The Brief History of Doctor Who‘s Forced Regenerations

When Patrick Troughton’s clip arsenic the 2nd Doctor was coming to an end, truthful overmuch of some the quality of the Doctor’s quality to cheat decease and alteration faces, arsenic good arsenic their narration to their people, the mysterious Time Lords, was inactive unwritten. We’d lone seen regeneration once, and “The War Games”—which the BBC precocious announced arsenic its adjacent colorization project aft past year’s day merchandise of “The Daleks”—would besides people the precise archetypal clip we saw different Time Lords astatine all. But alongside that introduction, Doctor Who explored an thought it would lone seldom instrumentality to crossed the adjacent half-century: what if regeneration itself didn’t hap naturally?

The Second Doctor’s Forced Regeneration

The 2nd Doctor’s regeneration astatine the climax of “The War Games” is unsocial successful respective ways. Trapped and placed connected proceedings by his ain people, the Doctor is fixed a condemnation for his crimes of violating the Time Lord’s ineffable argumentation of non-interference: firstly, that he’ll beryllium exiled to Earth without usage of the TARDIS, and secondly, that helium volition beryllium regenerated into a caller individuality arsenic portion of that exile.

It’s the archetypal clip we ever spot the process considered little arsenic a earthy absorption to death, and alternatively arsenic thing that tin beryllium actively triggered successful immoderate mode by the Time Lords themselves, and adjacent much interestingly, it’s the archetypal clip we ever spot regeneration treated arsenic a selective process. The Time Lords connection the Doctor a bid of imaginable faces for his adjacent incarnation, each of which helium refuses retired of protest—only for his captors to past determine that they’ll unit a caller individuality connected him without the luxury of choice, suggesting that not lone is determination the capableness for a Time Lord to person regeneration triggered by unit done non-fatal means, but besides that astatine slightest precocious echelons of Time Lord nine had devised ways to determine what aboriginal incarnations of immoderate fixed Time Lord could beryllium successful that process.

It’s besides wide successful “The War Games” that the enactment of a forced regeneration is profoundly traumatic and painful, adjacent compared to the accustomed traumatic script that triggers the process. There still really hasn’t been a regeneration presented to america successful Doctor Who rather similar it: the Doctor begins convulsing mid-sentence arsenic helium assails his radical for their judgement of his actions, his look contorting arsenic we spot floating versions of Patrick Troughton’s caput rotation and blur astir a acheronian space, earlier seeing the Doctor himself plummet into the metaphorical abyss. But what’s absorbing is that it’s besides the lone clip we’ve ever not really seen the Doctor’s infinitesimal of regeneration into a caller incarnation hap connected screen: “The War Games” ends with the Doctor trapped successful that achromatic abyss, having to hold different six months until “Spearhead From Space” opened with Jon Pertwee’s freshly regenerated Time Lord tumbling retired of the TARDIS onto earth, and into Doctor Who‘s archetypal communicative broadcast successful color.

Forced Regeneration In Other Doctor Who Media

© John Canning/Polystyle Publications

That doesn’t mean that the Second Doctor’s existent regeneration went unseen, though. Six weeks earlier “Spearhead From Space” aired, TV Comic published “The Night Walkers,” the past of its comics to diagnostic Troughton’s Doctor. That communicative established that “The War Games” didn’t really statesman the Doctor’s regeneration, but alternatively simply whisked him distant to commencement his exile connected Earth, with the 2nd Doctor becoming thing of a personage successful his clip connected the planet. However, portion investigating a lawsuit of mysterious walking scarecrows, the Doctor discovers that the animated beings are really agents of the Time Lords sent to surreptitiously gully the Doctor distant from the limelight truthful they can… well, fundamentally execute him. It’s inactive technically a forced regeneration, brought connected by the Time Lord’s edict, but it’s inactive a scarecrow firing squad fatally zapping the Doctor and dragging him backmost to his TARDIS arsenic his regeneration begins!

While the canonicity of the early TV Comics stories has ne'er been each excessively important, this is astatine slightest 1 happening we mightiness spot being changed successful the upcoming colorization. The trailer released by the BBC featured a little glimpse of a country with Troughton’s Doctor lasting successful the TARDIS, glowing with the regenerative vigor effect that has go a staple of regeneration in Doctor Who successful its modern era, perchance suggesting that we’ll really get immoderate mentation of the 2nd Doctor’s regeneration depicted successful the caller mentation of “The War Games.”

But “The Night Walkers” isn’t the lone ancillary Doctor Who worldly to woody with the thought of forced regeneration—it became a large worldbuilding facet of the “War successful Heaven,” a catastrophic temporal struggle betwixt the Time Lords and a mysterious hostile known lone arsenic the Enemy successful aboriginal Eighth Doctor novels and the unaffiliated “spinoff” caller and audio play series, Faction Paradox. Occasionally conflated with what would go the Last Great Time War successful contemporary Doctor Who continuity, the War successful Heaven saw soldiers successful the Gallifreyan subject (referred to in Faction Paradox simply arsenic the House Military, the allied forces of the Great Houses of the Homeworld) yet bioengineered to person larger regeneration cycles to support them warring crossed generations of conflict, and yet constructed with artificial biodata to regenerate into progressively less-humanoid integrated weapons of war. Part of that forced familial improvement would impact missions of forced regeneration that would premier troops to beryllium regenerated into caller bodies amended suited for upcoming engagements.

Forced Regeneration In Modern Doctor Who

While forced regeneration is rather uncommon in Doctor Who, our astir salient examples of it aft “The War Games” travel from aft the series’ revival successful 2005. “The Night of the Doctor,” the 2013 abbreviated movie that yet portrayed the Eighth Doctor’s regeneration, featured a somewhat akin regenerative process, erstwhile the grievously wounded Doctor was fixed an elixir by the Sisterhood of Karn that some triggered his regeneration and allowed him to prime an individuality and property to enactment successful the Last Great Time War in: the incarnation yet known simply arsenic the “War Doctor.” But portion elements of the regeneration had parallels to the process seen successful “The War Games,” it wasn’t a nonstop comparison.

We spot thing overmuch much akin to that process during Jodie Whittaker’s tenure arsenic the Thirteenth Doctor. Initially archetypal glimpsed successful the arguable revelation of the Doctor’s existent origins successful “The Timeless Children”, the young being that volition beryllium known arsenic the Doctor is seen arsenic the template for the translation of Gallifrey’s autochthonal people, the Shobogans, into the Time Lords, aft a Shobogan scientist, Tecteun, discovers the Doctor’s earthy regenerative capabilities and experiments connected them successful an effort to splice that quality into her ain people—a process that sees the Doctor’s young aforesaid forcibly regenerated done aggregate identities, earlier being forcefully regenerated with their memories mislaid erstwhile Tecteun and the now-Time Lords decided to marque the origins of regeneration secret.

It appears again successful Whittaker’s last story, “The Power of the Doctor,” wherever the Master not lone manages to forcibly trigger the Doctor’s regeneration, but hijacks the process truthful that she is regenerated into the Master’s ain signifier and psyche, trapping the Doctor’s existent consciousness successful a splinter of their ain mind. Again, portion determination are decidedly parallels to the regeneration glimpsed successful “The War Games” here, it’s not wholly similar: the Doctor managed to reverse the effects of the Master’s forced regeneration upon her, ousting his consciousness from her signifier with seemingly fewer side-effects… until the Master managed to mortally coiled her during their struggle anyway, triggering a much accepted regeneration into a caller incarnation.

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