Why does the 10th doctor regenerate

The Doctor's sudden appearance spares the life of a young man named Chang Lee, but the Time Lord himself takes a barrage of bullets. With dual hearts and Gallifreyan physiology, the Doctor actually survives the shooting, but is killed by well-meaning surgeons as they attempt to open the Doctor up and save his life.

Aimlessly fiddling in a Time Lord's body, Dr. Grace Holloway kills the recovering Doctor and he later regenerates in the building's morgue. With his only appearance coming in the ill-fated movie, fans were left guessing as to how Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor regenerated. Answers finally arrived in time for Doctor Who 's fiftieth anniversary in the short film, "The Night of the Doctor. Travelling alone, the Doctor comes across Cass, the pilot of a doomed ship, and attempts to save her life.

Unusually for Doctor Who , Cass refuses, not wanting to be saved by one of the Time Lords currently destroying galaxies with their endless war against the Daleks. For his part, the Doctor refuses to leave and with both passengers remaining stubborn until the end, the ship crashes, killing both.

Fortunately, the Doctor seems to have landed on Karn, a former colony of Gallifrey introduced in the Fourth Doctor's era. The planet's natives, known as the Sisterhood, give the Eighth Doctor an elixir that will supposedly allow him to fully control the characteristics of his next regeneration.

Appearing in the 50th anniversary special, John Hurt's War Doctor was a fleeting but welcome addition to Doctor Who canon and was seen regenerating at the end of "The Day of the Doctor. However, it could also be argued that the War Doctor's function was merely as a soldier in the Time War, and once that conflict was over, so was the War Doctor himself. For the second time, the Doctor sacrifices himself to save an assistant.

Rose refuses to accept being unable to help the Doctor and strives to find a way back to him, eventually absorbing the heart of the TARDIS and gaining God-like abilities. Rose saves the day but is rapidly becoming unstable, forcing the Doctor to absorb the power himself via a painfully cheesy kiss. After restoring the TARDIS energy back to its original location, the Doctor begins to feel the effects of saving Rose, later claiming that no Time Lord is supposed to take in that much power.

He promptly regenerates into David Tennant. David Tennant 's demise was a long time coming in Doctor Who , with the "he will knock four times" warning coming well in advance of the Tenth Doctor's final episode. Viewers were misled into believing this prophecy would be fulfilled by the Master or Rassilon but, in the end, it was Bernard Cribbins' Wilf that heralded the end of the Tenth Doctor's reign.

During the dramatic final confrontation of "The End of Time," Wilf selflessly frees an innocent worker from a two-man radioactive chamber, locking himself in until another person can take his place. When the dust settles, the Doctor hears the gentle knocking and realizes he must sacrifice his own life to save Wilf, absorbing a deadly dose of radiation in the old man's stead.

After a whirlwind tour of his old friends, the Tenth Doctor delivers an emotionally devastating final line and regenerates in explosive fashion. For the third time in his life, the Doctor died of old age when his Eleventh incarnation resolved to protect the planet of Trenzalore for hundreds of years, guarding a crack that separated the hidden planet Gallifrey from the amassing Dalek fleet waiting to resume the Time War. And since the Tenth Doctor had avoided a regeneration through the use of a preserved severed hand, Smith's Doctor was already out of lives.

After deterring the potential conflict for the remaining years of his Eleventh iteration, the Doctor consigned himself to a death of the permanent kind, but was spared this fate by the Time Lords, who granted him a brand new regeneration cycle.

Peter Capaldi's regeneration was special in the sense that it was triggered by damage accumulated throughout the Twelfth Doctor 's final adventure. Coming up against a powerful army of Cybermen and two incarnations of the Master, the Doctor's first major injury arrives in the form of Cyberman electrocution. Although the Doctor survives, he spends several weeks recovering from the attack and is unable to heal a cut on his forehead, with golden regeneration energy beginning to brew from his hands.

Delaying his forthcoming renewal, the Doctor later engages multiple Cybermen in combat and endures several energy blasts before detonating an explosion that not only wipes out his mechanical enemies, but puts paid to any chance the Doctor had of recovering from his previous wounds. Capaldi's regeneration marks a rare occasion in Doctor Who history that a major villain has succeeded in directly killing the Doctor.

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Ohila would later claim that the drink she gave him was just lemonade and dry ice , and her "moment of theatre" was simply an act to trick him into regenerating. However, the Doctor was nevertheless able to regenerate into his next incarnation. War Doctor Regenerated from his body "wearing a bit thin". However, the Doctor directed the regeneration energy to his severed hand , aborting a full regeneration by healing the damage he had sustained before needing to change bodies.

This resulted, later down the line, in the creation of a meta-crisis Tenth Doctor and of the DoctorDonna. TV : The End of Time Eleventh Doctor Neared death from old age after exhausting all of his regenerations, but granted a new regeneration cycle by the Time Lords, which automatically triggered a regeneration.

Later shot repeatedly by another Cyberman and caught in a massive explosion , triggering the regeneration further. The regeneration was purposely delayed because he desired to not change again, only accepting the change after a meeting with the First Doctor. They would next pick up his trail on Earth , by which time he appeared as an older man with a graying beard.

PROSE : Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons According to another account, which did not specify the War Chief as a past incarnation of the Master, after being shot by the War Lord, the War Chief managed a partial regeneration into a deformed incarnation who called himself "Felix Kriegsleiter" during his activities in s Germany , and continued to help the War Lord's people.

His regenerative process then became "stuck", but Ace later saw it kickstarting again as the War Chief stood in a burning building. COMIC : Doorway to Hell According to other accounts, he never properly regenerated, reemerging directly as the disfigured Decayed Master either from walking through a time corridor unprotected, or after being shot with his own Tissue Compression Eliminator by Susan Campbell while holding a Dalek transmutation device.

Decayed Master Used the power of the Eye of Harmony to partially heal himself, altering his voice and facial appearance but still leaving him skeletal. TV : The Keeper of Traken "Tremas" Master According to one account, after the body of Tremas was stripped from him by the Time Lords, a non-corporeal Master properly regenerated back into a Gallifreyan body with the appearance of his "Tremas" incarnation using regeneration energy stolen from his own past selves.

TV : Doctor Who Decayed Master After gaining many new bodies through Deathworm Morphant -aided body theft as opposed to any kind of regeneration, the Master was reverted to his decaying form and died, but ultimately gained a new regeneration cycle from his other incarnations. TV : The Doctor Falls Missy Shot by the "Saxon" Master in a manner preventing normal regeneration, but managed to survive by creating an Elysian field to "kick start a new regeneration cycle".

The process of cryogenetic extraction destroyed her body, but retained a copy of her consciousness before regeneration, though casting out most of the "darkness" in her soul.

Regenerating after being killed by a falling stack of books. Regenerated due to an infected toenail. One President Borusa Regenerated due to the stress of the office of Lord President into a stubborn and grandiose incarnation who sought immortality in the Tomb of Rassilon. This regeneration was prevented by Irving Braxiatel due to the potential third incarnation wanting to stop the Omega war.

PROSE : Tomb of Valdemar Rassilon [ ] Individual Incarnation Details Sources Rassilon First incarnation According to one account, Rassilon regenerated for the first time following accelerated aging due to the temporal radiation of the Eye of Harmony 's elemental forces and the stress of the situation he was in.

He regenerated into the form of Cho Je , who had previously been active as a non-corporal projection from the Hermit's own mind. PROSE : The Dark Path Rallon First incarnation Initiated all twelve of his regenerations at once to force the Celestial Toymaker out of his body; his previously-manifested Watcher subsequently merged with the Toymaker to keep him in check in the future, the Fifth Doctor noting that this would mean that the Toymaker himself had essentially regenerated as a person.

PROSE : Divided Loyalties Roche Unnumbered incarnation Caught in a traffic accident while on Earth; he retained enough control over the process after it began to deliberately shape his new appearance so that he was the exact duplicate of the Third Doctor. But, because he was infected by the Dogma Virus , he became a pawn for Free Time.

AUDIO : Panacea Azmael Thirteenth Azmael In his thirteenth and final body, Azmael deliberately regenerated past his limit, killing himself, but also Mestor , who had been attempting to possess Azmael's body after his own was destroyed. AUDIO : The Doomsday Chronometer The Eleven Killed when he attempted to propose an alliance between himself and three incarnations of the Master after the failure of his prior alliance with the Ravenous ; denouncing the Eleven as a twisted lunatic, the three Masters shot him and expelled him from their TARDIS with only a vortex manipulator, whereupon he regenerated into the Twelve.

AUDIO : Day of the Master Verne Fifth-to-last incarnation After voting for the side opposing those who had sponsored his rise to power, Verne was caught up in a fight and was so badly injured that he was forced to regenerate into an incarnation that had a plain face and a laughably high voice.

PROSE : The Twin Dilemma Fourth-to-last incarnation Willed himself to regenerate again immediately after his previous regeneration, finding his new body less than satisfactory — resulting in a body that was a deformed, elderly man. Third-to-last incarnation Willed himself to regenerate again immediately after his previous regeneration, finding his new body less than satisfactory — resulting in a body that was an amorphous blob.

Second-to-last incarnation Willed himself to regenerate again immediately after his previous regeneration, finding his body less than satisfactory — resulting in a monstrous inhuman form which the Lord President had destroyed. High Tutor Albrecht Unnumbered incarnation Regenerated as a result of an experiment by Theta Sigma involving a perigosto stick and a temporal feedback loop PROSE : The Time Lord Letters Intrepid First incarnation Intrepid's first body failed at an unusually young age because, as a human - Homeworder hybrid , "her body was fighting itself".

She was thus forced to "renew" herself. The resulting incarnation was erased from time alongside everything else at the First Auction in Heaven. Kallix Unnumbered incarnation Regenerated after the Daleks attacked the Neverwhen. Larissa speculated this occurred during the worldquake or the goblin infestation. As the gun had no stun setting, the Doctor shot the General, though only after he confirmed that he had not yet completed his regeneration cycle.

The shot resulted in the General's immediate regeneration. Yarven subsequently turned her new incarnation into a vampire. COMIC : Ophiuchus Innocet Unnumbered incarnation After staying in the same body for over six hundred years, Innocet was killed by a Quences -possessed Badger to protect the Doctor and regenerated into a new, younger incarnation.

PROSE : Lungbarrow Glospin Unnumbered incarnation Force-regenerated himself into the double of the First Doctor after acquiring a genetic sample to influence the appearance of his next incarnation. Cavis Last incarnation Began to regenerate after she was decapitated by Queen Regent Mab , although Mab stabbed her in both hearts, halting the process and ensuring that Cavis stayed dead. Unnumbered incarnation Gandar regenerated again shortly after his previous regeneration when he received a fatal sword wound; his new incarnation resembled a hybrid of human and Silurian and was far more peaceful than his previous violent selves.

His next incarnation was hijacked by the Dogma Virus. Unlike his counterpart, however, he picked one of the faces the Time Lords offered him. His next incarnation was a woman. Foreman Twelve first incarnations As a priest, I. Foreman had been given the gift of regenerations. This made twelve different individuals, who were created by his body absorbing the DNA around him; all regenerations were caused by the Third Doctor sending Foreman's first twelve bodies back to Gallifrey's past so that they fell from a great height, each regenerating into their next body, the trauma of the regeneration causing each incarnation to lose their memories.

TV : Let's Kill Hitler Supreme Dalek and other Daleks in the Dalek City , including in the sewers Aging original bodies Regenerated into healthier, "more powerful" forms within their casings after Davros drained massive amounts of regeneration energy from the Twelfth Doctor with the help of Colony Sarff and transmitted them into the hearts of every Dalek on Skaro.

Lake 3 Shot by River Song in revenge for his having killed Lily , who, unbeknownst to both of them, was his own future self, and he regenerated into Lily. Wadi All incarnations Wadi's regenerations were all expended through fatal injuries inflicted by Lake. Stream Multiple incarnations As part of his religious cult, convinced by Lake to die multiple times on Terminus Prime so he could covertly study regeneration and find out how many times Proto-Time Lords like himself were able to regenerate.

Beck Creek Rindle First incarnation Regenerated after being mortally wounded by a wild beast. Second incarnation Regenerated after being killed by Lake. Third incarnation Had her remaining regenerations drained by Lake to power his ship. Tarn First eleven incarnations Deceived by Lake into believing that regeneration was a constant rebirth, Tarn went to Terminus Prime to commit suicide so he could continually be born again.

By the time he met River, he had already died eight times. He was killed again by Kevin and then again by Dave , regenerating at least ten times. A CyberMaster First CyberMaster incarnation Shot by one of its fellow newly-created CyberMasters on the order of the Spy Master , so as to "test out" the regenerative abilities of the new species in front of the Thirteenth Doctor. TV : The Timeless Children.

Cancel Save. Universal Conquest Wiki. Forced to regenerate by the First Tecteun to enable her to decode the "secret" of regeneration. Collapsed due to his "old body wearing a bit thin" after his life force was drained by Mondas , and regenerated with the help of his TARDIS. Radiation poisoning upon prolonged exposure to the Great One 's highly unstable web of Metebelis crystals. During the War in Heaven , history was altered so that the Third Doctor's regeneration was instead caused by a fatal shot to the chest from Magdelana Bishop.

Fell to the ground from the telescope after battling the Master at the Pharos Project ; merged with the Watcher , a projection of himself who had helped him prepare for his upcoming demise, at the moment of regeneration.

TV : Logopolis. Contracted spectrox toxaemia on Androzani Minor , triggering regeneration. According to another account, while suffering from chronon energy starvation after his confrontation with the Lamprey , the Sixth Doctor died from blunt head trauma caused by the Rani's attack.

According to a third account, regenerated following intentional exposure to focused beams of a radiation lethal to Time Lords consequent to the Rani's attack on the TARDIS in order to foil a plot by the Valeyard. Following a non-fatal shooting, the Doctor was taken to a San Francisco hospital , where subsequent exploratory surgery by Grace Holloway with a camera accidentally clogged a vein; the anaesthetic he had been given delayed regeneration for several hours.

TV : Doctor Who. In an alternate timeline in which the Nazis won World War II , the Seventh Doctor was gunned down by Nazi soldiers, and regenerated into an alternate eighth incarnation. Died after a ship he was in crash-landed on Karn , but was resurrected for four minutes by the Sisterhood of Karn.

In an account where he never regenerated on Karn, the Eighth Doctor instead regenerated from injuries he had sustained from activating the Moment , with assistance from the Restoration. In a timeline where the Doctor's ninth incarnation was a "listless-looking" man who prepared to marry his companion , he was killed by a Dalek gunstick blast intended for the Master.

Hit by a discharge of pure zectronic energy , which was believed to have destroyed his regenerative ability. TV : The Day of the Doctor. TV : The Parting of the Ways. Grazed by the blast from a Dalek gun stick, causing a regeneration.

Radiation poisoning intentionally incurred in order to save the life of Wilfred Mott. TV : The End of Time. Neared death from old age after exhausting all of his regenerations, but granted a new regeneration cycle by the Time Lords, which automatically triggered a regeneration. TV : The Time of the Doctor. Electrocuted by a Mondasian Cyberman , but delayed the regenerative process. Regenerated into a new incarnation after being attacked on Karn while on a mission for the Time Lords.

Regenerated into a new incarnation after being shot in the back shortly after a meeting with Mestizer. Died from falling into a black hole, forsaking the name of "Koschei" in his last moments and vowing to become "the Master" in his new life.

In an account where he was an incarnation of the Master, at least according to the Celestial Intervention Agency , the First Monk was shot by the Daleks following his failure in the Kembel Master-Plan.

According to another account, which did not specify the War Chief as a past incarnation of the Master, after being shot by the War Lord, the War Chief managed a partial regeneration into a deformed incarnation who called himself "Felix Kriegsleiter" during his activities in s Germany , and continued to help the War Lord's people.

According to one account, the Master was hit by a blast of artron energy when his attempt to attack the Twelfth Doctor backfired, and he subsequently regenerated. According to other accounts, he never properly regenerated, reemerging directly as the disfigured Decayed Master either from walking through a time corridor unprotected, or after being shot with his own Tissue Compression Eliminator by Susan Campbell while holding a Dalek transmutation device.

According to one account, the last incarnation of the Master's original cycle attempted to regenerate after sustaining deadly injuries, but, as he had no more regenerations, the process backfired, leaving him a disfigured ghoul. Decayed Master. Used the power of the Eye of Harmony to partially heal himself, altering his voice and facial appearance but still leaving him skeletal. Used the power of the Keeper of Traken to merge with Consul Tremas of Traken , a process which the resultant Master later described as "not exactly" a regeneration to the Third Doctor.

TV : The Keeper of Traken. According to one account, after the body of Tremas was stripped from him by the Time Lords, a non-corporeal Master properly regenerated back into a Gallifreyan body with the appearance of his "Tremas" incarnation using regeneration energy stolen from his own past selves. According to one account, after having his Tremas form converted into a genetically-accurate Gallifreyan body using Tzun nanites , the Master was shot by Ace , and regenerated into a new incarnation.

According to one account, pulled himself back together from his ashes as a Deathworm Morphant after being exterminated by the Daleks. After gaining many new bodies through Deathworm Morphant -aided body theft as opposed to any kind of regeneration, the Master was reverted to his decaying form and died, but ultimately gained a new regeneration cycle from his other incarnations.

In one later-aborted timeline, regenerated during the Last Great Time War of unknown causes into a childlike, but inwardly cunning, incarnation. Shot by Chantho after returning to his proper identity after years living as Professor Yana under the Chameleon Arch.

TV : Utopia. According to one account, mortally wounded while fighting Rassilon. According to another account, the Master was stabbed in the back with a hidden dagger by his next incarnation in such a precise way that he had time to reach his TARDIS before regenerating.