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Retro-regeneration or degeneration was the process of regenerations being forced in reverse, causing the Time Lord in question to revert to previous incarnations, (COMIC: The Fountains of Forever, TV: The Power of the Doctor) known only to be attempted by Time Lords of the First Rank (PROSE: State of Change) though it was normally a short-term experience. (COMIC: Timeslip, The Fountains of Forever, Outrun)
Instances
Following his presence in the court which tried the Second Doctor, (TV: The War Games) Socra regenerated into a new incarnation (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon) only to return to his previous body by the time of the First Omega Crisis. (TV: The Three Doctors)
Reunited with the Third Doctor in the Death Zone, Sarah Jane Smith reminded him of when he changed, only for him to explain that it was yet to happen for him. (TV: The Five Doctors) By one account, this was caused when the Third Doctor briefly began to regenerate after battling a mind parasite known as the Nurazh. The Nurazh attempted to take control of his mind, but was overwhelmed by both the Third and Fourth Doctor's minds co-existing. The parasite perished, healing the Doctor and reverting the regeneration. Jo Grant witnessed this, and described to the Doctor his next incarnation. (PROSE: The Touch of the Nurazh)
The Fourth Doctor and his TARDIS were once infected by a space amoeba, which caused him to revert into his third, second, and first incarnations. (COMIC: Timeslip)
The Sixth Doctor was similarly forced to revert to all of his previous incarnations on Terra Nova, as his arrival in that pocket dimension exposed him to various mutagenic radiation fields; as a result, his body regressed through his past selves seeking a more stable physiology, but he didn't regenerate because he hadn't actually been injured. (PROSE: State of Change) A similar occurrence took place inside the TARDIS while fending off the Funhouse. (COMIC: Funhouse)
While the Seventh Doctor battled the energies of the Charon, he erupted into flame and momentarily regressed into (at least) his sixth, fifth, fourth, third, and second incarnations. (PROSE: Sky Pirates!)
According to one account, the Master was forced back to his decaying body upon the destruction of Tremas' body (AUDIO: Dust Breeding) which the Master earlier took possession of (TV: The Keeper of Traken) in what one account identified as being the Master's thirteenth regeneration. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)
When Borusa was freed from the Tomb of Rassilon, he emerged in the incarnation he was in during the Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey instead of the incarnation that had been imprisoned by Rassilon. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)
At some point during the Time War, the War Doctor visited the Diamond Array, a station built by the Union. She shot him with a degeneration gun, causing him to shift back and forth between his past incarnations, with his clothes and possessions changing to match each incarnation. As he searched for a way to fix himself, he was able to temporarily stabilize himself in a single form for a while, but the effects would take hold again, causing him to shift into other forms. The degeneration also affected the TARDIS, causing it to shift desktop themes to match whichever incarnation the Doctor shifted into. (AUDIO: Past Lives, Two's Company, The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50, The Union)
The Master was also struck with the weapon. Seeking a way to stabilise himself, the Master ended up on Planetoid 50, where he managed to create a device to cause a controlled degeneration that would leave him stable in his correct form for a while. However, the controlled degeneration went too far, causing him to shift into a future form, that of Missy. When the Doctor later arrived in the form of the First Doctor, Missy used the device on him, causing him to shift into the Tenth Doctor. (AUDIO: The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50) The effects did wear off, causing them both to degenerate again. However, they both continued to be able to degenerate into future incarnations, such as when they encountered each other again in the forms of the Lumiat and the Ninth Doctor respectively. (AUDIO: Time Lord Immemorial)
The Doctor found his way back to the Diamond Array and, with help from Susan Foreman and River Song, was able to stop the Union and bring an end to the degeneration, restoring him to his correct incarnation. (AUDIO: The Union)
Having regenerated into a child incarnation during the Last Great Time War, the Master regenerated back into the War Master after being caught in a time paradox. (COMIC: Fast Asleep)
The Tenth Doctor was once forced to retro-regenerate into his ninth incarnation by an age-regression gun. (COMIC: The Fountains of Forever)
When The Then and the Now attempted to ingest the timeline of the Eleventh Doctor, it caused him to regress through his incarnations to the War Doctor, where the Doctor's resistance of that period of his life halted the ingestion. (COMIC: Outrun) A similar occurrence happened earlier, and the Eleventh Doctor appeared between his first incarnation and the Curator. (COMIC: The Then and the Now) The next time it happened, the Eleventh Doctor partially became his second, third, fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth incarnations, as well as his twelfth, a future incarnation. (COMIC: Running to Stay Still)
The Twelfth Doctor was hit by energy from a time storm and entered a degeneration cycle, going back from his eleventh incarnation to his first. (AUDIO: The Lost Magic)
Having been subjected to a forced regeneration, the Thirteenth Doctor regenerated into the Spy Master. Though he insisted to Yasmin Khan that he could not change back, the Thirteenth Doctor's persona was able to resist the change inside her own mind. From the outside, Yaz and the Doctor's AI hologram used the regeneration energy of a group of CyberMasters to initiate a "forced degeneration", restoring the Thirteenth Doctor and forcing the Master back to his own body. (TV: The Power of the Doctor)
Other references
During the First Omega Crisis, it took time for the Brigadier to realise that the Second Doctor was genuinely from the past rather than the Third Doctor having changed his face back into the Doctor who he had first met, despite both the Second Doctor and Sergeant Benton's attempts to convince him otherwise. (TV: The Three Doctors)
While explaining to Alice Obiefune how time worked different during the Last Great Time War, the "Child" Master briefly appeared to turn back into his "UNIT enemy" incarnation. (COMIC: Kill God)
Shortly after witnessing the Ninth Doctor regenerate into the Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler wanted him to change back and asked him if he could do so, only for the new Doctor to claim that he could not. (TV: Born Again)
On more than one occasion, the Doctor saw that faces from their past awaited them in the future. Looking into his future through a Tomorrow Window, the Eighth Doctor saw many men in pseudo-Edwardian dress as well as the First Doctor. (PROSE: The Tomorrow Windows) Musing that he may eventually retire and become the curator of the National Gallery, the Eleventh Doctor met with the Curator, who he found to have a familiar face. The Curator told the Doctor that "in years to come", he may find himself revisiting "a few, but just the old favourites". Indeed, as well as the Fourth Doctor, (TV: The Day of the Doctor) the Curator had forms resembling the Sixth (AUDIO: Crossed Lines) and the Eleventh Doctors. (AUDIO: The Keys of Baker Street)
Shortly after enduring a temporary forced regeneration which ended with a degeneration, the Thirteenth Doctor was mortally wounded by the Spy Master. This caused her to regenerate into a new incarnation greatly resembling the Tenth Doctor, much to his shock. (TV: The Power of the Doctor) However, he later affirmed he was indeed a different incarnation from the Tenth Doctor on a cellular level. (COMIC: Into Control [+]Loading...["Into Control (comic story)"])
Behind the scenes
- A very different meaning of "degeneration" was used in the invalid source Movie Millie, where an incarnation of the Doctor in an alternate version of Doctor Who chased Millie in a way which could be described as "degenerate".