We didn't see the 2nd Doctor become the 3rd Doctor, or the 8th Doctor become the 9th. There are loads of places an extra incarnation could be slipped in, to be honest.

We didn't see the Troughton / Pertwee regeneration, but when Pertwee arrives on Earth he's still wearing Troughton's clothes. Unless any extra incarnation wore Troughton's clothes it's unlikely an extra one could be slipped in here.

In "The Three Doctors", the Time Lords refer to the Doctor's other selves, and find just two. In the "Five Doctors", Borussia is playing with the extant regenerations of the Doctor and has five. Doctor One (I think) said "so there are five of me now".

I had assumed that the so-called twelve limit was a Time Lord imposed thing, rather than a natural life cycle, because they deemed immortality to be wrong (again, Rassilon and all that in "The Five Doctors"). So that meant that they could grant the Master an additional set of regenerations as it was their own rule that they were 'breaking'. That would mean that with the Time Lords gone, there is no imposed limit.

What about the Valeyard?

And the Dream Lord?

Good point in AC we see "dream lord" as a manifestation of the doctors dark side. 11 actually said "tehres only one otehr person in the world who hates me as much as yopu do". Might be a slight paraphrase btu think that's what he said. So whio or what is the other person ?.Also in GC what did he see in room 11 ?. We heard the cloister bell ring which is never good. Most popular theory was he saw himself. Because he knows what his dark side is capeable of. Plus it was nearly time for Utah and his "death".

The Dreamlord, the Watcher, et al, are these 'Aspects' of the Dr, rather than regenerations?

Not that I really understand what an aspect is, except in passing as concept of deity from hinduism etc.

But since the Dr is a Time Lord, woven in space and time, well I guess anything's possible

I think that in pointing us all back to the DVDs, he's commenting on what's not there, rather than what is.

For what it's worth, I was rewatching The TV Movie yesterday afteroon, and McCoy is explicitly referred to as the "7th life" (not "Seventh Doctor" so even going on the whole Matt is still Eleven because Hurt didn't act in the name of The Doctor thing, McCoy is absolutely the seventh version of the being that now calls himself The Doctor).

Although, of course, this is the same episode where The Master is a goosnake and The Doctor is half-human, so feel more than free to reach for your salt cellar.

This is the first one that sprang to mind when thinking of regeneration.

The Doctor (11th) alludes and points to his footabll shirt in the lodger that hes the 11th which makes me think that this one counts as a regeneration.

What is the possibility that during the time war, similar to what they did when they bought back the Master that they also gave all the timelords involved in the war an extra/booster set of regenerations?

It makes sense (well to me anyway) that if your fighting for your existance against the Daleks and various other beings, you would want to keep your "soldiers" in the fight for as long as possible.

I recall that in 'Brain of Morbius' the Dr is mortally injured and drinks an elixir of immortality that the sisterhood(?) collect from an alcove in the stone. Also what if the 'human' ten ant dr is actually capable of regeneration? Could he be the Hurt Dr and would he be no. 1? Also didn't he have a Tardis seed?

What always surprised me was how easily it was accepted that the doctor being this nomad/wanderer/non-comformist individual would have jumped back in with the timelords to fight the time war when in every other story/adventure the doctor is seen to not want to have anything to do with the timelords.

Did they do something to 8th/9th doctor like they did 2nd/3rd doctor to force this "hurt doctor" into existance to fight for the time lords?

Perhaps this is the reason why "hurt doctor" is shunned by the 11th and why 9th (Eccleston) doctor was so battle scared as he was the one who suffered the direct aftermath of the "hurt doctor" actions which were "not in the name of the doctor"

He wanted little to do with the Timelords, true enough. Except when it involved The Daleks.

That's what I was wondering.
Whether it's physically impossible for him to go above 13 regenerations or whether he's simply not allowed to have more than 13 regenerations.

If he's simply not allowed, well then that's really easy to write for.

I was wondering about that too.
Wondering whether the Tennant Doctor in the forthcoming special is the one from the other universe, and that perhaps he can regenerate after all.

Thats true but even then he was reluctant / forced to help the time lords.

The fact that the Daleks were involved may have been a factor but I still dont see the doctor wanting to have have any part in mass genocide between these two factions.

If anything the doctor would be doing all he could to stop both races from injuring everyone else.

The line's where the war are mentioned such as "being there at the fall of arcadia" and "fighting on the front lines" are not the words of "our doctor" but in my mind someone else.

It could be that I am totally wrong and this was our doctor who did all these things (see what I did there...sorry...) and was on board with the time lords through out.

Not sure on this one, Why would Meta 10 be featuring in the 11th doctors time stream as it was "sort of" established that we were viewing all of 11ths personal history/past.(no future doctors were viewed)

Thats not to say 11 didnt somehow have an off screen adventure featuring meta 10 and ended with Meta 10 being a)much older and b) doing something that made the doctor ashamed of him but that still doesnt answer what he was doing in 11s personal time stream?.

Loved both of these characters but viewed them as not "actual" doctors but aspects / accumulation of the doctors "dark ego" that have built up over such a long lived age.

I would also count the "time lord victorious" as an seperate emerging "self" seperate from our normal Doctor which was quickly submergered / eliminated in part due to the actions of Adelaide Brooke taking her own life and the appearance of the Ood to shock the doctor back into himself before he could fully succumb. (I know I have read between the lines and filled in some parts but thats how I view the episode)

The regeneration "limit" was just a throwaway line which made canon. It's science fiction though so it can be gotten around fairly easily.

1. The Time Lords have granted the Master an extra set of regenerations. They can do the same for the Doctor, maybe as a reward for getting them out of the time lock.
2. Who manages the "limit". If the Time Lords can grant more then it suggests it isn't a natural thing so with no Time Lords there could be no limits.

As for the whole Eccleston is #10 theories. I sort of like it, but it would ruin all merchandising of New Who. Any mention of the 10th Doctor, you think Tennant, if it suddenly means Tennant or Eccleston then that's fairly confusing and you can't just recall all the old 9th/10th/11th Doctor merchandise. It also throws out The Eleventh Hour as a title, which seeing as it's Moffs Doctor and story, I doubt he'd be happy with.

Mawdryn Undead implies it is an inherent limit.

As I understand it Doctor Who have the same/similar levels of "cannon" that Star Wars has.

1) Anything seen on screen is considered set in stone (usually!..wibbly wobbly plot twists aside) with the addition that "New Who" over rides "Classic Who"...for some strange reason.( dont shoot the messenger, I dont agree with this stance)

2) In official books/audio is treated as cannon unless something on screen over rides in which case what is said / seen on TV is considered the over riding factor.

3) Unofficial / spin of material are the lowest level and only treated as cannon if confirmed via the above two levels.

I think Mawdryn Undead now sits between level 1 & 2 in terms of cannon and is treated as uncertain (wibbly wobbly rules apply) until confirmed in "New Who" (once again I dont agree with this)

I don't think he's refering to the Stolen Earth/Journey's End "regeneration" because he said that it's something everyone missed and plenty of people noticed that one and have been ponderng whether it counts or doesn't.

Could it be something to do with the Big Bang episode as Amy remembers the Doctor and recreates him

Good shout!

And, what if the Tesseleta (sorry can't remember the exact name) doctor in The Wedding of River Song was NOT the one that died but the real Doctor was? that would be a cool twist! And that's why the doctors timeline ends at Trenzalore!

I always thought the 8th Doctor (Paul McGann) fought in the Time War and at the conclusion of the Time War he regenerated into Eccleston’s 9th Doctor. This explains why in ‘Rose’, Eccleston’s 9th Doctor appears to be newly regenerated (the scene where he looks at his face in the mirror and talks about his ears).

However, John Hurt’s costume does make him look like a midway point between Paul McGann (the 8th Doctor) and Christopher Eccleston (the 9th Doctor). Although his coat looks like Eccleston’s, the waistcoat and cravat he has underneath are more like McGann.

And so although I do genuinely think Steven Moffatt could insert a ‘forgotten’ incarnation pretty much anywhere in the Doctor’s timeline, if John Hurt is a missing incarnation I think he fits between McGann and Eccleston.

So, what if the 8th Doctor (McGann) 'died' at some point during the Time War and then regenerated into Hurt’s 9th Doctor who ruthlessly destroyed the Daleks and the Time Lords. But his actions were so dreadful that the Doctor realised he had to extract this ‘incarnation’ from himself. I don’t know how he would do this, but it would mean that Eccleston was either:[LIST=1][*]a completely new, replacement 9th incarnation[*]a ‘rejuvenated’ 9th incarnation, where John Hurt’s Doctor took his age back by a few decades/centuries with Eccleston actually being what Hurt’s Doctor looked like when he was young, free from the guilty memories of what his 'older' self had done.[/LIST]One other issue is about how the ‘John Hurt’ Doctor came into existence in the first place. Yes, it could be a standard regeneration triggered by the heroic sacrifice and ‘death’ of the 8th Doctor. But taking into account how ruthless the Time Lords/Rassilon were during the Time War, who's to say they didn't capture the kindly 8th Doctor (who was refusing to assist them) and force a regeneration onto him (as they did at the conclusion to The War Games). Only this time, rather than let the regeneration follow its natural path they manipulated the process to ensure the Doctor's ruthless streak was exaggerated.

Imagine if your greatest weapon in the Time War was the Doctor but his greatest weaknesses were his ethics and his conscience. You’d want a version of the Doctor fighting the Time War free from all that nonsense. And maybe that’s why the Doctor now rejects the ‘Hurt’ incarnation – because he was not conceived naturally.

I do also wonder if this is something to do with the Time Lords' deal with the Valeyard in Trial of a Timelord, offering him the Doctor's remaining regenerations if he was able to have him convicted and executed. Bit weird, in a way, bearing in mind he would essentially be stealing a half dozen regenerations from his younger self. But maybe Moffatt's going to draw on that somehow - that a future Doctor could effectively 'steal back' regenerations from earlier incarnations.