Endings can be hard. Just ask any writer and they’ll tell you one of the hardest things to do is wrap up a really good story into an ending that leaves a person completely satisfied with the conclusion of a journey. So it’s no surprise to hear that Steven Moffat had to rewrite the ending of the Pond’s final episode until he felt he had it just right.

Moffat admitted that it was difficult to write the Pond’s last scenes and something he didn’t want to mess up:

“I completely changed the ending as I was writing it, thinking ‘No, I’ve got it wrong … I’m on the wrong emphasis’—but it’s a good one and it’s properly emotional. And it’s scary cuz it’s got Weeping Angels in it.”

Arthur Darvil who plays Rory in the series, says he was impressed and pleased by the ending that Moffat had written for his character:

“It was like getting the last chapter of the best book you’ve ever read and being really surprised by the ending … and really satisfied by the ending. It was pretty emotional.”

As for Karen Gillan, who plays the girl who waited, Amy Pond, she refused to read the ending until just about the time she was to film the episode. But when she did, she called Matt Smith, the Time Lord himself, crying and laughing hysterically exclaiming “Oh my God” because it was “so good!”

Smith was a little more philosophical about the his friends’ departure saying

“It’s one of those things, especially in Who – things change, people regenerate, companions come and go. That’s life. And we welcome Jenna-Louise Coleman – who’s doing fabulously well. And of course you miss the characters and miss the actors but it’s part and parcel of drama, part and parcel of being an actor. Things change.”

The Ponds final episode is titled ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’ with several scenes filmed in New York City. Once the episode airs, the show will go on a short hiatus where it will return for the special Christmas episode in which the new companion, Jenna Louise Coleman, will be introduced. As Moffat describes, “She brings a kind of speed, a wit, a sort of unimpressed-ness which has the Doctor dancing a little harder than he’s used to.”

Although he has said farewell to the show, Darvil sums up his experience quite well:

“It’s Doctor Who—I’m so proud of being part of such a big show. The show is bigger than all of us, and it will outlive all of us. … I’m really proud to have been a part of it.”

You can watch the entire interview below courtesy of Digital Spy: