 Davies discussed the episode 's climax in detail in the show 's companion series Doctor Who Confidential . The climax — a Dalek ray shooting the Doctor and his consequent regeneration — was written by Davies as a pastiche of romance fiction . He compared the reunion between Rose and the Doctor to " the biggest romance [ the viewer ] has ever seen " and joked that seminal films such as Gone with the Wind should have ended with a Dalek shooting the male lead , and intensified the scene 's emotional impact through Piper 's cameos throughout the fourth series . Tennant described the Doctor 's wounding as a " moment of high emotion " and lamented that " [ the Doctor ] can 't have a happy moment , especially with a cliffhanger needing to be written " . The episode ended during the regeneration because Davies wanted to create the " biggest , most exciting cliffhanger in Doctor Who " , and to differentiate the scene from previous regenerations , which were always completed at the end of serials . He considered its resolution — the regeneration process being halted by the Doctor , who siphoned the excess energy into his severed hand after his injuries were healed — legitimate because the hand was an important plot device in " Journey 's End " ' s climax . The production team realised the halted regeneration and creation of a new Doctor would create a debate amongst fans about whether one of the Doctor 's twelve regenerations were used up . The production team originally declined to comment to avoid the debate ; Davies later said that he believed that because the process wasn 't completed , the Doctor did not use one of his regenerations . However , the 2013 Christmas special The Time of the Doctor , which was the last regular story for the Eleventh Doctor , confirmed that this regeneration did indeed count , as the Tenth Doctor was described as having " vanity issues at the time " . 
