10 Notorious Doctor Who Urban Legends

by Danny Meegan

1. Regeneration Was Modelled On LSD Trips

Second Doctor Regeneration
BBC

One of the most genius decisions in television history, the concept of changing the Doctor's face every couple of years has pretty much made Doctor Who immortal.

Most fan circles are familiar with how this idea came about: William Hartnell's deteriorating health required him to leave the role of the Doctor behind, prompting the creative team to devise a way to keep the show going without him.

On the other hand, something that isn't widely known is that the onscreen depiction of regeneration was influenced by... well, drugs.

According to an internal memo written in 1966, regeneration was described as a "horrifying experience" during which the Doctor would relive some of his most painful memories. The process was also compared to the effects of taking LSD, but instead of experiencing a positive high, the Doctor would feel nothing but "hell and dank horror".

Damn. No wonder Ten didn't want to go.

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Doctor Who William Hartnell First Doctor One Day I Shall Come Back
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1. What Year Did The First Episode Of Doctor Who Air?

1967

1960

1963

1998
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Contributor
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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!