Doctor Who: EVERY Regeneration Story Ranked Worst To Best

No other Doctor has had as long and varied an era as Tom Baker – and wrapping it up in a satisfying way was always going to be a difficult task.

The story we ended up with feels more like a finale to Season 18 (and Christopher H. Bidmead’s time as script editor) than the Fourth Doctor’s journey as a whole.

Even so, it works well, adopting a foreboding, sombre tone from the moment the Doctor first appears, pacing around the TARDIS cloisters. And the decision to base a regeneration story around entropy, decay, and the slow death of the universe is nothing short of inspired.

There’s also plenty of weird and wacky imagery, from the TARDIS materialising inside itself, to the eerie figure of the Watcher. And the Master finally makes his regeneration story debut, serving as the agent of the Doctor’s demise for the first time (but not the last).

By the time the regeneration arrives it certainly feels like a moment that has “been prepared for”. The inclusion of archive clips (another first for the show) allows all of Four’s previous companions to be represented, making the sequence feel both extra special and groundbreaking.