Doctor Who: 10 Things About NuWho That Don't Quite Add Up

8. Regeneration Disabled?

Prior to the Eleventh Doctor receiving the prophecy that he will fall on the fields of Trenzalore, he was actually killed (or seemingly killed) before that, at the shore of Lake Silencio. River Song, in a spacesuit controlled by the Silence, shot and killed him then, while in the act of regeneration, shot him again. However, there is one major problem with the chain of events that occured... while he was the 11th Doctor in number, he was on regeneration 12... his 13th life, i.e. no more regenerations. How, then, was he able to start the regeneration process, if he was on his final life? Well, at the time of this episode, the War Doctor wasn't even a blip on Moff's radar, so he still had one life to play with (counting David Tennant regenerating into David Tennant). Though it's difficult to believe that someone such as Steven Moffat, who has been planning ahead as far back as Series 3 to implement some ideas for when he took over as showrunner, wouldn't have had at least a little idea about the War Doctor, he apparently just "winged it" when the time came for Matt Smith to do his final hurrah. To give the benefit of the doubt to the Moff, though, it still left a lot of unanswered questions. Surely the regeneration wouldn't have even occured at all if the Doctor was on his final life? In either case, it's very confusing.