User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-4028641-20151008023030/@comment-6032121-20191106213132

Danniesen wrote: (…) it was a body swap. …a what? "Body swap" usually assumes that Mind A goes into Body B while Mind B goes into Body A. This isn't what happens with the Beevers-Ainley "regeneration" at all: the Mouldy Master somehow merges with the body of Tremas, resulting in the creation of the Ainley Master, who doesn't look quite like either. Where that leaves Tremas's mind is anyone's guess, but it sure doesn't look as though it ends up in any version of the decayed body previously inhabited by the Master.

And while it's not a standard regeneration, Beevers-Ainley is called a regeneration by several sources.

I also don't see how the Basil Rathbone Master wouldn't count as a regeneration. What happens is that since Tremas's body has never regenerated before, turning into a genetically Gallifreyan body means it is on the very first body of its regeneration cycle; the 12-regeneration cap is tied to the body, not the spirit (which is, of course, the entire reason the Master tries to steal the Doctor's body in The TV Movie).

Both Beevers-Ainley and Ainley-Tzun are, in other words, "rogue" regenerations, not purported to be part of the Master's original twelve-fold regeneration cycle, but regenerations nonetheless.

With all that said, I don't think we should worry overmuch about these potentially-unreliable, extremely-up-to-interpretation Missy quotes.