Doctor Who Social Club
A community for discussing all things Doctor Who.
Rules
1 Be constructive
All posts/comments must be thoughtful and balanced.
2 Be welcoming
It is important that everyone from newbies to longtime fans feel welcome, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, religion or race.
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Utilize the spoiler system for any and all spoilers relating to the most recently-aired episode. Spoiler protection will not be granted to information that is out in the mainstream media.
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All submissions must be directly about the DW franchise (the shows, movies, books, etc.). Off-topic discussions are welcome at c/Quarks.
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Upcoming Episodes
| Date | Episode | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 12-07 | TWB 1x01 | "Homo Aqua" |
| 12-07 | TWB 1x02 | "Plastic Apocalypse" |
| 12-14 | TWB 1x03 | "The Deep" |
| 12-14 | TWB 1x04 | "The Witch of the Waterfall" |
| 12-21 | TWB 1x05 | "The End of the War" |
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are you referring to the episode where he disguised himself as human?
As before, "Human nature"/"Family of blood", yes.
I don't understand the relevance as that had nothing to do with the regen cycle cap.
I guess you don't, though I did repeatedly explain how it relates 🤷
Have a nice day.
You two are talking past each other. Because you are both right.
Let's recap what we actually know about Regeneration: Regeneration in Timelords is the result of a mutation. This mutation either occurred naturally through prolonged exposure to the time vortex (see A Good Man Goes To War) or was the result of genetic engineering, either from Rassilon himself (see Big Finish: Day Of The Master) or Techteun (see The Timeless Children). It gives the Timelords an internal storage of so called 'Regeneration Energy' (see The Magicians Apprentice / The Witches Familiar) that's used up during a regeneration. Each Timelord has only a limited amount of this energy and can't produce new ones. If not enough energy is left to make it to a new body, they die.
Those rules apply also to the Doctor, because they have undergone a Chameleon Arch transformation, making him, biologically speaking, into a Timelord.
However, the chameleon arch is a solution to a problem Chibnal himself introduced. A retcon you might say. So how might the regeneration limit have been solved if he had never become showrunner?
Well, we don't actually know how much Regeneration Energy a Timelord is capable of storing. We know how much energy they hold, enough for 12 regenerations. But that doesn't mean that's all they can hold.
Which brings us to The Time Of The Doctor. The Doctor is gifted new Regeneration Energy. We don't know how much. It might be enough for 12 regenerations it might be 1200.
The limit technically still exits, but the vagueness allows future writers to kick this can down the road indefinitely.
but was it established that the Doctor had the Chameleon Arch used to become a Time Lord? not discounting the possibility (in fact would allow to retcon the Timeless Child Arc thus eliminating the need to bring it up ever again) I just don't recall that being how the Time Lords hid their existence
We know that the Doctors memories are locked inside a pocket watch (see Survivors Of The Flux). It's never clearly stated that the Arch was used, but it is the only established mechanism for locking memories inside such a watch.
ah so that is what was actually being referred to. I should probably watch that and the episode after to see what happened to that watch.
had it been destroyed it is plausible the cap is still intact