Doctor Who: Ranking Every Regeneration From Worst To Best
8. The Seventh Doctor To The Eighth Doctor
Just to reaffirm that the events of the 1996 TV Movie were indeed canon, Sylvester McCoy reprised his Seventh Doctor role for the opening of the film, only to be gunned down by a gang in San Francisco's Chinatown. Whether The Doctor's regeneration was triggered due to the gunshot wounds or the confused American surgeons trying to save him is still up for debate.
After supposedly dying, Sylvester McCoy regenerated into Paul McGann in a hospital morgue drawer, which was done through strange face-contorting from McCoy, and odd lightning effects. It certainly wasn't what we were used to, but they weren't 'rebooting' the show into what we already knew. The regeneration felt very passive on The Doctor's part, making it seem like he was dead through the whole thing. Creepy.