Confession #21: I Believe in the 13 Regeneration Limit

March 14, 2012

Common fan knowledge puts a Time Lord’s Regeneration limit at 13. That is, a Time Lord can regenerate twelve times for a total of thirteen Regenerations (or incarnations). A couple of years ago, Russell T. Davies (RTD), the man greatly responsible for bringing Doctor Who back to our screens in 2005, once again added his own particular brand of fan-geekery to the mix, trying to show everyone in yet another way that he “knows better” than us.

In an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures called “The Death of the Doctor,” Eleven ends up visiting Sarah Jane and her gang again. SJS-Companion Clyde, who previously met Ten, is stunned to see this regeneration thing for himself. Whilst peppering the Doctor with questions (“Can you change color, or are you always white?” “No. I can be anything.”), he asks how often the Doctor can regenerate. The answer is a quick and flippant “five hundred and seven.”

Apparently, RTD thought that was a hoot. He could casually rewrite decades of “canon” (whatever that means) with a so-funny-he-makes-everyone-who’s-RTD-laugh line. Here’s what he has to say on the whole number-of-regenerations question:

There’s a fascinating academic study to be made out of how some facts stick and some don’t – how Jon Pertwee’s Doctor could say he was thousands of years old, and no-one listens to that*, and yet someone once says he’s only got thirteen lives, and it becomes lore. It’s really interesting, I think. That’s why I’m quite serious that that 507 thing won’t stick, because the 13 is too deeply ingrained in the public consciousness. But how? How did that get there? It’s fascinating, it’s really weird.

*Let’s not get into RTD’s own obvious ignorance/ignore-ance of the Doctor’s age.

Personally, I don’t think it’s weird at all. And here’s why.

Contrary to RTD’s assertion that it’s been said “once,” the 13 Regeneration limit has, in fact, been reiterated over and over. It was first mentioned in The Deadly Assassin, a Four story from 1976. “After the 12th regeneration, there is no plan that will postpone death,” states Coordinator Engin. This was pretty solidly in the midst of the “Golden Age” of Who – during Four’s time, when it was perhaps most popular (and probably still is most re-watched today). No wonder it stuck in fan’s minds.

But it didn’t stop there, as RTD would have us believe (and apparently even believes himself). Some four-plus years later, during The Keeper of Traken, the Master claims, “I am now nearing the end of my twelfth regeneration,” to which the Doctor responds, “Then that is the end for a Time Lord.” That’s pretty clear.

Now in between, we get a completely different mention of the race’s longevity. In The Creature from the Pit, the Doctor reminds Romana that “Time Lords have 90 lives.” “How many have you been through?” she asks. “About 130.” Far from being a change in the “canonical” number of incarnations, I believe this interchange is instead another example of Rule #1 (“the Doctor lies,” for those of you who haven’t been paying any attention to River Song). Clearly, the Doctor is being facetious, and his “I’m just funnin’ ya” attitude applies equally well here and in RTD’s line in SJA.

But it doesn’t stop with Four. In fact, the limit plays a key role in the plots of both Mawdryn Undead and The Movie. In the former, Mawdryn and his compatriots want to take the Doctor’s remaining regenerations (“eight of them; eight of me”). When Five balks, he has to explain to Tegan why he’s not willing to help like usual in this case. “If I did, it would be the end of me as a Time Lord … I can only regenerate 12 times. I have already done so four times.”

Similarly, the Master’s main purpose in The Movie is to steal the Doctor’s remaining regenerations because “a Time Lord has 13 lives, and the Master had used all of his.” In fact, Eight even goes so far as to try to explain that very fact to his Companion. “Grace! Don’t you see? I have 13 lives.” For a rogue Time Lord without any of his own, even the paltry five remaining were apparently an embarrassment of riches…

My final piece of evidence, fittingly enough, comes from a trial – Trial of a Time Lord, to be exact. In the final story of that arc, The Ultimate Foe [spoiler alert], the Master reveals that “the Valeyard is an amalgamation of the darker sides of [the Doctor’s] nature, somewhere between [his] 12th and final incarnation.” Now aside from the bizarre implications of someone being an amalgamation of parts of an individual’s personality, somehow projected between two Regenerations, it’s clear again that thirteen is the (un)lucky number.

So with a couple of exceptions-that-prove-the-rule, pre-Hiatus Who has been pretty consistent in stating that a Time Lord only gets thirteen Regenerations. (I can’t say that I recall any specific mention of it in the post-Hiatus era. Someone please remind me, if I’ve overlooked something.) No wonder it’s “ingrained in the public consciousness.”

Of course, there have also been exceptions. I guess we’ll see what happens when it all comes down to the wire for the good Doctor, a couple of regenerations from now.