Howling:Doctor's regenerations and Moffat's latest statements

So, I read this the other day. I've already brought it up here, but I want to see what you guys think. What does Moffat mean by "I think you should go back to your DVDs and count correctly this time. There’s something you’ve all missed"? Imamadmad (Contact me) 11:20, October 15, 2013 (UTC)

What could he possibly mean? "There's something we've all missed." Yeah, several regenerations that either got taped over or weren't shown at all (mainly the latter). I can't help thinking that this may be a strained subjective interpretation on Steven's part that he hopes to get us to go along with. All the same he definitely gave Clara, in The Name Of The Doctor, the dialogue "you're the eleventh Doctor." so it can't be that far removed. It's hard to see what he's doing really most of Matt Smith's tenure has been written plying to that precept.DCT ☎  16:03, October 15, 2013 (UTC)

Moffat plays by his own rules. He will find a way out of the 12-regen rule. October 14th comments are even more ridiculous "Would it be weird in the run of the series to have the 45th Doctor turn up and be played by Johnny Depp or someone?" This was in response to the creation of the Hurt Doctor. Link Here 45th Doctor? I realize he is joking but it just shows that there is no limits when it comes to The Doctor. --The Messenger John Tyler ☎  21:45, October 15, 2013 (UTC)

That still doesn't answer the question. The problem here is that he actually sounds like he's being serious but that statement "something [we've] missed" is too vague and the field he refers to "[our] DVDs" too broad. The more I consider this the more I consider that line I quoted above to be at least part of it, because it's a rather unambiguous line from a Doctor Who story written by him. He can't really go against it too much and, yes, the Johnny Depp, 45th Doctor was a joke. The sort of thing he might expect to get away with in a short on Comic Relief or Children In Need, but not in a standard episode - not without a backlash or an explanation.DCT ☎  12:28, October 16, 2013 (UTC)

It means that Moffat likes playing tricks on and torturing our minds. Just wait until the thing(s) actually come(s) out and see "what he's gone and done now". —BioniclesaurKing4t2 - "Hello, I'm the Doctor. Basically, . . . run." 02:47, October 17, 2013 (UTC)

Technically that may be awhile as he may well wait for Peter Capaldi to quit before even going down that road. In the meantime the "clue" he gave us remains.DCT ☎  12:09, October 18, 2013 (UTC)


 * Don't get too settled in with waiting. I expect the episode(s) showing the solution to the regeneration problem to be accidentally released on crystal-clear HD Blu-Ray a full month before the corresponding season starts airing. (I'm kidding.) —BioniclesaurKing4t2 - "Hello, I'm the Doctor. Basically, . . . run." 22:03, October 18, 2013 (UTC)

You might be kidding, but we all know there's a chance that could happen. 87.102.91.126talk to me 23:58, October 18, 2013 (UTC)


 * Either way that may still take a while. At the moment the most likely thing Steven Moffat could be referring to is probably the Pat to Jon transition owing to it being something uniquely produced by the Time Lords and not an example of standard regeneration. As far as I know there was never any implication that the Time Lords were potentially shortening the Doctor's life expectancy with what they did (mainly because the concept had yet to be devised) which provides an awful lot of wiggle room. But being that it seems rather strained.DCT ☎  11:51, October 19, 2013 (UTC)

In other news, has anyone else seen the (awesome) anniversary trailer? If you haven't search on Youtube. 87.102.91.126talk to me 12:43, October 20, 2013 (UTC)

Nominally, the Doctor is the eleventh "Doctor," but that does not necessarily mean that he is the eleventh incarnation. John Hurt's Doctor seems to be proof of that. However, I assume that the "something" that Moffat is referring to is the Doctor's meta-crisis regeneration from The Stolen Earth/Journey's End. The meta-crisis did use up a full regeneration's worth of regeneration energy, but it did not change the Doctor's appearance because he was able to siphon that half of the energy into his spare hand. Technically, that plus John Hurt's Doctor (assuming that he is a legitimate incarnation) would make Matt Smith the thirteenth incarnation of the Doctor, thereby forcing the issue of the limit. 70.246.85.226talk to me 22:06, November 5, 2013 (UTC)


 * Matt Smith is Doctor 13? Not likely, unless he's already found a way to cheat the system. In "Let's Kill Hitler", he seems to be under the impression that he can regenerate to save himself from River's poison lipstick, until the TARDIS interface tells him otherwise, but this was because the poison would somehow prevent him from regenerating. He wouldn't have spoken aloud the possibility of him regenerating if he knew he was already on his 13th life. —BioniclesaurKing4t2 - "Hello, I'm the Doctor. Basically, . . . run." 00:17, November 8, 2013 (UTC)


 * Considering that he has "tried very hard to forget" about the War Doctor, he may have simply deluded himself into believing that he had more energy, just like how humans repress certain memories of traumatic events. I would certainly say that this is probable, at least to the point of him having repressed his memories of the War Doctor, because in Nightmare in Silver, we see the Cyber-Planner go through the Doctor's memories of all of his incarnations and the War Doctor doesn't show. Even the Cyber-Planner seems unaware of him, as he states that the Doctor has undergone "ten complete re-jigs." And furthermore, Moffat stated in a recent interview ([]) that while anomalies such as the War and Meta-Crisis Doctors don't affect the "Doctor" count, they are still regenerations in the technical sense. Ensephylon ☎  12:52, November 15, 2013 (UTC)