Ok so I loved this line during the regeneration
I was wondering if it was a poetry reference, because 13 has had a few of those before. It turns out it's from an interview of the writer Dennis Potter, while he was dying of cancer, describing how much more strongly he felt connected to the present
"and looking at it, instead of saying "Oh that's nice blossom" ... last week looking at it through the window when I'm writing, I see it is the whitest, frothiest, blossomest blossom that there ever could be, and I can see it."
I just read the whole interview and god, what a thing to connect to thirteen in her last moments, what a thing for her to think of. It really ties into her desire to live in the now and not the past or future, her request to yaz, "can't we just live in the present" . It is just making me bawl my eyes out now thinking about the doctor thinking about this particular interview when regenerating, because she doesn't get a future, or really a past, she only has her now as herself, her past and future belong to someone else. Here's another bit from the interview that is making me go insane
"And we forget or tend to forget that life can only be defined in the present tense; it is is, and it is now only. I mean, as much as we would like to call back yesterday and indeed yearn to, and ache to sometimes, we can't. It's in us, but we can't actually; it's not there in front of us. However predictable tomorrow is, and unfortunately for most people, most of the time, it's too predictable, they're locked into whatever situation they're locked into ... Even so, no matter how predictable it is, there's the element of the unpredictable, of the you don't know. The only thing you know for sure is the present tense, and that nowness becomes so vivid that, almost in a perverse sort of way, I'm almost serene. You know, I can celebrate life."
Of course she went into it smiling and joking, it's now!! Her life!! She's celebrating!!
"But the nowness of everything is absolutely wondrous, and if people could see that, you know. There's no way of telling you; you have to experience it, but the glory of it, if you like, the comfort of it, the reassurance ... not that I'm interested in reassuring people - bugger that. The fact is, if you see the present tense, boy do you see it! And boy can you celebrate it"
You can read the interview here
