| abstract | - The Deadly Assassin was the third story of Season 14 of Doctor Who. It was the only televised story in the original run of Doctor Who not to feature a companion. Tom Baker had told Philip Hinchcliffe he could hold the show on his own. With this story already in place, it was seen as a pilot for such companion-less stories. However, it was deemed that a companion was a necessary feature of the show. This serial saw the return of the Doctor's archnemesis, , but in a heavily decayed state played by Peter Pratt. Roger Delgado had died in an automobile accident three years earlier, requiring a new actor to take his place. Afterward, the Master became subject to a change in appearance and other changes as needed when an actor replaced the role, much like the Doctor. Narratively, this serial introduced several aspects of Time Lord society which would be used or referenced again, including the Matrix, Time Lord Chapters, Time Lord head dress and robes, and of course Rassilon. It also introduced the restriction of a Time Lord to a finite limit of twelve regenerations, allowing a maximum of thirteen incarnations, after which the Time Lord would suffer permanent death. Later stories would reveal that there are exceptions to the rule, such as the Doctor, who was granted a new regeneration cycle when his final incarnation reached the point of death, (TV: The Time of the Doctor) and the Master, who, after exhausting his original cycle, stealing a non-Gallifreyan body (TV:The Keeper of Traken), and being executed by the Daleks (TV: Doctor Who), was resurrected by the Time Lords to fight in the Time War, gaining a new cycle in the process. (TV: Utopia, The Sound of Drums)
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