Final reward


 * For much longer journey made by the Eleventh Doctor, see Farewell tour.

After saving Wilfred Mott's life at the cost of his own, the Doctor held off his regeneration and embarked on more travels in what he called his final reward.

Prelude
After sending back the Time Lords and Gallifrey back to the end of the Last Great Time War to their deaths. The Doctor realised he had survived, but then he heard four knocks. Wilf was trapped inside a radiation control booth which was about to be flooded with radiation. Despite his own anger and Wilf's pleas to leave him, he released Wilf and took his place, receiving a fatal level of radiation. At first, however, it appeared as if the Doctor had survived this, too, but when a wound on his face suddenly healed itself, the Doctor realised that the regenerative process had started. Unlike previous occasions, however, the actual regeneration did not immediately occur, and the Doctor was able to not only return Wilf to his home, but spend an unknown length of time travelling through time and space revisiting his past companions, an act he referred to as his "reward".

The reward
The Doctor visited Martha Jones and Mickey Smith, now freelance alien fighters and married, saving them from the Sontaran, Jask.

He went to 13 Bannerman Road where he prevented Luke Smith from being run over by a car. Luke rushed to his house to inform his mother, Sarah Jane, of his appearance. She went outside and called out to the Doctor, who acknowledged her, but didn't reply, before entering his TARDIS. Sarah Jane seemingly knew what was going to happen, but was still glad to see him.

He travelled to a cantina on the planet Zog, where Captain Jack Harkness was drowning his sorrows in a drink. He passed a note to Jack reading, "His name is Alonso". Jack turned to see Midshipman Alonso Frame, (DW: Voyage of the Damned) and the Doctor departed as the two began flirting.

The Doctor entered a bookstore where Verity Newman, a descendant of Joan Redfern, was signing copies of her book, A Journal of Impossible Things, which was the journal the Doctor had written during his time as John Smith. (DW: (Human Nature) The Doctor had Verity sign his copy, and she realised he was the same Doctor. The Doctor asked Verity if Joan had been happy in the end which she confirmed, but he refused to answer her question of if he was.

He then encountered Geoff Noble at some point before the man's death, and borrowed a pound from him. He then went to the future and used that pound to purchase a winning lottery ticket. He arrived at the wedding of Donna Noble and Shaun Temple, and asked Sylvia Noble and Wilf to give Donna the triple rollover-winning ticket as a wedding gift.

The Doctor also visited Heather McCrimmon and Wolfgang Ryter in 2014, saving their lives in the National Science Museum. (DWA: Lucky Heather)

The Eleventh Doctor would reveal to Sarah Jane and Jo Jones that he visited all of his former companions from all of his previous incarnations, seeing how they got on. He found that Jo had twelve grandchildren with a thirteenth grandchild on the way, and that the child would be dyslexic, but a good swimmer. (SJA: Death of the Doctor)

Regeneration
Finally, he travelled to the Powell Estate, on 1st January, 2005, where he observed Rose Tyler and her mother, Jackie Tyler, months before Rose first met him, in his previous incarnation. Although he kept to the shadows, a sudden spasm of pain caught Rose's attention and the two exchanged New Year's greetings, with the Doctor telling Rose that she would have a "really great year" with tears in his eyes as he spoke.

After Rose departed, the pain of regeneration overwhelmed him and the Doctor collapsed in the street. Ood Sigma then appeared and told him that while his song was ending, his story never would, and that the universe would sing for him. Reaching the TARDIS, he piloted it into orbit around Earth, stated "I don't want to go" and then regenerated for the tenth time. This time the energy released during the regeneration was enough to cause massive damage to the TARDIS. (DW: The End of Time)


 * For a list of Tenth Doctor stories in the order in which he experienced them, see Tenth Doctor - Timeline.