If the Doctor could choose which body...

[Sketcher]

Imagine the Doctor is at the end of his final regeneration, and because of some benevolent force, he is given one final life to live, but as one of his previous incarnations. Which of his old bodies do you think the Doctor would chose to live out his final years in? Each Doctor appears to have an instinct to remain in his current body (Six thinkin he's the best. Ten avoiding regenerating in Journey's End). Would he choose the body he just had, or do you think he would go for one of his previous incarnations.

Personally, I think if the Doctor had to chose, he would go with his fifth incarnation. With what ten said in Time Crash, his fifth incarnation seemed to be a defining moment for him, when he began to take a more advenurous and youthful approach to his life.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Depends on what version of said body? Will it be the youthful dashing versions or the aged through time distortions (like all the multiple-Doctor stories)? That being said, I would also say The Fifth Doctor (assuming it's the youthful dashing version).

 

[Joy]

Yeah, I think I agree. He probably would pick the Fifth.

Joy

 

[Starkers]

I'm not sure, he didn't seem too enamoured when he looked in the mirror.

I reckon he'd pick the 3rd!

 

[matthunter]

Well in order for it to be meaningful he'd also have to have the distinct personality traits of that incarnation... would Five be the same Time Lord if he also had all that post-Time War guilt weighing him down? Yes, he was carefree and enjoyed his adventures, but that was at a time when the universe LET him take a day off to play cricket. These days, the poor bastard's lucky if he can buy a cup of coffee without there being some insidious plot by caffiene-based lifeforms to conquer the Earth...

 

[The]

It's out of the 4th Doctor's rebellious tendencies that Number Five was born. The first three Doctors seemed to be getting over something, emotionally. But, Number Four is when he finally started laughing...

 

[Bacl]

It's out of the 4th Doctor's rebellious tendencies that Number Five was born. The first three Doctors seemed to be getting over something, emotionally. But, Number Four is when he finally started laughing...

Number 4, it was said, got his brainwaves scrambled a bit during regeneration. Given the regenerations, 4 into 5 and 6 into 7 were the most "standard", meaning by the books with nothing screwing up the regeneration terribly. Version 3 had his DNA and mind messed with by the time lords, version 6 always seemed to suffer from the trauma of that poison that 5 injested, etc.

I'd say the the Doc would choose either 5 or 7. Heck, given the telemovie, 7 lived on and on for a hell of a long time, which might be a good argument for him being a successful incarnation. He'd have survived the asian gang assault too if it hadn't been for the damn anesthetic.

 

[Sci]

Personally, I would hope that he would pick his ninth incarnation. But that's mostly 'cause the Ninth Doctor is my favorite.

 

[Starkers]

^ 9's probably the last one he would choose. I say that as someone who loved the 9th Doctor butwould anyone choose to be so messed up?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

It's out of the 4th Doctor's rebellious tendencies that Number Five was born. The first three Doctors seemed to be getting over something, emotionally. But, Number Four is when he finally started laughing...

Number 4, it was said, got his brainwaves scrambled a bit during regeneration. Given the regenerations, 4 into 5 and 6 into 7 were the most "standard", meaning by the books with nothing screwing up the regeneration terribly. Version 3 had his DNA and mind messed with by the time lords, version 6 always seemed to suffer from the trauma of that poison that 5 injested, etc.

I'd say the the Doc would choose either 5 or 7. Heck, given the telemovie, 7 lived on and on for a hell of a long time, which might be a good argument for him being a successful incarnation. He'd have survived the asian gang assault too if it hadn't been for the damn anesthetic.

Hm, that's an excellent take on the regenerations. And I can see the argument for The Seventh Doctor living a good long life (he was going bald and presumably not because of a time distortion like The Fifth in "Time Crash"), perhaps longer than any other incarnation except probably The First and maybe The Fourth (who knows how long he and Romana traveled on their own).

^ 9's probably the last one he would choose. I say that as someone who loved the 9th Doctor butwould anyone choose to be so messed up?

I absolutely agree. He was miserable as The Ninth for the most part. I'll give Rose one thing and that she taught him how to be happy again, but he was still miserable considering what he had to do during the Time War.

 

[jamestyler]

Whether it was re-living what had past and being able to change it (well, he is a Timelord), or just another life in an old body - I'd guess whoever lived the shortest (9?).

He may be curious to see what could have been.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

I think it'd be mostly dependent on who the 13th Doctor was in the first place. Most Doctor meetups have been pretty adversarial, with the Doctors spending more of their time arguing than making nice. The second and third Doctors pretty much define the concept of "self-loathing".

On the other hand, the Tenth Doctor considers the Fifth to be "his" Doctor. I'm sure that every Doctor would get along fine with at least one other incarnation, but that would certainly be dependent on the personalities in question. So, tough to say.

Mark

 

[Kelso]

He should choose Peri's body.

 

[Bacl]

He should choose Peri's body.

Hopefully not her fake American accent though.

 

[23skidoo]

I think by the time he reaches the end the Doctor will be very much in a nostalgic mood. Part of me thinks he'd want to go back to the very beginning and his first body. Maybe not the elderly, 450-year-old version who we saw in An Unearthly Child, but younger. Also, we know the Doctor had family in his early years- Susan was his granddaughter, suggesting that the Doctor had to have had a son or daughter to give birth to Susan. That might also imply a spouse or significant Other (the capital letter is a nod to the Cartmel masterplan). By the time of the Second Doctor it was implied (in Tomb of the Cybermen) that his family was all gone by that point. So even if he can't bring them back, he might want to live out his days in the body he had before Daleks and Time Wars and regenerations.

Alex

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ What he said.

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

I also think he'd choose to go back to his first incarnation. What could be more poetic in a full-circle kind of way than that? Then the 'First Doc' could look through all of the memories he accumulated in the lives that followed his incarnation and see how his life went...and then decide what he needed to do before it ran out for good.