Doctor Who: 10 Ways The Doctor Could Break The Regeneration Limit
Or how Moffat can dig himself out of a hole.
Steven Moffat is up to his old tricks again. On the subject of 'The Time of the Doctor', the Radio Times managed to squeeze the following comment from him: "We'll find out that Matt Smith is actually the 13th Doctor. Although everyone knows that the Doctor can only regenerate 12 times." It's sort of what we fans knew already; the meta-crisis Doctor in 'Journey's End' still counts, and the issue is to be addressed at Christmas, where either the show will end or Peter Capaldi will become the first Doctor to live beyond the Doctor's fabled thirteen lives. But how will he do it? The internet's rife with speculation, and here are ten suggestions as to how the Doctor can live forever...
10. The Time Lords' Absence
The Time Lords are back. Well, in a pocket universe. The laws of time aren't quite the Doctor's, but the absence of his race if only temporary means that if the thirteen rule is just a law of their society, it can be broken in their absence. No wonder it's a long way home; when he got there, he'd have to declare, "Yeah, by the way, I've broken the law in a massive way." It's the solution that Neil Gaiman favoured when asked about the issue. He likened the regeneration rule to a speeding limit, and that when the Doctor exceeds it, that's when things become dangerous. It would certainly be a dark new direction to send the Doctor, but is Moffat on board with the idea? Is it enough? The Master went to extreme lengths to acquire new lives, and he's not the most law-abiding of citizens. Maybe that's the basis of the law, and no one's dared try before. Maybe there's more than meets the eye. It's an unlikely bet at this stage, but who knows: Moffat could introduce quirks of Time Lord society to back it up.