10 Times Doctor Who Gave Fans EXACTLY What They Wanted (And They Hated It)
2. Solving The Thirteen Lives Conundrum
Even before Peter Capaldi was announced as the Twelfth Doctor, long-term Doctor Who fans were pondering how the show would deal with the 13 lives conundrum. The Time Lord regeneration limit was introduced by Robert Holmes in The Deadly Assassin, becoming something of an albatross around the show's neck as it approached the Doctor's Twelfth incarnation.
With Gallifrey having been destroyed in the Time War, it was unclear how the Doctor could possibly get a new regeneration cycle. Rather than wait until the end of the Twelfth Doctor's era to explain this, Steven Moffat decided to end Eleven's run by solving this conundrum. Using some slightly dubious numbering, Moffat made Matt Smith the 13th Doctor by including the War Doctor and the second (of three) David Tennant regenerations.
After saving Gallifrey in Day of the Doctor, Clara persuades the Time Lords to give the Doctor a new regeneration cycle and 2013 ends with Peter Capaldi as the first Doctor in a brand new cycle. Thirteen full lives ahead of him, here's to the future!
Except, fans moaned about how convenient and easily solved the problem was. Worse still, they were furious that the numbering had been messed about with so much.
Ultimately, it didn't really matter, because the Doctor's a Timeless Child with unlimited regenerations anyway.