The Tenth Doctor ' s hand The right hand of the Tenth Doctor was severed by the Sycorax leader shortly after the Doctor ' s regeneration . At some point , Captain Jack Harkness had acquired it and brought it to the Torchwood Three hub . The hand was kept well - preserved on its own and remained alive and somewhat responsive despite getting separated from its original body . It became an organism independent from the Doctor which could flex itself under its own power , and eventually , part of a new gestalt Doctor following a meta - crisis . History . After the Ninth Doctor regenerated into his tenth incarnation , the hand was attached to his arm . The newly - regenerated Doctor noted a " slight weakness in the dorsal tubercle " around his hand , but this was not mentioned again during the remainder of the time this hand was attached to his body . ( TV : " Children in Need Special " ) During a sword fight with the Sycorax leader on the deck of their ship , the leader cut the Doctor ' s right hand off and it fell somewhere in London . Because he was within the first fifteen hours of his regeneration , he regrew the hand . ( TV : " The Christmas Invasion " ) The excess regeneration energy was siphoned off of the Third Doctor . ( PROSE : " The Christmas Inversion " ) After Captain Jack Harkness travelled from 200 , 100 to 1869 , he lived through the 20th century and eventually found the hand . He used it to detect the Doctor whenever he came to the Cardiff Rift to refuel , hoping to find a version of the Doctor which coincided with his own timeline . ( TV : " Utopia " ) Jack kept the hand preserved in a jar which he kept on his desk . Despite being severed , it did not decay and continued to move and twitch . ( TV : " Day One " ) When Carys Fletcher escaped , she broke the jar , distracting Jack enough for her to flee . ( TV : " Day One " ) When the Doctor arrived at Cardiff Bay , the hand reacted , glowing and moving . ( TV : " End of Days " ) Captain Jack joined the Doctor and brought the severed hand with him . After travelling to the year 100 , 000 , 000 , 000 , 000 , the Doctor , Martha Jones , and Jack met Professor Yana , who then became the Master . He took the Doctor ' s hand from Jack and escaped in the Doctor ' s TARDIS after he regenerated . ( TV : " Utopia " ) The Doctor fixed Jack ' s Vortex Manipulator so they could travel to 2008 . When they encountered the Master , he revealed that he had put Richard Lazarus ' genetic technology into his laser screwdriver . Using the Doctor ' s biological code gained from the hand , the Master aged the Doctor a hundred years . ( TV : " The Sound of Drums " ) The Year That Never Was followed , after which the Doctor reclaimed his severed hand and kept it aboard his TARDIS in the control room . ( TV : " Last of the Time Lords " ) After the Sontaran invasion of Earth , the TARDIS set off by itself to Messaline , with the hand apparently reacting to Jenny ' s imminent birth . ( TV : " The Poison Sky " , " The Doctor ' s Daughter " ) The Doctor ' s hand remained in his TARDIS and was present for the Doctor ' s regeneration when he was shot by a Dalek . ( TV : " The Stolen Earth " ) After the Doctor had healed the damage caused by the shot , however , he channeled the excess regeneration energy that would have changed his appearance into a bio - matching receptacle , his hand , leaving him healed while remaining in his tenth incarnation , ( TV : " Journey ' s End " ) but still using up a regeneration in his cycle . ( TV : " The Time of the Doctor " ) Donna touched the energised hand , which caused a new version of the Doctor to be generated . The new Meta - Crisis Doctor had the intelligence of the Doctor mixed with Donna ' s persona and attitude . ( TV : " Journey ' s End " ) Behind the scenes . David Tennant provided the cast for the hand during the filming of " Utopia " . This cast was retained during the remainder of the prop ' s time on the show . In Jack ' s flashback to 1999 in TV : " Fragments " , the Doctor ' s hand in the jar can be seen in the Hub despite the scene taking place years before it would be cut off in 2006 . No narrative explanation has been given for this discrepancy .