10 Most Cringeworthy Doctor Who Moments From The 70s

3. Romana's Regeneration(s) - Destiny Of The Daleks (1979)

Is it any surprise that all three of the top cringeworthy moments in '70s Who all come from the same season in 1979? The combination of Tom Baker, Douglas Adams, and Graham Williams has such an effect on the stories of this season that it's a surprise that any of them can be taken seriously at all. Even a concept like regeneration, which appeared to be a fixed idea by this point (and would become one again afterward), became fair game for comic relief. At the beginning of the story, Romana surprises the Doctor by appearing in the form of Princess Astra, whom they had both met at the end of the previous season. She claims that she liked the body, so she decided to have a change. (Tom Baker seems to have liked the body, too, but that's another story.) When the Doctor points out to her that she can't go walking around in the faces of other people, she tries on a few more before finally settling on the face of the future Mrs. Tom Baker. Or the face of the future Mrs. Richard Dawkins. Both, actually. Not only is the scene not particularly funny, and not only does it go on for an achingly long time, it makes most fans cringe for a very specific reason: we don't know whether she's just burned through a good three or four regenerations just so she can try on new faces. In the light of the 2005 series, of course, we could claim she's within the first fifteen hours of her regeneration and thus her body is not quite "finished" yet. It still doesn't make the scene any less cringeworthy, though.