Howling:The Eleventh Doctor is The Thirteenth Doctor?

The Howling → The Eleventh Doctor is The Thirteenth Doctor?

There be spoilers about un-released stories here.
Run back to the forums if you're scared.

As if our friend Mr John Hurt hasn't confused matters enough, IGN released this article and blew his matter-confusing out of the water: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/11/26/matt-smith-is-the-13th-doctor.

I'll give you guys a moment to get your head round this.

Now, I'm as aware as the next man that Moffat doesn't always tell the complete truth, but this just doesn't seem like the kind of thing Moffat would need to lie about. It sounds as though this is a way of cutting straight to the thirteenth incarnation so Moffat can address the regeneration limit and how they are going to get around it (because I think we can be pretty sure they will).

A possible problem with this announcement, however, is the "All thirteen!" line from the 50th, complete with a Capaldi cameo. That would suggest his Doctor is one of the thirteen, which this announcement would contradict (in fact, if Moffat is telling the truth there should have been two Tennant Doctors in that scene).

If Moffat turns out to be telling the truth, by the way, this means that the Tenth Doctor's very violent regeneration which tore apart the TARDIS was the 12th of the 12 regenerations he can have, which may mean The Valeyard comes into play here too. Could The Valeyard be a possible reason why the regeneration was so dramatic? Most likely RTD didn't have this possibility in mind when he gave Ten that impressive regeneration, but it's an idea that Moffat could play around with.

Of course, there's a chance I'm already looking too much into it. As I said before, Moffat doesn't always tell the truth, but if this time he isn't lying, then this announcement could mean interesting things for the show. 87.102.91.126^{talk to me} 20:09, November 27, 2013 (UTC)

WOO-HOO!! 108.246.49.33^{talk to me} 23:07, November 27, 2013 (UTC)

You seem excited. 87.102.91.126^{talk to me} 23:29, November 27, 2013 (UTC)

As I said when this was touched on elsewhere this has implications for the meaning of the term "fall of the eleventh", discuss.DCT ☎ 13:32, November 28, 2013 (UTC)

Wow looks like Moffat was telling the truth! I'm glad the regeneration limit has been addressed. 87.102.91.126^{talk to me} 23:18, December 25, 2013 (UTC)

Well, technically yes and no. Language is the biggest problem here.

You have the 8 classic doctors

then you have WAR doctor, who is to be fair the real 9th doctor

then Eccleston is actually 10th doctor

Tennant is 11

Now this is the messy stuff:

Between Stolen Earth and Journey's End, Tennant was regenerating, but in middle of the regeneration he aimed the energy into his Spare Hand, later creating the Meta-Crisis Doctor. This, though it did not change the doctor, did used up 1 regeneration.

And then Tennant Regenerated into Smith.

So, this is what im going to leave you off:

Smith is the 11th numbered doctor.

Smith is the 12th incarnation of the doctor.

Smith is the 13th doctor by the regenerations. Doctor had 13 incarnations he can use to save his life.

1: William Hartnell / Richard Hurndall

2: Patrick Troughton

3: Jon Pertwee

4: Tom Baker

5: Peter Davison

6: Colin Baker

7: Sylvester McCoy

8: Paul McGann

9: John Hurt

10: Christopher Eccleston

11: David Tennant

12: N/A (The Regeneration didn't occured fully, thus not creating new incarnation of the Doctor)

13: Matt Smith

And he got another 13 incarnations to use in The Time of the Doctor. I dont know why, I havent got there yet, but he got a new cycle or regenerations and incarnations.

14: Peter Capaldi

15: N/A (Wasn't born yet)

16: N/A (Wasn't born yet)

17: N/A (Wasn't born yet)

18: N/A (Wasn't born yet)

19: N/A (Wasn't born yet)

20: N/A (Wasn't born yet)

21: N/A (Wasn't born yet)

22: N/A (Wasn't born yet)

23: N/A (Wasn't born yet)

24: N/A (Wasn't born yet)

25: N/A (Wasn't born yet)

26: N/A (Wasn't born yet)

Wario64 ☎ 19:03, June 28, 2014 (UTC)

Personally I wouldn't say Tennant is the eleventh and twelfth incarnations, because he didn't change his face. To be considered a new incarnation, doesn't his face have to change? So Tennant is the Tenth to call himself Doctor, but the eleventh incarnation, which would make Smith the twelfth and final incarnation in his first regeneration cycle.

Sounds about right, I guess though it means we'll have to be more careful than we'd usually wish to be in choosing our terms. I suspect that's more effort than you're average viewer is prepared to go to. At least we can be confident in knowing that for version 1 through 8 we can use the terms, regeneration, incarnation and Doctor completely interchangeably, it's after that it becomes confusing (especially with respect to the term regeneration).