The regeneration of the Doctor is the biggest event of every Doctors era. Sure it might not always be their greatest story but is a must see for any fan. Its a chance to simultaneous reboot the show, kill off a main character (or recast depending on your opinion) and add a real threat to the show. If the Doctor himself can die, then all bets are off. Can you imagine many other shows doing that and still maintaining the greatness of what came before? No. Event TV in general couldnt get any better than this As we head to that departure of Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor this Christmas, Ive been thinking more and more about what Im looking forward to in his regeneration. Right out of the boat, I will say, Im not happy that its happening at Christmas. To quote my previous article, I dont want a regeneration in the Christmas Special. For me, the grimness of the Tenths oncoming regeneration made The End Of Time the most depressing of the Christmas specials something Im not looking for over the Christmas holidays. I would much have preferred if Matt Smith has announced he would be in series eight and then regenerated two or three episodes in Still, maybe this one will be a little different. And Ill come to my thoughts on that shortly. But first I wanted to look at all nine regenerations that have come before it. Ill be judging each one on: Shock Value Epic Scale Emotional trauma Ranking And with that, on to Doctor number one