On regeneration and choice [is it a kind of dream?]

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On whether Time Lords have the option to regenerate or not, Terrance Dicks said this:

"The Master.
'No, my dear Doctor, you must die! Die, Doctor! Die, Doctor. Die!'
The Master's face grew to enormous size. He threw back his head and laughed and laughed...
Perhaps his taunts affected the Doctor even more than the appeals of his old companions. The one thing the Doctor had never done in all his lives was let the Master have the last laugh.
Reality split, fragmented, shattered into a thousand pieces, a million choices.
Somehow amongst them all the Doctor chose survival."

The regeneration of the Fifth Doctor, The Caves of Androzani, 1984.

Newcomers to the series will be asking whether the Master can willfully choose not to regenerate - he can indeed. I believe that was referenced back in 1976 in Deadly Assassin as well, but i could be mistaken.

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There are 14 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

An interesting side note-- to me, at least-- is the implication that the Doctor chose to regenerate, and live, in the aftermath of the Time War. Or, alternately, that the generally accepted fan view that Eight pushed the button and regenerated into Nine is incorrect.

From the episode Dalek:

Van Statten: And yet, you survive.

Nine: Not by choice.

Interesting...

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Some of Eight/Nine canonicity is not explicitly stated and at times quite confusing, to say the least.

But its is a long established fact that a Time Lord can choose when they regenerate, or IF they do.

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I'm not entirely sure that Nine was explicitly referring to a forced regeneration there, or just plain survival when he expected to die with the rest of them...

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In fact, when I think about it, I dont think it happened that way, necessarily. There's no proof either way.

I dont think Nine found Rose straight after the Time War, that much is certain. I think he'd been wandering around lost for a long time.

My take is, Eight fought the Time War but i think Eight survived it. I think some point after that, in despair, he regenerated into Nine and went all PTSD, hermitised himself and hid for a long time, before he ventured out to fight on his own, to try and resume his life as he had known it before all hell had broken loose. Then he met Rose and clung to her like velcro.

That's just my theory of course, and there is no proof of any of it.

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My (also unsupported) theory of the Time War is that it was Nine that ended it, but because he was in the first fifteen hours of his regeneration cycle, he was ripped to bits and then reformed (as referenced in the Christmas Invasion).

Nine did spend time travelling before he met Rose. In Rose, we see a photo of him warning a family off the Titanic. Oddly enough, the Titanic is this year's Xmas episode...

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Ah yes, all those photos that the northern bloke showed Rose while Mockey waited outside in the bug before getting eaten by the bin... They were all of Ecclescake... Proof that he did in fact travel before he found Rose.

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In Caves, the fact that Five puts off his regeneration til the end says a lot about the affect of willpower on regeneration. To me, the Master's behavior was no different that Fivey's on Morgus' ship. Still made me pull my hair out in frustration, though. You can't kill the Master! Noes!!1!

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Yep. Fivey held it at bay, to save the life of one human being. To make up for all those he let down, including Adric. He held it until he couldn't hold it any longer, and in the wake of the Master laughing at him, he chose to live again.

I love Circular Time: Winter's take on this issue. Its beautiful. To hear Five being given a purpose again after nearly resigning himself, to KNOW that he CHOSE to become loudly colourful Six, its lovely. Paul Cornell is made of win, oh yes.

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'Winter' was an absolute trip! I loved the hint-hint references about seeing all those colors in the Watcher, and the pounding coffin in the barn...I was WTF?-ing most of the way. Very interesting peek inside the mind of the Doctor. So sad.

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I thought it was beautiful.

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Most notably, Eccleston delays his own regeneration so he has time to say goodbye to Rose and explain the process to her (/the non-fan audience).

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Yeah so the not-we would know what was going on when he went all glowy.

Still, have seen many questions in fan comms over the last 24 hours asking if Time Lords in fact had that ability...

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Quite right!

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N00bs. They make me laugh, yes.

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is it a kind of dream?

On regeneration and choice

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