willo1945 posted:
First picked up on this at http://supaswap-news.com/ and good question on how did it survive. I guess the secret is in the re-generation. If ones ont working change it for something else, in this case the lead character!!!!!
First picked up on this at http://supaswap-news.com/ and good question on how did it survive. I guess the secret is in the re-generation. If ones ont working change it for something else, in this case the lead character!!!!!
Yes, the first actor to play the role (William Hartnell) was ill, and wanted to leave the series. Somebody had the brilliant idea: "Hey, it's a time machine, right? Then maybe it can make him younger!" and that's pretty much how the first regeneration was handled. Patrick Troughton's Doctor was originally conceived as a younger version of William Hartnell. However, Patrick Troughton played the role with a completely different personality. He decided not to stay in the role for too long, so his replacement was portrayed on-screen as a punishment by the time lords: in addition to being exiled to earth indefinitely, he would have to take on another new appearance, that of Jon Pertwee.
During Pertwee's reign as the Doctor, he met his former mentor, a time lord hermit who had moved to Tibet. In the course of the story, the hermit regenerated, and the regeneration process was described and defined as being a natural ability of the time lord body. When it was time for Pertwee to hand off the role to Tom Baker, the old hermit (now a younger hermit but still a hermit) magically appeared and assisted the Doctor with his regeneration.
Since then, the Doctor has been able to regenerate anywhere, any time that he dies. However, most of his regenerations have taken place either in or very near the TARDIS. Well, the ones that we know about, anyways. Nobody knows how or when the 8th Doctor became the 9th.
When changing Doctors was impossible, too expensive, or too soon, sometimes they'd just give the TARDIS a new console room, or change companions, or add another companion, or update the bad guys, or just re-mix the theme song.
We got all of the above this time around. Matt Smith, Karen and Arthur, new TARDIS, new theme song remix, new TARDIS exterior, new daleks, new everything. I just hope it stays this way for a while, but if there's one thing Doctor Who has taught me it's this: everything changes; sometimes when you least expect it. And there's nothing more useless than a voice lock. And, when in doubt, try reversing the polarity of the neutron flow.
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