Regeneration - why the body change?
- Thread starter Sketcher
- Start date
A good retcon would have been for each actor who portrays the Doctor to be a little older than the one before.
You can “renew,” but there is a price.
As it stands, I wonder if each incarnation was a previous person of note:
Capaldi’s Doctor based on a Roman of some note….maybe that was the case elsewhere.
That would explain the jumping around in ages…the Doctor as a concept lives, but it requires a double death to balance the equation.
Death of the original person and that of the Doctor persona who was wearing it…and at Trenzalore, we saw something rather like Asimov’s Soft Ones.
You can “renew,” but there is a price.
As it stands, I wonder if each incarnation was a previous person of note:
Capaldi’s Doctor based on a Roman of some note….maybe that was the case elsewhere.
That would explain the jumping around in ages…the Doctor as a concept lives, but it requires a double death to balance the equation.
Death of the original person and that of the Doctor persona who was wearing it…and at Trenzalore, we saw something rather like Asimov’s Soft Ones.
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Which would have defeated the original purpose, to replace an aging, ill lead actor with a younger, healthier one.
After all, the Doctor's first regeneration was essentially from old age. And that would be the norm for Time Lords, since most of them lead quiet, orderly lives in the Citadel; it's only the rare exceptions like the Doctor, Master, Romana, etc. who go out into the universe, risk dying from violence, and regenerate frequently as a result. Your typical Time Lord would live a quiet millennium or two on Gallifrey, slowly grow old until their body "wears thin," then regenerate and live another quiet millennium or two, over and over a dozen times. It only works if the new incarnation is younger.
(Borusa was an exception, played by a different actor each time. One tie-in author postulated he had an illness that caused frequent regeneration, which was the motive behind his quest for immortality.)
Regeneration doesn't always work, does it?
I mean, we've seen several times where it SHOULD work, but doesn't. For example, in "The Five Doctors", why doesn't the Castellan regenerate after he's shot? Or in "The Deadly Assassin", when Runcible is stabbed in the back?
I suppose they could have regenerated offscreen, but still...
I mean, we've seen several times where it SHOULD work, but doesn't. For example, in "The Five Doctors", why doesn't the Castellan regenerate after he's shot? Or in "The Deadly Assassin", when Runcible is stabbed in the back?
I suppose they could have regenerated offscreen, but still...
Regeneration is a rapid healing process, but it's not absolute, magical immortality like Captain Jack's. Like any healing process or immune response, it only works if there's enough time for it to kick in before death, and if the illness or injury isn't too severe for it to overcome.
After all, there needs to be some risk that the Doctor could genuinely die, that they'd be killed too quickly to regenerate or injured/poisoned too severely for regeneration to heal. There isn't much suspense if the hero is guaranteed to survive. (Unless you go the Torchwood route and focus on the angst of immortality and the pain of the regrowth process, but that's pretty dark for Doctor Who.) For instance, when the Doctor was shot by a Dalek weapon in "The Stolen Earth," it was only a grazing hit, so he was able to regenerate. Implicitly, if he'd taken the full force of the blast, he would've been dead instantly, with no possibility of regeneration.
The Castellan was shot by a staser, and I assume Gallifreyan stasers are specifically designed to cause severe enough damage to preclude regeneration. And Runcible was killed by the Master, who no doubt knows how to kill a Time Lord decisively enough to ensure it sticks.
I can buy the thing with the Castellan, but Runcible...he was just stabbed. By a thrown blade. Anyone could have done that - the Master doesn't have some special stabby move that no one else does. 
anyhoo, I like to think Runcible did manage to regenerate, just offscreen, and the Master either didn't notice or didn't think him important enough to chase down.
anyhoo, I like to think Runcible did manage to regenerate, just offscreen, and the Master either didn't notice or didn't think him important enough to chase down.
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Maybe there's a particular Gallifreyan organ that controls regeneration, or some kind of nerve cluster, and the Master stabbed Runcible right there. Or maybe his knife was coated with some kind of nerve toxin.
Or maybe Runcible was on his last life and wouldn't have regenerated anyway, although you'd think they would've mentioned it. Given that he was one of Borusa's old students, and therefore presumably younger, it seems highly unlikely, unless he was very accident-prone.
I checked Terrance Dicks's novelization to see if it had any extra dialogue addressing the issue, but there's nothing.
Or maybe Runcible was on his last life and wouldn't have regenerated anyway, although you'd think they would've mentioned it. Given that he was one of Borusa's old students, and therefore presumably younger, it seems highly unlikely, unless he was very accident-prone.
I checked Terrance Dicks's novelization to see if it had any extra dialogue addressing the issue, but there's nothing.
IIRC, Runcible and the Doctor were classmates at Prydon Academy. So I'm guessing they are about the same age.
And if anything, Runcible would have used fewer regenerations, since he's not constantly putting himself in danger like the Doctor is. For all we know this could have been his first brush with death...
^Yes, as I said right after the part you quoted, it's very unlikely.
Is regeneration available to ALL Gallifreyans? Not just Time Lords?
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Just Time Lords. The ability is "unlocked" when they stare into the Untempered Schism.
That's never been explicitly stated. River never did that, and she could regenerate. She was conceived IN the Vortex, but within the safety of a TARDIS.
In the audios, Andred regenerates and he's a Chancellery Guard - seems unlikely you'd put regular troops through the test.
According to at least one book, they did. https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Andred
Andred isn't just a guard, he's a commander in the Chancellery Guard, a member of the military elite. He's a Time Lord, a member of the nobility, in much the same way that Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart is an upper-class career officer as opposed to a working-class enlisted bloke like Benton. My understanding is that every Gallifreyan who lives in the Citadel is a Time Lord, while the "commoners" are the Shobogans who live in the wasteland outside. There are different ranks within the nobility, some higher than others, but they're all still nobility, or they wouldn't be allowed in the Citadel.
We know River's regeneration was the result of being conceived in the Vortex and further experiments performed on her by Madame Kovarian and the Silence.
And whether regeneration was a result of the former or the latter was never specified.
Is everything outside the Citadel a wasteland?
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Arcadia was their second city before it fell.
The Doctor once estimated that there had been 2.4 billion children on the planet the day he ended the Time War: presumably these were nearly all shobogans.
The Doctor once estimated that there had been 2.4 billion children on the planet the day he ended the Time War: presumably these were nearly all shobogans.