So if you know your Doctor Who lore, you know that Time Lords have 12 regenerations - 13 “Lives” so to speak.
So here’s my random question. At the end of “The Stolen Earth”, the Doctor Regenerated… sort of. He pushed all the energy out into his hand, but still his energy was used. So does that “regeneration” count as one of the 12 he has, or no?
I don’t think it does really, I mean the Doctor didn’t actually regenerate, he just used the energy a little bit. Officially? I don’t know, I wouldn’t have thought so, I mean, they’re going to have to deal with the limited regenerations eventually, but the number is artificially set anyway, Timelords can certainly gain them, Look at The Master, He’s on his third set by this point in time!
The Doctor is MORE than just a Timelord anyway, He’s probably a special case.
Also, since he’s the only one left, maybe he can use the unused regenerations of his fellow Time Lords. Wasn’t that how the Master started over? Taking regenerations from another Time Lord?
That’s one way, or the Doctor could start stealing peoples bodies…
Ick! That’d be wrong in so many ways, including breaking the Hippocratic Oath!
To be fair, he most likely didn’t qualify on Earth, so probably never took it!
I found this…
The BBC’s Series 4 FAQ suggests that now the Time Lord social order has been destroyed, the Doctor may be able to circumvent the limit on regenerations; it says: “Now that his people are gone, who knows? Time Lords used to have 13 lives.”
Here…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_(Doctor_Who)
This is a pretty good point that the BBC FAQ made… since the new series broke from the old series there’s no real need to hold to the 12 regeneration limit. As i recall, the 12 regeneration limit was imposed and enforced by Rassilon even in death. Remember when that old series episode where a rebellious Time Lord councilmember tried to get away with regenerating past his limit, and Rassilon punished him by imprisioning the bad guy in the stone decorations of Rassilon’s very own tomb?
I definitely thing that hand regeneration thing last season counted as the 11th (right? 9 was CE, and 10 was DT, 11 DT again) regeneration. Even though he didn’t use all the power to revive himself, the power was directed to the hand (and a double), which meant it was used.
And next season, with the new doctor dude, that would be his 12th (and last, if he has 13 lives) regeneration.
But, as tv shows go, I doubt they’d stick to the ‘13 lives’ thing, so DW can live on with different actors as the role. I’m still waiting for a female doctor to be regenerated one day. 
I may be talking through my hat, and I am just going by memory, but I had the impression that the limit on regenerations was arbitrarily placed on Time Lords by their own bureaucracy believing that immortality was corrupting. I believe Rassilon, Omega and (in some stories) the Other were immortal. Omega still lives as anti-matter. Rassilon, though he developed the “modern” Galifreyan society, became quite the dictator and was entombed alive (or in a state capable of regenerating) in a prison/monument by his own people. (His tyranny was hinted at but never made clear in the show, thus is not cannon. He apparently agrees that immortality is corrupting by the time of the Five Doctors, as has been pointed out). As against this theory, the TV show suggests that Rassilon may not have been immortal, but likely discovered the secret of immortality.
It appears that it has always been possible for the Time Lords to grant further regenerations. In any event, the TV show does have examples which would suggest this is the case. As has already been mentioned, the Master has been given further regenerations on more than one occasion.
When Sylvester McCoy was the Doctor, there was a discussion of having him be the Other, and some clues were dropped into the early stories (ie “I am MORE than just another Time Lord”) but the show was cancelled and thus the intention is not cannon. Some books (of questionable cannon) suggest the Doctor is “the Other” and if he is, he would not be subject to the same regeneration restrictions, of course. If he is the Other, it might explain the rather confusing sequence of previous “lives” from Tom Baker’s “The Brain of Morbius” which suggests the Doctor has already surpassed the usual 12 regenerations. (Such fun we fans have in coming up with rational (or rational-like) explanations for what is really a continuity error.)
Again, going from memory, and for those who only watch NuWho, the Other (not cannon as not actually introduced into the TV show) was one of three Time Lords who built the society as it is known currently. (It was once a matriarchal society with one immortal female leader) The three, Rassilon, Omega, and the Other, overthrew the previous regime and made possible time travel by harnessing the power of a black hole known as the Eye of Harmony. Omega, the scientist, was assumed killed in harnessing the Eye, but was actually turned into anti-matter and soon became paranoid and embittered. Rassilon, the soldier and political leader, guided his people for many years slowly becoming more and more tyrannical and power hungry until he too was overthrown. The Other, unable to stop Rassilon’s power grab, became disillusioned and threw himself into machine which was used to produce little Time Lords, saying that he would return. His genetic material was assumed spread throughout the machine and reused. The belief was that he would be able to somehow return again as the Other.
I think the writers of the show have a few very easy ways of going past the 12 regen limit without blasting holes in continuity. I can hardly wait to see which is chosen.
Actually I hope they go back to the OTHER storyline. I do remember the hints they left with McCoy’s DW series. I always figured he was not what he let his people believe. As it is he could run rings around his people if he wanted to. He didn’t,why? More then likely so that he could be in control and influence events to what he needed. As it was the only one that could match him was the Master. He was the one that figured out that that there was a way to get into the Matrix and that the Valeyard was an evil version of the doctor.
He has never assumed leadership except when it was thrust on him. Even though he has been asked to take a more leadership role on the time lords. He has always shied away from that responsibility. If he is the other then he has seen how power corrupts and realized he didn’t want any part of it. If he is the reconstituted Other then he might already know how to circumvent the 12 regeneration limit. Either way it’s gonna be fun to watch.
Oh BTW if the dalecks can come back so can the Time Lords. The oh holy have spoken from AKA THE WRITERS haven’t green lighted it yet.
Well… [spoiler] The Other was the third in the great timelord Trinity, along with Rassilon and Omega. He was the architect of Timelord society following the Purge and could have risen to the greatest power in the universe.
Instead he became disenchanted with Timelord society when he realised his children would be the last naturally born Gallifreyans, they had cursed themselves with sterility by killing their godess. He made sure that his Granddaughter was safe, and threw himself into the Genetic looms.
He was eventually reborn in the house of Lungbarrow, where he grew up, and eventually became the Doctor we know, his first time-trip was to the distant past, where he picked up The Others granddaugher, who recognised him as her Grandfather, and the left to take a tour of the universe.
Essentially, the Doctor is the re-incarnation of the greates Time-Lord, but he doesn’t let it bother him day-to-day[/spoiler]
That’s all from memory, I may be off on a few spots, but thats the Cartmell Masterplan.
[SPOILER]I Figured the first not the second but that is something that should be looked into more. Also from what has been mentioned by by Tennant’s Doctor he has had children. So procreation is still possible. This should still be delved in more detail. It should also be mentioned that a form of the genetic looms was used in the episode with Tennant called “The Doctor’s Daughter” In that episode he mentions how he has had many children over time. So that curse might just be a convenient ploy by the Triumvirate to set up the Gallifrean society[/SPOILER]
Warning: I know VERY LITTLE about Doctor Who before the new Who, so bear with me.
Here are my thoughts: I don’t think that TenII counts as a regeneration. It was leftover regeneration energy from him healing himself, not a full regeneration. Donna accidentally sparks the energy in the hand, which then grows a whole new Doctor with her DNA mixed in. So, since we know from watching the Master choose death in “Last of the Time Lords” that they have to actually CHOOSE to regenerate, could it be that he chose not to regenerate, but just heal himself enough? Then that extra unused energy had to go somewhere, and he sent it into the hand, since he knew it’s tissues, being that of a Gallifreyan, could handle it. Therefore, when the hand grows into TenII, it’s not an actual choice to regenerate by our Doctor, but that energy being unleashed (by Donna) and causing the hand to regrow.
Also, and I’m simply interpreting what Cymbeline and Wydelode pointed out from past canon, the 12 regeneration limit was imposed by Rassilon, even after his apparent death and entombment on Gallifrey. If Gallifrey has been completely wiped out of existence by the Time War, doesn’t this open up the possibility that Rassilon is no longer around to enforce his law?
Maybe I’m completely missing the point here, but, like I said, I have very limited exposure to early Who. I’m afraid to go back and watch it. I’m afraid, like original BSG, it will seem hokey and ridiculous. (For me, the Ninth Doctor was the first Doctor, and Starbuck has always been a girl.) And I don’t want to hate it. So I avoid it.