As the 50th Anniversary approaches for Doctor Who, much ado is being made about how Stephen Moffatt is going to approach the celebration. Here is my idea for how it can/could/should go down.

Actors:
Paul McGann
Chris Eccelston
David Tennant
Matt Smith
Timothy Dalton

Possible
Georgia Moffatt
John Simm

The very best ideas on Doctor Who create fantastic new stories while being unafraid to reach into its own past (‘The Doctor’s Wife’ as exhibit #1). This story arc could be spread out over several episodes during the summer, if need be.

Beginning: The end of the Time War. Scenes of tremendous carnage and out-of-control weaponry illustrate the horrors, as innocents are killed and Time Lords live out their remaining regenerations in agony and torture.

Shift to Paul McGann, older than when we last saw him (we can assume both the passage of time and the Time War itself have worn him down), barely escaping from Gallifrey with his TARDIS. Perhaps allusions made to his mother, Susan Foreman, and Romana helping in his escape, with full knowledge of what he planned to do before Rassilon enacts the Final Solution.

McGann flies out to the farthest reaches of the Time War, and begins the calculations for the Time Loop that will take the War out of time forever. As he throws the switch, Rassilon reverses the polarity of the neutron field in an attempt to destroy the loop, but fails. The blast, combined with the polarity field, nearly destroys the TARDIS and sends McGann into regeneration. As the light fades, we see the face of Eccleston for just a moment before dark.

Switch to: the final moments of The End of Time, where the Master is now trapped inside the Time War with Rassilon. Simm may continue to play the Master, or it can be assumed he would have been forcibly regenerated in order to repair the failed resurrection. Rassion and the Master plot to change the moment in time where the failed polarity reversal trapped them all out of time and space. Technobabble ensues, with the final result being that Rassilon’s blast is fired three seconds earlier, their calculations for what would be needed to cancel out the Time Loop.

But, as that moment is relived, the Time Loop still executes, the difference being that McGann and the TARDIS are sucked back into the Time Loop and the Time War.

As a result, the Doctor’s future incarnations should not have existed in time and space, therefore they are all also pulled out of time and space and back into the Time War…meaning Eccleston, Tennant, and Smith are also there. As a result, Jenny may also be pulled in, which would create a “companion” for separate storylines for each Doctor, as no humans would make the journey.

McGann is joined by Romana (regenerated)
Eccleston is joined by Susan (regenerated)
Tennant is joined by the Doctor’s mother
Smith is joined by Jenny

While pursued by Rassilon and the Master, both who would like to kill the Doctor(s) and prevent him from figuring out a way to leave the Time War, adventures ensue. The potential exists for various companions (Rose, Donna, Amy, the new girl) to somehow become “scooped” into the Time War, used as bait or to help in the battle.

In the end, the Doctor receives help from another man who seems bent on helping them, saving each incarnation at the last second at different stages. He introduces himself as an old classmate of the Doctor.

Final scene brings all four Doctors together for a climax that results in an unparalleled paradox: McGann is killed, under the hopes that would kill the rest. But being out of time and space allows the other three to survive despite the paradox and they manage to thwart Rassilon and the Master. After realizing they four can return using the pathway of the neutron flow (meaning only the four who entered can exit…no hope for the others), they realize that they cannot leave with McGann dead…returning to time and space would mean the Doctor’s life would end with McGann.

The classmate steps in and sacrifices a regeneration for McGann, who rises. It is then that the “classmate” reveals he isn’t who he said he was. In reality, he is actually the Doctor’s 12th incarnation, also sucked in by the neutron flow, and he gladly sacrificed his last regeneration in order to save himself and the other two (also explaining why no other incarnations past 12 were brought into the Time War).

The Five Doctors leave the Time War, each returning to their own timelines, and McGann back to dying inside the TARDIS and regenerating into Eccelston, who smiles and says, “Excellent.”

The show finishes with Matt Smith rejoining his companion, trying to explain the adventure, and realizing that he had seen the face of his own death…he now knows what is yet to come, and remembers when he asked #12 how much longer he had, he only had a sad smile for him.

This launches Smith into his final adventures, knowing the end is near, knowing that the next will be his final incarnation, and that death awaits him.