So much for the 12 Regeneration limit.
http://io9.com/5662301/doctor-whos-time-traveler-has-become-immortal
Frankly, if the show stays as good as it’s been i can live with the change.
I don’t have a problem with this. It’s not a biological limit; it’s an artificial one, created by the Time Lords. They granted additional regenerations to the Master, so it’s not even unprecedented. And with them gone (for all intents and purposes), there’s no one to enforce the rule anyway, so he can continue on as long as he wishes, IMO.
Well, they could either respect the limit and end the show (or at least the current Doctor) or they could ignore it.
I’d have thought they’d make a bigger deal out of it, but I can understand them planting the idea early to prep the fans.
I’m not opposed to doing away with the 12-regeneration limit. I love Doctor Who, and if the show is still popular when the Doctor reaches the end of his 13th incarnation, then obviously I want the show to continue on.
However, don’t think I agree with how and when this information is being revealed.
a.) This is a key revelation. This will have consequences for the Doctor and the show years from now. Does it make sense to reveal this on a spin-off show, during the off season, as part of a throw-away line of dialogue with little chance for follow-up?
b.) The Doctor is currently in his 11th incarnation. On average, lead actors spend approximately 3 years in the role before moving on. It could be between 6 and 9 years before the regeneration limit becomes a pressing and urgent issue. Does it make sense to reveal this information so far in advance? Wouldn’t it be more dramatic to draw out the suspense by letting the Doctor and the viewers think that he might really die after his 13th incarnation?
I think regeneration should have a cost. It shouldn’t be something that the Doctor does lightly. In the past, he has known that he has a limited number of regenerations and if he uses one up, he can never get it back. Each time, he gives up a faction of his total lifespan. If there is no limit on the number of times the Doctor can regenerate, then that changes the dynamic. He’ll no longer be simply long-lived, he’ll be effectively immortal, barring accidents. That removes him one more step from the human experience. In the past, the Doctor had to worry about losing his life bit by bit to the inevitable march of time, like the rest of us. It there is no limit, that’s no longer true and it makes the Doctor less relatable.
I think that if they do away with the limit on the number of regenerations, they should invent some other price that the Doctor has to pay, so as to maintain the dramatic tension. Maybe it’s risky, or it’s a gamble, or the Doctor has to give something up each time in order to earn his regeneration. Regeneration shouldn’t be cheap and easy.
Well, we know that’s not going to happen. So it makes perfect sense to start planting seeds (or as RDM would say, laying down cards) that will bear fruit (or, cards will be picked up) later on.
Here’s the Doctor Who-related moment that caused all the fuss a while back. In today’s Sarah Jane Adventures, Clyde asks the Doctor how many times he can regenerate. The answer may surprise you. Spoilers ahead…
The truth about Doctor Who’s regeneration limit revealed! (Sort of)
Everyone’s told me otherwise, but I still think the Doctor is currently in his 12th regeneration (while Tennant remained Tennant in the regeneration between the 10th and the 10th, the thing is, he did USE that regeneration power to heal himself (and used the rest of that regeneration power not to change his looks, but to that hand that end up being a bio-whatits- second doctor in combo with Donna. But either way, that 10th regeneration power was used up entirely, so counting the number of times the regeneration power was used, shouldn’t that count as a legitimate cycle even though the Doctor didn’t change looks?), so while he didn’t literally regenerate his looks, he used up that regeneration power in that cycle to regenerate the parts of his body that were dying from the Dalek, no? Isn’t that a regeneration of sorts? So I somehow still stand by that Tennant at the end of Season 4 was the 11th reincarnation of the Doctor - he just happen to be the same as the 10th - And Matt Smith is reallly already the 12th Doctor. Dang, I’m stubborn. I just think it seems more logical that way. 
But either way, 11th, 12th, the Doctor is definitely at the end of his limit, so I can see why the writers would want to fudge with that detail a bit so they could always continue on with the show should they want different actors in the role.