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From the TARDIS to the Companions and the Sonic Screw Driver, there’s been one other constant throughout the tenure of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Doctor Who and that’s Regeneration. It’s happened frequently throughout over 50 years of theꦍ show, and it’s an interღesting process that works thematically and practically for the cast of actors that get shuffled in and out of the role over the years.
For Whovians, it’s got a lot of deep meaning and it’s always an emotional moment, but for newbies and first-timers it can be a little confusing. There’s quite a lot to get through, so to help dissect this unique moment in a Time Lord's life cycle, here’s what you need to know about Regeneration in Doctor Who.
What Is Regeneration?
Regeneration is a process that’s primarily been available to the Time Lords, a hyper-advanced alien species that come from the planet Gallifrey and from which The Doctor hails (or used to).
Regeneration is essentially a trick that Time Lords use to heal themselves of mortal wounds, lethal poisoning, or if they reach an extremely advanced age, usually around 500 or more. When it kicks in, their cellular structure essentially regenerates at a molecular level, completely healing t🏅hem of all injury and essentially resetti🦩ng them.
However, during each Regeneration, a Time Lord does not return to their previous state. Instead, their entire body, personality, race, age, and gender are changed, often completely at random.
Though in some cases it’s been shown that a Time Lord can revert to a previous incarnation of themselves for a short period of time. As was seen in David Tenannt's Eleventh Doctor re-appearing again after his fourteenth incarnation. Or Tom Baker’s Fourth and Colin Baker's Sixth appearing as The Curator.
The Regeneration Process
As the decades crawled by, the technology used for special effects improved and alongside it we saw the process of Time Lord Regeneration change right along with it. What started as just a simple close-up of The Doctor and a cross-fade into a new actor became a big flashy spectacle thatꦚ can cause quite a bit of destruction.
In the lore, the regeneration process is unique and it can vary from Time Lord to Time Lord. Outside of the lore, this was usually due to the various “visions&rdqꦓuo; of the current showrunner or director.
For example, some experience it immediately and instantly flash to their new form, whilst others take much longer and let off lots of excess energy. There are also exceptions like The Doctor who can often stave it off for a time. But either way, it’s inevitable.
What Regeneration Looks Like
By the more modern standards of the series, when Regeneration starts, a Time Lord's skin will begin to glow as bright flowing energy builds and then blasts out of their head and extremities. Sometimes they yell in pain, sometimes they don’t, and they then turn into their new Incarnation.
This all culminates in a massive outburst of energy from the individual. Though the blast doesn’t seem to harm organic matter, anything mechanical or electronic is immediately fried. As wa൩s seen numerous times when the more modern era versions of The Doctor regenerated inside the TARDIS, only for everything to immediately spectacularly explode and break.
Though this issue has been explained as being due to an unintended build-up of energy that was accumulated by The Doctor prolonging the inevitable whilst going on farewell tours for all of his companions.
However, there have been instances when Regeneration was forcefully activated, paused, and even stopped or reversed. But, as long as there’s organic material, the process can begin, it can be something as small as a hand or a few cells preserved in stasis.
Regeneration Energy or leftover Regeneration Energy can be used to regenerate others. As was seen with the Tenth sending some to his disembodied hand or the Thirteenth compassionately trying to extend Davros’s life.
Killing A Time Lord
Time Lords are not invincible and they are, or at least were, limited to a maximum of thirteen regenerations. There are also certain weapons that could interrupt the regeneration process or completely bypass it. Or if they’re interrupted mid-regen the energy will simply disperse♏ and the♌y’ll expire.
They can also be taken out if they're shot in both hearts, the brain, and the part of the brain that stores the genetic coding for Regeneration to activate. The same applies if a Time Lord is caught in a massive explosion, if there are no remains there’s no regeneration.
So they can be killed, it just requires some extra steps. Some Time Lords can also refuse regeneration, as was seen by The Master when he became Harold Saxon, though this is essentially a suicidal act.
River Song also attempted to utilize the energy released by Regeneration as a weapon as seen in the episodꦛe Lets Ki🎉ll Hiter. Though it doesn’t seem to be lethal.
Origins Of Timelord Regeneration
One of the downsides of having such a long-running show is that different aspects of a character will be answered again and again in many different ways by various showrunners and writers over the years to the point it all becomes a bit of a tangle✱d mess.
Time Lord Regeneration, unfortunately, falls into that camp a little as the exact nature of it and where it came from has changed regularly over the decades.
For example, some say it came from experimentation, a nano-virus, evolution from exposure to the raw schism of the Time Vortex over the years, or as some characters have put it over the years it’s just a “Trick of the Time Lords."
Even more recently with the start of the Fourteenth Incarnation of The Doctor, the origins of Regeneration were completely retconned. Which was an interesting if divisive choice.
It’s a little tricky to pin down exactly where or how the Time Lords managed to gain this extremely beneficial ability. So we’ll dive briefly into the various origins as some of them were pretty in🌃teresting choices for a legacy series.
Real World Reason For Regeneration
First up, outside of the show the reason for Regeneration or “Renewal” as it was dubbed in the early days was a way to combat staffing problems for the role of The Doctor. The First Incarnation, William Hartnell had poor health that gradually deteriorated further and so they had to find a way to replace him.
After all, as actors get older they can’t physically perform the role, or their performance might be lacking, or it just narratively fits to refresh everything. So you need to swap them out with someone else.
That’s where Regeneration came in. A new actor or actress would be cast ahead of time, usually a season or two, The Doctor would “die” and then regenerate, and then off they go with this new person at the helm. It was a clever way to get around the limitations of the time and it evolved int🧸o its own massively influential part of the character.
TARDIS Renewal
Next, we have the theory that the TARDIS is behind it all. In the early days of Doctor Who, the wri🅠ters were still trying to fin๊d their footing, and it was hinted that the TARDIS was doing it.
The theory goes that The Doctor and The TARDIS were linked and the machine would “Renew” The Doctor. This was, at the time, a quick and easy way to handwave how The Doctor was able to regenerate. It also was a way for the Showrunners to overhaul the TARDISꦅ after some seasons to keep the set fresh and i🔥nteresting.
Razillon’s Experimentation
Another theory that got thrown around was that Razillon performed twisted experiments on Gallifreyan DNA in order to extend his own life. Over time and many failed attempts, he eventually pinned it down to a maximum of thirteen regenerations and then passed this on to his fellow Time L💧ords.
This eventually blended and fed into the idea that Regeneration was a “Time Lord Trick” or that they merely evolved this way. However, this was eventually retconned and it never really came back as the show went on. Though the cha🦹racter of Ra🎐zillon did, many times.
The Watcher
Next is The Watcher, a mysterious character that appeared when Tom Baker’s Fourth Incarnation was running a chaotic riot within the space-time continuum. They have a pale white, almost featureless face, white robes, and the strange ability to manipulate The TARDIS and travel through space-time by themselves.
This mysterious figure is another unique Regeneration by-product that’s unfortunately fallen by the wayside over the years. But it appears when The Doctor is going to die soon and when they do, The Watcher approaches and merges with them. They then take on the form of the next Incarnation oꦗf The Doctor, and off they go on adventures.
The true nature of The Watcher has changed a little over the years, but it’s generally accepted that it’s a projection of the next Incarnation. A wandering embodiment of the next 🧜self that’s waiting for their time.
He would appear again when the Fifth Incarnation would Regenerate and then again when the Tenth was about to become the Eleventh, watching silently from nearby, though the merging is never mentioned in the latter example.
The Timeless Child
Finally, we have the Timeless Child. A mysterious undying being that was floated around during the Fourteenth’s tenure. They were a legendary figure of a perpetual child that was said to have been the source of the Time Lord's ability to regenerate.
But it would be revealed by The Master, after looking at secret ancient Gallifrean records, that The Doctor was the Timeless Child. A very, very long time ago Tecteun, a Gallifrean Scientist, would discover the Timeless Child, who was in turn a being from another Universe that was found underneathꩵ a Wormhole. Seeing the helpless child, Tecteun took them in.
Then one day when the child fell from a cliff, Tecteun saw that they regenerated. And so Tecteun did what any sane person would do and experimented and forced regenerations on the kid over, and over, and over again. For many years.
Eventually, she found a way to replicate this ability in Gallifrean DNA, testing it first on herself and then others before going on to become one of the Founding Fathers of Gallifrey and the proverbial Progenitor of the Time Lords.
It was quite a controversial take to retcon the Doctor's entire history as a being from another Universe next door that could regenerate forever without end and was part of a secret society within the Time Lords. And the Time Lords themselves as a species that were born from experiments on a small child.