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Regeneration One
Yesterday the BBC announced 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.
