Doctor Who: 9 Predictions About The Regeneration Conundrum

An era-ending, Doctor-regenerating episode of "Doctor Who" is always cause for anticipation €“ not to mention higher audience numbers for the BBC. In the leadup to "The Time of the Doctor," however, it seems as though expectations are greater than ever both with regard to tying up all those loose story-arc threads Steven Moffat's quite yet to knit together. Not to mention the question of a self-imposed limit the series is about to run smack into: namely, the fact that the incoming, 13th Doctor, would be the last possible incarnation of the hero. Fans are well familiar that the incipient problem goes back to the classic 1976 episode "The Deadly Assassin." Along with revealing much about Time Lord society and technology, the story first reveals that this privileged class receives some 12 regenerations per body. Thirty-seven years later, the Doctor is about to hit that wall and speculation is already rampant about how the regeneration conundrum will be solved. So with just before the introduction of the 13th Doctor, some predictions on what might happen when the show hits that self-imposed limitation, a limitation the BBC will certainly have to deal with soon(ish) and one the increasing fanbase will await with claws out.