Regeneration as 'healing' energy

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I thought it was a conscious decision to regenerate and that's why the Doctor can in fact be killed before his final regeneration has been reached.
When death comes to quickly and unexpected is over.
That helps with the movie death where he is aware of being shot albeit surprising, triggers the regeneration which has to do its mojo on a clinically dead body , and him commenting with "nearly didn't regenerate" or omething to that effect.
Similarly Left Turn where some UNIT soldiers talk about him not having time to regenerate
and the grace shot of the Dalek weapon an episode later which was just dumb luck. A direct hit and no regeneration either.

 

[Admiral_Young]

@Tom RTD has stated (as was mentioned in the Death of the Doctor thread multiple times) that the Doctor was joking about the 507 line. Sigh.

 

[Starkers]

I thought it was a conscious decision to regenerate and that's why the Doctor can in fact be killed before his final regeneration has been reached.
When death comes to quickly and unexpected is over.
That helps with the movie death where he is aware of being shot albeit surprising, triggers the regeneration which has to do its mojo on a clinically dead body , and him commenting with "nearly didn't regenerate" or omething to that effect.
Similarly Left Turn where some UNIT soldiers talk about him not having time to regenerate
and the grace shot of the Dalek weapon an episode later which was just dumb luck. A direct hit and no regeneration either.

It isn't the gunshot that makes him regenerate though, it's Grace botching the surgery cos she thinks she's dealing with a patient with one heart.

I think the movie regeneration is probably the ropiest of all as the Doctor is clearly dead for some time...although maybe only 'human' dead, or in fact mostly dead

 

[Iamnotspock]

It isn't the gunshot that makes him regenerate though, it's Grace botching the surgery cos she thinks she's dealing with a patient with one heart.

Indeed. The Doctor is shot with three bullets, one straight through his shoulder and the other two in his left leg. Not fatal enough to trigger a regeneration, I guess.

I think the movie regeneration is probably the ropiest of all as the Doctor is clearly dead for some time...although maybe only 'human' dead, or in fact mostly dead

The Doctor does say that the anaesthetic "almost destroyed the regenerative process." Perhaps it was triggered internally, and invisibly, before his final scream on the operating table - possibly during his seizure - and was struggling to complete until he'd been, in every other respect, dead for at least three hours.

 

[Meredith]

Ugh, there are so many question now about how many regenrations the Doctor has like:
- Was the doctor joking when he told Clyde he had 507 regenerations?

I always took 507 as being the "number of different appearances" he could take on due to the genetic shuffling that takes place during regenerations.

 

[wamdue]

- Did 10 use up a regeneration in SE/JE? I say yes he did, but few people seem to agree with me, and I expect it will be ignored.

- Was the doctor joking when he told Clyde he had 507 regenerations? he was in an air vent (crawling backwards with Clive qutie close) he just said it, rather than go into detail.

- Did something happen during the Time War and the destruction of the Time Lords that gave the Doctor more lives? It is possible, I always figured the Master got a new set (or at least a limited number) when he was rescued by the Time Lords to fight in the Time War.

- Since the Tardis basicaly made Melody a Time Lord (probably at conception) could the Tardis (ans/or time vortex) give the Doctor more lives somehow? Im sure something could be written around that.

- Did River give the Doctor more lives? I certainly think that, that is possible.

What I would be interested to know, is if the life (or the death) of the previous incarnation of the Doctor, effects how the next Doctor looks or would the Doctors always have looked the same even if the regenerations occured at a differnt time?

Of course off screen the Doctor looks like he does depending on the actor cast at the time, but what is the in universe answer to the question.

 

[The Wormhole]

What I would be interested to know, is if the life (or the death) of the previous incarnation of the Doctor, effects how the next Doctor looks or would the Doctors always have looked the same even if the regenerations occured at a differnt time?

Of course off screen the Doctor looks like he does depending on the actor cast at the time, but what is the in universe answer to the question.

Regeneration probably can be influenced. The Time Lords were willing to give the Doctor a choice of how he wanted to look in The War Games, but since he couldn't decide they chose for him, or just let regneration go naturally and he'd end up with whatever. Likewise, before regnerating, Mels comments she's trying to "focus on a dress size."

Though, I like to think regeneration is somewhat random, and that a Time Lord can't really do anything about how they'll look. But that's just my personal preferance.

 

[wamdue]

Regeneration probably can be influenced. The Time Lords were willing to give the Doctor a choice of how he wanted to look in The War Games, but since he couldn't decide they chose for him, or just let regneration go naturally and he'd end up with whatever. Likewise, before regnerating, Mels comments she's trying to "focus on a dress size."

fair enough about War Games, but im less sure about Mel, simply saying she is focusing on a dress size, does not mean she was having an influence on the regeneration.

I sometimes like to try and will traffic lights to either stay or go green, I dont think ive ever actually changed one yet.

Fair enough about personal preferance my answers to Tom are loaded with them.

 

[Sindatur]

Romana in Destiny of the Daleks, as she's trying to convince the Doctor

Spoiler: Key to Time Series and Destiny of Daleks

to let her use Astra's body

 

[wamdue]

I saw that clip on YouTube, made me wonder if she was using some sort of technology to change her apperance, rather than regenerating.

 

[The Badger]

The Master was able to choose a young, strong body in Utopia.

Although never stated on scree, it's fanon that Time Lords in general have some control over their regeneration, but the Doctor isn't very good at it.

 

[Iamnotspock]

The Master was able to choose a young, strong body in Utopia.

Although never stated on scree, it's fanon that Time Lords in general have some control over their regeneration, but the Doctor isn't very good at it.

Perhaps because he's half human.

 

[The Badger]

Disturbingly, that's actually a good explanation.

 

[Sindatur]

The Master was able to choose a young, strong body in Utopia.

Although never stated on scree, it's fanon that Time Lords in general have some control over their regeneration, but the Doctor isn't very good at it.

I disagree, it's completely canan that they can control it, as shown in Destiny of the Daleks, there is no way other way to read that scene, than control over it.

As far as the Doctor, I always figured that was because of the life he leads, he never just regenerates when it's time, it's almost always when he's in the midst of dying. I've also, gotten the impression, that Regeneration isn't as hard on normal Time Lords, it's only the Doctor that has Regeneration Sickness everytime.:

1. Hartnell - body died of old age, he probably would've had some control over what he got, if he regenerated a bit earlier, before his body gave out altogether
2. Troughton - Regeneration stolen from him, and body chosen for him
3. Pertwee - Dying from encounter with Spiders
4. T. Baker - Dying from fall
5. Davison - Dying from poison
6. C. Baker - Unknown, but, he's looking kinda rough laying on the floor like that
7. McCoy - Dying from gunshots and botched surgery
8. McGann - Unknown

 

[The Wormhole]

The Master was able to choose a young, strong body in Utopia.

Considering regeneration usually makes the body younger, I intrepreted the Master knowing that regeneration at hand he'd be younger and stronger than his current body, not that he was controlling the regeneration.

 

[wamdue]

The Master was able to choose a young, strong body in Utopia.

Considering regeneration usually makes the body younger, I intrepreted the Master knowing that regeneration at hand he'd be younger and stronger than his current body, not that he was controlling the regeneration.

yes I figured the Master expected to become younger in his regeneration

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Hasn't consistently made the Doctor younger.

Considering Romana and the dialog before the second Doctor regenerated, it seems it is certainly at least possible to control the appearance of the new regeneration.

 

[The Wormhole]

Hasn't consistently made the Doctor younger.

Let's be logical for a moment, regeneration wouldn't be very useful if it turned someone who had aged as much as the Master had as Professor Yana into someone just as old or older. Therefore, the Master could simply have been predicting he'd end up younger rather than willing himself to be younger.

In the case of the Doctors:

-Troughton was younger than Hartnell.
-Pertwee was a year older than Troughton.
-T. Baker was younger than Pertwee.
-Davison was younger than T. Baker.
-C. Baker was older than Davison.
-McCoy was the same age as C. Baker.
-McGann was younger than McCoy.
-Eccleston was younger than McGann.
-Tennant was younger than Eccleston.
-Smith was younger than Tennant.

Out of the 11, only 1 was noticibly older than their predecessor, and 2 were either the same age or close enough. And of those 2, 1 was influenced by the Time Lords. The rest were clearly younger than their predecessors, and therefore one can logically assume that regeneration usually results in a younger body.

 

[Starkers]

Good point, though I'd lay odds the next Doctor will be older than Smith ala Davison/Baker.

 

[The Wormhole]

^^Most likely, but if we went much younger than Smith we'd end up with a teenager.