Doctor Who 50th Anniversary - The John Hurt thing ( Now Definate spoilers)

[Soulrender95]

So John Hurt is apparently playing the REAL ninth Doctor shuffling Ecclestone, Tennant and Smith back one and confusing the merchandise hunters of the future.

Source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/4921644/doctor-who-50th-anniversary-special-spoilers.html

Yes I know it's The Sun, So I'm taking everything with a grain of salt.

Assuming for the moment it's true, it means we're getting closer to the end of the 13 regeneration rule established in series (The Sarah Jane adventures number is a silly Joke confirmed by RTD).

Love or loath Moffat's direction we could be heading for the legitimate and natural end of the series, I'm really interested in seeing John Hurts Doctor but also annoyed right now with the amount of game changers SM has thrown into the series since taking over.

And just for fun, heres a few ways they can continue the series with the inevitable 13th Doctor.

1) He inherited River Songs extra regeneration's when she saved his life in Let's Kill Hitler. Trial of a time lord proves gaining extra regenerations is a possibility.

2) He's true Rassilion level Time Lord with unlimited regenerations, only evidence for this is his lack of control over the outcome . Every other time lord with the exception of himself and Rassilion have been shown onscreen to have a degree of control over there next form even with traumatic deaths.

3) Resurrection/New Cloned body ala the Master in Utopia, recreated with a new original form and 13 new regenerations, a body reboot but not a character one.

 

[Riku'sTwilight]

There's plenty of ways Doctor Who can continue despite the X amount of regenerations given.
You've stated some very good alternate ways, which they could quite possibly use.

Smith isn't going anywhere for a while (at least one more season after the 50th Anniversary and Christmas special) so there's plenty of time to write a way around it.

I've tried to stay away from too many spoilers for the 50th as much as I can, as I really don't want to ruin what they've cooked up but this is an intriguing little tid-bit nonetheless.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Looking at the other news items on the side...yeah, I'll be paying attention to this insightful and tasteful news source.

 

[silentNate]

I think The Sun is taking speculation on t'internets and making a news story out of it... they have no real source for this though I tend to think that I've seen this suggestion so much over the last two weeks that there may be some truth to it.

If I'm honest I have far more of an issue with Paul McGann's Doctor being seen as cannon given his 'half-human' comment in that appalling TV movie....

 

[Woodsey]

"Love or loath Moffat's direction we could be heading for the legitimate and natural end of the series"

It'll never end.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

At the beginning of the Time War, each Timelord had their number of regenerations reset. So Ecclestone being the 9th is actually the first regen since 8 would have got the reset.

 

[Operative1980]

At the beginning of the Time War, each Timelord had their number of regenerations reset. So Ecclestone being the 9th is actually the first regen since 8 would have got the reset.

^^This

Its not officially said that it was done in the tv show but it has been established that it can be done. In The Five Doctors, The Master is told if he helps The Doctors out of their current prediciment he will get all his regenerations restored.

 

[Quaxar]

I think The Sun is taking speculation on t'internets and making a news story out of it... they have no real source for this though I tend to think that I've seen this suggestion so much over the last two weeks that there may be some truth to it.

This pretty much. Because what I read John Hurt actually only said he'll be "part of the Doctor", which doesn't mean he actually is a regeneration of the Doctor. The Dream Lord has been part of the Doctor, yet not really him. Or maybe they'll bring the Valeyard up again.
Ruining the continuity like that with something that'd affect three Doctors and major plot points seems like the stupidest thing to do, and I doubt even Moffat will go for that.

 

[InfinityCubed]

The real reason he has more than 13 regens is HE KILLED ALL THE OTHER TIME LORDS! When one time lord successfully and completely kills another, he gains their regenerations.

 

[Albino Boo]

y'know the idea than sci-fi tv shows have a solid "canon" that can be poked and prodded and held up an examined to within an inch of its life over the entirety of existence by geeks is a relatively new thing and Who isn't even a program that seeks to pander specifically to that audience unlike programs like say Star Trek or SG1 or Battlestar which are specifically aimed at a certain demographic THAT Dr WHO IS NOT AND NEVER HAS BEEN.

seriously a programs for 8 year olds to watch with mum and dad.

a very particular and peculiar British idea of a "family program" that brings the family together by making kids periodically shit themselves to the point they latch on to mum or dad or ofc "hide behind the sofa" but that always supplies a resolution so they can get to sleep at night.

offers up the doctor for mum to...appreciate as a male lead...and much the same with dad and the companion...and the majority of the continuous fans of the series fans are people who watched it as kids and kept on watching it (because you can and still enjoy it if you understand it for what it is and "give it some slack") and/or now sit and watch it with their own kids not people who came upon it as teenage or twenty something sci-fi fans ready to nit pick it to death because someone uses a different colour sonic screwdriver or something.

and they certainly aren't going to end the show because some nugget of a prior storytelling in the show says they have to stop at X number of regenerations.

Wow couldn't have put it better myself. I grew up watching old who with my Dad who had watched it when he was young. Thats the strength of the show, not the lore or cannon, the simple fact that generations of people have grown up with the show.

 

[Gizmo1990]

The real reason he has more than 13 regens is HE KILLED ALL THE OTHER TIME LORDS! When one time lord successfully and completely kills another, he gains their regenerations.

There can be only one!

OT:
I never trust what the Sun says. Ever. But there are lots of ways round this. A few people have already said the most likly one they will use. That at the start of the Time War all Time Lords were give a Regeneration top up. Hell if they wanted to make the problem go away forever they could just say the the limit was removed at the start of the War so he can do it as much as he wants.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Assuming this is true, I don't like it. Mostly because I hate retcons. I don't care if they change the number of regenerations he can have, what I don't like is the idea of them sticking some previously unseen one in the middle somewhere.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

The real reason he has more than 13 regens is HE KILLED ALL THE OTHER TIME LORDS! When one time lord successfully and completely kills another, he gains their regenerations.

There can be only one!

Oh, you beat me to the Highlander reference.

(Solvemedia: which one is a number?)

I think revealing his real name is a mistake, a big one. It will bite them in the ass and the fallout will not be pretty.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Looking at the other news items on the side...yeah

Hey, finally the spambots are agreeing with me.

...

So, fair to say the internet is on my side?

 

[Albino Boo]

Looking at the other news items on the side...yeah

Hey, finally the spambots are agreeing with me.

...

So, fair to say the internet is on my side?

I doubt it, seeing the sun has the 9th largest newspaper circulation in the world. I don't read it but millions do, nobody ever went bust by going for the lowest common denominator.

 

[Soulrender95]

Well as of Name of the Doctor this has all been (seemingly) confirmed, John Hurt is not an aspect of the Doctor.

Because well.

[http://s282.photobucket.com/user/Soulrender95/media/hurt.jpg.html]

apparently the tabloids do get some facts right.

The episode seems to be engaging in some sneaky plays on language to not change the fact that Ecclestone is Ninth, Tennant is Tenth and Smith is Eleventh with John Hurts being described by Eleven as breaking the promise that each Time lord makes when choosing their name and that this incarnation is him but not the Doctor because he (Hurt's incarnation) broke the promise.

At the same time this removes the numbers confusion certain people had such as Fourth Doctor is third regeneration when some believed it was the fourth regeneration (I don't get how people got confused but I've known enough people to know it's a thing) and making the Ninth Doctor the ninth regeneration.

 

[JoJo]

I agree with everything Sleekit said, plus it's worth remembering that the whole concept of regeneration was invented in the first place because William Hartnell was leaving the series and they wanted to keep the Doctor around. They won't hesitate to recon or work in something to extend the regeneration limit if they wish to continue the program beyond the 13th Doctor, a number that was likely arbitrarily picked back in the Sixties because no-one then would have imagined the series would continue long enough to reach it.