Romana I

On this day, back in 1978, Mary Tamm clearly didn’t like her “it’s almost Christmas” present! (Was this when she decided to leave the show?)

The first incarnation of Romanadvoratrelundar (also known as Romana or Fred).

I’ve always been a little disappointed with Romana’s regeneration scene being seemingly on a whim, especially since Mary Tamm has outright said that she’d happily had come back to do a regeneration scene. What, however, are people’s theories or headcannon on how Romana I ‘died’?

I have a theory that Romana was brought up and raised in the citadel and so was left vulnerable to all the impurities and infections of the world(s) outside. I think eventually, she ‘died’ of an illness of some sort. This makes a bit of sense when you consider that this hasn’t really happened to the Doctor as he was raised outside the citadel, and presumably only went in for his studies at the academy, and later his job. And also as Romana’s leaving of Gallifrey was unauthorised and was sent by the White Guardian, she wouldn’t have had been able to undergo any vaccinations or anything like that.