Board Thread:The Reference Desk/@comment-74.106.61.93-20130224211810/@comment-188432-20130225002142

Heh, I probably wrote — or at least edited — most of it. But I'm saying that prior to The Deadly Assassin, there was no suggestion of any kind of regeneration limit. Yes, we have firm quotes from the Fourth Doctor, the Eighth Doctor and the Roberts Master – and several other people. But we also have things that run counter to that: Romana shopping casually for a new body like it's no big deal to regenerate, the Second Doctor saying that he can "live forever, barring accident", the fact that the Master clearly got "new" regenerations, the prove-he's-not-serious Eleventh Doctor in Death of the Doctor.

I mean one thing you've got to consider is that the Doctor lies. So where's he lying? The Deadly Asssasin? The TVM? Death of the Doctor? We just don't have completely irrefutable evidence, and it might not even come until the thirteenth regeneration.

But you can bet there will be a thirteenth regeneration — as long as the BBC want to keep on making new stories.