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From: wsl@eosp1.UUCP (Warren Lobel)
Newsgroups: net.tv.drwho
Subject: When to Regenerate?
Message-ID: <1016@eosp1.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Jul-84 08:58:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: eosp1.1016
Posted: Fri Jul 20 08:58:41 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Jul-84 03:43:17 EDT
Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ
Lines: 43

A thought has recently occurred to me that might spark some interesting
banter between all Dr. Who afficianodos (spelling?). 

We all know that the good Doctor can (and will) regenerate in response
to some great physical, bodily stress (except when the Timelords forced
a regeneration on him at the end of the 'Wargames' story (i.e. from
Doctor Two -- Patrick Troughton (who by the way also played the Priest
who was impaled in 'The Omen') to Doctor Three -- Jon Pertwee). 

My point is this -- Throughout the Doctor Who series there have been
many times in which the Doctor encountered the same type and severity
of physical stress that normally (e.g. when a new doctor is about to
appear on the scene) sparks a regeneration. For example, Tom Baker's
Doctor almost died on the planet Karn after his mind duel with the
reincarnated (or regurgitated) Morbius and was only saved by drinking
'The Elixer of Life' given to him by the sisterhood. Surely this must
qualify as a regenerative crisis. Tom Baker also was prematurely aged
during the 'Leisure Hive' definitively a cause for regeneration (for
example: William Hartnell's Doctor (the original for those less informed)
specifically stated that his body was old and too worn out and that he
had to trade it in for a new one thus turning into Patrick Troughton.

I am sure there are many more examples where the Doctor's life was in
severe enough danger to spark a regeneration but its pointless to repeat
them here.

What I want to know is why the Doctor did not regenerate at these times,
aside from the real and obvious reason that it just wasn't time to
change actors. I mean is it some special heretofore unknown ability
of timelords to hold back a regeneration? We all know that some Time-
lords can force a regeneration to occur (e.g Romana, The Master and
K'anpo (aka Cho-je) from Jon Pertwee's last serial (The Planet of the
Spiders). But we don't know if Timelords can prevent a regeneration from
taking place (the only situation where this might be desirable is a case
where a Timelord really likes his (or her) present body and even though
their life is in danger they might want to stay in that body thinking
that some other means other than regeneration will be used to save their
life such as the 'Elixer of Life' mentioned earlier).

	Some food for thought? Hmmm?

			Warren Lobel