A question about Regeneration

[starsuperion]

All the Doctor's deaths outside of Throughton's have been violent and/or sudden outside of the couple he's held back.

But same result, no time to try on different bodies before settling on one.

If we assume the Ainley Master got a new set of regenerations during his Five Doctors adventure, and he really did die 2 or 3 times after that, he came back with the same look and persona.

Well the End of the War Games, the Timelords were giving the 2nd Doctor an opportunity to choose his next body, making one wonder if their control over Regenration and manipulation of DNA was a technology that was secret. The 2nd Doctor acted quite surprised. Later we see Romana body shopping which makes me wonder what devices she was allowed to bring on board the 4th Doctors ship, as she was already there, and had long enough time to make mods to the console while the good ole doc was parlaying it up with the White Guardian.

 

[thribs]

Romana’s regen was explained in the Key 2 Time audio story.
Before that I just assumed it was some ability female Gallifreians had.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Romana’s regen was explained in the Key 2 Time audio story.
Before that I just assumed it was some ability female Gallifreians had.

So now that the Doctor is a female, she'll have the ability to control her regens?

 

[starsuperion]

Romana’s regen was explained in the Key 2 Time audio story.
Before that I just assumed it was some ability female Gallifreians had.

what was the explanation? and there are no female and male Gallifreyans.. Moffat made them (effectively) "Non-Binary"..

can't believe I am even saying that.. sigh...

 

[Tom]

what was the explanation? and there are no female and male Gallifreyans.. Moffat made them (effectively) "Non-Binary"..

can't believe I am even saying that.. sigh...

Which leads to the question about how Timelords procreate.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

The Doctor has mentioned his father on multiple occasions on screen, implying that there IS procreation; then there's the whole thing / non-thing about his mother being human.

IMO, I like to think that Gallifreyans evolved as a two-gendered species, but with the advent / evolution / incorporation of regeneration this concept, and that of gender as a whole, became history. Gallifreyans could and did still get it on from time to time, but not as a genetic imperative to reproduce as it tends to be on Earth. Again IMO, but I see it as another symptom of their cultural and species stagnation. Think of the Asgard from Stargate SG-1, who used cloning to effectively achieve immortality, but which cost them their ability to sexually reproduce (and ultimately led to their downfall).

Mark

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

We also don't know for sure that all Gallifreyans can regenerate, as opposed to just Timelords.

I know there's been a hazy differentiation between those at times. The Doctor has said "my people, the Timelords" and the whole thing about people "coming back to life" to continue fighting the Time War™, which could have been some item of Rassilon's in use rather than everyone having the ability.

 

[The Wormhole]

Which leads to the question about how Timelords procreate.

Family Looms.

Okay, seriously, why can't they procreate the same way we do?

 

[starsuperion]

Family Looms.

Okay, seriously, why can't they procreate the same way we do?

I thought the ancestor cell said the looms were only used in the beginning to fix the problems with procreation that had developed by the V-Virus from the vampire wars..??

 

[Nightowl1701]

Family Looms.

Okay, seriously, why can't they procreate the same way we do?

I would've thought that was obvious...

The pain and trauma of childbirth.

Pain and trauma that, at times, becomes life-threatening.

Pain and trauma so great that, even if it doesn't get to that level of danger... could still set off the regeneration process, with the child still not fully born and no strength left for the mother to hold it back...

Do I need to take that thought any further?

 

[Mr Soak]

Presumably there’d be a failsafe in the regeneration process where a pregnant woman can only regenerate into a woman, around the unborn child.

 

[Nightowl1701]

Does Rassilon seem like the kind of guy who would've thought of that? Or cared? He made sure he was the only one to get the deluxe immortality package, after all...

Even if there was a failsafe (which I highly doubt), I wouldn't want to be responsible for whatever was left of the child afterward. Or the mother's mind.

 

[jaime]

Makes you think if the old Pythias curse should have been kept in canon after all. Mid you, it might have been.

 

[UncleRogi]

Now let me ask you Folk this: is Peter Cushing cannon or not?
And if so, how does he fit in all this?

 

[Nightowl1701]

Now let me ask you Folk this: is Peter Cushing cannon or not?
And if so, how does he fit in all this?

Actually, the 'Day of the Doctor' novelization (incorporating an unfilmed deleted scene) already covered that one:

To make some quick money after their return to Earth, Ian and Barbara penned two screenplays (slightly rewritten to protect their real lives) about their encounter with the Daleks. Several years later, the Third Doctor (in exile on Earth) catches a double feature of the Cushing movies (he'd already heard of them) - and laughs his ass off. (This bit is from a DWM short story.) At some point after his exile ends, he decides to go back and check out the making of the movies himself. The Doctor was friends with Peter Cushing (because of course he was) and approved of him playing the role (even lending him a waistcoat). He apparently advised on the two films, altering some more details (like the human inventor thing) to keep them from getting the Time Lords' attention. Ten and Eleven (in the DOTD novelization) pitch a third Dr. Who movie to Cushing over the phone, but that apparently went nowhere.

He also later took an older Cushing forward in time to star as Grand Moff Tarkin in 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.'

 

[The Wormhole]

Presumably there’d be a failsafe in the regeneration process where a pregnant woman can only regenerate into a woman, around the unborn child.

Actually, I see this come up a lot in discussions about a gender-changing regeneration, what happens to the fetus if a pregnant woman regenerates into a man? But, the way I see it, even if a pregnant woman regenerates into another woman, won't the regeneration terminate the pregnancy anyway?

 

[Mr Soak]

That’s part of the failsafe; the foetus would be protected from the regeneration energy and the regenerated mother would effectively be a surrogate birth mother.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Also...and I guess this is TWO questions about regeneration ... after the General regenerates into a woman, she says "Back to normal?" which implies that she prefers being female. Yet in "Destiny of the Daleks", Romana appears to have some degree of control over what her next regeneration will be. I take it, then, that some Time Lords have more control over their regeneration than others?

I figure that most regenerations are done in non-violent circumstances and done as much for fashion as anything else. It's just that all of the regenerations that we've seen apart from Romana's have all been done to avoid violent or unexpected death. I suspect that, when the General regenerated into a man in the first place, it's because she was wounded in the Time War. So, again, a violent death leading to no control over the regeneration.

are there any wilderness years 3rd party productions that hold up well?

I thought "Downtime" was an OK sequel to "The Web of Fear." And it's far more satisfying now that most of the missing parts of "The Web of Fear" have been rediscovered.

The Doctor has mentioned his father on multiple occasions on screen, implying that there IS procreation; then there's the whole thing / non-thing about his mother being human.

I remember the reference to his human mother in the Paul McGann movie but I don't remember any references to his father.

I thought the ancestor cell said the looms were only used in the beginning to fix the problems with procreation that had developed by the V-Virus from the vampire wars..??

And now we're way deep down the continuity rabbit hole! I love it!

Now let me ask you Folk this: is Peter Cushing cannon or not?
And if so, how does he fit in all this?

My head-canon is that he's an elderly future version of the Metacrisis Doctor that stayed behind with Rose in Pete's World at the end of "Journey's End."

He also later took an older Cushing forward in time to star as Grand Moff Tarkin in 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.'

...And then... to preserve the secret, got the FX department to add some weird filters to make him look like CGI?

 

[Nightowl1701]

...And then... to preserve the secret, got the FX department to add some weird filters to make him look like CGI?

Well, what's easier - making a guy who's supposed to be long dead look CGI, or making CGI look like a long-dead human?

 

[Iamnotspock]

The audio story Zagreus gives us most of the information about regenerations. When Rassalon developed it, it is said that it changes every cell in your body with the exception of the brain that only slightly changes, hence keeping the person more-or-less the same. He limited it so the person could only have 12 regenerations as any more increases the chance of more of the brain to change with it which causes health issues. Some people say this is where the Valeyard comes to be but i believe the "Trail of the Valeyard" has a different origin.
This was also the reason why your gender stays the same but they've sort of gone mad with all the gender swapping in recent years making that not true sadly.

Why would that be the case? If everything changes completely except the brain, wouldn't that include chromosomes?