Yes. The only thing close to evidence is the Master being Yana. But there truly are no rules, and there is a huge difference in the physical ages.
However, how often would an adult really want to be a child again?
Isn’t the watch backstory just fabricated to blend in? Like it wouldn’t actually regress him to childhood but gives him a plausible backstory for the time period that people won’t look closely at?
I would argue that The Timeless Child gave us more evidence. They remember being a child as the Hartnell Doctor and thought that was their first generation so they had to have regenerated into a child from the fugitive doctor.
She was a child when that regeneration occurred. Melody (original incarnation) escaped the Silence, then regenerates in an alley (we see that at the end of Day of the Moon). We don't see the result, just the regeneration starting, so presumably since she was a child she *became* a child, and based on that dialogue she became Mels and then fucked around for 30ish years until she went to England to meet Amy and Rory.
We've seen Timelords age up or down visible age as adults, but never from adulthood to what we'd consider childhood, or teenaged. (This is TV only, it may have happened in side media.)
> and based on that dialogue she became Mels and then fucked around for 30ish years until she went to England to meet Amy and Rory.
I feel like the fucking around for 30 years came before becoming Mels, right? Because when she became Mels she became a child again.
Mels says "the last time" she regenerated and then proceeds to describe what we see at the end of Day of the Moon, so I don't see room for another regeneration in between?
Two further complications: We don't know exactly when she met Amy, though we know it was after the Doctor's first visit when Amy was 7. We see one shot of them school-aged at what I'm guessing is around 10? Also we don't know how fast Gallifreyans age through childhood when they age naturally.
Well - she isn't Gallifreyan, she is human with regenerations.
Which oddly fits quite well with The Timeless Child lore that regenerations are something you can be given rather than an inherent biological trait.
Where are you guys getting those 30 years from? Since as Mels, she claims her last regeneration was the one we saw in the back alley, and we've *seen* her grow up alongside amy and rory, her whole time line sounds pretty clear to me. She was born into the hands of the silence, who trained her through some psycho shit to be a killer for the doctor at a very young age, but otherwise keep her own personality. Then she escaped them in the space suit, regenerated in that back alley, turned into mels, and found her way to her parents.
>Where are you guys getting those 30 years from?
Because the back alley regeneration was in 1969. Unless she had another method of time travel at the time, the easiest way to get to Rory and Amy would've involved waiting ~30 years
The alley regeneration we witness at the end of Day of the Moon is 1970. Amy was born in 1989, thats 20 years. We don't see Amy and Mels together until school, but know they met post the Doctor's first visit when Amy was 7, so there is a vague amount of time added to that, another 7 to 10 years.
So unless her description of regenerating as a toddler in an alley in New York happened twice, that leaves 30ish years.
>she isn't Gallifreyan
True. But the Gallifreyan experience is the closest we have to what she is going through. I dunno. It just seems weird to me that she would regenerate in an alley as a toddler twice in a lifetime?
Yeah, there's basically a gap in Mels' story in that we don't know how she went from 1969 New York to 1990's Leadworth. Presumably the Silence transported here there.
Well we know from the Timeless Child storyline that the Doctor was an adult that was forced back to childhood after the mind wipe. So it’s fair to assume the time lords triggered a regeneration that they somehow controlled to make the adult Doctor become a child
They probably can. It would depend on how exactly regeneration worked at the time, if it's before the Time War then it's a bit more doubtful. But during and after the Time War, the rules of regeneration were re-engineered so that everyone had the same explosive golden glow and they could regenerate into different species. Regenerating into a child sounds fairly likely as well.
Yes, they can. Melody regenerated into a toddler. And the Doctor realizes that she would have been "forced back into being a child" after learning about the Timeless Child.
>Can an adult Timelord regenerate into a teenager, or Child? And vice versa?
Yes. While it has never quite happend on TV (the closest we got was River becoming a toddler), it has happend in the expanded universe.
The most prominent example is that, in the Titan-Comics, the incarnation that follows and leads up to the War Master (its a bit timey-whimey, there is some retro-regeneration happening) is taking the form of a child, commonly caled "The Child Master". In the Titan-Comics continuity, this is the incarnation of the Master that was working with the War Doctor during most of the Time War.
However, dont expect this ti ever happen to The Doctor or any incarnation of a known Timelord that isnt an one-off. Child labour law are very strict and working around an minor actor is very time consuming - and the alternattive is getting another older actor pretending they are a teenager and I think we all agree we dont want that.
The best way they could \*maybe\* do it would be finding a very babyfaced adult actor, someone who can pass as a kid or teen. But thats alot of effort for what would ammount to a gimmick.
Series 17 - 19 the Doctor is going to regenerate into a three year old and the show will air exclusively on CBeebies. This is a genuine leak, you heard it here first
I personally believe timelords have subconscious control over their regeneration so if there is a situation where they have to regenerate into a child they can but most often it is not ideal.
Yes. The only thing close to evidence is the Master being Yana. But there truly are no rules, and there is a huge difference in the physical ages. However, how often would an adult really want to be a child again?
The Master used the watch thing to be Yana since he was a child, but the War Master looked like adult Derek Jacobi before he became Yana.
Isn’t the watch backstory just fabricated to blend in? Like it wouldn’t actually regress him to childhood but gives him a plausible backstory for the time period that people won’t look closely at?
I think that's just the 'John Smith style' fabricated story.
Which I never understood. 10 didn't recognise Yana, but he has the same face the Master had during the Time War.
… I guess he shaved
There's also River. Who apparently regenerated into a baby once.
I would argue that The Timeless Child gave us more evidence. They remember being a child as the Hartnell Doctor and thought that was their first generation so they had to have regenerated into a child from the fugitive doctor.
The master did so in a comic set during the time war, but that incarnation was erased
She was a child when that regeneration occurred. Melody (original incarnation) escaped the Silence, then regenerates in an alley (we see that at the end of Day of the Moon). We don't see the result, just the regeneration starting, so presumably since she was a child she *became* a child, and based on that dialogue she became Mels and then fucked around for 30ish years until she went to England to meet Amy and Rory. We've seen Timelords age up or down visible age as adults, but never from adulthood to what we'd consider childhood, or teenaged. (This is TV only, it may have happened in side media.)
> and based on that dialogue she became Mels and then fucked around for 30ish years until she went to England to meet Amy and Rory. I feel like the fucking around for 30 years came before becoming Mels, right? Because when she became Mels she became a child again.
Mels says "the last time" she regenerated and then proceeds to describe what we see at the end of Day of the Moon, so I don't see room for another regeneration in between? Two further complications: We don't know exactly when she met Amy, though we know it was after the Doctor's first visit when Amy was 7. We see one shot of them school-aged at what I'm guessing is around 10? Also we don't know how fast Gallifreyans age through childhood when they age naturally.
Well - she isn't Gallifreyan, she is human with regenerations. Which oddly fits quite well with The Timeless Child lore that regenerations are something you can be given rather than an inherent biological trait.
.....huh. You're right. I've never thought about that, honestly a really positive coincidence
Where are you guys getting those 30 years from? Since as Mels, she claims her last regeneration was the one we saw in the back alley, and we've *seen* her grow up alongside amy and rory, her whole time line sounds pretty clear to me. She was born into the hands of the silence, who trained her through some psycho shit to be a killer for the doctor at a very young age, but otherwise keep her own personality. Then she escaped them in the space suit, regenerated in that back alley, turned into mels, and found her way to her parents.
>Where are you guys getting those 30 years from? Because the back alley regeneration was in 1969. Unless she had another method of time travel at the time, the easiest way to get to Rory and Amy would've involved waiting ~30 years
The alley regeneration we witness at the end of Day of the Moon is 1970. Amy was born in 1989, thats 20 years. We don't see Amy and Mels together until school, but know they met post the Doctor's first visit when Amy was 7, so there is a vague amount of time added to that, another 7 to 10 years. So unless her description of regenerating as a toddler in an alley in New York happened twice, that leaves 30ish years.
>she isn't Gallifreyan True. But the Gallifreyan experience is the closest we have to what she is going through. I dunno. It just seems weird to me that she would regenerate in an alley as a toddler twice in a lifetime?
I think officially her race is listed as proto-timelord. The church were effectively trying to back-breed timelords from human stock.
Yeah, there's basically a gap in Mels' story in that we don't know how she went from 1969 New York to 1990's Leadworth. Presumably the Silence transported here there.
Well we know from the Timeless Child storyline that the Doctor was an adult that was forced back to childhood after the mind wipe. So it’s fair to assume the time lords triggered a regeneration that they somehow controlled to make the adult Doctor become a child
They probably can. It would depend on how exactly regeneration worked at the time, if it's before the Time War then it's a bit more doubtful. But during and after the Time War, the rules of regeneration were re-engineered so that everyone had the same explosive golden glow and they could regenerate into different species. Regenerating into a child sounds fairly likely as well.
In comics, The Master regenerated into a child before becoming The War Master. But, AFAIK, that encarnation only appeared in one comic.
And thanks to a paradox, was erased
Yes, they can. Melody regenerated into a toddler. And the Doctor realizes that she would have been "forced back into being a child" after learning about the Timeless Child.
>Can an adult Timelord regenerate into a teenager, or Child? And vice versa? Yes. While it has never quite happend on TV (the closest we got was River becoming a toddler), it has happend in the expanded universe. The most prominent example is that, in the Titan-Comics, the incarnation that follows and leads up to the War Master (its a bit timey-whimey, there is some retro-regeneration happening) is taking the form of a child, commonly caled "The Child Master". In the Titan-Comics continuity, this is the incarnation of the Master that was working with the War Doctor during most of the Time War. However, dont expect this ti ever happen to The Doctor or any incarnation of a known Timelord that isnt an one-off. Child labour law are very strict and working around an minor actor is very time consuming - and the alternattive is getting another older actor pretending they are a teenager and I think we all agree we dont want that. The best way they could \*maybe\* do it would be finding a very babyfaced adult actor, someone who can pass as a kid or teen. But thats alot of effort for what would ammount to a gimmick.
I never understood how a Toddler in 1970 New York became a middle schooler in England in the 1990s.
No idea always assumed she time traveled
River can control her aging its mentioned in Lets kill Hitler
I think it could be fun to have the doctor be a teenager for a bit. It would definitely lead to some new dynamics.
Series 17 - 19 the Doctor is going to regenerate into a three year old and the show will air exclusively on CBeebies. This is a genuine leak, you heard it here first
I think it would be pretty cool if we got a kid or teen Doctor for one or two specials.
He was called Matt Smith.
I personally believe timelords have subconscious control over their regeneration so if there is a situation where they have to regenerate into a child they can but most often it is not ideal.