A New Man

The empty and quiet interior of the TARDIS was disturbed by the entry of a man. Wearing a tweed jacket and a bowtie this was a man who stood out, a man who had no concern for his appearance as his focus was on his actions, what needed to be done. This man, was the Doctor. 

The Time Lord wasn’t rushing about pulling levers, pushing buttons and talking to himself as he so often did when he entered his TARDIS. His movements were slow and careful, with the occasional jerk of pain. The Doctor was simply injured. 

He reached the console and started the landing process. No particular destination, he just wanted the TARDIS on the ground, he wanted her stable. He had learnt his lesson from the last time. Taking off his jacket and throwing it to the side, he put his hand on the console and looked up at the whirring machinery that held the soul of his vehicle.

“Well old girl. Here we are again. We really must stop meeting like this.” A sad smile rose up onto the Doctor’s face.  An overwhelming spasm of pain released itself throwing the man away from his control panel, and he began to get a  warm feeling spreading throughout his entire body. It had started.

The Doctor rose to a full standing position. “It’s time.” The heat inside his body was rapidly increasing to a burning so intense his fingers had began to glow. He looked at his hands and prepared himself for what was about to become. He looked straight ahead “Its time.” The Doctor held his breath and slowly raised his hands.  An overwhelming force exploded inside his body. The regeneration energy shone from his head and hands and the Time Lords cells rewrote themselves. 

The cry of pain changed in pitch and volume. The chin Soufflé girl had once poked fun at disappeared, The ears Amelia used to laugh a were gone, and the hair, the ever changing hair that on so many occasions had he ran his hands through just to think of were to run to next, vanished behind the force of light and energy surrounding the Doctor. The braces he wore over his shirt snapped with the effort of dealing with the changes to the man's physique. 

After one last burst of energy the process stopped, the fire faded and the Doctor stumbled forward, basking in the last dying embers of the flames that had just been. A confused look spread across his face as he looked at his hands. The new Doctor stood there, his hair had darkened to a sharp black and gone from messy  to a neatly cut, yet curly style. He’d aged, not much, age was nothing to the this man, Why he was the man of a thousand faces, looking 40 yet being older and wiser than most of the universe itself, there was a more mature look about him. The new man looked around his TARDIS, walking in a slow circle around the control room when, without warning a level pulled itself on the console. With a start the Doctor looked at his control panel as a smile spread across his new lips. “Well then, what have we got this time?”