Howling:What is regeneration

How does regeneration work. I always thought its only the doctors body that changes his mind is the same but his body changes completely but its the same mind same memories same person. Okay every doc is different but still that dosent mean they are different people I mean living in a different body gives you a different personality anyway on a superficial level. On a superficial level all doctors do seem different but at their core they are all the same character. I might add other changes in the doctors personality are more to do with age than regeneration I.E the time war makes him more bitter against the daleks than he was when he was Tom Baker in Genesis of the Daleks. The End of time however suggests that each doctor is a different person. The tenth doctor say's the "everything about him dies" and that all that remains are the memories but he basically dies completely and the new doctor is entirely different another man new mind thoughts evrything then of course there is the "I don't want to go " which pretty much confirms he is dying and someone else who is not him is coming along. I hate this take on it its a sad thought that each doctor is a different character. I mean no doctor has ever had such a bad reaction to regeneration before the second doctor was more bothered at looking ugly in his third incarnation than dying the first seemed chipper "its far from being all over" also every time the doctor has regenerated [including the tenth] he still acts like the same man its always something like "new teeth" not oh I've just been born. I am looking to much into this did RTD [who seemed to want to add a bleak miserable look to doctor who ] mean it to be every doctors is dead when they regenerate or was it just metaphorically he meant he was dying. Is regeneration meant to be reincarnation in the new who I know this about an old story but still I feel it is a relevant topic of discussion because as far as I can see wthe end of time though I love it has made the doctor into eleven different characters rather than one let me know what you think about this. Winehousefan. 23:40, July 27 2010[UTC]&nbsp
 * In Planet of the Spiders, K'anpo Rimpoche said something about the Doctor's brain cells being regenerated and that a change of personality is part of the regeneration proesss. He also described it as the doctor becoming a "new man." The Tenth Doctor wasn't really the first doctor to think of regeneration as death. The second doctor seemed to think his forced regeneration was a serious misjustice. The third was terrified of going back to the cave of crystals, and considered it self sacrifice when he was forced to regenerate. The fourth and fifth both had flashbacks of there previous companions and enemies, and seemed to consider there lives to be ending. The eigth literally reffered to his incarnations as "lives" and to regeneration as "death." The ninth doctor came very close to saying that he was dying, telling Rose about things that he wanted to do with her, and seemed sad about the concept of changing. Regeneration is exactly what the Doctor told Wilf it was, it is not technically death, but it feels like dying, because everything about you changes. Even when he regenerates, some aspects of his personality always stay the same.Icecreamdif 16:51, July 29, 2010 (UTC)