Regeneration unit
The Regeneration unit (also referred to as the Regeneration tank and Regen Disc by Thorne and Starkey respectively) was a maintenance device implanted in robots such as K9 Mark I.
Properties
Although designed to repair small fault, such as a faulty wire or a clogged gear, the device could build a new robot from the wreckage of the original. The unit's specialty was critical energy levels. Backup power was stored in the device to recharge the robot's powercore. Under certain circumstances, it could reconstitute a lost accessory with the excess power. If a robot were only an inch from death and the regeneration unit worked, the robot would be resuscitated. The reconstitution of lost accessories was a result of the default setting. The robot would be returned to its default state, as good as new. One was built into K9 Mark I.
History
It is unclear when K9 Mark I gained the regeneration unit, seeing as at least Mark III was not fitted with a regeneration unit, (DW: School Reunion) it is possible he was fitted with one on Gallifrey.
After self-destructing to defeat four Jixen warriors, Starkey retrieved the unit and K9 regenerated into a new body. Following regeneration, K9 remembered his name but couldn't recall additional details of his past; memories of his adventures with the Doctor and Leela, his two former masters, appeared to have been at least temporarily forgotten. (K9TV: Regeneration)
Thorne and Lomax knew of the Regeneration unit and decided to acquire it starting with Thorne's failed plot to cause K9 to regenerate with the use of a suicide bomber. (K9TV: Robot Gladiators) Though they eventually succeeded, Thorne coming to Darius Pike with a proposal, not giving the requested component's name and simply calling it "the cybernetic equivalent of an appendix". He had him try to convince K9 to agree into surrendering the device in return for his missing memory chip, promising Darius in turn that his father would be released from his imprisonment if he complied. K9 feared it was a trick, although he couldn't resist the opportunity to discover his lost memories and accepted although it turned out to be a trick. Thorne later gave the unit to an unknown force. (K9TV: Hound of the Korven)
The unit was contained inside the Trojan, a behemoth created by mixing together DNA from aliens encountered by K9. After K9 depleted his energy banks to defeat the Trojan, the absence of his regeneration unit signaled his demise. However it returned to him just in time, recharging his powercore and giving him a new lease on life, reconstituting his original dog collar and all (K9TV: The Eclipse of the Korven)
