teh nos' ([info]nostalgia_lj) wrote in [info]doctorwho,
@ 2006-05-12 21:45:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:regeneration

I haven't this mentioned here, but apologies etc if it has. Just noticed this on the BBC site FAQ:

How many regenerations does the Doctor have?
Now that his people are gone, who knows?

*blink* How long's that been there? And anyone care to speculate? I'd assume we're looking at quietly dropping the "thirteen lives" thing, but has anyone in the production team actually said as much?


(Post a new comment)


[info]acestar
2006-05-12 08:56 pm UTC (link)
Not to my knowledge...I spotted that in the FAQ a couple of weeks ago and wondered the same. 12/13 was the figure I'd always known....

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]nostalgia_lj
2006-05-12 09:09 pm UTC (link)
Odd, innit?

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]boji
2006-05-12 09:00 pm UTC (link)
Okay when did this happen and wtf? As he's the last of his species he what? Gets everyone elses regenerations on some form of roll-over from the temporal universe?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]nostalgia_lj
2006-05-12 09:09 pm UTC (link)
Implication that it's an aritfically-imposed limit? Do they hunt you down and kill you when you get to 13? Like in Logan's Run?

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]eryx_uk
2006-05-12 09:18 pm UTC (link)
Maybe thats the secret that the Face of Bo is aware of?

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]nostalgia_lj, 2006-05-12 09:23 pm UTC

[info]boji
2006-05-12 09:19 pm UTC (link)
If I remember correctly the Doctor ran the risk of becoming the Master/anti-doctor after 13 regenerations but if we're throwing that out the window it might mean that we're looking at a regeneration every 13 episodes.

God damn it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]samaside, 2006-05-12 09:21 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]nostalgia_lj, 2006-05-12 09:22 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]aidan_skinner, 2006-05-12 09:26 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]boji, 2006-05-12 09:28 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]nostalgia_lj, 2006-05-12 09:30 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]aidan_skinner, 2006-05-12 09:32 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]nostalgia_lj, 2006-05-12 09:29 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]aidan_skinner, 2006-05-12 09:35 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]nostalgia_lj, 2006-05-12 09:42 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]aidan_skinner, 2006-05-12 10:29 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]nostalgia_lj, 2006-05-12 10:32 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]aidan_skinner, 2006-05-12 10:37 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]nostalgia_lj, 2006-05-12 10:40 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]aidan_skinner, 2006-05-12 10:41 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]melata_fic, 2006-05-13 05:37 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]steerpikesister, 2006-05-13 11:31 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]aidan_skinner, 2006-05-13 12:02 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]leswamp, 2006-05-12 11:42 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]samaside, 2006-05-12 09:19 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]nostalgia_lj, 2006-05-12 09:24 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]boji, 2006-05-12 09:28 pm UTC

[info]leswamp
2006-05-12 11:41 pm UTC (link)
If they actually explained as such I'd have more respect for the show, albeit it respect of an oily and cynical nature. :)

When the %$#^%^&* did the entire Gallefrayan (sp?) race up and die anyway? What's up with that?

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]boji, 2006-05-13 12:25 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]leswamp, 2006-05-13 12:44 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]boji, 2006-05-13 12:47 am UTC

[info]sistercarrion
2006-05-12 09:08 pm UTC (link)
Am i being dumb? Whereabouts on the FAQ does it say that? I can't find it on the link you posted.

(Reply to this)


[info]tremas
2006-05-12 09:14 pm UTC (link)
Maybe it's like Highlander: he's absorbed all the TimeLord Quickenings, and now he's going to go on forever!

After all, There Is Now Only One!

(Ducking and hiding from any & all objects thrown my way...)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]neth_dugan
2006-05-14 05:38 pm UTC (link)
Ahhh, but then is he Duncan or Methos? Or some kind of imortal!Joe?

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]scarfman
2006-05-12 09:50 pm UTC (link)
has anyone in the production team actually said as much?

I take it that way from that twenty-first century Doctor Who hasn't any incarnation numbers in its dialog, and that if it were me that's the way I'd go.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]nostalgia_lj
2006-05-12 10:30 pm UTC (link)
And that whole "I don't die, I regenerate thing." Cos, blimey, if 13's the limit and the Doctor keeps going at this rate, Rose is going to outlive him easily.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]abates, 2006-05-13 01:30 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]nostalgia_lj, 2006-05-13 11:06 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]xwingace, 2006-05-13 01:54 pm UTC

[info]fiveminutebreak
2006-05-12 10:00 pm UTC (link)
can also be read as: "The Doctor can regenerate as many times as it takes until the BBC decides the public isn't interested enough anymore."

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]neohippie
2006-05-12 10:08 pm UTC (link)
Regeneration is an idea that makes so little sense anyway that I'm sure if they needed to they'd find a way around it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
ot-icon love.
[info]leswamp
2006-05-12 11:52 pm UTC (link)
Damn. Everyone here has the best icons. Dude. Sweet.

:)

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: ot-icon love. - [info]fiveminutebreak, 2006-05-13 02:50 am UTC

[info]getawaywithit
2006-05-12 10:36 pm UTC (link)
But then he's more than a timelord/half-human/Merlin/what really happened to Elvis so that rule probably never applied to him, anyway.

Or, it just adds to the angst when another Time Lord finally turns up - 'Oh bugger, you mean I'm not immortal any more?'

(Reply to this)


[info]leswamp
2006-05-12 11:39 pm UTC (link)
Args at teh stupid. :P

Bad BBC. Bad!

(Reply to this)


[info]theroach
2006-05-13 12:47 am UTC (link)
From what I understood (from the FASA RPG, mind, so not necessarily canon) was that Time Lords, in order to be able to link with a TARDIS have something done to them that causes the 12 regenerations mentioned in the original series. In The Five Doctors, Borusa offers the Doctor a comlpete additional set of regenerations, and while Borusa's motives may be suspect at best, the Doctor does accept this offer without so much as a 'You mean this is possible?', which to me indicates that it is possible, and comes as no surprise to the Doctor. Maybe it takes a different procedure (again, the FASA rule book implied such), but whether that's correct, I wouldn't know.

If the Doctor should have access to, e.g., a second set, that would mean that gallifrey did control whatever it is that offers the second set, and that it wasn't located on Gallifrey. A logical place to look for it would be Terminus...

(Reply to this)


[info]axomoxoa
2006-05-13 03:44 am UTC (link)
I always thought when the sister's gave him the Elixir of Life, that would be a good way.

(Reply to this)


[info]melata_fic
2006-05-13 03:50 am UTC (link)
Interesting, that. I'd always thought it was thirteen incarnations.

Although, New Series is fond of retcon, it seems. This could just be another one.

(Reply to this)


[info]unclephil2k
2006-05-13 06:58 am UTC (link)
I always suspected that it was an artifical imposition, put down by the first time lords to discover Regeneration....something if memory serves, Rassilon later rebelled against back in "The 5 Doctors". Now, post-Time war, with the Time Lords gone...huge amounts of chronal energy were no doubt dispersed. With the Doctor present at the time, maybe he absorbed them inadvertently and his physiology broke free of the "13-limit?" I dunno, it's all mumbo-jumbo nonsense. If the new series wants to go past 13, they'll do it and provide a reasonable "out." the limit was imposed waaaaaaay back then when nobody thought the series would last 3 years. If they want to keep going, they will.

But it does make his comments to Rose in "School Reunion" all the more cryptic....living forever, and the "curse of the time lords," and all that blabbity-blah.

What does everyone else think?

(Reply to this)


[info]ed_zeppelin
2006-05-13 12:54 pm UTC (link)
I always thought that when it came to the crunch they'd find some way round the limit, but how is the death of the Time Lords directly relevant to that?

Robert Holmes must be laughing in his grave at how people are still losing sleep over this thirty years after The Deadly Assassin.

(Reply to this)


[info]__kali__
2006-05-13 01:27 pm UTC (link)
Well considering they've gone through three actors in about 14 hours of telly I'm not surprised that they're not mentioning the whole limited number of lives thing.

(Reply to this)


[info]leoff
2006-05-13 02:09 pm UTC (link)
Considering it's a very, very lame attempt by the BBC at an FAQ (read a few of the other questions and "answers" they give), I'd simply chalk it up to the webmaster of that particular section being 1) funny, 2) clueless

(Reply to this)


[info]whispersecho
2006-05-13 07:21 pm UTC (link)
How many regenerations does the Doctor have?
Now that his people are gone, who knows?


I do believe this was actually something RTD said in one of the Series One Doctor Who Confidential episodes. I'd have to go back through and find it...

With the way they're going through regenerations, though, I would not be the least bit surprised if they axed the 13 lives bit (The way I've always heard it explained is they get 13 lives which means 12 regenerations.)

I'm fairly certain this question is dealt with exhaustively in [info]dwcanon_fodder's FAQ section, and here

(Reply to this)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…