10 Times War Broke Out Within The Doctor Who Fandom

2. Numerical Nightmare

So is John Hurt actually the Eighth Doctor now? Wouldn't he be 8.5? Does that make Christopher Eccleston the tenth and David Tennant the eleventh? But David Tennant is the Tenth Doctor - it's even in his name, for God's sake! Well, the Tenth Doctor isn't actually the Tenth Doctor at all. In fact, none of the numbers used to distinguish each respective Doctor hold any particular relevance... technically speaking. It's just our way of telling them apart but, after all, there is - and always will be - only one Doctor. It was never an issue until the shock reveal of the War Doctor in 2013 and fans wasted no time in complaining - and subsequently turning on each other - as they sought to find sense in the mathematical madness once and for all. To all intents and purposes (and assuming that the numbering system actually stands for something), the revelation that there's been another version of the titular Time Lord that nobody ever knew about really does throw a rather timey-wimey spanner into the works. It makes perfect relative sense when you think about it, though. John Hurt's Doctor is the War Doctor so, even though he's still one of the Doctor's regenerations, he refuses to acknowledge himself as 'Doctor' therefore the subsequent numbers remain in tact. The Eighth Doctor is the Eighth Doctor, the Ninth is the Ninth and so on, so forth. Simples. So why is it still so hard for some people to understand? John Hurt's Doctor isn't 'the Doctor'. The Doctor isn't even the Doctor - it's just a name he's given himself. Fans who refer to him as 8.5 need to accept that he's a bonafide incarnation, too. To summarise, he's the eighth incarnation of the Doctor but that doesn't make him the Eighth Doctor. That title will be assigned to Paul McGann for always and forever so let's just move on. It's not even a case of agreeing to disagree, either. Anyone who thinks anything has even remotely changed is wrong. Sorry, but it's true.