Regeneration: Difference between revisions

==== Appearance ====

{{Section stub|''[[How to be a Time Lord (novel)|How to be a Time Lord]]'' and ''[[A Short History of Everyone (novel)|A Short History of Everyone]]'' discuss these different visual appearances for regeneration}}

Indeed, the Doctor came to realise that his regenerations were growing more explosive; ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Twice Upon a Time (novelisation)|Twice Upon a Time]]'') when he began his thirteenth regeneration, it was the most destructive of all — emitting a shock-wave resembling a thermonuclear blast. The town of [[Christmas (town)|Christmas]] was levelled, [[Dalek fighter pod]]s were blown out of the sky, and the [[Nacrana Va Hateen|Dalek flagship]] ([[TV]]: {{cs|The Time of the Doctor (TV story)}}) and [[Dalek Fleet|Dalek fleet]] were destroyed. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Twice Upon a Time (novelisation)|Twice Upon a Time]]'') Because the Doctor didn't have time to warn the citizens of Christmas of the danger from regenerating, his companion [[Clara Oswald]] ushered the people into the bell tower to take shelter. The Daleks that remained on the street were blown to pieces. ([[TV]]: {{cs|The Time of the Doctor (TV story)}}) The Twelfth Doctor was able to tell that his fourteenth regeneration would be explosive, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Twice Upon a Time (novelisation)|Twice Upon a Time]]'') and it eventually caused enough damage to the TARDIS for it to malfunction. The [[control room]] exploded, sending the [[Thirteenth Doctor]] plummeting from its doors. ([[TV]]: {{cs|Twice Upon a Time (TV story)}})

==== Physical and mental change ====

When he fell unconscious after being exposed to radiation, the [[Sixth Doctor]] heard the voice of his [[Seventh Doctor|successor]] before the regeneration began in full, leaving him assured that he would regenerate despite the circumstances of his death, the voices of the two Doctors briefly merging in his mind as they each noted that their life was far from over. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Brink of Death (audio story)|The Brink of Death]]'') When the [[Eighth Doctor]] was stabbed by [[Charlotte Pollard|Charley]] while he was possessed by [[anti-time]], he nearly died permanently due to his current grief, but found himself conversing with the personas of his immediate three predecessors who helped him realise what had happened and the need to return to life to stop Rassilon controlling the power of anti-time. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Zagreus (audio story)|Zagreus]]'') Indeed, the metaphysical [[Edge of Existence]] was a location in [[the Doctor's mind]] where each incarnation passed during regeneration, entering the Doctor's subconscious as a new persona emerged.

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More extreme physical changes were also possible. [[Cavis]] regenerated a complete body after being decapitated, although the process was cut short when she was stabbed through both [[heart]]s (the one that she already possessed and the one that she was growing as she regenerated), and her lover [[Gandar]] became a kind of human-[[Silurian]] [[hybrid]] in appearance when he regenerated in the realm of Avalon mere hours after his previous change. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Shadows of Avalon (novel)|The Shadows of Avalon]]'')

In the early days of regeneration, it was possible for fragments of other DNA to be incorporated into the new incarnation if, for example, a Time Lord had recently eaten or spent a great deal of time around other species; the early Gallifreyan priest [[I.M. Foreman]] suffered from this problem throughout his regenerations, each incarnation becoming more and more inhuman as more foreign DNA was incorporated into the process. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Interference - Book One (novel)|Interference - Book One]]'', ''[[Interference - Book Two (novel)|Interference - Book Two]]'')

==== Non-humanoid forms ====

During the [[War in Heaven]], regeneration into extremely non-humanoid bodies became the norm for members of the [[House Military]], although bodies without obvious facial features were considered "informal"; this was the case even for a [[strategist]] like [[Entarodora]]. However, the same tendencies were implemented in the [[regen-inf]] soldiers, members of the [[lesser species]] who had been granted regeneration to serve as disposable foot-soldiers for the [[Great House]]s, who often resented having no choice but to transform into gigantic, living [[weapon]]s upon death. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'') At least [[Homeworlder (Going Once, Going Twice)|one Homeworlder soldier]] in the House Military, who fought in the [[Battle of Cratosi Fields]], shared this mindset; upon beginning to regenerate from a humanoid form into a monstrous form with razor-sharp [[mandible]]s where her [[throat]] should have been, she broke down sobbing, begging all who would hear her to help her not to change. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Going Once, Going Twice (short story)|Going Once, Going Twice]]'')

==== After-effects ====

As regeneration involved completely rewriting a Time Lord's biodata and exposing it to the Time Vortex, for a time, the Eighth Doctor speculated that his raw biodata was responsible for the transformation of his companion [[Sam Jones]] from her original dark-haired, self-destructive self into his blonde-haired "perfect" companion, as his biodata was particularly exposed after his traumatic regeneration and the opening of the [[Eye of Harmony]]. However, Professor [[Daniel Joyce]] dismissed this theory for blonde Sam's existence as impossible as the Doctor could never have had that degree of unintentional influence on a complete stranger, although he admitted that the basic concept of Time Lord biodata rewriting another person's biodata wasn't completely impossible if there was greater pre-existing contact between them. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Unnatural History (novel)|Unnatural History]]'')

Forced regenerations could also result in Time Lords losing some of their skills or memories in various incarnations. Some of these changes could be minor, such as the Fourth Doctor reflecting that he was no longer able to make successful [[soufflé]]s, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Heart of TARDIS (novel)|Heart of TARDIS]]'') while on two occasions, later Doctors were forced to mentally regress back to their [[Third Doctor|third persona]], when they found themselves facing a situation where the Third Doctor's skills would be better-suited to handle the crisis than their own abilities were. This happened during their [[Sixth Doctor|sixth]] and [[Seventh Doctor|seventh incarnations]]. The Sixth Doctor required the Third's skills at hand-to-hand combat ([[PROSE]]: ''[[State of Change (novel)|State of Change]]'') while the Seventh felt that his technical expertise would be useful. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Timewyrm: Genesys (novel)|Timewyrm: Genesys]]'') The [[Fifth Doctor]] also notably lacked the hand-to-hand combat skills of his two immediate predecessors, though he remained a fairly capable swordsman, ([[TV]]: ''[[The King's Demons (TV story)|The King's Demons]]'') and the [[Twelfth Doctor]] expressed uncertainty about his ability to use a motorbike early in his life as he hadn't had a chance to test his current capabilities. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Crawling Terror (novel)|The Crawling Terror]]'') Post-regenerative [[amnesia]] could also be a problem, preventing the Doctors' recall of crucial information, such as the [[Sixth Doctor]] forgetting about his predecessor's encounter with [[Katherine Chambers]] when he met a younger version of her despite his past self's attempt to leave a reminder, resulting in him being unable to avert Katherine's interest in acquiring Cyber-technology. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Reaping (audio story)|The Reaping]]'', ''[[The Gathering (audio story)|The Gathering]]'')

The mental transformation caused by regeneration could also be a problem; when [[Andred]] decided to pose as [[Torvald]] after the two fought in the Capitol basement, Torvald dying while [[Andred (Weapon of Choice)|Andred regenerated]], immediate post-regenerative trauma was so difficult that Andred didn't think about what his actions would do to his wife [[Leela]] before he was too far into his deception, ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[A Blind Eye (audio story)|A Blind Eye]]'') others noting later that Andred had spent so long pretending to be Torvald that his own new personality had never asserted itself, resulting in him still expressing some of Torvald's personality traits even after his deception was exposed. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Lies (audio story)|Lies]]'')

==== Long term after-effects ====