The Doctor was dying and it was breaking my heart to see him in scenes gone by and know there was nothing I could do to help him. It was Polly and Ben who were with him when it happened, I knelt down and shared their sadness and yet at the time I couldn’t help thinking that it didn’t make sense, the Doctor couldn’t die now, he hadn’t met me yet…And then as if to answer my question there was a blaze of light, accompanied by the TARDIS engines and the most unearthly, miraculous thing happened as the features on the Doctor’s face rearranged themselves. The Doctor changed into another man but it was still the Doctor, only younger, renewed and full of life. It was the most wonderful thing in the Universe to witness but I didn’t understand what I had seen until the TARDIS had decided to explain it all, you see the Doctor cannot die so easily and regeneration is the process used to escape death, well I wish the TARDIS had told me sooner, it was a terrible shock but I also had to admit it was rather thrilling. But apparently regeneration could be a dodgy process especially for the Doctor. My grandfather had gone and though he hadn’t even known that I had existed in his life, I missed him. And it was a death of sorts for I would never see him again and it was somewhat disconcerting as it appeared that the Doctor had now turned into some kind of benevolently smiling mad uncle but yet within a short space of time of seeing this new face of the Doctor it seemed so right, like I could never imagine the Doctor being anyone else. I’d seen the twinkle of mischief and the child in his eyes before and now that side of the Doctor had fully manifested itself. Almost as though the Doctor had been waiting to become this person all along.
But the Doctor’s sense of style had gone awry, he was so scruffy but I swear it was all contrived as he deliberately wore ill-fitting clothes and what was with the hats and recorder, eccentric or just plain daft? And yet I don’t think I’d ever laughed so much as he tried to convince his companions, Polly and Ben (who had to be the coolest pair to ever set foot in the TARDIS) that he was the same man. The Doctor had turned into some kind of “cosmic hobo” clown, well that was what he wanted the rest of the Universe to think. Again the Doctor wasn’t all he seemed, he’d be all smiling incompetence, playing the fool but cross the Doctor and sometimes it was the last thing you would ever do. Sometimes I’d catch a hint of ruthlessness in his steely eyes, the Doctor meant business. Though I think he had gained more kindness and compassion, I like to think it was something to do with his first companions. And though the Doctor’s first incarnation was wary of interfering, this new version had no such scruples as he made his mark across the whole of time and space. And because the Doctor was physically younger there was a lot more running, I was still afraid for him and his companions but at the same time my heart raced with excitement as I followed the Doctor’s adventures, so many near fatal encounters with Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, not forgetting the Great Intelligence and his robot yeti’s but so many endless bases under siege, oh don’t get me started on them…