Regeneration Examination. Thoughts on Doctor Who Debut Stories.

With The Eleventh Hour having premiered, I thought I'd take a few moments to examine a particular brand of Doctor Who story: the regeneration story. When The Doctor faces a particularly dangerous life-threatening situation (one where he could quite literally die), as a Time Lord, he is able to survive by "regenerating", or taking on another body altogether while still being The Doctor.

As I understand, a Time Lord is able to do this, but it's been established that this can happen only twelve times. As it stands, the Doctor has regenerated TEN times, so he has only two left.

Be that as it may, the first story of a new Doctor is always an exciting thing: not only is this the debut for a new actor to take on the role, but it also seems to set the mood for said actor's entire run. We're being introduced to his interpretation of the role, and as is true in life, first impressions are so important.

As it stands, technically there have been only nine regeneration stories. The First Doctor didn't need a regeneration story since, as he explained in The Five Doctors, he's "The Doctor; the original, you might say". Curiously, the Ninth Doctor didn't have a regeneration story, probably for the same reason as the First. Since it was a relaunch of the series, it might have confused first-time audiences to see a new character just coming into being. It's hinted that he's a new version (Doctor 9.0, you might say), but we just have to take it on faith that he has already gone through this change, more than likely from the Time War that destroyed his home world of Gallifrey (which I still refuse to acknowledge). Therefore, we have Doctors Two-Eight, then Tenth & Eleventh, given proper debut stories.

The Eleventh Hour made me think: which one was the best (and conversely, the worse)? At the moment, all the regeneration stories save the lost story The Power of the Daleks (from Doctors One to Two), Time and The Rani (Doctors Six to Seven) and Doctor Who: The Movie (aka The Enemy Within, from Seven to Eight) have been released as of this writing. I think it might be instructive to look over the past and examine them, to look back and learn from how things were and how things went.

In order, they are The Power of the Daleks, Spearhead From Space, Robot, Castrovalva, The Twin Dilemma, Time and The Rani, Doctor Who: The Movie (The Enemy Within), The Christmas Invasion, and The Eleventh Hour. Here is how I've ranked them from worst to best (not including The Eleventh Hour):

1. The Twin Dilemma
2. Robot
3. Time and The Rani
4. Doctor Who: The Movie (The Enemy Within)
5. Castrovalva
6. The Christmas Invasion
7. Spearhead From Space
8. The Power of the Daleks

Now, how did I come about to these conclusions? The Twin Dilemma is at the bottom because it is recognized as one of the WORST stories in Doctor Who, period. Doctor Who Magazine readers ranked it at the very bottom of the list, and I won't argue that it isn't very good, especially for a debut story (more on that another time) but I can't say it's the WORST of all time (more on that another time as well).

Robot, to my mind, felt a little out of place, as if they were trying to horn in Jon Pertwee's Doctor into how Tom Baker's interpretation was going to be. It just may be that Baker looked odd and a little ill at ease riding around Bessie, the car that was such a prominent feature in the Third Doctor's story. Although Terrance Dicks (one of my favorite Who writers) wrote the story, I think the overall effect failed (maybe because the special effects weren't the most convincing). It is curious that while Robot was not the best way to introduce the longest-serving Doctor (to date), the following story, The Ark In Space, is brilliant and I think would have been a better debut story.

Time and The Rani suffers from the bad feelings that brought about the regeneration in the first place: Colin Baker basically being fired from the role and made the fall guy for dropping ratings when (minus that frightful outfit) he did the very best he could under extremely difficult circumstances. Also, the fact that The Rani could NOT have fooled anyone into thinking she was the Doctor's companion Mel Bushman just doesn't seem to work.

Doctor Who: The Movie had the advantage of better effects and a new location (San Francisco), but the story ultimately doesn't do as well as it could have. In fact, the bigger budget and the first half push it above average.

Castrovalva has the benefits of going for a wild world where the sets all seem to fall into each other, not unlike the M.C. Escher paintings that inspired it. The visuals, while not brilliant, were daring and inventive for its time. It also, more than any other regeneration story that I know of, is conscious of the fact that The Doctor has had other versions of himself in what he says and does early on before establishing his own persona.

The Christmas Invasion is technically brilliant, with first-rate performances, but it has the flaw (to me) of shifting to a more dark interpretation of The Doctor, and it does throw in an anti-Bush jab that I didn't care for (not because I'm pro-Bush but because I'm not fond of having fictional programs take sides in political issues whether on the right or left). That, and the fact that a British Christmas has nothing to do with Christ creates a problem for me. While not denying its strength, its weaknesses leave it from achieving the top spot.

Spearhead From Space is the first Doctor Who story made in color and on film: two pluses in my book. It also introduces the Autons, one of the best and most brilliant monsters in Doctor Who, right up there with the Daleks and Cybermen. The scene where they come to life to terrorize the city works brilliantly here, as it does when they made their return in the first Doctor Who story of the revived series, Rose.

The winner, however, has to be The Power of the Daleks. Yes, it is a lost story: no complete episodes from this six episode story are known to exist. However, what makes it the BEST regeneration story is the fact that it's the FIRST regeneration story. Troughton had the unenviable job of having to convince viewers that he WAS the Doctor, even if he didn't look like William Hartnell. Troughton established for all future Doctors that he could create his own interpretation to the role and that one wasn't limited to how the previous fellow had done it. The Power of the Daleks set the standard for all regeneration stories, and for that, it is the Best Regeneration Story.

Now, what about The Eleventh Hour? Where does it stand? Well, the story is good though not great, moves well, has two compelling and competent leads. It also has the benefit of being slightly lighter in tone than its predecessor, so it gets points for that. In the final analysis, here is the revised rankings (again from worst to best):

1. The Twin Dilemma
2. Robot
3. Time and The Rani
4. Doctor Who: The Movie (The Enemy Within)
5. Castrovalva
6. The Christmas Invasion
7. The Eleventh Hour
8. Spearhead From Space
9. The Power of The Daleks

It is a comfort that there will be two more regeneration stories (at least), so it may be revised yet again. Perhaps in time I shall reconsider my views and shift them. Who Knows...Only Time Lords will tell. Sorry--couldn't help myself.