13 (number)
13 was a prime number, (AUDIO: The Haunting [+]Loading...["The Haunting (audio story)"]) considered unlucky by the superstitious, (COMIC: Triskaidekaphobia [+]Loading...["Triskaidekaphobia (comic story)"]) due to "mystic properties". (AUDIO: The Thirteenth Stone [+]Loading...["The Thirteenth Stone (audio story)"]) Some people were beset by triskaidekaphobia, according to the Twelfth Doctor an irrational fear of the number 13. (COMIC: A Confusion of Angels [+]Loading...["A Confusion of Angels (comic story)"])
In particular, the Triskaidekaphobes, a group of thirteen clones, feared the number above all else. Living, as they did, on the 13th moon of the 13th planet in the 13th Galaxy, they considered themselves the unluckiest people in the galaxy.
When the Tenth Doctor visited their moon with Rose Tyler, on the 13th day of the 13th year in the 13th century, a Friday, helped these unlucky individuals to overcome their run of bad luck by destroying Bob Kreesus' luck machine. They were also were struck by lightning and rained on by cats. (COMIC: Triskaidekaphobia [+]Loading...["Triskaidekaphobia (comic story)"])
According to Rose, Friday the 13th was considered especially unlucky. (COMIC: Triskaidekaphobia [+]Loading...["Triskaidekaphobia (comic story)"])
Dan Lewis's horoscope for 2021 foretold that thirteen was his lucky number; (TV: Welcome to the TARDIS... [+]Loading...["Welcome to the TARDIS... (TV story)"]) later that same year, Dan met the Thirteenth Doctor. (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse [+]Loading...["The Halloween Apocalypse (TV story)"])
According to the Second Doctor, a one in 13 chance was about 7.6923 percent, odds he didn't like. (COMIC: Card Conundrum [+]Loading...["Card Conundrum (comic story)"])
The Twelfth Doctor once told Bill that "eleven plus two" was an anagram of "twelve plus one", to which Bill responded that both of these were equal to 13. (COMIC: Harvest of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Harvest of the Daleks (comic story)"])
En-Gula was thirteen when she met the Seventh Doctor. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Genesys [+]Loading...["Timewyrm: Genesys (novel)"])
At the fall of Gallifrey, the Eleventh General believed that "all twelve" incarnations of the Doctor had appeared only to be corrected by Androgar, who revealed that they numbered "all thirteen". (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"])
When Rose Tyler was thirteen, she went on a school trip to France with her best friend Shareen Costello, that ended with them being caught by the police at Parc Asterix after they flunked off. (PROSE: Meet Rose [+]Loading...["Meet Rose (short story)"], COMIC: Art Attack [+]Loading...["Art Attack (comic story)"])
Morris Gibbons was thirteen in 2024. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])
Regeneration[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Life cycle
Time Lords generally had up to thirteen lives, as they were afforded twelve regenerations. (TV: The Deadly Assassin [+]Loading...["The Deadly Assassin (TV story)"], The Five Doctors [+]Loading...["The Five Doctors (TV story)"], AUDIO: Trial of the Valeyard [+]Loading...["Trial of the Valeyard (audio story)"]) Some individuals, like the Doctor and the Master, were given additional regeneration cycles, to allow them to go on past their natural ends. (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"], The Sound of Drums [+]Loading...["The Sound of Drums (TV story)"]) The High Council of Gallifrey were empowered to offer such individuals new life cycles. (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Loading...["The Five Doctors (TV story)"])
At the end of his regeneration cycle, the so-called Eleventh Doctor believed that there would only be "thirteen versions" of himself or "thirteen silly Doctors", whilst acknowledging the forgotten incarnation between his traditionally believed eighth and ninth incarnations, and the incident where the Tenth Doctor regenerated and kept the same face. After being gifted a new cycle by the Time Lords on Trenzalore, the Doctor regenerated for the thirteenth time, into the Twelfth Doctor. (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"])
The incarnation to come out of the Doctor's fourteenth regeneration was officially regarded by themselves to be the "Thirteenth Doctor" (although she was technically their fifteenth, due to their time war incarnation and the Tenth Doctor's aborted regeneration). (COMIC: The Many Lives of Doctor Who [+]Loading...["The Many Lives of Doctor Who (comic story)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
Though unremarked in PROSE: Daisy Chain, 13 is also the seventh number in the Fibonacci sequence.
Triskaidekaphobia, centred on unlucky number 13 at galactic coordinates 13:13:13:13:13:13, was published in the 13th issue of Doctor Who Adventures.
The dialogue in A Confusion of Angels which elaborates on triskaidekaphobia was released in the final issue of Titan's ongoing Twelfth Doctor series — specifically Year 3 #13 — before the launch of the Thirteenth Doctor's own range.
The trailer for Meet the Thirteenth Doctor, when Jodie Whittaker would be announced as the Thirteenth Doctor, placed the number 13 in a variety of places around the world.
