Doctor Who - "The Deadly Assassin" - About, Regeneration - Spoilers!

[patriciamc]

Doctor Who - The Deadly Assassin - Spoilers!
by Robert Holmes

[Part 1 - Discussion about regeneration.]It's been a long while since I've watched a Classic Doctor Who show. Some time in the 1970's would have been the last time. However, there was information in "The Deadly Assassin" which I've read about on the internet that I wanted to confirm personally, rather than taking what I'd read

Comments

[liddle_oldman]

It was my belief, though I can't cite anything specific, that the decayed ruin of the Master resulted from a thirteenth regeneration, which obviously did not come off as planned. Now I have to go and research this.

[patriciamc]

Wikipedia says "The Master was nearing the end of his final regeneration".

I've probably said before, "The Deadly Assassin" is where the regeneration rule becomes enshrined as part of the Who legend and there's something significant in the fact that Who writers in 1976 considered that 13 regenerations would suffice, their perhaps not crediting the show with 'staying power' believing that that the Doctor would run out of popularity before he ran out of lives.

While in 2013, the 21st Century Who writers were blithely using up the regenerations - including giving the 10th Doctor, two - as if they didn't know about the 'regeneration rule'.

But the fans apparently did.