in Paula Smithka and Court Lewis (eds) Doctor Who and Philosophy (Chicago and La Salle, IL: Open Court, 2010)
This paper considers the problem of personal identity as it plays out in "Doctor Who." When the Doctor "regenerates," what's actually happening from an identity point of view? Does the same person simply change bodies, or does one person cease to exist and another come into being? If 'regeneration' doesn't count as survival, is it actually a form of death? And what happens to personal identity when the Doctor comes face to face with his past and future 'incarnations'? Can we even expect answers to these sorts of questions, or is there simply no 'fact of the matter' to be found here?