by Ken Parker
Spoilers
Doctor Who can be confusing at times and while I would argue that it is better when it isn't, Steven Moffat and many fans disagree. With "The Day of the Doctor" doing nothing to clear up the regeneration questions, Moffat had to make an official statement on where we stand right now. Matt Smith is the final incarnation of the Doctor. ok.... WHAT?
Spoilers
An article from
Doctorwhotv has Moffat stating that the War Doctor (John Hurt's surprise regeneration revealed in "The Day of the Doctor") and the Meta-Crisis regeneration ("Journey's End" hand regeneration thingy) bring the Doctors regenerations to 12 after the 11th Doctor was created. This means that the Christmas Special will see some kind of resolution to this dilemma. To top it off, Peter Capaldi is still the 12th Doctor.
First off, what is the Meta Crisis and who came up with that term? I must of missed the memo on that one.
Next - I have heard the explanation of the regenerations and the numbering by fans and Moffat in the past and while I understand the idea, it is still overly complicated and annoying. I don't think anyone thought that the "Journey's End" regeneration was a true regeneration (apart from some extreme drunk fandom discussion participants).
Just to set the record straight (and in my understanding of this all), the 8th Doctor regenerated into John Hurt but took on the responsibility of fighting the Time War. This act made him unworthy of the name Doctor and so he does not consider himself the Doctor even though he did, in the end, do some very Doctorish things to save Gallifrey. From that point on the Doctor pretends that War Doctor does not exist. It is similar when fans don't like a certain episode or novel and elect to ignore it within canon. It doesn't mean it didn't exist but in their eyes, they would just love to forget all about it. So the 11th Doctor is the 11th Doctor but he had used up a regeneration with the War Doctor and oh, yea, his hand created the human boy toy 10th Doctor for Rose and many fans' happy ending in "Journey's End".
Oh, yea, I had a bad year in 1986 so I am not counting that so I am one year younger, YEA!!!
The reason for this is probably because Steven Moffat wants to handle the whole running out of regenerations idea himself and rumors are that he is leaving the show soon. What better way to handle this than look back at the show and count a throw away regeneration a few seasons earlier and to shoe horn another one in for the Time War. For this reason, this works just fine and it will be interesting to see how it is handled. It is a bit of a cheat as, in a way, it is sort of skipping ahead to the end. Its like playing a game and getting a roll again or move 7 spaces.
Still, the end result is an even more intense and epic story for the Doctor as the stakes are even higher than before. Yet again....
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Just to set the record straight (and in my understanding of this all), the 8th Doctor regenerated into John Hurt but took on the responsibility of fighting the Time War. This act made him unworthy of the name Doctor and so he does not consider himself the Doctor even though he did, in the end, do some very Doctorish things to save Gallifrey. From that point on the Doctor pretends that War Doctor does not exist. It is similar when fans don't like a certain episode or novel and elect to ignore it within canon. It doesn't mean it didn't exist but in their eyes, they would just love to forget all about it. So the 11th Doctor is the 11th Doctor but he had used up a regeneration with the War Doctor and oh, yea, his hand created the human boy toy 10th Doctor for Rose and many fans' happy ending in "Journey's End".
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