Here’s a quick and random thought to warm the cockles of your heart.
What if the next Doctor is…… Jenna-Louise Coleman?
What if Clara Oswin Oswald, though being intermingled with the Doctor’s timestream becomes the Doctor in the next regeneration?
It may be that the only way for the Doctor to save her and allow her to escape from being fragmented in his timestream is to die and regenerate into her (or, if you like, vice-versa). That would be a great way to introduce the first female Doctor to the show, with a ready-made fanbase to boot. Heck, Jenna-Louise has already proven she’s got what it takes when it comes to out-Doctoring the Doctor on more than one occasion already, and I reckon she’d be fantastic in the title role.
There is a precedent for Timelords being able to choose their regenerative form, of course. Romana went through several forms before choosing the appearance of Princess Astra, a character she had previously encountered. The Doctor has shown none of this ability in the past – perhaps he lacks the training, simply chooses to let the winds of fate decide his form or is under too much stress at the time. With Clara “inside” his timestream however with her blueprint (so to speak – hey, I’m not a Timelord scientist!) already in place, it should be something within his quite remarkable abilities to achieve.
What do you think? Jenna-Louise Coleman as The Doctor? I like it.
As they say: a souffle isn’t a souffle. A souffle is the recipe.
Given that they’ve gone and shifted us in regards to the number of regenerations the Doctor has undergone, I’d say that this next time around there needs to be something with a little more oomph going on anyway. Taking Clara’s split infinity of personas and collascing them into a brand new set of regenerations might be one way to do it. I expect an imploding blackhole will also play a part.