Gallery: Celebrate the New Doctor Who by Watching the Show's 13 (Yes, 13) Regeneration Scenes
01Regeneration One
Yesterday the BBC [announced](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23570354) the name of the man who will step into the shoes of the latest incarnation of the Doctor: Scottish actor Peter Capaldi, known for his role as Malcolm Tucker on the BBC comedy series *In the Thick of It*, though many American audiences may remember from his recent role as a World Health Organization official in *World War Z*. The new Time Lord will take over the Tardis at the end of this year's *Doctor Who* Christmas Special as the twelfth version of the character, just in time for the 50th anniversary of the fan-favorite British sci-fi show. What remains to be seen, however, is exactly *how* he will arrive. The idea that the Doctor periodically takes on a new form (and thus, a new actor) originated in the 1966 *Doctor Who* episode "The Tenth Planet" as a way to explain the replacement of the show's original star William Hartnell. Since then, the Doctor's ability to "regenerate" has been one of the many tricks that *Who* has up its sleeve in terms of dramatic tension. The Doctor, we've been told, has thirteen lives to live, and what would kill a regular human will just push him from one incarnation into the next. What this means, of course, is that *Who* gets to have its cake and eat it, too: Viewers get the grand emotional drama of what is, for all intents and purposes, the death scene of their hero (or at least, the departure of each Doctor's actor and personality), while the show itself moves forward without having to deal with the permanent loss of its main character. In the past, we've seen regenerations take place because of supreme sacrifices to save the world, punishment meted out by the Time Lords themselves, botched surgery and--just once--unfortunate contractual issues. With only four months to go until we see the Capaldi step into Matt Smith's shoes, it's time to take a look back at the show's earlier regenerations--both of the Doctor, and occasionally, his friends and antagonists--for some clues as to how the theoretically penultimate Doctor will be replaced when the time comes. __Above: Regeneration One__ *From:* William Hartnell *To:* Patrick Troughton *Episode:* "The Tenth Planet, Part Four" (1966) *What Happened:* The very first regeneration of the Doctor's remains perhaps the most underwhelming, as the Doctor simply keels over from exhaustion and... turns into someone else. In the following storyline, "The Power of the Daleks," the second Doctor describes what just happened as a "renewal," and the show moves out without more explanation. In reality, actor William Hartnell had been replaced because of his failing health, and the perception that he had become increasingly difficult to work with. Rather than being rejected by viewers, the somewhat flimsy workaround for replacing Hartnell ultimately became a core element of the *Doctor Who* mythology.
02Regeneration Two
__Regeneration Two__ *From:* Patrick Troughton *To:* Jon Pertwee *Episode:* "The War Games, Part Ten" (1969) *What Happened:* The Doctor's second regeneration remains an anomaly of the series more than four decades and eight regenerations later. Instead being caused by a life-threatening event, as most later regenerations were, it was a punishment meted out by other Time Lords that also involved the Doctor being exiled to Earth, stripped of the use of the Tardis and separated from his traveling companions, whose memories were rewritten to remove any mention of the Doctor. It was, in other words, a regeneration of the show as much as the character--something that became even clearer in the next episode, which was the first *Who* to be shot in color.
03Regeneration Three
__Regeneration Three__ *From:* Jon Pertwee *To:* Tom Baker *Episode:* "Planet of The Spiders, Part Six" (1974) *What Happened:* By this point in the series' run--eleven years since its launch-- things finally started falling into place for the larger mythology. The change from Pertwee to Baker was, for the first time, described using the word "regeneration," and was triggered by lethal radioactive poisoning. The strangest thing about this regeneration is that you don't really get to see the next Doctor; he didn't make his first proper appearance until six months later, when the new season of the show began.
04Regeneration Four
__Regeneration Four__ *From:* Tom Baker *To:* Peter Davison *Episode:* "Logopolis, Part Four" (1981) *What Happened:* The Fourth Doctor's time ended because he fell down. That sounds pretty anti-climatic, but at least it was a fall from a pretty great height, after getting thrown off a radio telescope by the villainous Master. This regeneration also added another, rather odd wrinkle to the regeneration rules: Before transforming into his fifth incarnation, the Fourth Doctor was joined by "The Watcher," an apparent future version of himself, because... Well, that's still not entirely clear.
05Regeneration Five
__Regeneration Five__ *From:* Peter Davison *To:* Colin Baker *Episode:* "The Caves of Androzani, Part Four" (1984) *What Happened:* Finally, all that fearless galavanting around space and time caught up with the Doctor, and his fifth regeneration took place after he was poisoned by toxic space goo, and only had enough antidote to save either himself or his companion. The twist with this regeneration--revealed in the next storyline, "The Twin Dilemma"--is that it's the first to leave the Doctor slightly deranged as an after-effect. So deranged, in fact, that he tries to kill his then-current companion, Peri.
06Regeneration Six
__Regeneration Six__ *From:* Colin Baker *To:* Sylvester McCoy *Episode:* "Time and the Rani, Part One" (1987) *What Happened:* The regeneration is a special case, not only because it was written before the casting of the Seventh Doctor, but also because it doesn't feature the actor who played Sixth Doctor in any real way whatsoever. That's actually Sylvester McCoy in a wig at the very start, because Baker refused to return to the show to shoot the regeneration sequence. This particular regeneration took place because of an attack on the Tardis that was apparently so successful that it not only knocked the craft out of transit, but knocked out those inside. Why it triggered a regeneration for the Doctor but only knocked out Mel, his human companion, remains a matter for much conjecture.
07Regeneration Seven
__Regeneration Seven__ *From:* Sylvester McCoy *To:* Paul McGann *Episode:* "Doctor Who" (1996) *What Happened:* Oh, poor Doctor Number Seven. Other Doctors may have sacrificed themselves for the good of the universe, but the Sylvester McCoy era ended when his Doctor was shot during a drive-by shooting in San Francisco and then operated on by well-meaning human surgeons who didn't realize they were dealing with an alien who has two hearts. For dramatic purposes--and unlike both earlier *and* later regenerations--the Doctor was "dead" long enough to be sent to the morgue before regenerating this time.
08Regeneration... Well, It's Complicated
__Regeneration... Well, It's Complicated__ *From:* Rowan Atkinson *To:* Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley (told you it was complicated) *Episode:* "Doctor Who and the Curse of The Fatal Death" (1999) *What Happened:* How best to explain "Curse of The Fatal Death"? Let's start with the basics: *It doesn't count*. This isn't *Doctor Who* canon by a long shot, despite being written by Steven Moffat and produced by the BBC; it's actually a lengthy skit for *Comic Relief*, a charity telethon in the U.K.--hence the big names involved and lack of production values--during the series' sixteen-year hiatus, with the exception of the U.S. pilot. That's why we start with an all-new, all-different Doctor explicitly named as the ninth incarnation, and then go on to watch no less than *four* regenerations, including the appearance of the first female Doctor. And they said it would never happen! (Though to purists, of course, it didn't.)
09The Missing Regeneration(s)
__The Missing Regeneration(s)__ *From:* Paul McGann *To:* Christopher Eccleston... Maybe *Episode:* Well, that's part of the problem. *What Happened:* The lack of regeneration sequence from Paul McGann to Christopher Eccleston makes sense from a real world perspective; by the time the BBC brought the series back in 2005, McGann's failed pilot was nine years old. Additionally, the 2005 series was intended to be accessible to new viewers, and starting off with a regeneration sequence that referred back to something even fans didn't love seemed like a counterproductive move. However, that gap left an interesting space for future writers, particularly since it also meant that Eccleston wasn't necessarily the Doctor that came immediately after McGann. For those who were wondering exactly what John Hurt's appearance as a heretofore unknown Doctor meant at the very end of the recent season finale, this is one possible answer. We know that in the gap between McGann's pilot and Eccleston's first appearance, the Doctor made some bad choices that led to the destruction of his own race. What if Hurt's Doctor was the one responsible, making him the *true* Ninth Doctor? Only time will tell.
10Regeneration Nine
__Regeneration Nine__ *From:* Christopher Eccleston *To:* David Tennant *Episode:* "The Parting of The Ways" (2005) *What Happened:* By now, we're firmly into the modern incarnation of *Who*, where the stakes are noticeably higher and the regenerations are no longer the result of falling over. In this case, the Ninth Doctor absorbs the "time vortex" at the heart of the Tardis into his body to save his companion Rose, essentially committing suicide in the name of a love he hadn't admitted to up to that point. From this point on, all regenerations have essentially the same visual effects, which could best be described as "Help, I'm apparently on fire but my clothes are oddly fine."
11The Regeneration Ten That Wasn't
__The Regeneration Ten That Wasn't__ *From:* David Tennant *To:* David Tennant *Episode:* "Journey's End" (2008) *What Happened:* Possibly the best fake-out in the history of *Doctor Who*--and there have been many--"Journey's End" opens as the Doctor, who had just been shot by a Dalek, regenerates... kind of. In a plot twist that doesn't really work if you think about it too hard, the Doctor manages to will the regeneration energy into his severed hand -- don't ask -- and thus avoid regenerating himself. It's something that brings up all manner of questions for the future: Does that mean he's used up one of his regenerations or not? Does that mean he can just channel out the regenerations to someone or something else if he doesn't want to change? Does that mean--actually, never mind. Forget it, Jake. It's *Who*town.
12Regeneration Ten
__Regeneration Ten__ *From:* David Tennant *To:* Matt Smith *Episode:* "The End of Time, Part Two" (2010) *What Happened:* The last regeneration of the Doctor--until December, of course--and the most dramatic and the most drawn-out. After saving the world from both the Master and the Time Lords, the Doctor made the ultimate sacrifice to save a regular, decent human from radiation poisoning, a decision that triggered a slow, *slow* regeneration. So slow, in fact, that he manages to go on a farewell tour of all his friends and family that lasts a rather long time--and still complains that he doesn't "want to go" before he finally regenerates. Seriously, Doctor Ten. Get it together.
13The Master Regenerates
__The Master Regenerates__ *From:* Derek Jacobi *To:* John Simm *Episode:* "Utopia" (2007) *What Happened:* The Doctor isn't the only character we've seen regenerate. The Master, another Time Lord, had his first onscreen regeneration in the 2007 episode "Utopia," turning from the friendly faced, if utterly evil Derek Jacobi to the cheekier John Simm. Other Time Lords who have regenerated in the show's long history include Romana, a one-time companion to the Docto, who managed to "try on" other bodies mid-regeneration in a way that suggested she could control the process in a way that the Doctor couldn't. (Sadly, those regenerations happened offscreen.)
14Melody Pond Regenerates
__Melody Pond Regenerates into River Song__ *From:* Nina Toussaint-White *To:* Alex Kingston *Episode:* "Let's Kill Hitler" (2011) *What Happened:* River Song has a somewhat convoluted backstory, but the short version of it goes something like this: She was conceived onboard the Tardis, and consequently absorbed some kind of time vortex energy while still in the womb and was born a Time Lord despite having human parents (Amy Pond and Rory Williams, the Doctor's companions). Kidnapped as a baby--then known as Melody Pond--she was later rescued by the Doctor and an unwitting Amy and Rory, later regenerated offscreen to become "Mels," a childhood friend of Amy and Rory's in their past, before finally regenerating in this scene to become River Song. Confusing, I know. Almost immediately after she regenerates into the familiar River Song, however, she saves the Doctor's life by giving him all her regenerative powers and becomes a regular human being in the process. Again, a question is raised that's never really been answered: Does this mean that the Doctor has extra lives that once belonged to Melody Pond? Perhaps we'll find out in the Christmas Special. After all, if John Hurt *was* a former Doctor, then that means the new Doctor would be the Thirteenth... which is, officially, the final life for the character. But that'd never stick... right?
