Some Issues with Regeneration and Continuity

          Regeneration is essential to the longevity of Doctor Who. When the main character's actor leaves the show it does three main things.

1. It provides an exciting moment which energizes fans to tune in and watch.
2. It provides an opportunity to change the show in terms of style, themes, and more.
3. It allows the show to change cast members naturally.

          The fact that actors can come and go is the primary reason why Doctor Who has lasted as long as it has. For the sake of keeping the program on air, if the actor ever must leave, it's not a death sentence for the show. In addition, regeneration prevents the actors from accumulating outrageous salaries and keeps the show fresh for audiences. Take for example when Matt Smith took over for David Tennant. From his first episode, the Smith era had an eternally new feel from Tennant's. This was a result of having a new head writer and members on the production team, but the regeneration allowed for a natural transition instead of David Tennant suddenly becoming more dramatic and energetic.
          The fact that audiences flock to the show with news of possible regeneration means writers will take advantage. Often times they use regeneration to raise the stakes in normal episodes. This does more harm than good. Sure the viewership may spike, but when nothing comes from a fake regeneration, the audience is left feeling dissatisfied, and it often leads to confusing questions about the lore.
          I'm going to pick apart six times when regeneration/regenerative energy was used and no actors were replaced. Ultimately, I hope future episodes strive away from doing this, but I acknowledge that it can be used for to the benefit of the program.

      1. Mawdryn's Plead For Mercy 
          During Mawdryn Undead, a Fifth Doctor Story, it is first mentioned that the Doctor can gift regenerative energy to someone else. Mawdryn and his team of scientists attempted to steal the secrets of regeneration from the Time Lords. In their attempt to gain the ability to regenerate, they make themselves immortal but horribly mutated. Suffering and unable to die, Mawdryn attempts to convince the Doctor to give them his regenerative energy. The Doctor explains that giving up the regenerative energy would sacrifice all of his remaining lives. Fortunately, despite his companions being mutated as well, The Doctor does not have to give up his  remaining regenerations. The Brigadier saves the day once again! This is the first story to discuss regenerative energy as something relevant outside the death of a Time Lord. 

      2. River Expends All Her Lives
          In Let's Kill Hitler, the Doctor has been poisoned with no hope of a cure. Having come to understand her relationship with the Doctor to be more important than killing him, River releases all of her remaining regenerative energy to save his life. We now have seen what happens when you use regenerative energy on someone else. In the Fifth Doctor story, The Doctor was requiring complex machinery in order to relinquish is regenerative energy. In this story, River just chooses to use it and it happens. The excuse can be made that River has a certain control over her energy since she has just regenerated in this episode. Despite it being a crazy episode, Let's Kill Hitler does not break any established rules of regeneration.

      3. River's Broken Wrist

          In Amy and Rory's last story, their daughter gets herself trapped by a Weeping Angel. Creatively, to raise the stakes of the story and emphasize the theme of inevitability, River must break her wrist to escape since Amy had read it in a book. The Doctor, wanting to help and bring some light to the situation, uses some of his regenerative energy to heal her. Okay... now we run into problems. Despite my personal wishes, we have established that regenerative energy can be used on other people. That's fine, we can deal with that. However, The Doctor has not regenerated recently in this episode. So our theory that they need to be in the process of regenerating must be ruled out.

This means he can gift regenerative energy any time he wishes! WHAT!? Why doesn't he heal Clara in the very next episode? Why hasn't he saved any of the unfortunate people he has witnessed die over the years? Maybe it's a limited and precious resource? That can work, but then is a broken wrist really the most dire of situations? Unfortunately, this is when regeneration transitions from being a process which Time Lords can use twelve times to a supply of energy that can be tapped into whenever for whatever reason... WAIT! The Doctor had no regenerations left in this episode! So he had some energy left over? Not enough to regenerate, but enough to fix a wrist? Maybe The Doctor knew he had no regenerations left, so using any remaining energy would not cost him any lives? For the sake of a wrist, we are left with too many questions and I don't know if I want the answers.

     4. Doomed to Fail

         In The Witch's Familiar, Davros "tricks" the Doctor into giving up his regenerative energy in order to rejuvenate the Daleks. However, The Doctor apparently figured out this plan and knew it would fail, so he went along with it. Despite having total control over the situation, he loses enough regenerative energy to enhance the entire city of Daleks. Honestly I believe this would have worked as a plot even before The Angels Take Manhattan. Older villains, primarily the Master, have attempted to steal the Doctor's unused regenerations before. However, this case takes from The Angels Take Manhattan and refers to regenerative energy as a supply that can be tapped into. This wasn't poorly done, but leads to a few unfortunate questions. How much energy did the Doctor lose? How many times can he regenerate now? This plot point could be intentional and be used for a later story. However, I believe, since it is only the first life in The Doctor's new regeneration cycle, this will probably be completely forgotten by the 26th incarnation. 

     5. Just Why!?

         The "monk" three parter ended in series 10 with The Lie of the Land. It was an unsatisfying conclusion to and otherwise great story.  However, the worst part was nearer to the middle of the episode. Bill was confronting The Doctor about his alliance with the Monks. Truth be told, The Doctor was only putting on facade for her. He was testing to make sure she was not secretly aligned with the Monks. He pushes Bill to emotional extremes until she shoots him several times in the chest. Fortunately The Doctor replaced the bullets with blanks. At this point his test is over. He concludes that Bill is hiding nothing and is still on his side. Yet he continues the facade. He stands up (supposedly dying) and begins to shoot regenerative energy from his hands and face. Why?! The trailer for this episode certainly generated a lot of hype, but with no point. No one thought Capaldi was going to leave the show mid-season. Plus, it makes little sense. Does The Doctor just throw around regenerative energy like it's nothing? His test was over, he only did it for show. The previous events in this list show that he could do it if he wanted, so there is no continuity problems. However, there is no reason why he would do it especially when it is still considered a precious resource. JUST WHY?! It did do a great job at making my blood boil.

   6. The Metacrisis Loophole
         This one was awesome. In The Stolen Earth, The Doctor gets killed by a Dalek right before he reunites with Rose. Having truly died, the Tenth Doctor is returned to the TARDIS and begins to regenerate. The episode ends with him exploding in regenerative energy. In The Lie of The Land we knew the regeneration wasn't going to replace Capaldi and, after a few seconds of confusion, we were proven correct. This made it a weak scene for the audience. Tennant's fake regeneration was good because the episode just ends! It was just the most insane way to end an already over-the-top episode. No one thought he was leaving the show, but they had a week to stew and think about it. Even though I don't like the mention of regeneration outside of the real deal, this was really well done!

Regeneration is a powerful plot device for Doctor Who. It is an element which no other show has and is key to its adaptability and longevity. So in conclusion I just want it treated with respect. Russel T. Davis did it well by understanding how the audience would view the foe regeneration. Moffat was more hit-and-miss by really pushing what regeneration and regenerative energy can do. Don't bring it out too often, don't redefine how it works, and don't let us know when or how its coming. Keep it as the incredibly unique and power plot device that has sustained one of the longest running TV shows of all time.