posted
Well, he only violated the one law - the noninterference directive. They should just be grateful Janeway wasn't born on Gallifrey. Oh and he stole a TARDIS, so that makes two laws, one of which is a bit moot since the TARDIS he nicked was going to the knackers yard anyway. Even so, capital punishment seems a little primitive for such an advanced race as the Timelords.
As for the regeneration limit the impression I always got was that it was artificial - the Timelords offered the Master a new cycle of regenerations in "The Five Doctors" and at the time he wasn't even in a Gallifreyan body, so it can't be something inherent to the biology.
I think the regeneration cycle is an ability bestowed on a Gallifreyan when he/she becomes a Timelord/lady. Rassilon was said to have been immortal - perhaps his regeneration cycle simply did not have an upper limit? (Borusa mentions something about "perpetual bodily regeneration" in "The Five Doctors" so maybe his regeneration cycle doesn't wait till death, it just keeps tweaking as he goes along).
My own theory is this: I always took the regeneration ability to be based in some kind of nanotechnology, a bit like the Borg really. When your body "dies" they kick in and fix it up from the cellular level on up. Maybe the Timelord equivalent of nanoprobes can only do this 12 times before they hit their preprogrammed limit (that fits with Rassilon - as the founder of Timelord society and, presumably, regeneration, he might have a set of nanoprobes with no programmed limit) - it also fits with how the Master could be offered a new cycle, and why "Gallifreyan" does not necessarily mean "Timelord". Why a preprogrammed limit? Maybe Rassilon wanted the Timelords to be long lived beings, but only wanted himself to be immortal.
Additional nerd fact - regeneration was originally called "renewal" when the Doctor went from Hartnell to Troughton. The Doctor's companion (Polly?) said something about him being "renewed" which the Doctor confirmed.
FD
-------------------- Quidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
He also said that it was part of the TARDIS, which doesn't really make a whole lot of sense (unless the TARDIS is able to aid it in some way.)
I suppose the 12 regeneration limit could be there to stop the race from becoming stagnent. It's ironic then that that's exactly what happened.
(I do like the idea presented in the "Twin Dilema" novelisation that regeneration is extremely stressful on the body and can go wrong if overused. Maybe after a certain number of regenerations the risk becomes so high that it's banned, like how family members are not allowed to have children.)
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Could be the TARDIS provides some processing power for the nanobots to carry out the regeneration sequence - would explain why it has a role. I'm trying to remember the sequences of regeneration and if the Doctor was near or in the TARDIS at the time:
1st Doctor - regenerated inside TARDIS 2nd Doctor - forced to regenerate by the Timelords, not near TARDIS (I think) but they could have co-ordinated the regeneration themselves. 3rd Doctor - staggered out of the TARDIS, keeled over, and regenerated on the floor near the TARDIS (presumably within range of any transmissions from the TARDIS that would co-ordinate the regeneration process). 4th Doctor - can't remember. Big fall, but was he near his TARDIS? 5th Doctor - can't remember, but I think he was inside the TARDIS with Peri. 6th Doctor - inside TARDIS (played by a different actor though). 7th Doctor - far away from TARDIS (this regeneration went wrong - he was dead too long. While this was put down to the anaesthetic, could it also be down to distance from the TARDIS?) 8th Doctor - unknown, but didn't the guy in "Rose" say something along the lines of the Doctor washing up on the coast of Java?
I think the TARDIS might act like a processing hub for the nanobots to rebuild the body - they can do it on their own (in the case of the 7th Doctor) but it takes longer, the Timelord in question stays dead longer, and the whole process becomes that much more dangerous as a result.
I would assume regeneration (even carried out in safe conditions) would be incredibly stressful to the body - which is why I am surprised the Doctor seems to treat his with such a "shrug of the shoulders" attitude. Temporary barminess aside of course.
FD
-------------------- Quidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
5th was in the Tardis. Of course, the Doctor tends to be near the Tardis at the end of a story anyway so none of this is conclusive proof.
I'm trying to remember actual dialogue. I haven't seen "The Tenth Planet", but the second Doctor makes some sort of comment about butterflys and crysalises and change being "part of the TARDIS". The 4th says "It's the end, but it has been prepared for" and had that crazy shit with the watcher which was never really explained (unless you said that the Watcher was the sentient part of the Tardis). The 5th said "I don't know, I might regenerate. It feels...different this time", but that could be due to the poison having an odd effect.
For McCoy-McGann, I thought it was the surgery itself (not just the anaestetic) that caused the complications. They were trying to operate on an alien body as if it was a human. Plus this was a fairly traumatic death, even by the Doctor's standards (with only the 4th's fall to possible beat it).
Of course, I doubt that every Time Lord on Gallifrey has his or her own TARDIS. So it still doesn't make much sense. And there's Romana too, unless the Doctor's TARDIS was helping her.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
The Watcher was a projection of the Doctor's next regeneration, something we saw another Time Lord do. The Watcher also seem to know future events, which makes things even more confusing, though would lend surely to the Tardis being involved. Don't forget the Valeyard, the 12th or 13th regeneration (although on the bbc site he's described as distillation, so may not be a proper regeneration). Who knows!
-------------------- Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil...prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...
posted
I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that every Time Lord could have his or her own TARDIS...not much point having mastery of space and time if you can't travel in it, is there? I always thought they were the Time Lord equivalent of cars to be honest.
Registered: Nov 2004
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I always saw them as state-owned vehicles. More like a fighter plane than a cessna.
...of course, the Doctor's is a bit outdated.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
More likely the regeneration is just a technologically-assisted process. So, on Gallifrey, you wouldn't need a TARDIS, just the device that regenerates you. It makes sense that TARDISes would have such technology built in, in case a Time Lord gets killed while off-world.
"I do wonder what regular Time Lords regenerations are like."
Probably like Romana's. I doubt that it's the regeneration itself that makes the Doctor (extra) flaky. It's the combination of the regeneration on top of being killed.
"Don't forget the Valeyard, the 12th or 13th regeneration..."
The Valeyard was somehow in between the last two regenerations. Not quite sure how that works, though.
As for the Master, I got the impression that his "The Deadly Assassin"/"The Keeper of Traken" body was screwed up either because of natural breakdown at the end of his last regeneration, or because of some accident that normally would have triggered a regeneration, except that he'd run out. In "The Five Doctors", perhaps the Time Lords knew about the Master's ability to transfer himself into other people's bodies, and they were planning to clone him a new Time Lord body, or something.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Most fandom is content to accept that the "only twelve regenerations" thing will be easily circumvented when the Doctor comes to it - as long as there's money to be made of the franchise, anyway.
As for the Master, most seem to believe that the withered Master seen in "The Deadly Assassin" is either a) the Delgado incarnation burned up in some unfortunate happenstance, barely alive, but unable to regenerate, or b) what happened when he tried to force a regeneration when his alottment was up. Most believe the latter, as the barbequed master had a very different personality to the coniving yet often helpful Delgado incarnation. Thus, the withered Master is generally accepted as the 14th incarnation, and the first truly unnatural one.
posted
It's possible that the Master aquired some of the personality traits of his victim when he "stole" that body.
I really liked Delgado's Master.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Come to think of it, does anyone know whether the Master made any post-movie appearances in the novels or CDs?
Registered: Mar 1999
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The Delago Master has met the 8th Doctor in the books, I believe. And the 2nd too. I don't know if Ainley's Master has met anyone, or any post weird-ass snake-type Masters.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I'm of the opinion that Gallifrey and the Time Lords are somehow chronologically locked to each other, but independently of the rest of the universe, such that they can't (easily!) travel into their own past or future. As such, whenever the Doctor runs into the Master, the Rani, Borusa, or whoever, it always follows from their previous encounters. I know some of the novels play with this, but overall I think that Time Lords don't travel into their own past or future except in emergency (crossover) situations.
The Daleks and other time-travelling races may be stuck in similar circumstances, or else they'd be endlessly trying to correct their own mistakes whenever the Doc mucks up their universal domination plans. BTW, an upcoming episode of the new series supposedly deals with attempts at changing relative history, when the Doctor takes Rose to her own past to meet her (now deceased) father, and Rose tries to save her pop.
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