‘Doctor Who’ established that Time Lords could only regenerate twelve times in ‘The Time of The Doctor.’ The rule changed after The Timeless Child arc revealed that The Doctor wasn’t actually from Gallifrey and had limitless regenerations.
Steven Moffat recently clarified that the idea wasn’t anything new. He told CinemaBlend:
“I’ll tell you the truth about The Doctor’s regeneration. He’s always had an infinite number of regenerations because it wasn’t like we were ever going to stop the show because he ran out! ‘Oh, I have to stop now. It’s number 13.’ That was never going to happen.”
The Doctor was already granted another set of regenerations in the 2013 Christmas special. Moffat explained:
“So, it’s always been a narrative contrivance. There are no contradictions. You can make everything fit. If you know your ‘Doctor Who,’ you know that there were more incarnations of The Doctor in the past than we thought because there were some we saw in ‘The Brain of Morbius.’”
New Concepts Of Regeneration Keep Coming
Steven Moffat returned to write the Season 14 episode ‘Boom’ in Russell T. Davies’ new era. Davies introduced the show’s first ever black Doctor this season, and also added the bi-generation concept to the story.
David Tennant’s Fourteenth regenerated into two different selves, and came face to face with Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth in the 60th Anniversary specials last year. The showrunner shared his thoughts on the idea in a ‘Doctor Who: Unleashed’ interview:
“Actually, I’ve had this idea for years. I’ve always wanted, instead of going back and meeting old Doctors, I’ve always wanted the Doctor to talk to his new version. And for once, we had a situation where I’m in place with the old Doctor, and the new Doctor. How could you resist?”
He went on:
“Actually, why has it never been done before? How can you resist the two of them having an adventure at the same time? It’s absolutely joyous. The two of them together are joyous. Two actors and characters meeting like that, it just makes me smile. It absolutely makes me grin. So it was time to do that.”
‘Doctor Who’ Season 14 is available on Disney+. Episode 4 ‘73 Yards’ will air on May 25.
