Doctor Who: The Disputed Regenerations

Doctor Number 39: The Thirteenth Doctor

And so, we’re brought up to date (at the time of writing) to the Thirteenth Doctor.

Jodie Whittaker was famously the first female to be cast as the Doctor, although by the chronology of this list would mean that she is arguably the Eighth known female Doctor. Joanna Lumley was the first to play a female Doctor in the Curse of Fatal Death, and Catherine Tate was the DoctorDonna incarnation of the Doctor as well.

Since the casting of Jodie Whittaker, the Timeless Child story showed there to be a minimum of four previous female incarnations including the earliest known incarnation of the Timeless Child. Most prominently Jo Martin as the Fugitive Doctor was cast after Whittaker but shown to pre-date her in the chronology of the Doctor’s life.

Throughout the run of the Thirteenth, other than the revelations of the mentioned Timeless Child and Fugitive Doctor stories, there hasn’t been much to muddy the waters of the amount of lives or numbering. At the end of the Doctor Who Flux story, the Doctor was separated into three independent versions of herself, but these reformed as one within the same episode, so these forms, which were unstable for their duration don’t lead to any further iterations of the Doctor.

Within the same episode which was titled The Vanquishers, the Doctor came face to face with an embodiment of Time, who upon first meeting took on the form of the Doctor’s enemy Swarm, but after his death changed into a near identical version of the Thirteenth Doctor. This was just a change of appearance for Time, although because of the mysterious nature of this being and the mysteries around the Doctor’s own origin as the Timeless Child it’s not known if there is any further connection.

Doctor Number 40: The Valeyard

And now we reach the Valeyard. The Valeyard is a character that was an enemy of the Sixth Doctor and was said to be a version of the Doctor that existed between their twelfth and final incarnations. The Valeyard was all the darker elements of the Doctor coming to the forefront, and was interested in extending their life by stealing regenerations from his past self.

Obviously by the time of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors, the storyline of the show had already become complicated, and none of the show runners in charge have elected to reintroduce the Valeyard as a character as yet.

The waters really became muddied with the transition between the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors when it was clarified that the two Tenth Doctor regenerations both counted, as did the War Doctor. This meant that the Eleventh was actually the Thirteenth and was the first acknowledgment on screen that the numbering was undisputedly changed.

As the introduction of the War Doctor came after the creation of the Eleventh Doctor it meant that the Valeyard should have existed between the second David Tennant Doctor and the Matt Smith Doctor, but this didn’t happen.

The inclusion of the Timeless Children and the Morbius Doctors into canon now means that one of the Morbius Doctors would have been the Thirteenth, but the appearance of the Morbius Doctor faces don’t match that of the Valeyard.

It’s also of note that if the Valeyard was to be placed after all of the aforementioned Doctors on this list, then surely the Valeyard would have an awareness of having had more than thirteen previous lives.

In fact, if the Valeyard is said to have existed somewhere after the Thirteenth Doctor as played by Jodie Whittaker then surely they would be aware of their ability to regenerate an unlimited number of times. If this is the case what could the possible explanation for his wanting to steal more regenerations from his past selves be? Let’s explore.

It could be that the Valeyard actually came from the end of the Doctor’s second regeneration cycle granted at the end of the Eleventh Doctor’s life. It could therefore be that the Valeyard was selective with revealing this information as ‘spoilers’ could have been dangerous.

It may be that the Doctor no longer has the ability to regenerate an unlimited number of times and so wherever the Valeyard comes in the chronology of the Doctor, they may feel that stealing regenerations from their earlier self is the only way they can extend their life. Of course, stealing regenerations from their past self would surely create a paradox, but we won’t get into that here.

It may also in theory be possible that the Valeyard did come from in between the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors and that this form grew out of energy that was released by the Eleventh Doctor when the Doctor used regenerative energy to fight off enemy Daleks surrounding Trenzalore. We know that the Tenth Doctor’s hand grew into a Doctor, so perhaps this energy blast latched onto something the viewers weren’t shown. It wouldn’t be impossible for this scene to be revisited in the future to provide clarity on this if this theory is proven true.

It’s also worth noting that without information on how the Valeyard came into being, this version of the Doctor can be seen as another example of an interim Doctor as discussed earlier about the Doctor that was made in the fan film Devious.

Doctor Number 41: The Curator

And finally, we have the Curator. The Curator is a future incarnation of the Doctor whom the Eleventh Doctor met in the 50^th Anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor. Upon this meeting, it’s left slightly ambiguous that this is in fact a version of the Doctor, but heavily suggested as such. Also, whilst this article has dealt primarily with what has been established in the TV show and ignored other media as they are frequently ignored in the continuity of the TV show, it should be noted that the Curator has been featured in comics and audio since and more blatantly acknowledged as the Doctor.

It is not known how far into the future of the Doctor they would become the Curator, but it’s suggested it comes at a time when they retire to just work as a curator in a museum. It’s also suggested that they chose to revisit the face of the Forth Doctor, which would again show that the Doctor has the ability to influence their appearance. In the episode, it’s described as revisiting the old favourite faces. That may suggest that in the Future the Doctor may take on the form of other past Doctors in addition to that of the Forth.

Of course, there’s nothing to give an indication to whether the Curator or the Valeyard would come first, but we do know that after the Valeyard there would be one final incarnation if we believe that he existed just before the final incarnation of the Doctor. It could be that the Curator is this final incarnation, as it would be fitting for the idea that the Doctor has retired as ‘The Doctor’ to become ‘The Curator’.

And so there we have it!

It may be the case that some or all of this theory is made canon in the series, but if this whole theory is shown to be accurate, it would mean that the “thirteenth” Doctor is actually the Thirty-ninth. Certainly, this doesn’t have the same ring to it, and it is the case that for marketing purposes it’s unlikely that the numbering will ever be changed.

But this does raise the question of whether in 20, 30 or another 60 years of the show, will they be saying the twenty-sixth Doctor to refer to a Doctor who by that point may in reality be the ninety-eighth? Or is it more likely that at some point the Doctors may all become known by a quality rather than just a number? The War Doctor, Fugitive Doctor, Shalka Doctor, Valeyard and Curator are all instantly known by their descriptors rather than by number. Maybe this is the way forward?

Of course, in most cases it may be hard to predict a new Doctor’s personality before an actor has played a role, and so pre-naming the Eleventh Doctor as the Fez Doctor or Wacky Doctor may have been tricky. But this is a problem that only really exists for fans to be able to refer to a particular Doctor and for the marketing people at the BBC to communicate which Doctor they mean when advertising the shows and products. In the reality of the show, the Doctor is and always has been simply…The Doctor.