On Fri, Apr 20, 2001 at 10:44:00AM +0100, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> On Thu, 19 Apr 2001 15:06:10 -0400, David H. Adler wrote:
> > On Thu, Apr 19, 2001 at 07:31:59PM +0100, Greg McCarroll wrote:
> > >
> > > If they do start doing Doctor Who again it will have a finite lifespan,
> > > is he not near the maximum number or lives a timelord can regenerate?
> >
> > Nah. He's only up to his 8th incarnation. he's got 13. Also,
> > depending on how you look at things, he may be a special case.
>
> I remember an episode where Peter Davidson was going to "donate" (ie.
> under pressure) his remaining generations to a bunch of aliens who
> would all have died otherwise. Surely this can be stretched so that
> other timelords can be persuaded to donate their generations to the
> Doctor, in order to keep the series going when the actors get fed
> up/sacked/die.
That would have been Mawdryn Undead. Yes, this does imply that it is
theoretically possible, but... there is also the implication that just a
lot of generic engergy is what was needed, as a sudden influx of such is
what kept the doctor from having to give up his regenerations.
Actually, now that I think of it, the aliens were just regenerating over
and over and over again (with almost immediate deterioration), due to
their having nicked a piece of time lord technology that they had
intended to use to prolong their lives. At the point we meet them, they
want the Doctor's regeneration energies just so they can finally *die*.
So the implication is far from clear.
> > [note: this does not take the comic relief special as canon...]
>
> With my scheme, that doesn't matter, unless you want any of those
> actors to play the Doctor in the future and you believe that he can't
> be incarnated the same way twice. :-)
Regeneration theory is somewhat confused, if you take everything we know
about it into consideration. Surely Romana doesn't use up a bunch of
regens while trying on bodies at the beginning of Destiny of the
Daleks... which raises the idea that regeneration and bodily
transformation are not the same thing. Which also leads us to think
that the doctor may actually be only on his 7th regen, as he does not
actually die at the end of The War Games, but is sentenced to exile in a
different body.
ObLon.pm: A buffy DW crossover would be cool... In fact:
http://members.iglou.com/scarfman/dwxst.htm
dha
--
David H. Adler - <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - http://www.panix.com/~dha/
"What is this Japanese preoccupation with the name Ken???" - Tom Servo
