Doctor Who: 10 Things Nu-Who Fans Just Don’t Understand

7. The Numbering System

As all fans know, current Doctor Peter Capaldi is the twelfth, although the character is actually in his 14th incarnation of a brand new cycle of regenerations. Confused yet? You should be. Until the Series 4 finale episode Journey's End, the numbering system for the Doctors was fairly static. The First Doctor became the Second who one day became the Third and so on, until the then-current Tenth Doctor decided to throw an almighty spanner into the works by getting himself shot by a Dalek (he didn't do it on purpose of course, but that's what happens when you let your guard down). He ultimately managed to 'cheat' death in this instance, though, by pouring all of his regeneration energy into his "handy spare hand" and as such he had used up one of his allocated regenerations but still sauntered away with the same face as before. What's more, a few series later fans discovered that it wasn't actually the Eighth or Ninth Doctor that fought in the Time War, as was previously assumed, but it was in fact a version of him that nobody had even known about. Referred to as the War Doctor, this lost incarnation bridged the gap between his Eighth and Ninth personas and was wholly responsible for fighting in the majority of the Time War. As such, before Matt Smith's Doctor was granted a fresh regeneration cycle by the Time Lords in The Time of the Doctor, he - and us - generally believed that he was going to be the last, as Time Lords can typically only regenerate 13 times. But the BBC were never going to honour this and bring an end to their most popular show now, were they? No, because that would've been Mad with a capital M. And thus the story goes on...