Sorry for asking this if its well known, but im a little confused.
I recently saw the Doctor Who movie with sylvestor mccoy in and im sure it was said in that film that the Dr could only regenerate a certain amount of times.
So how come he can now never die and always regenerate without any limit.
Am i missing something??????

He can die & there are limits on the number of regenerations. So nothing has changed

Im sure that he has already gone past the number that was stated on that film which is 12.. Or dont we count the spin off versions?

The Peter Cushing versions doesn't count & currently The Doctor has regenerated 9 times so the current one is the 10th Doctor

they do count the docter who film (vist BBC), the docter can only regenerate one more time but rumer has it that on his 14th (rember he can only regenerate 13 times) he will become a she??? and have another 13 lives!

Thank you makes more sense now as i was including the spin-offs too...
I wonder what story line they will come up with when thay are on the 12th to continue the franchise?

Right so that explains that then so sex change on the cards another 13 lives then back to a man again? etc.

I strongly suspect he will soon regenerate into a cat, just to grab another 9 freebies.

LOL, but the TimeLords offered The Master a new cycle of regenerations so this wouldnt spell the end of Doctor.

If you are referring to the 1996 Television Movie starring Paul McGann then you are right. The 1960s Dalek films starring Peter Cushing are not included as to all intents and purposes Cushing played a different character.

As for the He becoming a she on the 14th regeneration I think it is highly unlikely and would be a bad mistake by the production team.

Wrong

We are currently watching the 10th Doctor.

There can be 3 more actors playing the part after David Tennant before the BBC need to invent something new to explain any further regenerations.

Perhaps he can come back as his own long-lost twin brother in an 'allo 'allo style?

The doctors that "count" are:

1) William Hartnell
2) Patrick Troughton
3) John Pertwee
4) Tom Baker
5) Peter Davidson
6) Colin Baker
7) Sylvester McCoy
8) Paul McGann
9) Chris Eccleston
10) David Tennant

Edmund Warrick, Peter Cushing, Trevor Martin, Adrian Gibbs, Richard Hurndall, David Banks, Rowan Atkinson, Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Joanna Lumley, Geoffrey Balden, Derek Jacobi, David Warner, David Collings, Nicholas Briggs and Arabella Weird do NOT count as Doctors.

I seem to remember that the Time Lords High Council, or something like that, can grant another set of thirteen regenerations if they belived it was necessary. Of course with the Doctor being the last remaining Time Lord then I guess then he would make the decision.

Or, as they are now known, the BBC Board of Governors...

It's interesting that when the timelords offered the Master a whole new set of regenerations, he wasn't even in a timelord body (he'd taken over Tremas' body, who was from Traken.)

This implies that the timelords could give the gift of regeneration to other species besides their own kind. I wonder if thenetworkbabe's predictions will come true and Rose will ultimately be regenerated when the time comes for her to leave?

"Regeneration" implies something must have been generated for it to be re-made.
So, here's a wild theory - Timelords are not "born" in the sense that humans are, rather they are generated by some other means so they don't have maternal parents.

So, The Face of Boes' words could be "The Timelords have Regenerated".

the Doctor always seemed adamant that "everything must come to death". We hear this quite often. He might think that, if he can keep giving himself more and more regenerations, he is defying Time and he wouldnt want to do that. He would say, "When Im dead, Im dead" probably

The New Adventures book, Lungbarrow, uses that exact explanation of how timelords come into the world - they are no longer born, but are created using genetic looms. Although the books were approved by the BBC, how much of them you believe in relation to the 'proper' history is up to you.

i think because the time lords governed all time and space, that they will just say the doc can regenerate forever and ever as there are no time lords to stop him. unless they bring back the timelords

Ahh... and I'm not even a Doctor nut!