/regeneration
As mentioned in the first page, the Doctor is on his eleventh regeneration. A Time Lord is able to regenerate himself instead of dying. Some say they can only go through this process twelve times but only time will tell. When the Doctor regenerates he completely changes into a new man. They are more like instant re-incarnations than they are to be resurrections though they do show him in a god like way. All three, regenerations, reincarnations and resurrections are religious staples and are references to the Judeo-Christian faith.8 Some may see the Doctors regenerations in a Buddhist fashion of re-incarnations. Other’s may see the Doctor as a Christ’s resurrections or God because he has the ability to give his regeneration power away.
When the Doctor regenerates from his ninth reincarnation to his tenth (video above) he has been shot during a fight against one of his long time enemies the Daleks. He has to removed the time vortex which his companion Rose had absorbed. A fate no human could handle being able to see all of life’s creations. In removing the harmful effects onto himself he scarifies his body to save his friend. When it was time for the doctor in his tenth form to sacrifice his body he did so to save the grandfather, Wilfred, of his companion Donna. He took the radiation that should have been meant for Wilfred in order for him to survive and for the Doctor to move on. The Doctor knows he does not have much time so he decides to revisit the companions he had in this form one last time sacrificing he last few minutes to see them again. He gives Donna a lottery ticket, saves Mickey and Martha, saves Sarah Jane’s son, gives Jack the name of a handsome man, and finally Rose. Just before he leaves this body he says his last words to himself “I don’t want to go” just before he regenerates (shown in the video to the left). We see that he does not simply cary on as before that he does make a sacrifice to save others.9 The tenth Doctor was truly sad to see that life he had in that form go.
The Doctor frequently self-sacrifices for a greater good, and deals with immortality.10 He is often loosing himself or his friends to save millions of others. Sometimes it is as simple as saving those who he really cares about. With the notion of immortality, the Doctor himself is over 900 years old due to the regenerations. Though nobody knows for sure if he will ever reach an end regeneration there are parts of the show that suggest he will. Another character River Song, was of the TARDIS, and had the ability to regenerate. She uses her regenerations to save the Doctor. She sacrifices her future for him. This does not only suggest that the Doctor will eventually run out of regenerations but that he has “followers” who are willing to sacrifice their own lives for him, just like a god. The Doctor is the recipient of sacrifice, which is the greatest form of worship. He changes the lives of his companions and other characters forever, some to the greatest sacrifice of death. He is the saviour of the human race because he loves and needs us.11 In another characters immortality there is Captain Jack, unlike the Doctor, he cannot die nor can he age. He is in fact the only known character to be completely immortal, which happened when he sacrificed his life to the doctors the same battle against the Daleks which the Doctor regenerated into the tenth Doctor.
The regenerations and scarifies the Doctor and his companions demonstrate how he can be viewed in a godlike manner in just a few short examples. In these examples we see that he is worshiped by the sacrifice his companions make. He in return sacrifice himself to save their lives or the lives of their loved ones. The Doctor also has the ability to regenerate which can be seen as a form of reincarnation which also has roots with religion.