Secrets of Regeneration (feature)

Secrets of Regeneration was the second feature and fourth release exclusively published in Doctor Who The Official Annual 2024 on 7 September 2023 by Penguin Group and written by Paul Lang.

The feature detailed how regeneration worked, with a strong focus on the "burst of energy" regenerations, and contained a separate behind the scenes summary of how regeneration first came to be from a real world perspective.

Summary
An overview is given of what regeneration is, being an ability possessed by Time Lords, including the Doctor. At the point of death, a Time Lord can throw their arms out and release an incredible burst of energy, renewing every cell in their body. Not only does it repair their body, but it gives them a new one, with the outcome usually being impossible to influence.

Regeneration can also change a Time Lord's personality, with each incarnation of the Doctor having their own distinct quirks. Although the Doctor had believed regeneration to be strictly a Time Lord secret, it turns out it was stolen from a child by the Gallifreyan explorer Tecteun. And the child, known as the Timeless Child, was the Doctor.

Although eternal life sounds like a great idea in theory, the Gallifreyan founders found it to be more of a curse than a blessing. Thus, each Time Lord can only regenerate twelve times, with a maximum of thirteen lives. The Doctor's most spectacular regenerations include the Tenth Doctor's, the Eleventh Doctor's, the Twelfth Doctor's, and the Thirteenth Doctor's.

The main ways in which a regeneration can go wrong are if a Time Lord is killed during it, or if they decide not to regenerate. Either way, it's "game over".

Characters

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Worldbuilding

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Continuity

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