urban@trwspp2.UUCP (08/29/84)
More to the point: if the Doctor had regenerated three times since he was at the Academy, how did Drax recognize him? For that matter, in "The Face of Evil", why (other than the obvious needs of the story) was it Tom Baker's face on the mountain, when his current regeneration was quite recent (and virtually all his time accounted for)? He seemed to feel his previous visit to Leela's world was quite a long time ago... Maybe the first incarnation of the Doctor looked an awful lot like Tom Baker during his first 200 or so years. Romping around the cosmos can do a lot to a guy's face in a few centuries.
darrelj@sdcrdcf.UUCP (08/29/84)
At various meetings between time lords, they have generally been able to
recognize one another across regenerations (most pointedly, in The Deadly
Assassin, when the Dr. first bumps into Runcible, Runcible says something like
"Oh, it's you. Had a facelift, have you?" The Dr. replies "Yes, several."
I believe some of the novels have gone into the fact that time lords are
slightly telepathic. Not enough for full fledged communications, but enough
to aid recognition, help make him an accomplished hypnotist, repel mental
attacks (e.g. by the sisterhood in The Brain of Morbius).
The ability to recognize others in the face of a dozen faces in a lifetime
would be an almost essential ability.
--
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