Radio times article ranking the regenerations from worst to best. Mcgann to war doctor and War doctor to Eccleston are also included in the list. A master regeneration even sneaks onto the list, as the article is called doctor who regenerations rather than the doctors regenerations.

11 to 12 is the one that comes out on top on their list.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-...rations-ranked


I think their ranking isn't bad. Of the one's I know of I mostly agree with their ordering, though I would have put 9th to 10th doctor regeneration as number 1 as it will always be special for me.

I would have voted for Tom Baker to Davision.

Why is the Davison to Colin Baker regeneration rated near the worst? I just don't get it. IMO it's one of the best regeneration sequences in Dr. Who followed by Tom Baker to Davison and Pertwee to Tom Baker.

I pretty much got the impression that the writer of the article just hated Colin Baker. (or the 6th Doctor).


I agree 5-6 is one of the best.

Tom to Peter D is very special to me so would also vote for that as my favourite. As for C21....hmmm. Thought they were all good, but Matt's last little speech clinches 11 to 12 for me. Whilst I very much liked David Tennant in the role, am one of those who didn't rate his last story at all, but in fairness I still like the regeneration because of the look on Smith's face when he's stopped screaming!

I like the 6th doctor but agree the six to seven one is the worst due to Colin Baker not coming back for the scene.

Must admit I've never understood why people are bothered by regeneration scenes,it's only a trick to get the new bloke in.It wouldn't bother me in the slightest if he just went to the toilet and came out a new Doctor.

Just the actual scene I mean though, the lead up story should be good.

No doubt there, but there is a snide anti #6 attitude to some of the writers comments.

Maybe the writer is actually Michael Grade

I love the Smith-Capaldi regeneration, it was just perfect, but I would've put Davison-C.Baker much higher on the list, maybe have it second after Smith-Capaldi, I certainly rank it higher than Tennant-Smith.

My ranking
1. Eccleston to Tennant
2. Tennant to Smith
3. T.Baker to Davison
4. Davison to C. Baker
5. Hartnell to Troughton
6. Smith to Capaldi
7. McGann to Hurt
8. Pertwee to T. Baker
9. Hurt to Eccleston
10. C. Baker to McCoy
11. Troughton to Pertwee.

Hopefully I've not missed any!!

My rankings:

12)C.Baker to McCoy
11)Tennant to Smith
10)Pertwee to T.Baker
9)McCoy to McGann
8)Hartnell to Troughton
7)Troughton to Pertwee
6)T.Baker to Davison
5)Hurt to Eccleston
4)Eccleston to Tennant
3)McGann to Hurt
2)Smith to Capaldi
1)Davison to C.Baker

You do mean 12 to 13...? Peter Capaldi is the 13th Doctor, not the 12th.

Nope, doctor blue box was right. Capaldi is definitely the 12th Doctor.

1 = William Hartnell
2 = Patrick Troughton
3 = Jon Pertwee
4 = Tom Baker
5 = Peter Davison
6 = Colin Baker
7 = Sylvester McCoy
8 = Paul McGann
9 = Christopher Eccleston
10 = David Tennant
11 = Matt Smith
12 = Peter Capaldi

Just in case you need reminding!

Of course he's only the 12th on a technicality because John Hurt's Doctor doesn't actually count as "the Doctor", having decided to take on a different name for the duration of his incarnation.

He is the 13th incarnation and has regenerated 13 times (twice into the same Doctor!)

I think Romana's regeneration is probably the worst (which wasn't mentioned in the article). Not only did it happen multiple times off screen but it also broke continuity with the whole concept of regeneration being brought about by an otherwise fatal breakdown of the original body. It was basically just done for cosmetic reasons, on a voluntary basis and occurred multiple times in quick succession. Very odd!

Whilst I agree in principle, it is still plausible.

1. The multiple times thing can be written off as one regeneration as the body hasn't settled down. Tennent's hand essentially regenerated twice.
2. It's concievable to think a Time Lord / Lady could force a regeneration. Sure it wastes a life, and is technically suicide, but if she's that unhappy with her appearance, why not?
3. The only issue I have is the choice Romana seems to have over it, namely that she can choose to look like someone she previously met. It hasn't happened before, after, or anywhere else in lore. Maybe certain Time Lords can will a style of nose, or build, but an entire body? Nah.

No, he's the Twelfth, because that's what the creators of the program refer to him as. He's played by the twelfth actor to take on the role full-time. To call him the 13th, or even 14th, would be the technicality.

To be fair, it had only been said that regeneration was forced upon fatal injury, not that it was the only way it could be triggered.

I do actually agree with your sentiment that Capaldi is the 13th doctor, as war doctor was indeed an incarnation of the doctor no matter what he chose to call himself.

The point is though, the whole thing was kind of fudged as they didn't want to have to renumber 9,10, and 11, so even though if you think about it too much it dosen't make sense, the fact is that they are calling Capaldi doctor 12 now, so when discussing doctors we have to call him 12 no matter what we think, as to do otherwise would just confuse everyone.

Incidentally, I find it interesting that there is a lot of 'Capaldi is 13' on here(which as I say, i agree with in theory, but not in practice) but havent really seen anyone inisting 'Tennant is 11' or 'smith is 12' which is strange really when it all stems from the same point.

Point 1
As said above the various bodies can be explained away by the Time Lords body being in a state of flux for the first few hours. Either that or it's a case such as Cho-Je or the Watcher and the bodies we see are just future projections of the new incarnation.



With regards to points 2 and 3.

The 2nd Doctor wasn't dying when he was forced to regenerate (unless the Time Lords fatally wounded him so the regeneration took place) and if a regeneration can be forced without the Time lord being fatally wounded then it can surely be triggered voluntarily.


As to choosing her exact form the 2nd Doctor was offered a choice of specific bodies for his next incarnation so again we know an exact body can be chosen.

The Doctor is just bad at regeneration so just ends up with a random body (or possibly in the case of Capaldi and C Baker he subconsciously chose those bodies).

It may also be that an exact body can only be chosen when the regeneration is not due to a fatal injury (as in the case of Romana and the 2nd Doctor).

I know exactly the point you're making, which is mine as well. Capaldi has been promoted as Doctor 12 in a lot of the literature, but the whole John Hurt Doctor who we saw regenerate into the Chris Eccleston Doctor has really confused the issue for many. Chris was advertised as Doctor 9 - quite rightly - in 2005 as we didn't know any different. The problem was Moffat introducing this unseen Doctor much later on, but everyone on these forums insisting that he doesn't count. Doesn't make sense. It would be in Moffat or any other writer's best interest to settle this one by putting a line in the script somewhere just to clarify which version of the Doctor we are watching. This is not an issue to leave hanging and should be resolved.

Such an explanation was given near the end of The Time of the Doctor.

I don't see the confusion. He is a Gallifreyan who had chosen to give himself the title of The Doctor. He has only allowed 12 of his regenerations to have that title so far. Hurt called himself something else, so he is not included as The Doctor. It's not his name, it's his chosen title - that was made abundantly clear around the whole War Doctor thing.

Chris was referenced as the Ninth Doctor because that's what he was - the ninth actor to take on the role of the Doctor full-time. The numbering that is used is nothing to do with the number of faces the Doctor has had, it's a system used by viewers and producers. The War Doctor counts as an incarnation of the Doctor, and both we and the Doctor accept him as such. But we give him a special name to avoid confusion.

In the show, the Doctor is just the Doctor - he's had many faces, but he's never referred to as, say, the Sixth Doctor. There are a few places where he's referred to a number - The Lodger, where he refers to 'eleven of them', which is the number of faces he's had, minus the one he's hiding. Therefore there's nothing to clarify - the only thing that needs to be clear is how many regenerations he's burned through, and that was done in Time of the Doctor.