Café de Nuit

Tennant is the tenth Doctor, though whether the tv movie starring Paul Mcgann was canaon or not is very much a discussion that has gone on for a long while now with no end in sight. The 13 regenerations was part of the tv movie, so who knows if they have decided to keep that or not.

There was also a series of animated webcasts, "Scream of the Shalka", with Richard E Grant providing the Doctor's face and voice, but I imagine that's not exactly cannon.

I have no idea on the webcasts, but I don't think they are treated as canon. However, that is just my personal opinion.

Actually, I believe the 12 maximum regenerations has been canon for a long time (making for a max of 13 doctors). We saw the final 13th Doctor once in one of the Colin Baker episodes(Trial of a Timelord) where it was revealed after his final regeneration he becomes evil, desperate to live and a wee bit of a bastard.

Okay.

Time Lords have twelve regenerations, which means thirteen lives (first set down in the Tom Baker story 'The Deadly Assassin'). However, that story promptly makes clear that this limit can be bypassed.

(What the show has actually /said/ regarding Time Lord longevity is... rather contradictory. The 'thirteen lives' concept is what's become established.)

David Tennant will be playing the tenth Doctor.

Russell T Davies, who's executive producer and main writer for the current series of 'Who', has said that the Ninth Doctor (and therefore the Tenth) is the same Doctor as the Doctor in the original TV series /and in the TV Movie/ - that is, Paul McGann was the Eighth Doctor.

He's also mentioned that the word 'canon' has not been used by the production office.

The 'Scream of the Shalka' Doctor is, these days, considered a 'What If' Doctor.

In 'The Trial of a Time Lord', we meet the Valeyard, a figure said to be between the Doctor's twelfth and final incarnations, the personification of the Doctor's dark side, out for the Sixth Doctor's remaining lives. He's not the final incarnation himself, though - more, it seems, a projection (trying to make sense of 'Trial' gives even the most devoted 'Who' fans headaches...)

I do remember this episode, now that you mention it... in fact, I think our local PBS affiliate dropped the "Dr. Who" series shortly after Sylvester McCoy took over as the Seventh Doctor (however long his tenure was), so Colin Baker's version--with the multicolored patchwork coat--really stands out in my mind.

I guess it makes sense that they'd leave themselves with a loophole as far as that goes--the Doctor won't truly die until none of the fans care enough about him to watch anymore, however many regenerations he goes through on the way.

Seems like I also remember my favorite version of the evil Time Lord, the Master, saying something about the number of regenerations available to Gallifreyans before he "possessed" (for lack of a better word) the body of a mustached human (and somehow made it younger, in the bargain). "I am nearing the end of my twelfth regeneration..."

I guess in his violent existence he burned through them rather quickly... but I guess the Doctor has done much the same thing.

Well, given the writers of the show there's no reason they couldn't think of a half-dozen explinations why and how the Doctor could squeeze out two or three more. Perhaps the death of so many Time Lords transfered some of their regenerations to him so the species never truely dies. Perhaps the TARDIS' power added a couple.
Who knows.

David of the Frat wrote:Well, given the writers of the show there's no reason they couldn't think of a half-dozen explinations why and how the Doctor could squeeze out two or three more. Perhaps the death of so many Time Lords transfered some of their regenerations to him so the species never truely dies. Perhaps the TARDIS' power added a couple.
Who knows.

Makes sense... in a temporally distorted kind of way.

Seems like I remember that the whole "regeneration" thing--that is, Time Lords taking on a completely new physical appearance when such a regeneration occurs--was an off-the-cuff explanation for how they introduced Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor... after William Hartnell (the First Doctor) died during production.

He didn't die. He just got too old and had health problems. They wanted to keep the show going but that's hard when you have to replace the title character.
He even came back in the episode The Three Doctors but had a limited role physically to avoid strain. And that was only after his wife insisted to the the producers to limit his involvement.

Unfortunately, by the time they came round to making The Five Doctors, William Hartnell had passed away

Yanno, I haven't watched any of the episodes from the original runs of Doctor Who since they were first aired, or repeated just after the original runs were cancelled while Sylvester McCoy was at the helm. How long ago was that??? 15 years since the last proper run of repeats on British network tv??? LoL

Wiccy of the Fraternity wrote:Tennant is the tenth Doctor, though whether the tv movie starring Paul Mcgann was canaon or not is very much a discussion that has gone on for a long while now with no end in sight. The 13 regenerations was part of the tv movie, so who knows if they have decided to keep that or not.

As an odd side-note, Tennant is also listed as portraying Barty Crouch Jr. in the fourth Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, according to the IMDB.

I'm sure Wiccy's happy, given that he's such a Harry Potter fan and a fan of Dr. Who.

AdamGarou wrote:I'm sure Wiccy's happy, given that he's such a Harry Potter fan and a fan of Dr. Who.

May your armpits bleed and ears be horrendously itchy for all eternity for such heinous words

May your armpits bleed and ears be horrendously itchy for all eternity for such heinous words

Now why would you curse someone for saying your a fan of the Doctor?


Maraudar

maraudar wrote:

May your armpits bleed and ears be horrendously itchy for all eternity for such heinous words

Now why would you curse someone for saying your a fan of the Doctor?


Maraudar

It's not for the Dr Who part, grrrr...

All in fun, Wic, you know that.

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Don't you? *gulp*

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*slaps on bandages and begins scratching ears fiercely*