carmen_lj | Regeneration

So, yes, regeneration, that is pretty much the reason that Doctor Who has managed to last this long. Lead actor bored? Ill? Dying? Wanting tons more cash stuff? Change him and have a shiny new renewal of series where you Get To Keep Your Main Character. Dude! So, yes, there was that risk each time and at the end it apparently went a bit wrong and people did not like the Shiny New Doctors, but since 1966, it has been one of the big sticks in the stick tower of Doctor Who, yes.

And when they came up with the (totally arbitary) twelve regenerations, and thus thirteen lives, I bet they never thought they'd actually get that far. And now it's, y'know, kind of almost there, they seem to be quietly forgetting that they ever said anything of the sort (so suggests the Beeb website). New series, in fact, implies that there is no limit to regeneration what with the "I don't die; I regenerate" thing and the "it's a way we have of chaeating death," without any sort of mention of "yeah, but only for so long, then Death gets pissed off and says ENOUGH YOU WEE CHEATERS" and drags them off to Hades, yes.

And, really, that thing on the Beeb site where it says with the Time Lords gone, who knows how many regnerations Time Lord shave does make sense in relation to Old Series continuity. There is no reason ever given as to why it is thirteen lives. No reason why regeneration will only work thirteen times. But there is a reason given as to why a limit would be imposed. "Immortality is a curse, not a blessing" is what Rassilon believes, and what with him being the Grand High Poobah of the Time Lords, he probably decided "right, you lot, you've got 13 goes and then that's it. Byeeeeeee!" And Rassilon himself is immortal, and he does grant a horrible, horrible sort of immortality to those who come and nick his jewellery. So, yeah, immortality totally possible. But they don't allow it.

Further evidence, yes, is Borusa's offer to the Master of "a complete new life-cycle" and the obvious continuity question that it raises of Why Does Borusa Bother With All That Death Zone Nonsense When He Could Just Give Himself A New Lifecycle. And, yes, maybe you could only have one (or other finite limit) new life-cycle/s (Borusa wanted to rule forever), maybe the Time Lords take this limit on their regenerations dead seriously (they are very keen on tradition) in which case, much easier for a renegade to get away with shiny new lives than it is for Lord President o the People, yes. Maybe they could reverse it somehow, the limit imposed by genetics, whereas the apparent gift that Rassilon offered overcame that. Anyway, tons of possible reasons. The points are Immortality Possible and Number of Regenerations Time Lords Have Is Imposed By Society.

So why? What's wrong with immortality? Again, canon gives A Reason, in The Brain of Morbius. Which, here, there's a whole planet of immortal people (coincedently, this planet is in the same solar system as Gallifrey. Also lalala, NA's I can't hear you, LA) and the Doctor, not exactly thrilled with what he finds there. Nothing has changed. Nothing ever changes. They are trapped by their immortality. Now, the Time Lords, not exactly rocketing forth with the shiny newness of things, but, heh, they do have the odd renegade who does Interesting Things and their civilisation does seem to be in a sort of terminal decline, yes. And, there's that whole war thing. Things do change for the Time Lords, just rather slowly, and it is better than the Trapped In Amber Immortality of the Sisterhood of Karn, yes.

So, yes, perhaps the same thing that saved the Doctor from death has killed the thing that imposes that arbitary limit of regenerations. (And, dude, it's totally arbitary - it was made-up for The Deadly Assassin to explain why the Master was decaying. They managed years before that without it, and it wasn't even called regeneration for ages, yes.)

I had a point...yes, that the New Series, as I se it, seems to be going with the ~~Immorality~~ Immortality thing, and this is, in fact, totally in keeping with Ye Olde Skool continuity, yes.

On another, slightly related note, Romana's regeneration. Dead nice that there was a pretty retcon in The Christmas Invasion for how she was able to change forms and such, yes, but the criticism that generally bugs me about that is that "OMG! Why she kill herself? MADNESS!" which is really a very human attitude. In that, we have got a hundred years if we're terribly lucky so, naturally, we're keen on things that make life longer and such. And fandom tends to assume that Time Lords, with their horrifically long lifespans, would think exactly the same thing, and just, hmm, p'haps not? Cause, yes, alien and also, just because the Doctor tends to use his regenerations when he gets himself killed, doesn't mean everyone does. Romana doesn't, and Borusa is a different bloke every time the Doctor pops back to Gallifrey, and I can't imagine he's been killed every one of those times, so, yes, Other Reasons. And such.

Those are my thoughts. Such as they are.