Doctor Who: 10 Things Everyone Always Gets Wrong About The Doctor

Doctor Who fans are pretty passionate about two things. One is that the show needs reinvigorating to appeal to a modern audience, and two is that the numbering of the Doctors is some hard and fast rule.

Interestingly, these two things are currently in direct conflict with each other. Promoting Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor implicitly suggests to audiences that they have to catch up on the previous fourteen. New audiences just wouldn't bother, would they? There's even some debate as to whether Tennant is actually the Fourteenth Doctor, despite RTD stating that's a fact.

The Timeless Child was a flawed attempt by Chris Chibnall to detonate fandom's obsession with the numbering of Doctors. After discovering that she's lived countless lives that she wasn't previously aware of, the Thirteenth Doctor ultimately decides that the only thing that's important is who she is now. That's the real message of the Timeless Child, but it got buried in all the controversy.

Regardless, for the audience at home, the numbering of the Doctors only matters when they're at their local pub quiz. David Tennant may be the Fourteenth Doctor, but chances are, there'll be riots in pubs across the UK when non-fans get a point for saying it's Ncuti Gatwa.