Doctor Who: EVERY Regeneration Story Ranked Worst To Best

It's sad that last place must, almost by default, go to the first regeneration story in Doctor Who history.

The Tenth Planet is... fine. But in hindsight, it’s defined more by the stuff it introduced (regeneration, the “base under siege” format, and the Cybermen) than anything else.

This is largely due to the fact that it wasn’t actually conceived as a regeneration story per se. The production team was more concerned with writing William Hartnell out than giving him a proper send-off, with the previous season's The Celestial Toymaker also considered as a potential handover.

It’s a shame because there’s a thematic parallel between regeneration and the artificial augmentation of the Cybermen which goes completely unacknowledged here (though it would eventually inspire the CyberMasters in The Timeless Children).

It’s also unfortunate that Hartnell spends a quarter of his final story (Episode 3) completely out of action – and that the final episode no longer exists in the BBC archives. Save for the regeneration itself, thank god.

It will always be remembered as the OG regeneration story. But there was much, much better stuff to come.