock and then breaks down in front of his wife saying, in the words of the Tenth Doctor, "I don't want to go".
- What is possibly more pronounced in his saying this phrase (repeatedly) is that it's the realization of Hartnell's fears, that he had let his granddaughter and all the other children down because he couldn't remain being the Doctor. He's finally found something he could be proud of and has truly fallen in love with and he's forced to let it go.note
- It's arguably even more tragic in this context. David Tennant had a long career ahead of him when he left. Hartnell, at his old age, finally found a role he loved playing but had it taken from him due to his health.
- And then when Matt Smith (or Ncuti Gatwa if you're watching the updated 2023 version) appears at the very end, with a smile (and in Gatwa's case a cheeky wink) that says "Yes, what you created will go on forever". Keep the tissue box handy.
- It goes even deeper than that. In the actual storynote , the Doctor looks at the TARDIS console shortly before he dies and notices all the switches and buttons are moving by themselves. In this movie's context, he's seeing himself in fifty/sixty years.
- You thought it was sad when the Doctor remembered all his friends who left him in "The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve", wait 'til you see the production of that scene: Hartnell sees his reflection in the camera and has a moment of realisation - Waris, Carole, William, Jacqueline, even Verity, have all gone and he's all that's left of the original crew. This takes him so aback, he finds himself unable to finish and he just leaves, stuttering all the way.
- Two lines, just two lines from that same scene perfectly encompasses the Doctor's feelings and thoughts on the loss of all his companions ever. "They're all gone now, all gone." It's said with such subtlety and emotion you can't help but think of every companion now gone from Susan to Rose, to Amy Pond, Clara, Bill, and Nardole, and the weight that loss carries. It's even more emotional to add all the companions who passed away in Real Life (such as Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney). Now go watch the last scene of "The Angels Take Manhattan" while listening to that line and not bawl like a baby.
- Hartnell's granddaughter's speech on how Doctor Who is the greatest thing ever. From his ability to travel in the TARDIS in any time or universe to a subtle Call-Back/Mythology Gag to the Tenth Doctor that he can literally do anything. It's the stuff YouTube Whovian tributes are made of.
